iPad 3 and Handbrake

[Leehro]

Thank you for everyone's help. I think I'm going to upgrade to Blu-Ray ripping. It doesn't seem too bad. I was looking at the external blu-ray burners on Newegg. Do you have it's okay to get the bus powered burner instead of the one that requires power. The trade off is slower rate at 6x instead of 8-12x. Is there much of a difference? These are the ones that I'm thinking about:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106373

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136245

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151251

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827162006

I'll be using this on the iMac. Which one do guys think it's good? Thanks again for all of your help.

I have a couple actually - an LG BE06LU10 from a few years ago that's full size with an AC Adapter, and a sony BDX-S600U that's slim and bus-powered. I think they're both 6X but that doesn't matter too much.

If you get a bus-powered one make sure to read the details. I got this Sony after removing the internal superdrive drive from my laptop. Thought it would be handy to have a bus-powered optical drive I could take with me. But it requires 2 USB ports and the cable is only about a foot long, so it's hard to use. It didn't work with my powered USB hub, and I don't know if USB extension cables will work.

Long story short, if you're using it with a desktop computer, don't bother with the bus-powered drive.

 

[dmylrea]

There's a difference between compressed and non-compressed video. Blu-Ray video has several different sizes: single layer: 25GB, dual-layer: 50GB, triple-layer:100GB, quadruple-layer:128GB. Most movies fall under the single layer range and total uncompressed size of a single movie would be 25GB at maximum. When you rip from a Blu ray, you will end up converting uncompressed video to compressed video. This will take time. If you start with a compressed video file already using H.264 1080p resolution MKV video, you can remux the video to an m4v or mp4 in a matter of minutes. It just depends on if you're converting or remuxing. You've got to do your math and then you'll see how long things take to convert/remux and also how much space they will take up.

Hmmm, all of the movies I've ripped using MakeMKV have been larger than 25GB, ripped. I would assume if there were some compressing going on, that the resulting mkv file would be much smaller. So far, that hasn't been the case. How do I know if my ripped mkv is compressed or uncompressed?

 

[bobright]

So what are people using not to convert Blu Rays but to convert 720/1080p MKV files?

 

[dmylrea]

So what are people using not to convert Blu Rays but to convert 720/1080p MKV files?

Mac or Windows?

 

[bobright]

Mac or Windows?

Windows

lol

 

[LadyX]

I tried to convert a couple of episodes to watch on my iPad 3 and I can't seem to change the resolution. I set the preset to AppleTV 2, I go to Picture Settings but 720 seems to be the limit and I can't make it higher. So it gives an output of 720 by 304.

I also tried converting a movie and showed a picture size output of 720 by 400.

I can make the width lower but not higher than 720. The optimized output video of an iPad is 1024x768. So why am I getting low video resolution when trying to convert?

 

[whtrbt7]

Hmmm, all of the movies I've ripped using MakeMKV have been larger than 25GB, ripped. I would assume if there were some compressing going on, that the resulting mkv file would be much smaller. So far, that hasn't been the case. How do I know if my ripped mkv is compressed or uncompressed?

If all of your MKVs are showing up larger than specified values, it means that you're not compressing and just converting the data to another format. This is pretty much called lossless conversion. You won't lose any data but you're also not compressing using a codec that can compress the video. If you're using handbrake, you can either use the CQ bar to control the quality or you can use the bitrate setting. Using h.264, 720p video is about 3-6Mbps while 1080p content is about 9-12Mbps.

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I tried to convert a couple of episodes to watch on my iPad 3 and I can't seem to change the resolution. I set the preset to AppleTV 2, I go to Picture Settings but 720 seems to be the limit and I can't make it higher. So it gives an output of 720 by 304.

I also tried converting a movie and showed a picture size output of 720 by 400.

I can make the width lower but not higher than 720. The optimized output video of an iPad is 1024x768. So why am I getting low video resolution when trying to convert?

Are you using Handbrake or some other tool??? If you're going for 720p content, that means a 720 vertical resolution, not horizontal. Handbrake will allow you to edit this resolution if you preset for Apple TV 2 and then go into picture settings.

 

[Darrensk8]

Hi

I have also tried to adjust the resolution in picture settings but it won't budge!

i even delated Handbreke and re download on my macbook pro and air, both machines won't let me adjust picture settings higher

any thoughts?

Thanks

If all of your MKVs are showing up larger than specified values, it means that you're not compressing and just converting the data to another format. This is pretty much called lossless conversion. You won't lose any data but you're also not compressing using a codec that can compress the video. If you're using handbrake, you can either use the CQ bar to control the quality or you can use the bitrate setting. Using h.264, 720p video is about 3-6Mbps while 1080p content is about 9-12Mbps.

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Are you using Handbrake or some other tool??? If you're going for 720p content, that means a 720 vertical resolution, not horizontal. Handbrake will allow you to edit this resolution if you preset for Apple TV 2 and then go into picture settings.

 

[cpto]

I use constant 1280 width with good luck.

I’m converting to iPad 3 use and more concerned with size than the absolute best picture. However, these settings look acceptable on a 65” plasma.

I use the following settings to convert BR to 1280 width (height varies based on the original aspect ratio) after the file has been ripped to disk.

1. In Picture Settings | Filters set Detelecine to Default

2. In Picture Settings | Size ensure that Modulus is 16. I set anamorphic to NONE and click on the Width down arrow until it reaches 1280 (the height number will change as you change the width)

3. Close the picture settings window and slide Constant Quality to 25

4. I check audio ensure that Mixdown is Dolby Pro Logic II. I leave the bitrate at 160

It’s not the full HD pictures but then neither are the “full” HD pictures I receive from DirecTV.

The average data rate of the converted files as reported by quicktime varies quite a bit. Galaxy Quest shows 974 kbps (730 MB file), Avatar is 2260 kbps (2.75G file), while Forbidden Planet is 817 kbps (613 MB file). I suspect that part of this variability is due to the differing heights and bit rate on the HD since width is constant).

 

[CIA]

It's been a long month plus of testing, and I've got a few results to share....

Handbrake .96 is awesome if you don't care about filesize (or don't want to do the bitrate math to figure out what the final size will be.

Because of this I've reverted back to Handbrake .95 since that gives me the option to set what the final file size will be (+/- a few hundred MB).

These are the settings I'm using to encode my ripped 1080p BluRays (Ripped using MakeMKV).

First thing I do is select the High Profile preset on the presets tab, then I change the following:

Picture Settings: Anamorphic: Strict (didn't touch any other settings)
Tabs:
Video
Target Size (MB), I've been using 3500 for dramas, and 4000 for action or longer movies. Also check 2 pass encoding. I don't use Turbo first pass...
Audio
I just use AAC (CoreAudio), Dolby PL II, Sample set to Auto, and set my bitrate to 320. I delete all other audio tracks besides the main, and only include the one listed above since these are only for my iPad. (My use, yours may be different)
Subtitles
I don't do anything here.
Advanced This is where things get interesting......
Ok, I've tried nearly everything under the sun, some work great on a computer, but won't sync to iPad, some won't play period. My encodes are ONLY for the iPad, which makes 2-4 day encodes annoying when they don't work. When using Handbrake .96 I was getting amazing quality picture, but that mostly was because each encode wound up being 7-12GB. Great quality, but waaay too big for my iPad. At that size and since HD's are pretty cheap I might as well just keep the 25-50GB MKV rips and play them natively on my machine..
So back to .95 I went using set file size as listed above.
I may revise as I tweak a little more, remember this is just the best I can squeeze out of a mkv in the 3.5-4GB Range.

OK, going right to left here:
Partition Types: All
Trellis: Allways
Deblocking: This depends on the type of movie. If it's a grainy HD film I set it to -1 or -2. If it's a HD video, I leave it at zero. I want to preserve that "Grainy film look" that most films have so I do the -1 or -2 so Handbrake doesn't remove the grain. Actual video (TV shows, etc) is crystal clear and mostly grainless already so leaving it at 0 is ok.
Adaptive B--Frames: Optimal
Adaptive Direct Mode: Automatic
Motion Estimation Method: Transformed Exhausted
Subpixel ME & Mode Decision: 10
Motion Estimation Range: 64 (48 is ok too, but I'm going for max quality)

I don't mess with Adaptive Quantization, Psychovisual Rate Distortion, or Psychovisual trellis.

Reference Frames: 4
Maximum B-Frames: 4
CABAC Entropy Coding: Yes
8x8 Transform: Yes
Weighted P-Frames: Yes
Pyramidal B-Frames: (Default)
No DCT Decimation: No

There is one final thing: The Advanced option string at this point should look like this (with deblocking set to -1, -1)
b-adapt=2:rc-lookahead=50:analyse=all:trellis=2:direct=auto:me=tesa:subq=10:merange=64:ref=4:bframes=4:deblock=-1,-1

See where it says lookahead=50? If you have 4GB or ram or more change this from 50 to somewhere between 80-100. If you have 4GB or less leave it where it is. I have between 16-32GB of ram depending on what machine I use, and I set it to 80 personally. YMMV.

Finally sometimes when I have all this set and click "Start", it won't start. I quit HB, (it complains, but I quit) and then relaunch. It asks me to reload the queue, I do, then click start and it will go.

Seems like the Reference Frames, and Maximum B-Frames are the stickler for compatibility, also if you check "No DCT Decimation" the encodes won't work.
Be aware these encodes take awhile, a long while. On my main workhorse (2008 MacPro, 8 core 3.2Ghz, 16GB ram) they take 2-4 days depending on movie length. This obviously isn't for everyone, but my goal with all this was max quality when time and horsepower wasn't an issue. If you don't care about filesize and want a quick encode I just say use .96 and click the High Profile preset, and let 'er rip!
I'm still tinkering with the Ref Frame and Maximum B frame settings, so I'll report back if I can successfully crank those up any higher and still get the movies to sync to the iPad.

 

[nicoplanet]

If you use scene releases (x264 MKVs), and run Mac OSX, the best solution is Subler.app to make iPad ready m4v in a fraction of second, with great metadatas and covers integration! A must have

Love it

 

[CIA]

1. NEVER EVER use Handbrake! The Blue-Ray video streams do NOT need to be changed if you have the necessary free storage to keep them on your iPad. (Basically, this means you need to buy the 64G iPad 3 and not less.) It's only when you in no way can put the videos at only max. 10% size decrease that you should Handbrake to 1, change the file type to hardware decoder-friendly mp4; 2, drastically reduce the bitrate.

2. MKV's can be easily and in some minutes only remuxed into MP4 files with avidemux. See http://www.iphonelife.com/blog/87/p...tion-video-outside-itunes-store-also-new-ipad

3. Demuxing MTS files and muxing them into MP4's is a bit more complicated as avidemux (and most other demux tools) can't demux these files and, generally, you'll need to use commercial de/remuxers like ClipWrap 2 (my fav). See http://www.iphonelife.com/blog/87/playing-back-1080p60i60p-non-mov-videos-right-your-camera for a complete roundup of all MTS remuxer roundup.

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Avidemux2 is by far the best solution. As explained above, only use Handbrake if you absolutely need to reduce video bitrate because you have so little free storage on your iPad 3.

As most 1080p MKV's are already around 10-12 Mbps (that is, already with reduced bitrate compared to the BR originals, which can be even 40 Mbps), I do NOT recommend recoding them again as it'll visibly decrease the image quality.

Technically yes, but I like to carry a bunch of movies with me at once. Not just 1 or 2.

 

[AppleHater]

It's interesting to see a 1080p movie encoded in h264 to stutter on my core2quad Dell from 2008, whereas the iPad 3 plays it nicely. Yeah, my Sandy-bridge iMac handles it well, too.

 

[Charliem78]

New iPad

So I just used handbreak for the first time to encode and .mkv file for my iPad. Worked great looks excellent except it's not full screen on my iPad. The top and bottom of the screen is not used ( black bars ) is the a setting I need to adjust for this? I just used the iPad preset setting. Thanks

 

[almonde]

So I just used handbreak for the first time to encode and .mkv file for my iPad. Worked great looks excellent except it's not full screen on my iPad. The top and bottom of the screen is not used ( black bars ) is the a setting I need to adjust for this? I just used the iPad preset setting. Thanks

Its due to the 4:3 format of your iPad whereas most films are 16:9 or wider. If you prefer to fill the screen but crop of the left and right sides you can double tap the video while its playing and the iPad will zoom the picture in to fill the screen.

 

[Charliem78]

Its due to the 4:3 format of your iPad whereas most films are 16:9 or wider. If you prefer to fill the screen but crop of the left and right sides you can double tap the video while its playing and the iPad will zoom the picture in to fill the screen.

So I can't change the aspect ratio while handbrake reencodes it for iPad format? I'd like to try that as long as the result isn't a stretched out looking picture I'm just not sure how or if it's possible

 

[sparkhill]

So I can't change the aspect ratio while handbrake reencodes it for iPad format? I'd like to try that as long as the result isn't a stretched out looking picture I'm just not sure how or if it's possible

Using Handbrake, you can stretch the image vertically and/or crop it horizontally. You will get an equally good image double tapping the video and letting the iPad do the cropping.

 

[CIA]

Using Handbrake, you can stretch the image vertically and/or crop it horizontally. You will get an equally good image double tapping the video and letting the iPad do the cropping.

I second this. The iPad more or less is a square screen. Movies by nature have 16:9 widescreen aspect. So if you really want to cut the sides of the movie off by making is 4:3 you can, but you are missing out on seeing the movie as the director intended. Yes some movies are crazy widescreen and have huge bars at the top and bottom, but that's the way it was shot. If you fill the screen with the image when encoding using handbrake you will wind up with a squished picture that will look strange.