best handbrake settings for iphone?

[212rikanmofo]

i'm encoding some dvd's, what are the best settings?

I would like to know what the optimal bitrate i should use for the video? I only plan on playing this on my iphone and not a tv... so i dont need the 1500kbps or 640x480, etc...

i plan on doing the video at 480x(whatever proportionally) but would like to know whether i should do 2pass encoding and what bitrate? Not sure if it will make a noticeable difference on a smaller size screen? Point is, i want to be able to fit a lot of shows, movies on my phone w/o sacraficing quality, and i know 1500kbps for the video bitrate is overkill...

 

[Kamera RAWr]

You know, I'm not sure it matters about settings... Quite a few months back I ripped "Snatch" (one of my favorite movies) using Handbrake and did it at the highest resolution possible.. Then last week, when I bought my iPhone, I uploaded it and it plays just fine. Not sure if that helps at all, just stating my experience

Edit: I remember it being 720 pixels across and target size was 700MB

 

[True Tao]

I just pick the appropriate ipod preset from the drop down to match the aspect ratio of the movie. The program automatically populates the "width/height" field with 640x272 and I put the autocrop on and i use the h.264(ipod) encoder. In audio I just change the 160 to 128. For the video I use 750kbps and 2 pass.

I ripped a dvd twice, once at 1000kbps and the other at 600kbps and barely noticed a difference in quality only in certain parts did the 600 look a bit softer. At 600 the file size was around 550mb and the 1000 was around 870mb for a 1hour 45minute movie.

 

[Resevdog]

See below

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/326417/

But I use essentially what Tao said.

 

[212rikanmofo]

is 2 pass encoding really necessary on a screen this small?

I also encode mine at 750kbps and use the 128 AAC 48khz for my audio, which is the default for the HB-Ipod profile... but i bump down my width to 480 before i encode since thats the width on the iphone when watching it in landscape... since i dont plan on watching my movies on anything but the iphone. I though i do it in its native size, and plus it shaves off a couple more megabytes... i did a rip of some tv shows on my dvd and the final resolution came out to be 480x368 i believe...

I'm not sure, I might even go lower than 750kbps to see if i can save some more room...

if you guys think you found a sweet spot for the video bitrate, please let me know...

 

[gansan]

My settings

I just pick the appropriate ipod preset from the drop down to match the aspect ratio of the movie. The program automatically populates the "width/height" field with 640x272 and I put the autocrop on and i use the h.264(ipod) encoder. In audio I just change the 160 to 128. For the video I use 750kbps and 2 pass.

I ripped a dvd twice, once at 1000kbps and the other at 600kbps and barely noticed a difference in quality only in certain parts did the 600 look a bit softer. At 600 the file size was around 550mb and the 1000 was around 870mb for a 1hour 45minute movie.

I would agree with you True Tao, 600kbps for me seems about right. I did some experimentation and settled on 600kbps, 640x480 (for 4:3 stuff), and 128kbps aac. I tested at 1000, 600, and 500kbps, and at 500kbps, the quality suffered too much for what I was encoding--racing videos. I also use 2 pass encoding, since I want to squeak as much quality and efficiency out for my bitrate budget.

I noticed that the "Export to iPhone" option in Quicktime creates videos that are 480 pixels wide and about 1000kbps. Sized perfectly for the screen. I don't agree with these settings, as the small size makes the resulting video not as good when watching on the computer, and the bitrate is higher than it really needs to be for my casual viewing.

 

[212rikanmofo]

why do 640x480 when you're just gonna watch it on the iphone? why not do 480x(whatever)...

i think i will reencode using 600kbps bitrate and 2 pass encoding...

 

[roland.g]

I use the iPod preset then go to pic setting and change the width to 480x whatever matches it for that movie, usually two hundred something. I also change the avg. bitrate to 400 (tried 500 but it came out at 600+) and the audio to 48 & 160 (not 44.1 & 128). My files are about 500-625mb and look great on the phone. Also have only used 1 pass encoding to save time. Don't think you will notice much on that size screen. So far I encoded The Matrix and both Part One and Part Two of LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring Extended Edition.

 

[gansan]

why do 640x480 when you're just gonna watch it on the iphone? why not do 480x(whatever)...

i think i will reencode using 600kbps bitrate and 2 pass encoding...

The reason is that I keep a copy on my computer so I can watch on the computer as well. That way, I don't need 2 copies of the same thing. On a bigger screen, 640 width looks a lot better than 480 width even at the same bitrate.

 

[Zwhaler]

I don't own an iPhone myself, but on my iPod I followed what MacRumors posted in the iPod/iTunes forum. Do whatever resolution fits the screen (to lower the size) and try 640 kbps and 128 aac audio. I have good headphones so I use 160 kbps audio.. but thats up to you. 2 pass isn't necessary, it just takes longer to encode, so whether or not you have the time is up to you.

 

[True Tao]

why do 640x480 when you're just gonna watch it on the iphone? why not do 480x(whatever)...

This is something that i'm confused about as well. As I stated before I use the preset that matches the aspect ratio of the movie I'm encoding which is 640x272 for 2.35 movies and I use the auto crop. Whats the difference if I use 640 or 480? Does the 480 setting save me from using auto crop, and could I still zoom to full screen without it getting the sides chopped?

 

[ordovice]

Here's my take on things (actually, I had just posted on the handbrake forums about this topic). The post is in relation to the AppleTV as well, for high quality viewing on both.

Here's the settings I use for my Handbrake encodes. The caveat is that I've traded speed for quality and it had to be compatible with both it ipod/iphone and my AppleTV


bitrate is 1536
encoder is x264 (iPod)
Dimensions are 640 x (Leave Height blank)
Anamorphic is off (this is a must for iphone/ipod compatibility)
De-Interlace, Chapter Markers, Keep aspect ratio are all on
Audio is 160/48000 Downmixed to DPLII


x264 advanced options:
threads=auto:bitrate=1536:vbv_maxrate=1536:vbv_bufsize=1536:level_idc=30:qcomp=0.8:nocabac:me=umh:subme=6:filter=-1,0

These settings have produced some seriously high quality encodes that are ipod and appleTV compatible. Some settings could produce better results if you're only doing AppleTV encodes, but the iPhone/iPod seriously restrict things.


If you're only encoding for the iPhone, then less video and audio bitrate shouldn't be too noticeable and will create smaller files ..

Cheers.

 

[NightStorm]

Here's my take on things (actually, I had just posted on the handbrake forums about this topic). The post is in relation to the AppleTV as well, for high quality viewing on both.

Here's the settings I use for my Handbrake encodes. The caveat is that I've traded speed for quality and it had to be compatible with both it ipod/iphone and my AppleTV


bitrate is 1536
encoder is x264 (iPod)
Dimensions are 640 x (Leave Height blank)
Anamorphic is off (this is a must for iphone/ipod compatibility)
De-Interlace, Chapter Markers, Keep aspect ratio are all on
Audio is 160/48000 Downmixed to DPLII


x264 advanced options:
threads=auto:bitrate=1536:vbv_maxrate=1536:vbv_bufsize=1536:level_idc=30:qcomp=0.8:nocabac:me=umh:subme=6:filter=-1,0

These settings have produced some seriously high quality encodes that are ipod and appleTV compatible. Some settings could produce better results if you're only doing AppleTV encodes, but the iPhone/iPod seriously restrict things.


If you're only encoding for the iPhone, then less video and audio bitrate shouldn't be too noticeable and will create smaller files ..

Cheers.

I wouldn't deinterlace unless absolutely necessary; the current deinterlacer implementation isn't the greatest. I use pretty similar settings, although I have been keeping the full resolution (720-width), but have been strongly considering dropping the width to 640 in hopes that the smaller resolution will still result in a better overall picture at ~1500kbps. I might have to do some testing tonight...

 

[Mike Coscia]

I personally do h.264 (ipod), 480 x leave it blank, auto crop, 256 kbps vid, and128, 44.1khz for sound.

With those settings I got Pirates of the Caribbean 2 down to 417mb. Their is some slight macro blocking in dark shadows, but this is for watching video on the go not my home theater.

 

[zkaudio]

I personally do h.264 (ipod), 480 x leave it blank, auto crop, 256 kbps vid, and128, 44.1khz for sound.

With those settings I got Pirates of the Caribbean 2 down to 417mb. Their is some slight macro blocking in dark shadows, but this is for watching video on the go not my home theater.

Works for me...
-I use 1000kbps
Select from the presets pull down "ipod" with (x) x = to the aspect ratio of your selection.
-Encoder: "H.264(iPod) audio: AAC
-Width: 480 x Height: *BLANK*
-Turn auto-crop ON
-Then I choose 160kbps ( I like fidelity, 128 is fine
-Choose the audio track that is 2.0 stereo (no need to enable mixdown unless there are only 5.1 tracks)
-Choose correct number of processor cores as this will GREATLY increase processing speed.

BTW use DVD43 to handle the copy protection before you even start the handbrake stuff

0, and there is no reason to use any other encoding programs.. u can drag the handbrake mp4 straight into ITUNES and it converts it automatically...