Handbrake: converting mpeg-1 to H.265

[MacBH928]

So I am no video editor and I am tired of all the confusion and codecs and settings. I have some old bad video recordings from VHS tapes or tv. The file are encoded in mpg1 and the extension is .mpg . I thought better convert them now to be future proof before new apps stop playing whatever mpg1 is.

I just loaded the file into Handbrake, chose h.265, 1080 30p. I could hardly tell a difference between the original and end result. I noticed the dimensions were change by few pixels, the out put file is 35% smaller. The extension is mp4. The original file looks slightly sharper with block artifacts/blocks. The H.265 look a bit smoother/blurrier. Is this a better result?

Am I doing this right? is it better to convert to H.264? H.264 itself seems on its way out. Should I use .mp4 or .mkv?MKV doesn't seem to be supported everywhere, I am not sure which extension is most popular now. Should I use 30P or less? I remember if its a movie it should 24fps and if its a video its 29.8/fps (something like that).

 

[Erehy Dobon]

First of all, you don't mention the final intended usage which plays an important role in selecting a codec.

Second, if you are pleased with the end result, that's the most important thing. If I make macaroni & cheese from scratch and you are happy with the stuff from the blue box, my preference has no bearing as to what you put on your dinner table.

H.264 isn't "on its way out" [sic]. It'll be deeply connected to any 1080p media for backwards compatibility to all sorts of legacy devices such as Blu-ray players which employ three codecs: MPEG-2, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, and SMPTE VC-1. My geriatric Sony Blu-ray player will never play H.265 nor AV1 content.

When possible I choose MP4 files to output from Handbrake because iTunes (I'm running Mojave) and iOS/iPadOS devices do not support MKV containers in the native TV app. (Again, you did not specify final usage.) I can play MKVs with VLC (including the iOS/iPadOS apps) but managing content on those devices is a pain which is why I stick with MP4 as much as possible. MKVs also play fine on my Raspberry Pi 4 running Kodi.

As for converting DVDs or other old 480p source material, I usually use the Decomb and Deinterlace filters and set the bitrate no higher than 2500 kbps from a well-mastered/transferred DVD. For a lousy old VHS-quality source, I might go as low as 1500 kbps. I believe there are some filters for sharpening but the end result is subjective. If you like it, use it.

All things equal it is best to have the output file match the source file's framerate. Yet again, some of this depends on the final usage.

Remember that converting 24 fps source material into 29.97 NTSC framerate has been done for decades by the DVD engineers using 24 fps movie source material. The industry term is 3:2 pulldown. They did it because they knew the output device's characteristics (which you do not mention).

All lossy compression is a compromise. On a given codec higher bitrates = less compression = better quality = larger file size. It's up to you to decide what YOU consider acceptable.

Note that much of this might depend on the content itself. Animation, fast-moving content benefits from higher-bitrates and less compression. If you are digitizing talking heads like Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show, maybe a little blurriness is acceptable in lieu of a smaller file.

It's the same with audio: 128kbps MP3 vs. 256kbps AAC vs. 320kbps MP3 vs. 44.1kHz/16-bit CD vs. 48kHz/16-bit lossless vs. 192kHz/24-bit hi-res.

Same with photos: 8-bit GIF, JPG, TIFF, 12-bit RAW, 16-bit RAW.

 

[Gwendolini]

Image Quality depends on the preset you chose, not only on the codec.

I transcode my media to HEVC using HandBrake using my own preset, where the quality is set to a certain level and so on.

Look at the already built-in presets inside HandBrake.

 

[MacBH928]

First of all, you don't mention the final intended usage which plays an important role in selecting a codec.

Second, if you are pleased with the end result, that's the most important thing. If I make macaroni & cheese from scratch and you are happy with the stuff from the blue box, my preference has no bearing as to what you put on your dinner table.

H.264 isn't "on its way out" [sic]. It'll be deeply connected to any 1080p media for backwards compatibility to all sorts of legacy devices such as Blu-ray players which employ three codecs: MPEG-2, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, and SMPTE VC-1. My geriatric Sony Blu-ray player will never play H.265 nor AV1 content.

When possible I choose MP4 files to output from Handbrake because iTunes (I'm running Mojave) and iOS/iPadOS devices do not support MKV containers in the native TV app. (Again, you did not specify final usage.) I can play MKVs with VLC (including the iOS/iPadOS apps) but managing content on those devices is a pain which is why I stick with MP4 as much as possible. MKVs also play fine on my Raspberry Pi 4 running Kodi.

As for converting DVDs or other old 480p source material, I usually use the Decomb and Deinterlace filters and set the bitrate no higher than 2500 kbps from a well-mastered/transferred DVD. For a lousy old VHS-quality source, I might go as low as 1500 kbps. I believe there are some filters for sharpening but the end result is subjective. If you like it, use it.

All things equal it is best to have the output file match the source file's framerate. Yet again, some of this depends on the final usage.

Remember that converting 24 fps source material into 29.97 NTSC framerate has been done for decades by the DVD engineers using 24 fps movie source material. The industry term is 3:2 pulldown. They did it because they knew the output device's characteristics (which you do not mention).

All lossy compression is a compromise. On a given codec higher bitrates = less compression = better quality = larger file size. It's up to you to decide what YOU consider acceptable.

Note that much of this might depend on the content itself. Animation, fast-moving content benefits from higher-bitrates and less compression. If you are digitizing talking heads like Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show, maybe a little blurriness is acceptable in lieu of a smaller file.

It's the same with audio: 128kbps MP3 vs. 256kbps AAC vs. 320kbps MP3 vs. 44.1kHz/16-bit CD vs. 48kHz/16-bit lossless vs. 192kHz/24-bit hi-res.

Same with photos: 8-bit GIF, JPG, TIFF, 12-bit RAW, 16-bit RAW.

I just want to convert the file in a modern format without losing whatever quality it has. I had old videos made in QT that had issues and had to be converted. I don't even know how long MPG-1 will be supported to convert from.

Old devices can only play h.264 but all newer ones play h.265(I think), so I don't use legacy hardware so this is not a problem for me.

I thought Deinterlace and Decomb is used for converting from none-digital mediums. Do you need that on a digital file or DVD which is digital?Is DVD interlaced in the first place?

Why doesn't MKV has support as much as MP4?

This is a digital video file, I don't think I can get more bitrates out of it. If it was RAW then maybe, or if I was converting from other medium.

 

[Erehy Dobon]

Some video is interlaced, some isn't. It depends on the specific content. Note that over-the-air ATSC video transmissions are occasionally interlaced. The 1080i signal is one of these. That's one example of a common interfaced source.

This Q&A forum is not the best venue for a detailed tutorial on video transcoding and the basics of video. A judicious inquiry on an Internet search engine will undoubtedly provide a plethora of well-written tutorials authored by people who are far more knowledgable about this topic than me.

I don't know why MKV doesn't have as much support as MP4. It just doesn't and regardless of why, that's how it is.

In any case, do a bunch of encodes at different bitrates and see which one you find acceptable in terms of image quality, file size, encoding time, file compatibility with your devices, etc. No one here cares about what you do in the same way we don't care what clothes you wear or what food you put on your dinner table.

If it plays acceptably and looks fine to you, good job, you can move on with your life.

One thing I will note is that I usually pass through the original audio format, thus no audio transcoding.

Best of luck.