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Handbrake is Extremely Slow....?

fab5freddy

fab5freddy

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 21, 2007
1,206
7
Heaven or Hell
Can someone tell me if i am doing something wrong,
in my method of getting a DVD onto my Mac......

I copy the DVD VIDEO_TS files onto my desktop of my Mac,
then use Handbrake to make an Mpg-4 Version to watch on my Mac....
But this method takes around 2 hours on my Mac......?
This seems like it should be quicker....?

thanks for any clues....to make this operation quicker..!
 
In my experience, 2 hours is fast for Handbrake.

On my 867MHz Powerbook, Superbad took around 4 hours to convert to .avi

I didn't mind much. It's worth not having to lug DVDs around on trips.
 
fab5freddy said:
thanks for any clues....to make this operation quicker..!
Click to expand...

Get one of these...

macpro.jpg
 
fab5freddy said:
Can someone tell me if i am doing something wrong,
in my method of getting a DVD onto my Mac......

I copy the DVD VIDEO_TS files onto my desktop of my Mac,
then use Handbrake to make an Mpg-4 Version to watch on my Mac....
But this method takes around 2 hours on my Mac......?
This seems like it should be quicker....?

thanks for any clues....to make this operation quicker..!
Click to expand...

First off just copying the VIDEO_TS folder is often not enough. You should rip the disk using Mac the Ripper and then encode with Handbrake. MTR is a much better ripper than Handbrake.
 
Handbrake 0.9.1 takes a while for me, too. However, this may be why:
- dual 2.3GHz G5 (3gb RAM)
- 2-pass encoding
- .h264 compression.

I see times that range from 2-4 hours. I'm betting 4 or 8 cores may help slightly.

While this is probably heavily discussed elsewhere, I have NO understanding why Handbrake for Mac will rip my own purchased DVDs, whereas the same version for Windows will simply give me a copyright warning (and do nothing).
 
fab5freddy said:
no serious, what is the difference between the various file formats..?
avi, mpg-4, H.264, MKV, etc........
Click to expand...

Well, I used .avi because I dont have an iPod and I typically watch the movies again on my laptop. I have done Mpg4 before, and it's usually about the same time.

I've personally never done H.264 or MKV. I wouldn't know what compression times to expect from those formats. Basically Processor speed and RAM will dictate the speed of the compression. My ancient 867MHz G4 wasn't really an ideal workhorse for the task, but it got the job done. I assume my newer PB will be better for these tasks but who knows. I dare not try quite yet while it's running a meager 256MB of RAM.
 
45 Minutes for me

Man, I just pop the DVD in the drive and encode straight from there. I always go straight to MP4. I keep it real simple and it only takes about 45 minutes. If I rip it with Mac the Ripper and then encode, it is much faster. I'm not too worried about the best quality, as I will watch it on my iPhone. But even when I hook up the phone or my iPod Video to my SDTV, it is still a great picture.
 
All MacTheRipper does is makes a Copy of the DVD on your Hard Drive. At 100% of the Size and 100% of the Quality.

Handbrake is an Encoding tool, to allow you Extract, Compress, and Manage the Video into 1 or more files, at which ever quality/size/compression/format you like.

Example, I ripped Star Trek 2 The Wrath of Khan with MacTheRipper. It was a 7GB TS Folder. It was essentially the DVD on my Hard Drive. The Rip took 20 minutes.

I used Handbrake to make it a Single MP4 File, so I can watch the movie with iTunes/Front Row, and Encoded in H264 High Quality and Compression. The File was only 2GB, and Still looked very similar if not the same quality as the DVD itself. The only Catch? The Process took my 2.4GHz C2D MBP 18 Hours to complete. To me, the 18 Hours of Compression with Handbrake was worth it. It reduced my Movie from 7 to 2 GB, The movie is now playable in Quicktime etc as just 1 file, and the H264 Quality is pretty much perfect.

Hope this helps
 
BornAgainMac said:
It use to take about 24 hours to do what today's average system can do in 2 hours.
Click to expand...

Indeed. I'm still amazed that my two-year-old Macbook (Rev A!) can rip a DVD perfectly into iPod touch format at almost 2x realtime.

Hell, the iPod touch itself still amazes me.
 
If it takes 18 hours to encode a DVD on your C2D machine, you are doing some wrong. It takes me about 5 hours on my 1.33 MGz Powerbook in h.264.

The reason to use MacTheRipper (or some other ripping tool) instead of Handbrake to rip the DVD is bc if you use HB to rip and encode it really pegs your optical drive. Save your drive and use MTR.
 
Hi gvegastiger, well, i don't use Handbrake with my Optical Drive, i just copy the VIDEO_TS files to my desktop and from there, i encode with Handbrake to mpg-4 format.......i can get an entire movie to be 1 GB....!

Is this a good way to do it ?
 
That sounds fine. Are you encoding for your TV or iPod? Bc I think you could probably give up some bitrate and get it smaller if its for an iPod. I usually encode at 600 plus 160 for the audio and it looks just fine, and I got the Bourne Identity down to 650 MB. I haven't encoded for anything larger so 1 Gb may be fine.
 
It's taking me 14 hours per disc.

I'm using Handbrake on my 1.67 GHz PowerBook, and getting it ready for my :apple:TV. Since my tv is really big, I'm taking the preset "AppleTV" and adding the 2-pass encoding option. It's supposed to make a difference.

I'd rather take the next 4 weeks and do it right than have a low-res copy that my wife would complain about. Cuz she'd be right.
 
I would kill to have a movie ripped in 4 hours, its taking me around 26 hours to do the job on my 1.5ghz PB :mad:
 
I will chime in and say that on my 2006 standard mac pro it takes roughly 2 hours for two a movie-but I use the high quality ipod setting and do two pass encoding so that may be a part of it but someone else might be able to tell me if i am doing something wrong as well
 
I've used both the Mac and Windows versions of Handbrake and the Mac version is significantly better.

Muxing is faster, Able to handle VOB files the Windows version chokes on.

Too bad that I have to put my Macbook C2D through the tortures of transcoding instead of using my quadcore Windows desktop.

The other Windows h.264 transcoders are nice but far more complicated.
 
iBunny said:
The only Catch? The Process took my 2.4GHz C2D MBP 18 Hours to complete. To me, the 18 Hours of Compression with Handbrake was worth it.
Click to expand...

18 hours:eek::eek::eek:

Hmmm. I have a day one CoreDuo MacBook with 1.25 GB ram. It takes me roughly 5 hours(most movies are over 2 hours). My handbrake settings are- 1200 Kbps for video, 128Kbps audio, deinterlace fast, 2 Pass(without Turbo first pass).

The only thing I do is crop the sides of the movie by appx 60 pixels if movie is extra wide. I keep the ratio under 18:9 coz in any case I`ll be zooming the video to fill the screen on my 16:9 TV or 16:10 MacBook. So no point in having stuff which you wont be seeing anyways. Dont know why your takes so long:confused::confused:. Are you doing some other processor intensive task at the same time. I have at most a couple of safari windows open, a vnc server running in the background and may be sometimes firefox, iTunes and quicktime too. Still it has never taken me more than 5 hours for 150 minute movie.
 
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