Handbrake vs. VisualHub w/ AppleTV

[k21975]

I am lucky enough to have bought a copy of VisualHub before they closed their doors. My general use is to convert HD video files (mostly .mkv) to TV files. Now that Handbrake 0.9.3 is out and can do the conversion, I'm wondering if anyone has had a lot of experience with both, and which would give me the best output for HD TV files. The AppleTV preset in HB does not keep the HD video resolution, so I've made my own to keep the HD video, copying the rest from the AppleTV preset. I am also one of the people who converted files to TV in VisualHub with only the 5.1 track. So I have to go back an add the AAC track to many of my files.

So, lets start this debate. Which do you like better. What file settings do you use on each specific to TV?

(I have done a lot of searching on this topic and read a lot of posts, I'm just looking for more centralized location for myself and others.)

 

[deltaiscain]

why don't you try out handbrake, it's free. Anyway, i used and use both, and there isn't a large difference. I don't work very much with HD files, but i convert a lot of movies to PSP format. Visualhub might be a bit easier to use than Handbrake, but Handbrake's free, and there won't be any updates for Visualhub anymore. However, Handbrake does have more options you can tweak, or they are easier to see and tweak than with Visualhub, plus it gives you an accurate estimate of how long the conversion is going to take, with seconds. But it just depends on what you like best.

 

[Weaselboy]

As I understand it, they both use the same conversion engine ffmpeg, so hypothetically if the settings are configured the same the results/speed would be the same.

HB uses a newer version of ffmpeg also. Given the fact no updates to VH or its underlying convertor will be forthcoming, I plan to ditch Visual Hub.

 

[sameon]

Handbrake 0.93 for me. Although I have to fool around with the picture settings, the result HD is in .m4v which in turn is easier to tag with metax

 

[kolax]

I like the simplicity of VisualHub - I've found (even with 0.9.3) that HandBrake can cause the audio to get out of sync ever so slightly. I did two conversions of a 720p MKV file - Apple TV preset on both applications, and VisualHub's audio was perfectly in sync.

I've noticed the audio go out slightly on a few other conversions with pre 0.9.3 HandBrake - but I'd need to do more conversions to see if this is an issue.