The perfect specifications for my needs? (Make MKV & HandBrake)

[TrenttonY]

I would like to use MakeMKV to copy the movie to my Mac and then use HandBrake to make it a reasonable size. When I was planning I expected all Blurays to have Dolby Digital 5.1 like the movies in the iTunes Store, but i'm mistaken. Some have DTS, DD Stereo, and some Dolby Digital 5.1. Thats the MakeMKV side of my question

On HandBrake under "Audio" when I hit the Apple TV 3 preset it makes two audio lines. One AAC (core) with Dolby Pro Logic 2, with 160 bitrate, and the second is AC3 with 5.1 Channels with 640 bitrate. I'm not understanding why there is two?

So basically to sum up my question, can I use any of audio choices (DTS, Dolby Digital 5.1, and DD Stereo) when I import using MakeMKV and just use HandBrake to match the iTunes Store Movies audio (Dolby 5.1)

 

[Alrescha]

On HandBrake under "Audio" when I hit the Apple TV 3 preset it makes two audio lines. One AAC (core) with Dolby Pro Logic 2, with 160 bitrate, and the second is AC3 with 5.1 Channels with 640 bitrate. I'm not understanding why there is two?

Movies from the iTunes store contain an AAC audio track and optionally (but usually) an AC3 track. Handbrake creates the same arrangement. This means that devices do not need to support AC3 in order to be able to play a movie.

So basically to sum up my question, can I use any of audio choices (DTS, Dolby Digital 5.1, and DD Stereo) when I import using MakeMKV and just use HandBrake to match the iTunes Store Movies audio (Dolby 5.1)

Handbrake can convert DTS to AC3 for you. Your end result should still be AAC, and optionally AC3/DD.

A.

 

[priitv8]

Movies without the AAC stereo track would not sync to any iOS devices (they would be mute on them anyway). And nowadays, they will be mute on Mac-s as well, as AC3 is not supported on OS X (you can only stream it through optical out, as on TV). Perian (the tried and tested AC3 decoder for OS X) is long unsupported.

 

[TrenttonY]

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[TrenttonY]

I used the ATV3 preset with web optimized on and my file size was around 4.80 GB. My only issue is that it is 1920x800, which isn't technically 1080p. How do I retain the same 1080p quality but just make a smaller file than the source (30 GB)? Or is the only way to lower the size is to crop it (1920x800)? I'm relatively new to this. And does anyone know how to get the chapter markers to import from the Blu ray, or even better does iTunes offer an API for their chapter markers? I understand Subler has access to basically all the data on the store already but for chapter markers?

 

[amfuller]

I used the ATV3 preset with web optimized on and my file size was around 4.80 GB. My only issue is that it is 1920x800, which isn't technically 1080p. How do I retain the same 1080p quality but just make a smaller file than the source (30 GB)? Or is the only way to lower the size is to crop it (1920x800)? I'm relatively new to this. And does anyone know how to get the chapter markers to import from the Blu ray, or even better does iTunes offer an API for their chapter markers? I understand Subler has access to basically all the data on the store already but for chapter markers?

No, no. It is fine. Just cropping. You can turn cropping off in the picture settings if you wish (set them all to 0). Try setting the preset to 'slow' instead of the default 'medium' too; should help reduce file size compared to 'medium' but keep the quality. I have my rf at 15, and that suits me just fine for ATV3.

Chapter markers will be passed to handbrake from the MKV rip (using MAKEMKV), you can change the labels of the chapters inside of handbrake if you so wish or through identify2 (which you can use to tag your mp4 files with all the metadata you could ever want. Try http://bendodson.com/code/itunes-artwork-finder/index.html if you want to find artwork should you not like the suggestions from identify2.

 

[JPM]

I used the ATV3 preset with web optimized on and my file size was around 4.80 GB. My only issue is that it is 1920x800, which isn't technically 1080p.

To expand on awfuller's point about cropping, you will only get 1920x1080 if the source is 1.78:1 aspect ratio. If the source is a different aspect ratio (movies are sometimes shot in wider formats, 2.35:1 being a common one), the vertical height of the actual picture will be smaller than 1080 but it will be 1920 wide. If you play your Blu-Ray disc you will see there are black bars at the top and bottom of the screen when the movie is shot wider than 1.78:1. Handbrake is saving space by cropping the black bars and not encoding that (useless) data. When the file is played on your TV, it will look the same as the disc (in terms of content, I won't get into encoding/compression and all that).

 

[TrenttonY]

When I add the movie to iTunes without using any meta data, the Get Info - File - Video Quality, it says SD. Can anyone explain this?

 

[JPM]

I'm not 100% certain, but I don't think iTunes looks at the file dimensions to determine SD/HD. It looks at a metadata flag ("hdvd" if I'm not mistaken) to determine SD/720p/1080p. My guess is the flag defaults to 0 (SD) or iTunes assumes 0 if it isn't present.

 

[Richdmoore]

I use subler (after handbrake) to properly tag the movie before adding it to iTunes. It will properly put the hd flag in, along with cover art, description, and other info.