Veteran Encoder Notes & Recommendations
As a newcomer to video on iPods, I've been experimenting with Handbrake. Much of the specifics on MR's guide to "ripping video to iPod" relates to 5G iPods, older versions of Quicktime and Handbrake, and is outdated (although the general procedure is good). The Handbrake forums themselves are too complicated.
With some useful advice from others here, I've run a few tests, and have some thoughts & advice to share (EDIT: This is all starting from the "iPhone" preset, and playing with settings from that):
-Bitrates: 1000kbps bitrate seems to deliver very good quality on the Touch. In fact, it puts my TV and eMac to shame. Higher bitrates = higher file sizes. I was doing 2000kbps, but cut file sizes almost in half - at little/no quality loss - by going down to 1000kbps.
-H.264 vs. Mpeg-4: I'd say use Mpeg-4. The advantage of H.264 is apparently that it's a newer & higher-quality encoder. However, Mpeg-4 (single pass) already looks excellent to me. Worse, H.264 files can take three times as long to encode. Worst, H.264 files, at the same bitrate, are larger than Mpeg-4s, at least in my tests. If Mpeg-4 looks great and takes less time and space, why not stick with it?
-1- versus 2-pass: Many say doing a 2-pass encode for Mpeg-4 will make it look even better. Importantly, 2-pass does not make the filesize any bigger. It may take 50% longer or more to encode, but still not as long as H.264. Speaking of H.264, if you are using it, most say it doesn't benefit from a 2nd pass.
This is all info based on my experiences. Your mileage may vary; in particular, if you have an Intel Mac, encode times are much shorter than with PPCs, making H.264 more feasible in that regard.
Still, I hope all of this is useful - particularly if (like me) you're going to batch-encode lots of TV episodes and want the settings right first.
Good tips. Here's how I encode EyeTV Recordings now.
1. Rip DVD Image in Toast 8 with settings all set to minimum compression - max quality.
2. Handbrake 9 on the image - 2 Pass, 29.97 fps, mp4 H.264, iPod Basic
40 minute one hour shows minus commercials - I encode at a 350MB target file that yiedls a little over 1Kbps bitrate. This way I don't have the H264 bloat you mentioned. But the images are slightly smoother and less boxy if you know what I mean. I test my macro interpolation on a 30" display. So going up from 624x352 2 pass H264 targeted at 350 MB (1206 kbps total including 128 audio) to 2560x1446 (letterbox on 1600 vertical) and still looking good is my test of success. Just did a Smallville 16:9 SD encode from a letterbox original and it looks amazingly good on the big screen thanks to H264.
I have only just now started using H264 because I have a 2.66 GHz Quad Mac Pro now. I agree H264 takes way longer even on the G5 Quad. But the quality is much better. Now that Handbrake 9 is so much faster - due to the fact that it is now fully multithreaded it's worth it. Can't wait to see how it does on an 8 Core Mac Pro - waiting for Harpertown Stoakley-Seaburg.
Anyone using Handbrake on an 8 core with nothing else running? If so, does it use all 8 cores @ up to 320 fps or more?
If you don't have a Quad anything, I'd say skip H264. But the one exception might be the new 2.8 GHz C2D iMac although I don't have any tests about how fast it is at Handbrake encodes of any type.
For HD 16x9 I use 624 x 352 maximum iPod compatible dimensions so they will interpolate up to a TV best.
For SD 4x3 I use 544 x 400 also maximum iPod compatible dimension so they will interpolate up to a TV best.
Anything SD I put at 800 kbps or less.
Cartoons like Simpsons and South Park I target file at 100 MB per 20 minute show edit. It's about 500 kbps and looks fine.
Handbrake 9 has an idiosyncrasy that requires you to hit the ENTER key after entering in a target size then switching to bit-rate and back to the target size before the target size bit-rate will appear correctly in grey in the bit-rate window.
If you have a G5 Quad and can stop all other processes - mail is a core hog so you must quit mail to get another core to work for you, Handbrake will use all 4 cores. But I agree that the Mac Pro is much faster. First pass of two pass on the Mac Pro analyses at the rate of 160 fps compared to about 50-60 fps on the Quad G5.
I always use 2 pass because the analysis done on the first pass insures the best possible encode on the second pass.
You guys know how to crop a show properly right? You've got to go in and set your 624x352 then uncheck keep aspect ratio box just in case your crop might throw that off. Then make sure you remove any noise you see in the sample stills - particularly on top and the left side where they are more often to appear. Also when you are blowing up a 16x9 letterbox, make sure you crop carefully AFTER you've approximated the size and deselected the aspect ratio box. While the aspect ratio may appear correct before you press the close button - which is really the SAVE button - it sometimes changes after you press close if that box is checked. That is why it's a good rule to deselect it every time. That way it won't change no matter what you do in custom crop.
