# Video Encoding: For Beginners



## RahulB (Nov 25, 2011)

More and More people have started to use their PCs for Multimedia Playback and Content creation, it is hard to miss how much Video is being shared today by people online.

Most of us have a lot of Movie DVD's ( Originals ) with us that we want to backup, however most people tend to use lousy Software solutions for this, so keeping this in mind I have decided to post a Tutorial how to get good quality backups out of your collection.. I will not explain how to rip copyright protection as it is against forum rules, if you want to learn that find it elsewhere on the web.

This tutorial is for complete beginners who have no clue about video encoding, advance users stay away..

*NOTE*: This tutorial is for backups of DVDs and Video in general. Blu-ray encoding is not covered because it little more complex. That will be dealt later...

*SOFTWARE USED: Handbrake*, Why?
Reasons: - Open Source
             - Completely Free
             - Simple to use, ideal for beginners
             - Bloat-free, doesn't come unnecessary crap
             - You can get very high quality, with right settings
             - You don't need to install anything extra for it to work
             - Uses high quality x264 library.
             - Available for Windows, Mac, Linux ( Fedora and Ubuntu )

Download stable builds from here: ( 32 and 64-bit )
HandBrake

However I recommend that you download the latest nightly build as they use the latest versions of x264, don't worry I have never faced a single crash myself they work very well... ( 32 and 64-bit )

Download from here: *build.handbrake.fr/

Windows users also download .NET Package 3.5 from here ( I am not sure if it is required but the developers recommend it: Download: .NET Framework 3.5 Service pack 1 - Microsoft Download Center - Download Details

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*Install and Launch Handbrake*

*Note. On windows Handbrake minimizes to system tray, this can be changed 
in Tools->Options->Advanced*
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Step 1.) *Add Source File to Handbrake*
            - Click Source, Video File ( Ctrl+O )
 ** Handbrake may throw a dialog, close it **

Step 2.) In Destination, click browse and select name and destination of your file.

In Presets click High Profile ( Important )

Step 3.) In Output settings, select *MKV Container*.

** Container: Contains your Audio, Video, Chapters, etc, MKV is recommended since it supports the largest collection of codecs **

Step 4.) *In Pictures tab*
            - Select Anamorphic to Loose
            - Handbrake automatically crops your Video, to remove the ugly bars on top and bottom of your source ( if present ), in rare cases you may have to do it manually.
            - Click on Manual button to crop.

Step 5.) *Video Filters tab*
            - Change Detelecine and Decomb to default if they are not
            - Decomb will usually get rid of interlacing in your video, if your video has excessive interlacing ( Horizontal lines ) use Deinterlace.
            - Detelecine will fix NTSC DVDs framerate ( Rare in India ).

Step 6.) *Video Tab*
            - Select Video Codec to H.264 ( Gives the best quality )
            - Leave framerate at Same as source
            - If you have a NTSC DVD source select Variable Framerate else select Constant Framerate.
            - Select Avg Bitrate, enter bitrate of your choice ( Higher the better )
            - Check Two-pass encoding and Turbo First-pass.

** For Quality Backups Select a bitrate between 1500 or 2000, this will help you get a good quality, don't go beyond 2500 for DVDs, it is just wasteful **

** Higher bitrate doesn't always mean better quality, though it is a fair indicator, your encoding settings matter the most **

Step 7.) *Audio Tab*
             - Select Audio Codec to be AAC ( ffmpeg ) or AC3 ( ffmpeg ), for best quality use passthru versions.
             - Select Audio bitrate, higher the better. ( 192-320 Recommended)
             - Leave the rest as it is.
Step 8.) *Subtitles Tab*
            - If your source contains Subtitle, you will see them here, you can chose to remove them if you want ( Recommended )

Step 9.) Chapters Tab - Really no need to get into this, skip...

Step 10.) *Advanced Tab*

              - *Reference Frames* - Higher the better, don't go over 6
              * Recommended Value - 6 *

              - *Maximum B-Frames* - Higher the better, keep between 4-6
              * Recommended Value - 6 *

              - Check CABAC Entropy Coding, 8x8 Transform and Weighted P-frames
              - *Pyradimal B-Frames* - Normal ( Default )

              - *Adaptive B-frames* - Change to Optimal

              - *Adaptive Direct Mode* - Change to Automatic

              - *Motion Estimation Method* - Change to Uneven-Multihexagon
              * Don't go beyond Unveven Mult-Hex, excruciatingly slow - no visible quality gain*

              - *Subpixel ME & Mode Decison* - Keep between 7 & 11
              * Recommended - 10 or 11 *
              * Stable builds don't have 11 *

              - *Motion Estimation Range* - Keep between 16 & 32
              * Recommended - 32 *

              - *Adaptive Quantization Strength* - Leave it as it is

              - *Psychovisual Rate Distortion* - Leave as it is

              - *Psychovisual Trellis* - Leave as it is or try between 0.15-0.20
              * Recommended - 0.15 will do for variety of sources *
              * To see the change, see the change in the text box below *
== It should read psy-rd:1.00,0.15 == ( psy-rd is experimental )

              - *Partition Type* - Change to all

              - *Trellis* - Change to Always

              - *Deblocking* - If you want to
                                  - Sharpen the video a bit: -2 , -1
                                  - Smooth out ugly blocks: 1 , 2
                                  - General use: Default, Default
                 * Don't go lower than -2 or higher than 3 *

** Keep No-DCT Decimate unchecked *

NOTES: The recommended settings are meant for maximum quality, but will come at cost of speed, so tinker around a bit.

Review your settings again.*

HIT START and leave your computer alone, encoding is time and resource consuming so be patient. Quality Encodes require time.

Happy Encoding! 
Ask your queries if you want..

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*ADVANCED SETTINGS IN DETAIL:
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Video is made of frames, like 1 second of video contains 24 frames.....
When these frames, are played back at high speed it gives an illusion of movement which we call video..

Now these frames are not the same...
Modern video consists of 3 types of frames

- Intra ( I ) frames, also called keyframes
- B - Frames or Bidirectional frames
- P - Frames or Predictive frames

The way modern video is reproduced is such that frames reference each other... i.e... they look into the differences between them and are then recreated...
let me explain more clearly... suppose you have a 1 second video of an apple moving across a static background.....

Now out of the 24 frames of video, one frames let us say X1 will have entire data about the frame ( i.e apple, screen )....
The next frames will however will only contain information about the apple... when these frames are accessed then the image is recreated using this frame + from the information from X1 frame...

The frames which are referenced are called reference frames... obviously this is highly simplified here.. in reality its really more complex...
Anyways - These 3 frames differ from each other in some ways...

1.) I-Frames: The I frame stores the entire image and so are the least compressible. Video seeking requires I-frames. I-Frames are referenced the most in video..

2.) P-Frames: P-frames store the difference between itself and an I-frame or other P-frames. P-Frames can be referenced however they don't store as much as data as I-Frames because they are compressed more than I-Frames.

3.) B-Frames: B frames also store the differences between itself and other frames as well but they can't be referenced so they are the most compressible. x264 has a feature though called B-Pyramid though through which B-Frames can reference other B-Frames... more on that later....

So as we can see... in nutshell.

Reference frames: Higher you have better quality you have.. however it is pointless to go over the 8 because only finite number of frames can be referenced..
More you have lesser compressed the video will be and slower will be the compression..

B-Frames: Same as above... don't go over 6 as B-frames are the most compressed higher values will increase encoding time exponentially with no quality gains..

*CABAC Entropy Coding:* This is one of the last stages in encoding... After a video is encoded it can be compressed further by applying lossless compression just like zip files....
Now this can be done in two ways either by using CABAC or CAVLC.. CABAC is extremely efficient it brings down your video size by at least 15%... but it is highly resource intensive...
Think of the difference between CABAC and CAVLC as the difference between 7z and Zip format however more complex..

*Pyramidal B-Frames:* Turns on B-frame Pyramid option, which allows B-frames to be used as references for other B-frames. Atleast 2 B-frames are required... Normal option gives more flexibility to the encoder to use B-Frames reference wherever required therefore this is the recommended option...

*Weighted B-Frames:* Improves compression and fades in scenes with gradual transition.. keep this on at all times for quality....

*Adaptive B-Frames:* This allows x264 to determine the number of B-frames to use (within the set B-frames limit ). Setting to Optimal means x264 makes more accurate predictions... keep it atleast to On.

*Adaptive Direct Mode:* While x264 analyses frames it does so in either two ways.. Spatially which means it searches for differences in current frame itself or searches for differences between other frames called Temporal.. because of the way video is composed.. spatial is used in 90% cases .... it is good idea to keep it at Auto ( hardly any loss of speed ) and let x264 decide from scene to scene... The result in most cases will be like Temporal- 15%, Spatial- 85%.

*Motion Estimation:* This option selects the way motion is detected by x264. Motion is what compression codecs are all about, tracking differences between scenes to allocate the various frame types and bitrates. These are of currently 5 type which decide which algorithm to use

Diamond: Very fast but bad quality.. use it for quick dirty encodes..
Hexagon: Nice quality and good speed.... use this if you want to have decent quality video available.
Uneven-Multi Hex: Brilliant quality.. but it is quite slow.. use this if you want great quality encodes...
Exhaustive & Transformed Exhaustive: These are incredibly slow and will make you tear your hair out... In this case instead of Block search, pixel search is used and therefore it is very slow.. The difference between these and UMH is almost negligible and the speed cost is very high.. These two are used for testing purposes..

*Subpixel Motion Estimation:* A very important option that determines how x264 makes decisions about motion estimation. 1 is fastest and dirtiest and 11 is slowest and of best quality..
Don't go below 6 as below 6 it will disable some important features of x264 which preserve quality... 11 or 10 gives best quality...

How frames are encoded ( Simple ): Frames are encoded by dividing the frame into small square blocks, and then Motion estimation is done on these blocks to do prediction...
These blocks are called Macroblocks.. you might have noticed that in cases of badly encoded video what you always see are ugly square shaped artifacts cropping up in video .... these are the edges of the macroblocks when they were being encoded... this happens because algorithms for motion estimation work on separate blocks without sharing info with other block ( hope this is changed in H.265 ), so the edges sometimes get defined when bad encoding techniques are used.. Notes on this topic later...

*Motion Estimation Range: *This setting defines how many pixels are analyzed for motion estimation. Higher range values result in a more accurate analysis, but will also slow down the encoding speed significantly... 16 - 32 are great values.. you can go higher but it won't give more quality... 

*Partitions:* These options determine the partition search types. Enable all to improve quality.. what this means is that x264 will divide video in smaller macroblocks for Motion Estimation.. at the expense of speed.. turn it "All" to improve quality... these are P4x4,P8x8

*Trellis:* This option improves the rounding of Transform coefficients... This is very resource intensive but also gives great quality... Use only in multi-pass encoding and use atleast 1.
( Transform Coefficients: This is tough to explain without maths ... All current encoders work on the basis of an algorithm called DCT ( Direct Cosine Transform ) and these coefficients are part of this process... Discussion of this just off the scope so lets leave it at that.

*8x8 Transform: *This option has been separated from others because it has a different command line flag. This enable 8x8 transforms... highly recommended to leave this on. Adaptive DCT should be on.. in handbrake its on by default...

*Psycho-visually optimized RDO & Trellis: *The human eye doesn't just want the image to look similar to the original, it wants the image to have similar complexity. Therefore, we would rather see a somewhat distorted but still detailed block than a non-distorted but completely blurred block. The result is a bias towards a detailed and/or grainy output image, a bit like xvid except that its actual detail rather than ugly blocking. The purpose of Psy RDO is to keep the complexity of an encoded block similar to the complexity of the original block. This way Psy RDO produces an image that looks much sharper and more detailed in many cases. It also helps to preserve film grain greatly! In addition to Psy RDO there also is Psy-Trellis now. This is still considered an “experimental” feature and disable by default, but it seems to help greatly for retaining textures in the video. Note that Psy Trellis is based on Trellis quantization. 

*Psy RDO Strength:* This setting controls the strength of Psy RDO. For normal stuff use 1.0 ( Psy-RDO is now automatic, strength just limits it ), For Animation it should be lowered to 0 or 0.2.. Why? Difficult to explain here without maths...Just accept it as a tricky beast.. ( Note: When I say animation I mean 2d cartoons like Japanese Animie not Pixar movies )

*Psy Trellis Strength:* This setting controls the strength of Psy Trellis. The default value is 0.0 currently, so Psy Trellis will be disabled by default. For most sources 0.15 to 0.20 will do.. don't use for animation though... I really don't understand this feature properly myself ......Sorry! I can't explain more...

*Adaptive Quantization Strength: *This feature tells x264 how to distribute bits... default is 1.0.. .. This is a psy-feature.. Example- Suppose we have a scene where we have a character illuminated by torchlight, his face is visible greatly but his surroundings are darker.... What Adaptive Quantization does it that it decides that a viewer's focus will be on the face rather that the shadows so it assigns more bits to the face... Cool isn't it .. The strength factor decides this 0 means bits are distributed evenly... 1.0 is default and is good for almost all sources.. most video has portion with contrasting lighting....don't touch this if you don't understand it... for animie lower it to 0.2 or 0.. most animie has simple color grading, virtually no contrasting lighting if think of it....

*Deblocking*: Mandatory feature of H.264, always enabled in handbrake......
Its defined like this: 1,0,0 ( On, Strength, Threshold )... Just think of a filter which decides how much smoothness to apply to video.. ( Note this is not a correct description of deblocking, its complete discussion is beyond the scope of this text, Amazingly many encoders*People* make this mistake and crank up deblocking to negative values thinking it increases sharpness, ending with artifacts and longer encoding times which could have been avoided... Yeah I am talking about all your Secetmyth, HD-lite stuff.... )

In handbrake it is always turned on....no matter what.. you can't turn it of neither you should....

*Strength:* This setting is also called “Alpha Deblocking”. It controls how much the Deblocking filter will smooth the video, so it has an important effect on the overall sharpness of your video. The default value is 0 and is good enough for everything. Negative values will give a more sharp video, but they will also increases the danger of visible block artifacts! In contrast positive values will result in a smoother video, but they will also remove more details.

*Threshold:* This setting is also called “Beta Deblocking” and it's more difficult to handle than Alpha Deblocking. It controls the threshold for block detection. The default value is 0 and should be enough to detect all blocks in your video. Negative values will “save” more details, but more blocks might slip through. In contrast positive values will remove more details and catch more blocks.

In general 0,0 is always good.... for all purposes... don't touch it unnecessarily if you don't need it as it greatly affects speed and quallity...

*No DCT Decimation:* Just don't touch this.. keep it unchecked... In rarest of rare cases some blocks appear in sources with straight gradients and checking it avoids it but may produce artifacts elsewhere in the video .. meaning just don't touch it...........

P*hew! This covers the options exposed by Handbrake... Many more incredibly important options which usually expert encoders tweak are not shown by Handbrake as this program is meant for general purpose encoding.... To tweak these use the x264 CLI directly or MeGUI.... On these way later...
*
Note all explanations given above, I tried to make them as simple as I could, but in reality these things highly complex and explaining them like that will fill tomes... so I have avoided them...
I Hope this helps..... Good Luck.... Please provide feedback to improve his article....

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For direct use on LED/LCD TV via USB or PS3/X360. 

 Profile: Universal Profile.
 Use *.mp4 as extension on the Destination field. 

 PICTURE: 
 ........................................Anamorphic : None - Width and Height equal to source.
 ........................................Cropping: Custom - Set according to source pixel size. Mostly all zeros. 
 VIDEO FILTERS: 
 ........................................Detelecine : Off
 ........................................Decomb: Off for HQ BluRay/BRrip source. On for LQ BRrip/DVDrip source.
 ........................................Deinterlac e: Off for HQ BluRay/BRrip source. On for LQ BRrip/DVDrip source.
 ........................................Denoise: Off for HQ BluRay/BRrip source. Weak for LQ BRrip/DVDrip source.
 ........................................Deblock: Off for HQ BluRay/BRrip source. 5-7 for LQ BRrip/DVDrip source.
 VIDEO:
 ........................................Codec: H.264
 ........................................FPS: Same as source - Variable.
 ........................................Quality: Avg Bitrate (set as required, less than than source bitrate) - [Enable 2Pass Encoding & Turbo first Pass]
 AUDIO:
 ........................................Codec: AAC (ffmpeg) [Have not tested AC3/DTS]
 ........................................Bitrate: Less than or Equal to Source audio
 ........................................Sample Rate: Auto
 ........................................Mixdown: Stereo (Louder) / 5.1Ch (Less Loud)
 ........................................Gain: 0-2
 ADVANCED:

 ........................................Paste in CLI: 
 rc-lookahead=50:ref=6:bframes=6:b-adapt=2:direct=auto:me=umh:subme=10:merange=30:ana lyse=allsy-rd=1.0,0.15


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## nims11 (Nov 25, 2011)

You could have explained what the settings mean. anyways, nice!


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## krishnandu.sarkar (Nov 25, 2011)

Nice


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## RBX (Nov 26, 2011)

I hope this can help me convert the .dat video files from CD's MPEG-AV folder into a size justifying their quality.


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## doom2010 (Nov 26, 2011)

Describe the settings little bit more is much appreciated.
btw really nice,thanks...


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## RahulB (Nov 26, 2011)

If you hover, the mouse over the settings you will get very nice tooltips, the reason didn't elaborate them much was becuase I didn't want to overwhelm new users.. still will elaborate them in an upcoming edit..


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## Niilesh (Nov 26, 2011)

RahulB said:


> If you hover, the mouse over the settings you will get very nice tooltips, the reason didn't elaborate them much was becuase I didn't want to overwhelm new users.. still will elaborate them in an upcoming edit..



ya please elaborate them. I will be looking forward to it. 
BTW it's a nice Tutorial.
hey how's MeGUI for encoding?


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## RahulB (Nov 26, 2011)

MeGUI is my default application for encoding however it is quite advanced... this post is for beginners... however if you are familiar with advance concepts like like filters, frames, ME etc... then suggested tool for encoding is MeGUI


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## nims11 (Nov 26, 2011)

*ffmpeg* if you are comfy with command line


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## dashing.sujay (Nov 26, 2011)

Good job Rahul.  I had heard about handbrake long ago used by axXxo and their counterparts  Definitely I'll try this, sadly I've left encoding long ago  Till date, I used mediacoder 

PS- Adding some "simple" explanations of technical jargons would be better


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## RahulB (Nov 26, 2011)

There you go people, the post has been edited to add explaining the options in as easy way I can... Please give feedback for the improvement of the post... *ENJOY*....


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## dashing.sujay (Nov 26, 2011)

Its perfect now


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## RahulB (Nov 26, 2011)

Thanks... will try to post more tutorials like these


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## Skud (Nov 26, 2011)

Now its really something.


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## RahulB (Nov 26, 2011)

I'll improve the language of this post a bit, the word structure is little crusty.. I posted this in a hurry.. in one sitting so... Please tell if anything needs to be added, then I can add the requested info and then edit the entire post to improve the language and formatting...


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## Extreme Gamer (Nov 27, 2011)

Is it possible to get an identical video as the DVD/BD itself while transcoding?


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## dashing.sujay (Nov 27, 2011)

^^I guess using h.264/matroska, you can get real good results.


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## RahulB (Nov 27, 2011)

Its impossible to get identical video... everytime you encode you lose data (  quality loss ), however you can get great results with correct settings... the video looks almost as good as original... Example I encoded my Blu-ray disc ( main movie, original size: 30GB, bitrate 31MBps, 1080p ) of Star Trek to a MKV file of size 4.7GB ( Video bitrate, 4.6 Mbps, H.264, 720p), and the results are virtually indistinguishable, ofcouse it took my PC ( i7, 8GB Ram ) almost 18 Hours... but it is possible... these are the settings I used.... ENCODED USING x264, interface MeGUI..

ORIGINAL MOVIE ( Media Info )..

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Format                                 : Matroska
Format version                       : Version 2
File size                                : 29.3 GiB
Duration                                : 2h 6mn
Overall bit rate mode               : Variable
Overall bit rate                       : 33.1 Mbps
Encoded date                         : UTC 2011-02-21 12:18:53
Writing application                   : mkvmerge v4.5.0 ('Speed of Light') built on Feb  1 2011 02:10:32
Writing library                         : libebml v1.2.0 + libmatroska v1.1.0

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                 : AVC
Format/Info                           : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                         : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC            : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames        : 4 frames
Codec ID                                : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration                                 : 2h 6mn
Bit rate mode                          : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 31.8 Mbps
Maximum bit rate                     : 34.5 Mbps
Width                                    : 1 920 pixels
Height                                   : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio                  : 16:9
Frame rate                              : 23.976 fps
Color space                             : YUV
Chroma subsampling                  : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                               : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                     : 0.639
Stream size                              : 28.2 GiB (96%)
Title                                    : Star Trek
Default                                 : Yes
Forced                                  : No
Color primaries                         : BT.709-5, BT.1361, IEC 61966-2-4, SMPTE RP177
Transfer characteristics             : BT.709-5, BT.1361
Matrix coefficients                     : BT.709-5, BT.1361, IEC 61966-2-4 709, SMPTE RP177

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                 : AC-3
Format/Info                           : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension                      : CM (complete main)
Codec ID                               : A_AC3
Duration                                : 2h 6mn
Bit rate mode                         : Constant
Bit rate                                  : 640 Kbps
Channel(s)                              : 6 channels
Channel positions                     : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate                          : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth                                : 16 bits
Compression mode                    : Lossy
Stream size                             : 581 MiB (2%)
Title                                       : Star Trek
Language                                : English
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : No
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My Encode...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Format                                   : Matroska
Format version                           : Version 2
File size                                : 4.69 GiB
Duration                                 : 2h 6mn
Overall bit rate                         : 5 292 Kbps
Encoded date                             : UTC 2011-02-25 09:06:29
Writing application                      : mkvmerge v4.5.0 ('Speed of Light') built on Feb  1 2011 02:10:32
Writing library                          : libebml v1.2.0 + libmatroska v1.1.0

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : High@L4.0
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames                : 8 frames
Codec ID                                 : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration                                 : 2h 6mn
Bit rate                                 : 4 661 Kbps
Width                                    : 1 280 pixels
Height                                   : 528 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 2.40:1
Frame rate                               : 23.976 fps
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.288
Stream size                              : 4.03 GiB (86%)
Title                                    : Star Trek by Rahul
Writing library                          : x264 core 114 r1913 5fd3dce
Encoding settings                        : cabac=1 / ref=8 / deblock=1:-1:-1 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=umh / subme=10 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.20 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=32 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=0 / chroma_qp_offset=-3 / threads=12 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=6 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=240 / keyint_min=23 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=60 / rc=2pass / mbtree=1 / bitrate=4661 / ratetol=4.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=2:1.00
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : No
Color primaries                          : BT.709-5, BT.1361, IEC 61966-2-4, SMPTE RP177
Transfer characteristics                 : BT.709-5, BT.1361
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.709-5, BT.1361, IEC 61966-2-4 709, SMPTE RP177

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : AC-3
Format/Info                              : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension                           : CM (complete main)
Codec ID                                 : A_AC3
Duration                                 : 2h 6mn
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 640 Kbps
Channel(s)                               : 6 channels
Channel positions                        : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth                                : 16 bits
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 581 MiB (12%)
Title                                    : Star Trek Audio Core
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : No

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Irrespective of length, a video bitrate of 4000-5000 Kbps ( for video , 720p...), 7000-8000 Kbps ( video , 1080p ) with great settings will give excellent quality which is indistinguishable from the original, my encode has not a single block....

Good settings are required... All these rips on internet you see are usually of bad quality... Expert encoders are quality freaks and they usually don't share their rips.. they trade sample clips, and discuss how quality can be improved...

Sample....
Encoder 1: Hey here is the sample...
Encoder 2: Great quality, but at frame 817 I can see some decimation
Encoder 1: Yeah, I noticed that... x264 can't seem to calculate bit ratio, for the frame.
Encoder 2: Did you try changing ip ratio.
Encoder 1: using 1.41.
Encoder 2: Doesn't it produces for fast motion artifacts...
Encoder 1: Can't go over, will cause blurring in slower seens... Trying some xxxx filters...
Encoder 2: Switch Lancroz..
Encoder 1: Using Spline64, problem solved... Encoding ( ** Encoding entire movie again, because of a artifact in a single frame  ** )

This how crazy people can get....


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## dashing.sujay (Nov 27, 2011)

I guess it'll take at least 2 days for my i5+4GB 

BTW 4k-5k bit rate is enough for a sub 30inch display I guess.


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## RahulB (Nov 27, 2011)

4k-5k is good enough for ant 720p video.. here we are obviously talking about advanced encoding using x264 right...Its good enough for a 55 inch..... Which software are you using for encoding videos, blu-ray, etc..


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## dashing.sujay (Nov 27, 2011)

4k-5k enough for 55inch? I'll try it on my new bought samsung 42inch this time. I normally used Super/mediacoder. I used to be a encoding freak long ago (good 700mb days), then left, now back again with my lappi  I had thought to use handbrake too, but never gave it a shot, will give it soon.


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## Extreme Gamer (Nov 27, 2011)

@Rahul: Any good GPU accelerated encoders that preserve quality and can use more than 1 GPU simultaneously?(Not badaboom).


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## RahulB (Nov 27, 2011)

I am not sure, Extreme Gamer I don't use GPU encoders because of their horrible quality... and note that you can achieve the same speed and better quality of any GPU encoder by using x264's ultrafast or superfast preset.... There are other encoders like Arcsoft and Cyberlink plus AMD's own Encoder ( I have a AMD Card myself ) but I was never impressed by them... I know of a fact that MediaCoder does have GPU based encoders and decoders... ( Sure that it has CUDA encoders not sure about AMD support )... Give it a whirl... It is add supported I guess.. Haven't used anything beyond x264 for a long time..


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## Extreme Gamer (Nov 27, 2011)

I would only encode in x264 or h264, and i'd love speed while maintaining quality


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## dashing.sujay (Nov 27, 2011)

CPU decoders ftw EG, GPU accel^n will take time IMO.


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## Extreme Gamer (Nov 28, 2011)

ok.

thanks.


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## dashing.sujay (Nov 28, 2011)

Also, since encoding is heavily multi-threaded, CPU takes the full advantage of it leaving GPU far behind.


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## macho84 (Nov 28, 2011)

I agree but pure gpu is not recommended. In most cases cpu is good quality and multi cores are good to go. . Gpu based acceleration will reduce some time. But a full movie will take hours time when compared to small clips of 10-30 min. 

If you need good quality improvement over current get mediaexpresso. If decent quality within existing then xilsoft or nero video


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## RahulB (Nov 28, 2011)

dashing.sujay said:


> Also, since encoding is heavily multi-threaded, CPU takes the full advantage of it leaving GPU far behind.



Plus a GPU is a parallel processor unlike the CPU.... Porting x264 is impractical and unnecessary to current GPU's, direct compute is still infancy, and Microsoft just announced C++/AMP, poting in CUDA or OpenCL with make x264 platform dependent, obviously authors wont do that. x264 is very fast at ultrafast ( for quick dirty encodes ) while still giving better quality than any GPU encoder out there... you'll get better results with it... No GPU encoder contains x264's like Psyco-Visual enhancements..... Use MeGUI.... Tutorial coming soon, from Basic to advanced...


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## Krow (Nov 28, 2011)

Really good. I was looking for a handbrake guide like this one long ago. Couldn't find it then. Anyway thanks for posting.


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## Extreme Gamer (Nov 29, 2011)

Thanks for all the info 

So basically I cant get exact quality because videos always use lossy compression formats (due to space constraints).

I had said "not badaboom" because it sucks.

CPU it has to be then, I guess.


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## Niilesh (Nov 29, 2011)

RahulB said:


> MeGUI is my default application for encoding however it is quite advanced... this post is for beginners... however if you are familiar with advance concepts like like filters, frames, ME etc... then suggested tool for encoding is MeGUI



IMO using Minicoder will be lot easier that handbrake 
beginners will like it 

BTW waiting for advanced tutorial.


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## topgear (Dec 19, 2011)

great tutorial RahulB - thanks a lot for this


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## Zangetsu (Dec 19, 2011)

Very useful thread 

But I use Format Factory....
& I think Xvid is better than x264...


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## RahulB (Dec 21, 2011)

Why do you think Zangetsu Xvid is better than x264 ( H.264 )..???


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## ico (Dec 22, 2011)

Great thread. Thread stuck on top.


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## Zangetsu (Dec 22, 2011)

RahulB said:


> Why do you think Zangetsu Xvid is better than x264 ( H.264 )..???



I have experienced is thats y...

I admit that x264 give high compression but the quality as compared to XVID is not good.'


I was converting the huge 4~10 GB avi files to mkv.....using x264 
I got good output file size of around 2.5GB & also checked the video quality it was also good...but when I converted the same original avi files to mkv using XVID the output file size was bigger around 3~3.5GB but when I compared both files in video quality I found that XVID is better 

bcoz

x264 focuses more on front row objects & neglects background objects....
so we think that picture quality is brilliant...but the catch is x264 makes a slightly black background more black.....

there was a scene in the video where the background wall has designs on it but was visible with little black shadow...
xvid preserved that color ambience but x264 completely turned it dark black....

so the design patterns on the wall were gone in x264.

in normal bright scene the difference may not be visible to us


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## RahulB (Dec 28, 2011)

Hi Zangetsu.... 

Your argument about Xvid being superior than x264 ( H.264 ) understood... 
However l would like to elaborate few things...

First you haven't mentioned the encoding settings used for x264 and Xvid you used for your encoding... Quality can vary drastically due to settings...

ex - Suppose you use the following settings for Xvid

       Motion Search - Ultra High
       Mode - 2 Pass *** Bitrate 4000 ***
       VHQ Mode - Wide Search
       Use VHQ for B-Frames
       Use GMC
       No of B-Frames - 6
       I general you are using what I think are high settings for Xvid
---------------------------------------------------------------
       Now lets consider you are using x264 ( the supposedly encoder of thee two )  and you use the following settings.....

       Motion Search - Diamond
       Mode - 2 Pass *** Bitrate 2000 ***
       MB Algo - 1
       Strict B-frames
       Reference frames - 2
       No of B-Frames - 2
       This settings I consider as low quality settings....
----------------------------------------------------

So now even though x264 is a superior encoder compared to Xvid the fact that we used Ultra High settings for Xvid and base settings for x264 makes the quality of encodes by x264 look inferior... Its all about the settings we use that make the difference...

x264 ( H.264 ) in general will always give better quality than Xvid Codec...
because it has better algorithms.

However also note that at Superhigh bitrates quality doesn't matter much...
Ex- Blu ray discs support 3 Codecs as standards for publishing a Movie

These are...
H.264
VC-1
MPEG-2 ( Surprise as it is inferior to Xvid ( MPEG-4 ) )

At high bitrates ( 30-40 Mbps )details are preserved no matter what codec is used....

Considering your argument that background details are ignored by x264... if we think about it in a video.. ex an action video of car chase.. people who watch the video will in 99 out of 100 cases will be more interested in watching the car rather than the scenery in the background.. however I must add all MPEG Codecs including Xvid and x264 work similarly.. giving more bitrate to high motion than static scenes...

Hope this info helps 

===============================================================

Also note "x264 blackens" I think this has nothing to do with the encoder but with the fact how video is displayed on your monitor...

Let me elaborate..
With the explosion of HD a lot of emphasis is given on HD playback...
Almost all HD videos use H.264 rather than Xvid...

You must have noticed new Renderers being released ( EVR CP, MadVR ) etc... newer colorspaces ( NV12 etc )
Let us just see what happens...
If you update ffdshow to latest version you will notice that instead of outputting video in YUV or YV12 latest ffdshow uses NV12.. in case of H.264 video...
In case of Xvid the colorspace will be YV12

Newer colorspaces are very GPU emphasized ( good thing ) trying to use GPU's etc... this is good though there is a problem...

Because of badly designed drivers and the fact that rendering through GPU is new tech it can throw wonky artifacts in video....

Case in point as in above problem when decoder use NV12 blacks can become blacker and colors get more saturated.. This happens due to software glitches... 

Now NV12 is used in H.264 while Xvid decoding still uses YV12 so no apparent blacking is noticed in Xvid leading you believe Xvid is better...

I must add I have this problem on my laptop as well... If I use EVR CP with ffdshow I get very weird video colors.. skin becomes pinkish in color.. blood looks dark pink than dark red ( Zombie movies  ) and blacks become over emphasized.. It doesn't happen in case of Xvid but only in case of H.264 and it doesn't happen on my Desktop... why shitty drivers by the laptop manufacturer.... so solution USE VMR9 with ffdshow.... and I want to use EVR CP because it is slightly better renderer ( quality wise ), you can't use GPU accelereation with VMR9... This problem I have seen with Dell laptops a lot

Endnote we require better quality software...

================================================================
Apologies if this post is long, I wanted to do it justice... If you want further explanation please post I will reply... Happy Christmas and  New Year


----------



## uImbibe (Dec 28, 2011)

I think the people at Mediaget also use Megui.

They convert your normal 175mb shows into 90mb mkv's which is awesome. They reduce the file size with movies too!

I tried to use megui...but its really complicated


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## RahulB (Dec 28, 2011)

Hey uImbible.. MeGUI guide coming in a couple of days... Look out


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## Extreme Gamer (Dec 29, 2011)

Which MPEG-4 standard is better? The one used by Airtel or the one used by Reliance?

Also, does Tata Sky encode the HD streams in MPEG-4?

I know its very off-topic, but codecs and formats were being discussed, so I thought I'd ask.


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## RahulB (Dec 29, 2011)

When considering quality MPEG-4 Part 10 AVC or most commonly known as H.264 is the best standard available. It is difficult to say which is better Airtel or Reliance without looking at the encoder settings. Hmm.. I guess Airtel and Reliance must be using hardware based encoders, if you could just get the model numbers of the chip used we can find out who is better, like I said it is difficult. It would fairly correct to assume that all current service providers must be using MPEG-4, which level, that is difficult to say, most likely Advanced Simple Profile ( ASP )/Xvid or Advanced Video Codec ( AVC )/H.264.


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## Extreme Gamer (Dec 30, 2011)

Ok. Thanks.


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## pramudit (Jan 2, 2012)

its very helpful..... Thanx for all this info...


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## Prongs298 (Jul 6, 2012)

is super a good tool to use?


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## red dragon (Jul 6, 2012)

It was good 4years ago,not sure about now.
AFAIK nowadays we have encoders which can use the gpu to encode(much faster)


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## dashing.sujay (Jul 6, 2012)

^Exactly, much better alternatives available now.


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## topgear (Jul 7, 2012)

Super is still in development - so it must be improved with new features to take the advantage of gpu / new cpu features to encode videos faster like other softwares though I've used after version 2011.


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## sharang.d (Sep 1, 2012)

Which software would you recommend me to use to convert any video file to .avi format? 
I have a good gpu and cpu both


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## dashing.sujay (Sep 1, 2012)

Mediacoder.


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## sharang.d (Sep 1, 2012)

Thanks! Is the optimization pack worth downloading and installing?


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## dashing.sujay (Sep 1, 2012)

sharang.d said:


> Thanks! Is the optimization pack worth downloading and installing?



Haven't tried it, I use x64 edition. You can also try Handbrake.


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## topgear (Sep 2, 2012)

sharang.d said:


> Which software would you recommend me to use to convert any video file to .avi format?
> I have a good gpu and cpu both



use this 
Free Video Converter| MP4 FLV 3GP AVI MKV DVD| FREE Download


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## macho84 (Sep 2, 2012)

I have a query. Does video editing in 32 bit vs 64 bit makes any sense. Like performance wise or thread handling.  Ss native vs emulator kind of.


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## dashing.sujay (Sep 2, 2012)

macho84 said:


> I have a query. Does video editing in 32 bit vs 64 bit makes any sense. Like performance wise or thread handling.  Ss native vs emulator kind of.



Using 32 bit on 64 bit _may_ give you a "lil" bit lack of performance, but not much noticeable.


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## sharang.d (Sep 2, 2012)

dashing.sujay said:


> Haven't tried it, I use x64 edition. You can also try Handbrake.


i have handbrake but I can't find an option to convert into avi. Can see only mkv and mp4.

Also, help:


Spoiler



*i.imgur.com/Ypubh.png


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## macho84 (Sep 2, 2012)

I use powerdirector and media espresso for editing and cconverting videos.


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## dashing.sujay (Sep 3, 2012)

sharang.d said:


> i have handbrake but I can't find an option to convert into avi. Can see only mkv and mp4.
> 
> Also, help:
> 
> ...



Use mediacoder, its good. (chuck the error).


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## Zangetsu (Sep 3, 2012)

sharang.d said:


> i have handbrake but I can't find an option to convert into avi. Can see only mkv and mp4.


coz it only supports MP4/MKV for output files.

use FreeMake Media Converter instead for other file extensions


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## RahulB (Sep 10, 2012)

sharang.d said:


> i have handbrake but I can't find an option to convert into avi. Can see only mkv and mp4.
> 
> Handbrake uses x264 so it supports only MKV and MP4, you could convert in Handbrake and then remux in avi, that is possible but that defeats the purpose.


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## Zangetsu (Sep 11, 2012)

RahulB said:


> Handbrake uses x264 so it supports only MKV and MP4, you could convert in Handbrake and then remux in avi, that is possible but that defeats the purpose.


why to go for long process when Freemake is there


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## RahulB (Sep 14, 2012)

Exactly but I wonder why use avi at all when we have better containers like mkv and mp4 which support better codecs too. Maybe you have a DVD player which only supports avi.


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## sharang.d (Sep 14, 2012)

RahulB said:


> Maybe you have a DVD player which only supports avi.


yea


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## RahulB (Sep 14, 2012)

Well then freemake is good, you can also look into avidemux, that is good too, x264 in avi won't work on your device, you will have to use xvid


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## anirbandd (Dec 21, 2012)

great tutorial. bookmarked. 

i use AVS video converter to convert mkv to mp4 for playing on PS3/Bravia. will these settings works for mp4 too??

if i use MeGUI, do i need to install any other libraries??


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## RahulB (Dec 27, 2012)

I am not sure about AVS but if they use H.264 the settings should have the same names.. Give it a try.
To use MeGUI you would require AviSynth ( I think newer versions don't require it, spotted AVS.dll in my MeGUI folder ),
you would also require to set up a dedicated Directshow decoding engine. Just install LAV filters and use Win7DS Filter Tweaker to change defaults.
A good guide is available at MeGUI website.

Otherwise MeGUI is quite hassle free


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## anirbandd (Dec 27, 2012)

umm.. thats all hebrew for me  

am using handbrake. its beautiful... 
i got this encoding setting from the KMPlayer media info of a recent blockbuster movie.  


> cabac=1 / ref=4 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x133 / me=umh / subme=7 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=0 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=12 / lookahead_threads=2 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=23 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=40 / rc=2pass / mbtree=1 / bitrate=8954 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00



i followed your guide on post 1 and got the following setting on the CLI on the Advanced tab: 


> rc-lookahead=50: ref=6: bframes=6: b-adapt=2: direct=auto:me=umh: subme=10: merange=30: analyse=all: psy-rd=1.0,0.15



a sample encode showed the following settings: 


> cabac=1 / ref=6 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x133 / me=umh / subme=9 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.15 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=30 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-3 / threads=6 / lookahead_threads=1 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=6 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=240 / keyint_min=24 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=50 / rc=2pass / mbtree=1 / bitrate=2500 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=4 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00



the sample was awesome in quality. on 30mins or so on Handbrake, and i get a gawddam awesome encode.. 

thanks a lot bro!!   

only one more thing... am using mp4 container.. the sample came out as m4v.. no suppot for m4v is listed on Sony site.. *www.sony.co.th/support/compatibility/450045/product/kdl-46ex520?site=hp_en_TH_i

i will test on my TV but just incase, is there any method to change extension to mp4??

UPDATE: not detecting on Bravia. PS3 detecting file and playing, but no video, only audio.

UPDATE: Fixed.. changed file extension to mp4 in the destination field.


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## RahulB (Dec 27, 2012)

Good Job. Hmm.. I haven't used Handbrake in some time. I think certain new settings are now available. Should update my post I suppose. Or maybe I should finally post a guide to MeGUI. I started one but MeGUI kept on changing drastically. It seems stable now. What do you think?


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## anirbandd (Dec 27, 2012)

Sure!! i would definitely agree with you on adding a new Encoding Tutorial on MeGUI. 

as for updating Handbrake, i can suggest something, if you give me the permission


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## Neo (Dec 27, 2012)

Yea, MeGUI seems better to me. +1


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## RahulB (Dec 27, 2012)

anirbandd said:


> Sure!! i would definitely agree with you on adding a new Encoding Tutorial on MeGUI.
> 
> as for updating Handbrake, i can suggest something, if you give me the permission



Sure go ahead what is it


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## anirbandd (Dec 27, 2012)

For direct use on LED/LCD TV via USB or PS3/X360. 

Profile: Universal Profile.
Use *.mp4 as extension on the Destination field. 

PICTURE: 	
........................................Anamorphic: None - Width and Height equal to source.
........................................Cropping: Custom - Set according to source pixel size. Mostly all zeros. 
VIDEO FILTERS: 
........................................Detelecine: Off
........................................Decomb: Off for HQ BluRay/BRrip source. On for LQ BRrip/DVDrip source.
........................................Deinterlace: Off for HQ BluRay/BRrip source. On for LQ BRrip/DVDrip source.
........................................Denoise: Off for HQ BluRay/BRrip source. Weak for LQ BRrip/DVDrip source.
........................................Deblock: Off for HQ BluRay/BRrip source. 5-7 for LQ BRrip/DVDrip source.
VIDEO:
........................................Codec: H.264
........................................FPS: Same as source - Variable.
........................................Quality: Avg Bitrate (set as required, less than than source bitrate) - [Enable 2Pass Encoding & Turbo first Pass]
AUDIO:
........................................Codec: AAC (ffmpeg) [Have not tested AC3/DTS]
........................................Bitrate: Less than or Equal to Source audio
........................................Sample Rate: Auto
........................................Mixdown: Stereo (Louder) / 5.1Ch (Less Loud)
........................................Gain: 0-2
ADVANCED:

........................................Paste in CLI: 
	
	



```
rc-lookahead=50:ref=6:bframes=6:b-adapt=2:direct=auto:me=umh:subme=10:merange=30:analyse=all:psy-rd=1.0,0.15
```


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## RahulB (Dec 27, 2012)

Added to the post


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## anirbandd (Dec 28, 2012)

wow! cool!

this is taken from the media info of a encode: 





> Writing application : mkvmerge v4.1.1 ('Bouncin' Back') built on Jul  3 2010 22:54:08
> Writing library : libebml v1.0.0 + libmatroska v1.0



now as far as i know, mkvmerge is a merging s/w, which merges a mkv video source, audio source/s, subtitles, chapters into a single mkv container.. so its obvious, that these guys seperately encode video and audio and then merge them. assuming they use handbrake for video encode, what s/w is used for the audio encode??

UPDATE: DTS passthru option in audio tab of handbrake should not be used for direct USB playing on TVs. TV hardware cannot decode DTS. tested on Bravia KDL-EX520 46"


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## Prongs298 (Jan 3, 2013)

i am trying to convert all the 700 mb and 1.x gb dvdrips or brrips to 350 or 400 mb mkvs. now the new versions of handbrake 0.9.6 and 0.9.8 have removed the target size option but i have the older versions. can someone guide me on how to get their size right with small loss in quality. i did some reading but cant get the encodes right. i am trying to get something like this - 


Spoiler



ormat                                   : MPEG-4
Format profile                           : Base Media
Codec ID                                 : isom
File size                                : 323 MiB
Duration                                 : 1h 34mn
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 480 Kbps
Encoded date                             : UTC 2011-04-27 23:39:48
Tagged date                              : UTC 2011-04-27 23:39:48
Writing application                      : Yamb 2.1.0.0 [*yamb.unite-video.com]

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : High@L3.1
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames                : 5 frames
Codec ID                                 : avc1
Codec ID/Info                            : Advanced Video Coding
Duration                                 : 1h 34mn
Bit rate                                 : 435 Kbps
Maximum bit rate                         : 2 173 Kbps
Width                                    : 720 pixels
Height                                   : 384 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 1.85:1
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 23.976 fps
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.066
Stream size                              : 293 MiB (91%)
Title                                    : Imported with GPAC 0.4.6-DEV (internal rev. 5)
Writing library                          : x264 core 114 r1900 60ef1f8
Encoding settings                        : cabac=1 / ref=6 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=umh / subme=8 / psy=0 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=0 / threads=1 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=0 / interlaced=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=6 / b_pyramid=1 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=25 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=50 / rc=2pass / mbtree=1 / bitrate=435 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Encoded date                             : UTC 2011-04-27 22:41:30
Tagged date                              : UTC 2011-04-27 23:41:33

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : AAC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile                           : HE-AACv2 / HE-AAC / LC
Codec ID                                 : 40
Duration                                 : 1h 34mn
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 42.0 Kbps
Maximum bit rate                         : 50.0 Kbps
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels / 1 channel / 1 channel
Channel positions                        : Front: L R / Front: C / Front: C
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 KHz / 48.0 KHz / 24.0 KHz
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 28.3 MiB (9%)
Encoded date                             : UTC 2011-04-27 23:41:30
Tagged date                              : UTC 2011-04-27 23:41:33



i really need to convert these as i have no money for ext. HDD and i am returning to college in 3 days. I can do with a reasonable loss in quality as i have all the movies in my desktop hdd at home. please help.


----------



## anirbandd (Jan 3, 2013)

reduce the bitrate: Bit rate : ~500 Kbps

but keep all other encoding settings same as the one you have given.


----------



## RahulB (Jan 3, 2013)

Increase settings and reduce bitrate ~500



anirbandd said:


> wow! cool!
> 
> this is taken from the media info of a encode:
> 
> ...



Yeah I don't think DTS is supported for Bravia.
For Audio they must be using AAC or AC-3.
Encoder used could be: Nero AAC encoder, FAAC ( I think this is the one handbrake uses )
Encoder for AC-3: Aften


----------



## Zangetsu (Jan 3, 2013)

yes bitrate is the major element in reducing size


----------



## anirbandd (Jan 3, 2013)

RahulB said:


> Yeah I don't think DTS is supported for Bravia.
> For Audio they must be using AAC or AC-3.
> Encoder used could be: Nero AAC encoder, FAAC ( I think this is the one handbrake uses )
> Encoder for AC-3: Aften



have you used DTS passthru option?? i tested it on my PC & PS3 too. video is playing fine, but there is no audio. KMPlayer shows the audio stream info: 


> Format : MPEG-4
> Format profile : Base Media / Version 2
> Codec ID : mp42
> File size : 37.8 MiB
> ...



what seems to be the problem??


----------



## RahulB (Jan 3, 2013)

*Try changing the Codec ID to A_DTS*
*Try Remuxing file using MKVtoolnix ( Handbrake MKV muxing mode can be dodgy sometimes )*
Try playing using a different player ( ditch KMplayer use Potplayer ) like MPC-HC
Check Soundcard settings


----------



## anirbandd (Jan 4, 2013)

Try changing the Codec ID to A_DTS - *How??*
Try Remuxing file using MKVtoolnix ( Handbrake MKV muxing mode can be dodgy sometimes ) - No change. 
Try playing using a different player ( ditch KMplayer use Potplayer ) like MPC-HC - No change. Used VLC.
Check Soundcard settings - Its okay.


----------



## RahulB (Jan 4, 2013)

@anirbandd Try changing the Codec ID to A_DTS - How??
In mkvtoolnix (MMG.exe) open header editor [ File -> Header editor ]

In the header editor Load the File
Under Audio Track 
                        - Coderc ID [ Change A9 to A_DTS ]

File -> Save

Hope this helps


----------



## anirbandd (Jan 8, 2013)

there seems to be some problem with the DTS passthru in mp4 extension [using mp4 only for direct playability on TV]. its working allright in mkv.

i tried using aac and ac3 (ffmpeg) for audio. with aac i could not make the audio 5.1 ch. it always came down to 2 ch. however, ac3 supported 5.1ch. which one is better? ac3 or aac?


----------



## Zangetsu (Jan 8, 2013)

^AC3 is better for Movies and AAC is better for songs


----------



## satinder (May 19, 2013)

Liked the HandBrake for Video Conversion.
But It takes too much time.
But Quality is good for beginners like me.
CPU Usage is almost 100%.


----------



## Vyom (May 19, 2013)

Can any one tell me why there appears to be horizontal lines (all over the video) whenever I export any video from Adobe Premiere after editing?
Like whenever there is some kind of motion in the video, those lines appears, although subtly, but all over the video.


----------



## anirbandd (May 19, 2013)

satinder said:


> Liked the HandBrake for Video Conversion.
> But It takes too much time.
> But Quality is good for beginners like me.
> CPU Usage is almost 100%.



it takes too much time coz you have all the settings on higher side, ie, for high quality. 

decrease the settings, especially the bitrate and Reference frames. 

CPU usage WILL be 100%. encoding video is fully CPU oriented, and dependant on the no. of cores. 



Vyom said:


> Can any one tell me why there appears to be horizontal lines (all over the video) whenever I export any video from Adobe Premiere after editing?
> Like whenever there is some kind of motion in the video, those lines appears, although subtly, but all over the video.



yeah.. i have seen those on some poorly encoded movies. 

can you give a screenie of the detailed video conversion setting window???


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## Zangetsu (May 20, 2013)

satinder said:


> Liked the HandBrake for Video Conversion.
> But It takes too much time.
> But Quality is good for beginners like me.
> CPU Usage is almost 100%.


try freemake its faster than handbrake and excellent also


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## anirbandd (May 20, 2013)

^as good and as advanced  and as customisable as handbrake??

in video encoding faster = badder quality.


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## Zangetsu (May 20, 2013)

anirbandd said:


> ^as good and as advanced  and as customisable as handbrake??
> 
> in video encoding faster = badder quality.



nope...FreeMake makes good use of quad core CPU...that's y faster.


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## anirbandd (May 20, 2013)

so does handbrake. 

anyway... i just prefer handbrake. its more manual, and keep you in control.


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## clipping path (May 28, 2014)

One month ago I try to encoding video but I can't. To read your post now I can it.


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## RBX (Jan 3, 2015)

Vyom said:


> Can any one tell me why there appears to be horizontal lines (all over the video) whenever I export any video from Adobe Premiere after editing?
> Like whenever there is some kind of motion in the video, those lines appears, although subtly, but all over the video.



Although you asked it very long ago, if anyone is still wondering I think what you needed was de-interlacing.


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## Vyom (Jan 3, 2015)

RBX said:


> Although you asked it very long ago, if anyone is still wondering I think what you needed was de-interlacing.



Yea. That was a long time ago.
Now I just create a new Video track in Premiere from one of the existing video clip, and never face the same problem again.


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## jalal (Sep 6, 2015)

Thank you so much for your great post. I think it will really help the beginner. Thank you again.


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## kunnusingh (Mar 28, 2016)

Site bookmarked but it can use for blurring some area of video like If I create a video on banking and want to blur login area?

I already have a one of software which work but size of video is heavy and also whole video quality become very bad.


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