[phishee]

Thanks Chris for another great article. First, I have to agree with the commenters who stated that the Apple TV setting is optimal for create a usable MP4 for the WD (Western Digital) HD Media Player. The image quality is very acceptable.

My question is - when I am creating those files using Handbrake it usually takes up to 6 hours to convert a movie (from a movie's VIDEO_TS folder) on my Core 2 Duo mini (4 GB RAM) or even on my Windows (yes, heaven forbid) AMD Athlon64 with over 3GB of RAM.

Has anybody discovered settings or a method to streamline this process or am I just out of luck if I desire the optimal AppleTV settings for my WD HD Media Player?

Thanks in advance for any and all advice / tips,

phishee (Brandon)

[reevescajr]

I'm doing essentially the same thing for the same target device. It takes about that long on my 2.16 GHz Intel Core Duo MacBook Pro (also 4 GTB RAM). I've read that more processing power can speed this up considerably. I suspect it would be much faster on my dual quad-core MacPro, but I've been content just to let the MBP plug away.

[MrLarrity]

Wow guys, that sucks! I guess my Blk MacBook (2.4GHz 4GB RAM) Took a while too, and I was just doing the encode for the iPhone. I never stopped to think of how long this would take if I wanted it to be a hi-res copy like for my Mac or even for my TV.

But 6 hours? Man, that's a lot of power running while plugged into the wall. When I did Transformers last night, I think it took close to 2 hours to finish. It is a lot of data, yes, but I guess I just don't fully understand IT and the digital world. I have a lot to learn.

[lenqiu]

The encoding for ipods and iphones only take 2 or less hours on a 2007 imac... its a 1 pass encoding

if the apple tv setting makes a 2 pass encoding, then you are out of luck. it will take at least 4 hours.

try other settings. the ipod hi res look quite good in my opinion scaled up to 1920 - 1200. but maybe youre a video purist.

[phishee]

Thank you all for your comments and suggestions. No, I am not a hardcore videophile nor a video pursit. I may just have to dial down my settings (possibly to the iPod High resolution - thanks lenqiu) in the interest of encoding time. At this time, I don't know much else I can do on the hardware side of things as I don't necessarily have the money to pop for a dedicated workstation.

Thanks again for the tips - phishee (Brandon)

[kevinv]

The actor/writer/directory commentary tracks that are frequently added to a DVD are usually listed as a 2nd English track (at least for the US DVD's I've been doing.)
Selecting a 2nd audio track on Apple TV is kind of sucky but is doable.
Also Handbrake supports a queue where you can put multiple rips. So if you want to break up a TV season DVD into individual episode files you can (this can take some playing to figure out if each episode is a Title, or just a subset of tracks in one big Title.)
Also the queue is handy if you absolutely want a high quality version for TV playing and a lower quality one for iPhone/iPod Touch. Queue up a rip of each version and go to bed. I do this for some of my favorite movies.

[flowney]

This is a well done article but I do have one quibble regarding subtitles. The latest version of Handbrake (0.9.4) also supports the addition of multiple external .srt files which create "soft" subtitles. You can find these .srt files online (e.g. http://www.subtitleonline.com/) for popular movies and TV shows in several languages. These "soft" subtitles can be toggled off or on, one at a time, using UI options in iTunes, AppleTV, iPhone/iPod touch and QuickTime Player if the resulting file has an .m4v suffix. The screencasts on this page:

http://hercules.gcsu...EG-4/subtitles/

... illustrate how these subtitles look and behave. Soft subtitles are more versatile than the "hard" burned-in subtitles described.

[Chris Breen]

 flowney, on 01 January 2010 - 10:48 AM, said:

This is a well done article but I do have one quibble regarding subtitles.

Given that the article was written last summer and this feature wasn't available at the time, I don't think "quibble" is the word you're looking for.

[tokyojerry]

Now, can we get a modification of this file to incorporate those changes in the JUST released Handbrake v0.9.4? :-)

[PeterNorman]

ElGato Turbo.264.HD vs Handbrake

I never rip directly from a DVD; I always rip the DVD to an external hard disk. Reason: I'm ripping TV series from my DVD collection for viewing on AppleTV, so by ripping to an external drive I can queue up many episodes in DVDRemaster Pro 6.1 for overnight encoding rather than doing a single DVD (usually 4 episodes) at a time, changing out the DVD and over and over.

I'm using a 2.4GHz 20-inch iMac (aluminum, late 2007 model); 4 GB Ram, 250 GB HD (int), 1 TB HD (ext), Handbrake 0.9.4 (64-bit) and DVDRemaster Pro 6.1 (supports the ElGato Turbo.264.HD).

Handbrake to AppleTV format
45:56 minute episode: 45 minutes
44.48 minute episode: 37 minutes

Handbrake to iPhone format
45:56 minute episode: 18 minutes

DVDRemaster pro 6.x with Turbo.264.HD to AppleTV format
43:44 minute episode: 12 minutes

I find the Handbrake encoded video to be brighter than the same video encoded using ElGato's Turbo.264.HD (via DVDRemaster Pro 6.1).

See this comparison screenshot:
http://web.me.com/pn...-brightness.png

As far as I know, there is currently no method of altering the encoding brightness of files encoded using the ElGato Turbo.264.HD with 3rd party encoding software: no matter which encoding software you are using WITH the Turbo.264.HD; that is, it is NOT DVDRemaster Pro thats making the encoded video darker. The included ElGato encoding software doesn't reliably break down DVDs into episodes (instead, 4 episodes are encoded as a single video file) so I can't use it for my project.

The file size of Turbo.264HD encoded video is also larger than the Handbrake encoded video - anywhere from 25% bigger to twice the size. Sometimes, however, Handbrake produces the larger file size. I have no idea why.

Hard drives are cheap so I use the Turbo.264.HD since its faster.

I'm surprised by the encoding times of Christopher's 2.66GHz Quad-core Mac Pro - I expected a much quicker encode time given my experience. However, there are sufficient differences in our methods that could explain the difference in encode times. (Eg: ripping directly from DVD, length of the encoded video (movie vs tv episode).

Rock on!
peter

[Unicron]

Handbrake still cannot read Prores 422/4444 movies, right?

[GrantBurton]

what settings would people recommend for xbox 360 STREAMING? I want to keep the 5.1 surround track, but every time I select the passthrough.. the xbox wont play it, saying its an unsupported codec. Help please.

[marttn]

Somebody help me!
I have an HD TV program (1920x1080). It's MP4. Trying to get rid of commercials and other unwanted material. I run Handbrake 0.9.6 with default options keeping the format as it is (MP4) . I get this error message:

x264 [warning]: --psnr used with psy on: results will be invalid!
x264 [warning]: --tune psnr should be used if attempting to benchmark psnr!

and after some 10 seconds it exits with

Encode done!
HandBrake has exited.

--mn

[JacobBayley]

i am having a bit of trouble putting a few tv shows through it. its usually only one or two episodes in the season but handbrake always seems to quit unexpectedly on the same episode at about 50% done. Any ideas if there is a way i can fix this?