Handbrake DVD rips... MPEG4 looks better than H.264?

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USMC2Hard4U

Supreme [H]ardness
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I want to rip the Highest quality possible. I thought it was H.264 but I must not have some of the Advanced options right because playback on my PS3 looks worse with H.264 than MPEG4.

On top of that, H.264 takes hours longer to encode.

I guess what are some good Optimal settings for H.264 in Handbrake. I already looked at the Handbrake forums but they are too in depth for me.

Thanks
 
Someones confused..

H.264 IS MPEG4 (MPEG4 Part 10 to be exact). It offers higher compression and better picture quality. And only because we don't know the specific details of how you are doing the encoding, the only thing I can say here is "You're doing it wrong".

I take it you are importing the VIDEO_TS folder? I have had great success with the "High Profile - Film" preset.
 
If you want the "highest quality possible", you could just rip to ISOs. No encoding, bit for bit the same as the dvds.. just a heck of a lot bigger file sizes. I make ISOs of all my DVDs, HDDVDs, and Blu-rays. I have a few TBs server though.
 
Latest revision of handbrake allows you to encode by chapters.

Suggestion: pick a particularly visually challenging chapter and encode that multiple times on different settings to figure out which ones you like. I use high profile film but crank up the avg bitrate on some movies (action etc).
 
criccio said:
Someones confused..

H.264 IS MPEG4 (MPEG4 Part 10 to be exact). It offers higher compression and better picture quality. And only because we don't know the specific details of how you are doing the encoding, the only thing I can say here is "You're doing it wrong".

I take it you are importing the VIDEO_TS folder? I have had great success with the "High Profile - Film" preset.
Click to expand...

OP might be talking about one of the other MPEG-4 encoders that Handbrake comes with, like Xvid or FFMPeg.

@USMC2Hard4U: Did you use any of the presets in Handbrake?
 
I always thought this was the best wat to preserve quality:

1. Rip using dvd shrink - creating vob files
2. Convert specific movie VOB files to mpg with videoredo

When I do this the file size of the mpg is the same as the original vob

I always assumed that using divx, h.246, etc....were all ways to obtain smaller files while still maintaining decent quality compared to my method above that was considered the best.

Is there a missing link here?
 
h.264 offers the best compression and quality over anything right now more or less, why it is used for HD content more often then not, you can get the same quality from a DVD but 1/4 the size then a rip to DVDr 4G size.


tgxiii, xvid is not mpeg4, it is AVI container.
 
xvid is not mpeg4, it is AVI container
Click to expand...

Xvid is an MPEG4-ASP 'based' video codec, it is not a container. Typically Xvid streams are stored within AVI containers, but can be stored in much more.
 
MrGuvernment said:
tgxiii, xvid is not mpeg4, it is AVI container.
Click to expand...

Wrong. XviD IS part of the MPEG-4 standard. The container has absolutely nothing to do with the codec used to encode the video.

Another thing that has been bothering me about these threads is peoples impression that any kind of re-encoding is going to lose visual quality. This simply isn't true if you are well versed in the encoding library of your choice. With x264 you are able to compress a DVD to roughly 1.4GB with absolutely NO loss in visual quality. I say visual as some people will jump in with the whole "jfkdjsjomg the file is smaller therefore quality IS lost"... At the end of the day you watch a video with you're eyes, and if there is no visual difference then what else matters.

Handbrake's "High Profile - Film" preset will offer the best results if you are looking for a quick GUI method, I highly suggest you try that. Handbrake uses x264.
 
criccio said:
Handbrake's "High Profile - Film" preset will offer the best results if you are looking for a quick GUI method, I highly suggest you try that. Handbrake uses x264.
Click to expand...

Seems like he wants to play the videos in his PS3. I'm not sure myself what the requirements are for PS3 playback, so I don't know whether "High Profile - Film" will work. The safest route is to just go with the "PS3" preset. I've encoded a few videos using it for some friends and they didn't look bad.
 
tgxiii said:
Seems like he wants to play the videos in his PS3. I'm not sure myself what the requirements are for PS3 playback, so I don't know whether "High Profile - Film" will work. The safest route is to just go with the "PS3" preset. I've encoded a few videos using it for some friends and they didn't look bad.
Click to expand...

Guess I got a little carried away and missed the PS3 part. :p
 
computerinfo said:
I always thought this was the best wat to preserve quality:

1. Rip using dvd shrink - creating vob files
2. Convert specific movie VOB files to mpg with videoredo

When I do this the file size of the mpg is the same as the original vob

I always assumed that using divx, h.246, etc....were all ways to obtain smaller files while still maintaining decent quality compared to my method above that was considered the best.

Is there a missing link here?
Click to expand...

Any comments on this...........
 
computerinfo said:
Any comments on this...........
Click to expand...

More work and no gain. Decrypt/rip the VIDEO_TS folder to HDD with AnyDVD and encode with the codec of you're choice using Handbrake.

Did it just last night and it works beautifully. No visual loss of quality and about 3 clicks of the mouse. Just select the PS3 preset instead.

You can't get any more simple.

With as good as x264 is these days, there is absolutely no reason not to re-encode.
 
computerinfo said:
I always thought this was the best wat to preserve quality:

1. Rip using dvd shrink - creating vob files
2. Convert specific movie VOB files to mpg with videoredo

When I do this the file size of the mpg is the same as the original vob

I always assumed that using divx, h.246, etc....were all ways to obtain smaller files while still maintaining decent quality compared to my method above that was considered the best.

Is there a missing link here?
Click to expand...

All you're doing is unwrapping the same MPEG2 file and throwing on a new MPEG2 wrapper. DVDs are encoded into the MPEG2 format and use VOB as it's container (wrapper); all videoredo is doing is taking that VOB wrapper off. Same exact file, it isn't "the best" since that would be simply ripping the DVD and keeping it in it's VOB state (whether or not you rip out the extras and bullshit, the main movie is still left in tacked).

Honestly, I think the best method is re-encoding it into an x264 so that it's smaller file size and close to zero image quality reduction make it great for archiving many ripped DVDs.
 
For Handbrake, I get excellent results using the following settings:

Change to High Profile Film setup
Set MKV output

Select H264 codec.
Framerate same as source.
Target size = 1400MB (2Hrs or less), 2100MB over 2hrs (adjust higher for very long films)
(The average and constant quality settings should jump to zero)
Tick 2 pass encoding, Tick Turbo first pass.

Setup your audio as preferred.

This always give me GREAT results!
 
Nenu said:
For Handbrake, I get excellent results using the following settings:

Change to High Profile Film setup
Set MKV output

Select H264 codec.
Framerate same as source.
Target size = 1400MB (2Hrs or less), 2100MB over 2hrs (adjust higher for very long films)
(The average and constant quality settings should jump to zero)
Tick 2 pass encoding, Tick Turbo first pass.

Setup your audio as preferred.

This always give me GREAT results!
Click to expand...

I agree Nenu, but like me you missed the part where he needs it to be PS3 compatible. He has to use the inferior PS3 setting.
 
criccio said:
I agree Nenu, but like me you missed the part where he needs it to be PS3 compatible. He has to use the inferior PS3 setting.
Click to expand...

I see.
Can he just change to MP4 container instead of MKV?
 
It seems strange that the most capable CPU console platform would not be able to decode X264 in full.
You may be right though.
I'd give it a go :)
 
Nenu said:
It seems strange that the most capable CPU console platform would not be able to decode X264 in full.
You may be right though.
I'd give it a go :)
Click to expand...

O I know the hardware can do it, I think its more a problem with the software.
 
criccio said:
O I know the hardware can do it, I think its more a problem with the software.
Click to expand...

I'm interested to know as well as my friend is struggling to play his Blu Ray disks on his old PC but he has a PS3...
 
I'm curious about the settings he used for x264 and Xvid or FFMPeg. I find it odd that the H.264 encoded video would look drastically worse.
 
Nenu said:
I'm interested to know as well as my friend is struggling to play his Blu Ray disks on his old PC but he has a PS3...
Click to expand...

... Why doesn't he play the Blu rays in his PS3 then?!? Isn't that like say "my friend can't play DVDs on his old PC but he has a DVD play..." ??? :confused:
 
CrimandEvil said:
... Why doesn't he play the Blu rays in his PS3 then?!? Isn't that like say "my friend can't play DVDs on his old PC but he has a DVD play..." ??? :confused:
Click to expand...

Sorry, should have gone further.
He uses his PC as a media server so wants to rip them to hard drive so his family can play them in any room on PC's and PS3s.
There are a couple of networked PS3's in the house so he will get partway there if MP4's aren't limited by the PS3's playback capability.
 
Nenu said:
Sorry, should have gone further.
He uses his PC as a media server so wants to rip them to hard drive so his family can play them in any room on PC's and PS3s.
There are a couple of networked PS3's in the house so he will get partway there if MP4's aren't limited by the PS3's playback capability.
Click to expand...

... But for Blu rays it's going to just be so much easier to just plug the damn disc into the PS3; rip the Blu ray on his server and make smaller h264 versions for playback on lesser machines.

If he's wants them playable on both PCs and his PS3 then he's going to need to have two copies. Especially if they're lower end PCs.
 
CrimandEvil said:
... But for Blu rays it's going to just be so much easier to just plug the damn disc into the PS3; rip the Blu ray on his server and make smaller h264 versions for playback on lesser machines.

If he's wants them playable on both PCs and his PS3 then he's going to need to have two copies. Especially if they're lower end PCs.
Click to expand...

But of course these BD copies could be coming from "somewhere" else, which is completely plausible, yet not allowed to be discussed.
 
criccio said:
But of course these BD copies could be coming from "somewhere" else, which is completely plausible, yet not allowed to be discussed.
Click to expand...

It sounds like he's talking about actually discs so I'm willing to go with his friend owning the discs. Either way, it's semantics right now and he's not openly asking about "how do I do such and such with these Blu ray copies I DLed?!?!" kind of thing.
 
He owns the disks and wants to host them on a media server. He thinks its great he can do this.
The media server is too slow to play his Blu Ray rips so he wants to use his PS3 for that, streaming the films from the media PC.
Also his family want to play the movies from their own PC's / PS3 in different rooms.
Its no different to giving anyone the disk in his house, just more convenient and has a wow factor for him :)
 
Then it sounds like he needs to encode them and take the quality hit. I just encoded a DVD with the "PS3" setting in Handbrake and you can definitely see a difference while the High Profile - Film preset looks identical to the DVD.
 
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