Just dove into ripping my first 4K bluray. Getting into the encoding process with Handbrake, I have been digging around the internet trying to find an answer to the subject line question… is the only advantage to H265 just more compression without loss of quality?
More importantly, can you use either or to preserve HDR? I read one person’s post somewhere and they said only H265 will preserve HDR. Couldn’t find any other confirmation on the web for this info though. Anyone have any idea? I hope H264 is ok to preserve everything because the time it takes to encode H265 with Handbrake is ridiculous!
If I try to play the raw MKV from MakeMKV on Plex, I get artifacting every 10-15 seconds while playing back. That’s why I decided to encode as a secondary process with Handbrake.
This was happening way back when I first started my regular BluRay ripping of my collection. I don’t know if it was a problem with the version of MakeMKV I was using back then or not, but I honestly haven’t tried just a raw MKV since. Storage space isn’t a concern for me, preserving as close to everything as possible is my highest priority.
@Hockeytown777 - I know this isn’t what you wanted to hear, but I would use H.265!
I use it for all my media due to two advantages - smaller file size and consequently less bandwidth needed for streaming, without sacrificing on quality. The only negatives are that it is significantly more CPU intensive, but I think a better (more modern) codec, and some old devices have trouble and have to transcode H.265 down to H.264 to playback.
In terms of HDR, I run the nightly version of that software. The video codec dropdown in this version contains several items which I believe are not currently in the “stable” build. It gives you the option for 10-bit and 12-bit H.265. It also has a 10-bit option for H.264, but I’ve never messed with that before - I have read numerous articles that say not to mess with that, as it introduces all sorts of playback/compatibility issues.
As far as I understand, SDR is 8-bit, and for HDR you MUST encode in 10-bit, or 12-bit. The color depth profiles for those different bit rates are significantly different.
8-bit color = 2^8 x 3 = 2^24 = 16.7 million colors
10-bit color = 2^10 x 3 = 2^30 = 1.1 billion colors
12-bit color = 2^12 x 3 = 2^36 = 68.7 billion colors
Hope that helps. I am not an expert by any means, but this is what I have learned. (fwiw).
I guess I really don’t know how to run a nightly build of HB. Could you give me a little insight into how I would go about getting those extra options?
You can select the appropriate version for your system, and it can be installed along side the stable build. You can find the video codec options that I mentioned before in the usual spot in HB. Let me know if you figure it out.
You are going about this the wrong way. You don’t want to re-encode the Blu-ray files so need to start with a client that can play them. File sizes will be bigger but the quality will be as the original & you need little CPU power. Just remux into an MKV container & use a decent client like an Nvidia Shield or Odroid C2 running OpenPHT.
You are going about this the wrong way. You don’t want to re-encode the Blu-ray files so need to start with a client that can play them. File sizes will be bigger but the quality will be as the original & you need little CPU power. Just remux into an MKV container & use a decent client like an Nvidia Shield or Odroid C2 running OpenPHT.
This is another good option… just depends on if you only plan to stream in your local network.
It’s really a personal choice in the long run; I always go by go with the highest quality, even if your current equipment don’t show it… You’ll eventually upgrade your equipment, and it would suck to redo an activity that maybe would have taken and extra 20% time, but should have been a one time activity.
This includes both video and the audio that goes with it. Always rip max channels and at least 640KB/s.
Now for me, I go with x264 because everything supports it, which means it’ll have a long life ahead as well until it’s replaxdd fully. At that point you can just remux.
I generally go X264, highest quality (ie longest one time conversion time), 5.1 AAC and 5.1 AC3 in an MP4 container (again due to device support).
I tag the files fully using mp3tag and a couple of scripts that embed pretty most tags.
