Handbrake settings - Home Movies on DVD - Roku

[jkled]

Plex Server on standalone NAS Synology DS218+ - - Space is not a problem

Roku Ultra – latest generation

TV – 65” 1080P

All hardwired ethernet network – so network speed is not a problem.

Home Movies were burned to DVD 10 years ago– all about one hour. Probably 60 DVD’s in total. The original source through the years was VHC-C, Sony HI 8mm tapes and Mini-DV tapes. Movies were recorded 1988-2004 so the technology of the time!

From what I have read, I sense I should avoid a format that requires transcoding – I was leaning toward MP4. Willing to take advice here! My objective is getting the same quality. Of course, movies are not wide screen back in the day.

All the advice I usually see if for actual movie dvd’s – My goal is to be able to see the same quality as playing thru the DVD player. What I have experimented with so far using Handbrake, is much more grainy than playing the DVD directly. I’m not expecting HD as the source is clearly not HD, but would like to get at least the same picture quality as the DVD source.

Any other suggestions would be appreciated as well! First time poster – thanks so much!

[bjs59]

Please have a look at the Rokcoding website… If I were you I would probably go with the 480 film settings… Then you can adjust the RF setting to get the files to a quality of your liking…

[jkled]

Thanks so much for your fast reply! To confirm, this is the link for the directions for 480 film -
roku 480 film

1. Under the PRESETS on Handbrake , I would choose Roku480p30 ?

2. For RF, would I just choose the best quality (lower RF) from the start? Or just choose the lowest number that gives the best overall quality. I assume there is an optimal setting and trade-off between quality and size. So, I should just try 2 or 3 different settings and see what happens?

3. Does choosing "web optimized degrade the quality or enhance it?

[SE56]

1. Depends on your location NTSC or PAL

2. Leave it at 22

The recommended settings for an x264 video encoding (which is the default on Handbrake ) is RF (Rate Factor) 18 to 22 for Standard Definition. For higher definitions, you can play with the Quality bar, 19 to 23 for High Definition, RF 20 to 24 for Full High Definition and 22 to 28 for Ultra High Definition.

3. If you are encoding for the web and using the MP4 file format, you’ll want to turn on “Web Optimised” checkbox. This places the MP4 container header at the start of the file, optimizing it for streaming across the web.

This is often referred to as MP4 “Fast Start”.

[bjs59]

Yeah, what @SE56 said…

[jkled]

1. Live in US so NTSC . Though the preset only has one choice.
   3- Also, not planning on streaming over the web, but I sense it’s best to check that off anyway!

I will give it all a try - Thanks to both of you! Appreciate it!

[JuiceWSA]

Unless there is some reason you specifically need MP4 files - MKV is a more versatile container.

Using ‘MediaInfo’ or some other ‘sniffing tool’ find and match the original bit rate to the target bit rate using Average Bit Rate - instead of Constant Quality. Use 2 Pass with Turbo. Also with MediaInfo inspect for interlacing - if interlaced, visit Filters and use Yadif Default with no detection. Also use LapSharp Default (it’s mild, but effective).

Run a few ‘Previews’ - before you commit to LONG encoding runs.

Discard all those ‘useless’ profiles, build on a basic profile, use 4.0 Encoder Level, No Tune, High Profile. Pass thru the audio.

The latest version of Handbrake is, basically, idiot-proof - and I am one so I should know.

Match bit rates (mine are pretty low below). If your source material is 720x480 (like a DVD) then maintain that with a Custom Anamorphic, but maintain 720x480 if Handbrake has ‘auto-cropped’ and de-whacked it.

Below are some starting settings and apart from the bit rate should work well for you:

Note: HB has ‘auto-cropped’, but Custom knows I am forcing 720x480. 480 will be the max vertical (it’s your resolution - maintain it!), but Custom will adjust the width accordingly.

LapSharp Filter is Always used at my house (it just works) and here is where you’ll find the de-interlacer as well should it be required.

Preview, experiment, not straying too far, but make your eyeballs happy.

[jkled]

Thanks - Mediainfo is an interesting tool. It did show the DVD files as interlaced. I copied some of the text output below to see if anyone wants to change recommendations. I sense I have a good hybrid to try by combining all of your suggestions perhaps?

Note these are home movies – very old from the 1990’s. I sense the MKV format is more complicated than I may be able to deal with – I just want to play these videos via a ROKU PLEX app. Direct play and no transcoding – not that I really know what I’m talking about.

I appreciate all your help!

General
Complete name : D:\VIDEO_TS\VIDEO_TS.BUP
Format : DVD Video
Format profile : Menu
File size : 12.0 KiB
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
FileExtension_Invalid : ifo

Video
ID : 224 (0xE0)
Format : MPEG Video
Format version : Version 2
Bit rate mode : Variable
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4:3
Frame rate : 29.970 (29970/1000) FPS
Standard : NTSC
Compression mode : Lossy

Audio
Format : PCM
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz

Text
Format : RLE
Format/Info : Run-length encoding
Bit depth : 2 bits

General
Complete name : D:\VIDEO_TS\VIDEO_TS.IFO
Format : DVD Video
Format profile : Menu
File size : 12.0 KiB
Overall bit rate mode : Variable

Video
ID : 224 (0xE0)
Format : MPEG Video
Format version : Version 2
Bit rate mode : Variable
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4:3
Frame rate : 29.970 (29970/1000) FPS
Standard : NTSC
Compression mode : Lossy

Audio
Format : PCM
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz

Text
Format : RLE
Format/Info : Run-length encoding
Bit depth : 2 bits

General
Complete name : D:\VIDEO_TS\VIDEO_TS.VOB
Format : MPEG-PS
File size : 118 KiB
Duration : 33 ms
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 29.3 Mb/s

Video
ID : 224 (0xE0)
Format : MPEG Video
Format version : Version 2
Format profile : Main@Main
Format settings, BVOP : No
Format settings, Matrix : Default
Format settings, picture structure : Frame
Duration : 33 ms
Bit rate mode : Variable
Maximum bit rate : 8 000 kb/s
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4:3
Frame rate : 29.970 (30000/1001) FPS
Standard : NTSC
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Interlaced
Scan order : Top Field First
Compression mode : Lossy
Color primaries : BT.470 System M
Transfer characteristics : BT.470 System M
Matrix coefficients : BT.470 System B/G

[JuiceWSA]

MKV is just a container - My Roku Ultra loves 'em.

Your audio is PCM. Convert that to AAC-LC 2.0 during the HB encode.
720x480 @ 4:3 - piece of cake, as I described earlier. The Custom width should be 640, automatically calculated by HB.

Match 8000kbps - but that’s really high for DVD quality - you might wanna try my settings above with 3000kbps and see if you can detect a difference or enough of a difference to matter. Encoding never produces exact-copy results - 'cause it’s not an exact copy. The filter I described above helps negate any negative effects, to some extent, but if you never try it to find out how it looks to you - you’ll never know, will you?

Not sure what you’re going to do with that text that’s in 'em, but I can almost guarantee a transcode with whatever that is. Investigate Subtitle Edit to turn them into plain UTF-8 text subs, or see if HB can do it during the encode, but note HB will turn any subs it deals with into ASS subs - and they transcode on everything I own, including my Roku Ultra.

You basically want to “Mirror” exactly my settings above - using 3000kbps where I’m using 1050kbps. You try some previews of that and see what you think.

You’re never going to throw those original disks away (if movies of family and stuff). All you want is to have a reasonable facsimile of them to watch and play with - while they sit in a safety deposit box.

HB is the tool for the job.

Upload one of them to G-Drive, pm me the link and I’ll encode it then send it back and tell you just how I did it.

Easy - if you first rip out an exact copy of one of them with MakeMKV - then send that (and who knows, maybe that’s all you need).

[jkled]

I’m now confused where to start - On handbrake, do you start with a particular preset, then start “modifying”? I like that Handbrake lets me edit the chapter titles so I can add text that makes sense
The audio seems to default to that – but just says AAC ) No LC 2.0

Do you want me to enter 3000 in the average bit rate field?

As for the text you said is in the dvds - I don’t see anything on playback and sense I don’t need it. These video tapes were converted by a good camera shop back in the day to DVD.

I also think you are asking me to upload the DVD files to a drive to get at?

I hope I can use the same presets for all the dvd conversions, but some of the tapes are better quality. The later years I used mini-DV – still 480p but better than what I’ve been testing with – which is probably VHC-C or Hi8mm

Sorry if the questions are novice – but I am one. Learning fast with all this great feedback. Thanks again.

One last thing – I’ve been trying different settings based on the feedback from all of you. Hard to tell the difference in quality between them – mkv or mp4 – or changing any of the settings or using the 480 Roku film settings. Pretty amazing we watched this back in the 80’s on a 32" TV and said “wow, this is awesome!”

[JuiceWSA]

@jkled

I’m now confused where to start - On handbrake, do you start with a particular preset, then start “modifying”?

You have all those useless presets HB includes. I deleted every single one of them except Basic HD High Profile (find that one). Then you need to look at the pictures I have put in this thread and change your settings to be exactly like mine - except with a bit rate change. Then you click the Preview Button, select 240 seconds, click ‘Live Preview’ and look with your eyeballs what you have done.

Report back after that.

When you get something you like, click ‘Add’ in the preset area, name it something clever and that’s your guy. You don’t need all that other crap. If you’re just doing DVDs you only need one User Profile. As you can clearly see - I need two; one for DVDs and one for HD. It’s just too easy.

[jkled]

Will do!

[JuiceWSA]

You could really use MakeMKV right about now.
http://makemkv.com/

With that, it magically rips out the video and audio streams into an MKV file that you can upload to G-Drive to let me have a crack at it, or drag and drop on HB, making it all seem easier… if you can believe it.

G-Drive is Google Drive - Free, and 15 Gigs worth, which I believe is plenty. For now. You can share it’s content, grab a shareable link and paste it to a PM sent to me. I will do my best evil work after that and get back to you…when I put what I do on my G-Drive and PM you the shareable link…lol

[kamhouse]

Here are my settings for DVD rips from MakeMkv.

• If it is a particularly grainy video I’ll look at the final rendering and if it looks worse than the original go back and change the Constant Quality to 18.
• If it is particularly clean video, I might set Encoder Tune to None for a smaller file size.
• If I know the video is not interlaced I’ll turn that setting off in the Filters tab.

The audio tab has some extra consideration.

• I usually try to create a stereo AAC of the primary track for compatibility with low end devices and I leave the original in there for a surround sound system.
• If the original track is stereo, then I’ll often do just the AAC track and discard the AC3 or DTS version.
• If I have multiple different audio tracks that I want to keep in there, I apply the same concept to each. It can make for a larger end product, but gives more player compatibility options.

[jkled]

Thanks to everyone – busy at work this week and will be able to test the various suggestions over the weekend. I will report back! Thanks again!