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A best settings guide for Handbrake 0.9.9

June 12, 2013 13 comments

So Handbrake 0.9.9 has been out for a while now, and if youve looked through my previous multi-page guide that explained all the advanced settings in 0.9.6, Ive got some good news: Getting something that amounts to the best settings is a whole lot easier in v0.9.9. (yay!) The x264 presets are now in Handbrake, and 99% of the time, that should mean that you dont have to dabble in the x264 Advanced Options Panel. Though if you want/need to for whatever reason, the old rundown of Handbrake settings (0.9.6) guide should help explain all those options for you in great detail. Ill use some images this time around to help make things quick & easy. Well start at the more complicated part, and work backwards. But first -Encodes fast -High quality -Smallest file size possible Pick 2. The decisions you make during these sections will largely depend on which 2 you choose. Anyway, lets start at the highlighted area below.

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Constant Quality (RF) vs Average Bitrate (kbps)

1. These have the largest impact on quality & file size. Move the Constant Quality RF slider far enough to the right (or use a high enough Average Bitrate) and the video will be large, and look indistinguishable from your source. Moving the slider to the extreme left (or using a low enough Average Bitrate), and you can get really small file sizes, but something looking pretty ugly. Most people aim for something in between. 2. Generally speaking, one isnt going to get you a nicer video than the other. 3. Im really going to be simplifying the rest below (it wont be 100% technically accurate, but accurate enough to give you an understanding).

Archives (stuff since 2006)

Select Month Select Month

First, a quick image to give you an idea as to what Constant Quality entails. (click for a larger image)

Constant Quality Usually this is the preferred method. This

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A best settings guide for Handbrake 0.9.9 - mattgadient.com targets a certain level of quality throughout your video(s). The advantage to Constant Quality is that your videos all tend to look consistent. The downside is that you dont know how large each video will be until the end. RF Sliding to the right (lower numbers) lead to better quality. Sliding to the left (higher numbers) result in lower quality, but lower filesizes too. If youve never used Constant Quality before, normally RF:20 is considered as a starting point for DVD encodes (and RF:22 for BluRay). Most people experiment to find an RF value that looks good enough to them at a file size they can handle, and use that RF value most of the time, deviating slightly when need be. RF examples Here are a couple screenshots taken at different RF settings (one at 20, and one at 30) to give you a very rough starting point (click for a larger view):

For a more in-depth look at RF values, check outComparing x264 RF settings in Handbrake (examples)for the full write-up. And an image to give you an idea as to what Average Bitrate entails (click for a larger image)

Average Bitrate Using this and a calculator, you can aim for a specific file size given a certain video length. Helpful if you wanted each of your movies to be exactly 700MB for example. Generally, use 2 pass encoding when using this option. Advantage to Average Bitrate is that you can effectively pre-determine your file size. The downside is that after you finish encoding, you might find out that the filesize you chose wasnt high enough, and your video looks like junk. Or maybe the file size was higher than it needed to be. kbps The higher this is, the larger the file will be (and thus, the higher the quality). Online bitrate calculators are the easiest way to do this.

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A best settings guide for Handbrake 0.9.9 - mattgadient.com

Looking at Constant Quality vs Average Bitrate from another perspective:

Lets pretend were encoding a 1 hour TV series from DVD with constant quality and have determined that RF:22 looks just-goodenough to us. Heres how it might turn out: Episode 1: RF22 278MB (avg video bitrate of 686kbps) Episode 2: RF22 349MB (avg video bitrate of 915kbps) Episode 3: RF22 363MB (avg video bitrate of 948kbps) Episode 4: RF22 304MB (avg video bitrate of 792kbps) TOTAL SIZE: 1294MB All episodes should look consistent. Clearly, Episodes 1 & 4 didnt need as much bitrate as the others, so they ended up being smaller. Now what if wed tried using an average bitrate instead, targeting exactly 323.5MB per episode? Episode 1: 798kbps (avg video bitrate) 323.5MB Episode 2: 798kbps (avg video bitrate) 323.5MB Episode 3: 798kbps (avg video bitrate) 323.5MB Episode 4: 798kbps (avg video bitrate) 323.5MB TOTAL SIZE: 1294MB The TOTAL SIZE is the same. The problem is that this time, Episode 1 got more bitrate than it needed. Episodes 2 & 3 probably didnt get enough. Episode 4 got close to the ideal amount for our RF:22 looked good to us standards and probably looks identical to the RF:22 version from before. Either way, were now in a situation where Episode 1 looks stellar, but in Episodes 2 & 3, things are below our standards, looking notably worse. That doesnt mean that average bitrate is *bad*. Its just not consistent when it comes to visual quality its only consistent when it comes to file size. So if you use average bitrate, you may have to pad your numbers a bit just in case some of your videos need the extra bitrate to look okay. If I were encoding the rest of the season via average bitrate, Id probably be encoding everything at 1000kbps to be on the safe side. Unfortunately, that means my total filesize for 4 more episodes similar to the above would now be 1622MB instead of just 1294MB. And at that point, Id have been better off using Constant Quality with a better RF value. Short version: Unless you desperately need your file to come out at an exact size, use Constant Quality. Play with RF values until you

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A best settings guide for Handbrake 0.9.9 - mattgadient.com find values where the video looks good enough to you on the devices you play back from, at file sizes you find acceptable.

x264 Preset
As mentioned above, this has a different effect depending on whether you went with Constant Quality, or Average Bitrate. If you went with Constant Quality, your quality has already been decided. Changing this wont affect the quality any further (if you wanted higher quality, move the RF slider more to the right). Going with slower settings here will find ways to fit that quality into a lower file size. Going with faster settings will result in a larger file size. Either way, it should look the same. If you went with Average Bitrate, your file size has already been decided. Changing this wont affect the file size any further. Going with slower settings here will try to pack more quality into that file size youve chosen. Going with faster settings here will result in less quality. Details: This is where the time tradeoff comes into play. The veryslow preset is about the most hard-core anyone should typically get, and it can take a long time even on a quick machine. This is one of those areas where youll have to experiment on your machine and find something reasonable. Keep in mind that there are diminishing returns as you get slower. Compared to veryslow, the placebo setting takes forever and a day. At the very least, itll usually add a few hours, if not days, depending on your source and computer. Even worse, you might not even notice the visual difference (its called placebo for a reason). On the other hand, the difference between ultrafast and medium (skipping superfast, veryfast, faster, and fast) might only be a few minutes and will often give a quite noticeable difference. Finally, when on the quest for quality, keep in mind that days of encode time is no substitute for simply choosing a better Constant Quality or higher Average Bitrate. Slow settings will let you get more bang-for-your-buck, but its not going to work miracles. Sure, a 350MB TV show encoded at really slow settings will look better than the same 350MB TV show encoded at fast settings. But a 600MB encode of the same TV show will trounce both of them even if it was done at really fast settings.

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x264 Tune
In general, these focus on shifting bits between detailed & flat areas, depending on the setting. To be honest, you dont have to really understand what they do other people have done the grunt work figuring them out, so theyre whittled down to pretty simple one size fits all settings. None This is like the old Handbrake presets. Nothing inherently wrong with it. Its something of a middle-road setting. Film For TV/Movies/Film and 3D animation (Pixar movies for example) Animation For 2D animation (Mikey Mouse, Simpsons, etc) Grain For very grainy movies/shows. For example, movies like 300 or Saving Private Ryan (the beach scene). Note that this tries to KEEP the grain, which uses a boatload of bitrate, and tends to result in higher file sizes when using Constant Quality (if youre using Avg Bitrate, make sure youre using a high bitrate, or overall quality will suffer.). Stillimage For still images (slideshow/pictures). PSNR/SSIM Generally for testing/comparative purposes. These stand for peak signal to noise ratio and structural similarity. x264 has some enhancements that improve the image as you would see it (robbing detail from places you wouldnt notice it anyway, and putting that detail where you would notice it). These settings disable those, so that the image is more technically correct so that a computer can compare the video with the source to see how accurate/identical it is. Zerolatency Meant for fast encoding with quick streaming. Short version: Film, Animation, and Grain are what you probably want to use most of the time (perhaps None as well). The others are for pretty edge cases that most people dont have to worry about.

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A best settings guide for Handbrake 0.9.9 - mattgadient.com

Fast Decode (checkbox)

Usually you do *not* want this checked. A few exceptions: Check it if youre trying to play your videos on an older computer that struggles to decode H264. Check it if playing videos on an older device that struggles to decode H264. You could optionally check it if uploading to YouTube or other video-sharing sites. It may make it quicker for the site to decode it and put your video up. Its usually not necessary. It disables a few H264/x264 optimizations, making it easier to play but at the expense of a larger file (or lower quality if using an average bitrate). Since most recent computers/devices have built-in hardware support for these optimizations, you usually dont need to bother with it. If you find that playback on your favorite device is choppy, try checking this though.

H.264 Profile & H.264 Level

This is where things can get a little tricky. Higher profiles & levels tend to get you better compression (so better quality in a given filesize). However, youre going to be limited by the profile support of the hardware devices youre planning to play your videos on. Heres the order of things: Baseline -> Main -> High 1.0 -> 1b -> 1.1 -> 1.2 -> . -> 5.1 -> 5.2 (this ones easy enough to figure out) Currently, High Profile, Level 4.1 is the most popular profile on recent / cutting edge devices. Such a device will also play Baseline/Main , and any level between 1.0-4.0 . The industrys stagnated at Level 4.1 for a couple years, probably because its at the point where its good enough until H265 starts taking over. Here are a few examples of profile support for popular devices: iPhone 3, iPhone 3GS: Baseline Profile, Level 3.0 iPhone 4, iPad 1, AppleTV 2 : Main Profile, Level 3.1 AppleTV 3 : High Profile, Level 4.0 (may actually support 4.1) iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPad 2, iPad 3, iPad Mini : High Profile, Level 4.1 Blackberry 7 & 7.1devices : High Profile, Level 3.1 (they recommend using Baseline Profile though) Blackberry 10, Blackberry Playbook: High Profile, Level 4.2

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A best settings guide for Handbrake 0.9.9 - mattgadient.com WD TV Play & TV Live : High Profile, Level 4.1 BluRay devices (those which will read from a USB hard drive for example) should normally support High/Level 4.1, but are often somewhat picky and have a tendency to complain about being too complex. I havent actually bothered to try determining the exact cause, but if you run into this issue, you can try entering bluray-compat=1 in the Additional Options window (note that your file size may increase somewhat). If that doesnt work, try Main profile or a lower level. Samsung & Nokia dont list profiles on their spec sheets for phones/tablets. Probably safe to assume at least Level 4.0 on their devices that record in 1080p. Roku, Boxee Box, Netgear NeoTV dont list profiles on their spec sheets for media streamers. Probably safe to assume at least Level 3.1 for 720p devices and Level 4.1 for 1080p. youll have to do your own digging for devices from other manufacturers. Short version here is that for devices which are a couple generations old, Main Profile, Level 3.0 is usually supported. Almost every current-generation device supports High Profile, Level 4.1. Thus, you probably dont want to exceed Level 4.1. If you go any higher, your video probably wont play, or will play-with-glitches on any current smartphones, tablets, etc. Note that some slower computers which lack hardware playback support may also struggle to smoothly play back videos encoded at very high levels. Enough with the complicated/hard stuff. Now the easier bits.

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Format MP4 file vs MKV file

This is known as a container. Doesnt affect the quality, so dont stress too much over this one. MP4 file This is what you usually want to use. It has the highest player & device compatibility. Windows Media Player wont play MKV by default. Quicktime, iPhones/iPads/AppleTV/etc dont play MKV files either. MP4 is the safe bet and works perfectly fine. MKV file This is a more flexible, but less supported container. Technically, you can jam multiple video streams in it, add DVD menus, use a wider variety of codecs, and a whole whack of other things (none of that through Handbrake, mind you). The 2 notable exceptions when it comes to Handbrake are that it will allow you to use the Theora (VP3) video codec, and FLAC or Vorbis audio codecs. Short version: Unless you have a specific reason to use MKV, use MP4.

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Video Codec H.264 (x264) vs MPEG-4 vs MPEG-2

H.264 This is probably the *reason* youre using Handbrake to begin with. Its the newest codec offered, results in high quality at low file sizes, and is supported by virtually every recent device out there. MPEG-4 An older codec, and very few reasons to use it. To give you an idea, old devices/players that wont play anything newer than DivX will usually do well with MPEG-4. If you have a really old (or really cheap) phone that has very basic video playback capability, it might work on those too. And if youre hoping to edit your video later in a 5-year old editing program that lacks H264 support, this gives you an option to do so. MPEG-2 Unless you have a specific reason for using this (beyond time travel to the late 90 s), dont. Short version: H.264 unless you have a good reason to use something else.

Framerate (FPS), and Variable vs Constant framerate

Same as source You almost always want to use this instead of manually picking a frame rate. Handbrake is smart and will virtually always get this right. If you detelecine or deinterlace, it will also do the smart thing here too and change the frame rate to be accurate. Manually setting the frame rate to something incorrect will often result in the video looking choppy/stuttery. Manually reducing the frame rate generally wont reduce the file size by as much as youd expect either. There are very few edge cases where manually setting it makes sense usually it doesnt. Variable Framerate Ideal most of the time (especially if detelecining). If the true frame rate bounces around (or does after de-telecining), this will keep things looking as good & stutter-free as the original (and perhaps keep from encoding extra wasted frames). And if the true frame rate doesnt bounce around, youll end up with a constant frame rate anyway. Constant Framerate Id only go with this if I needed a specific frame rate & had manually set it.

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A best settings guide for Handbrake 0.9.9 - mattgadient.com Short version: Same as Source and Variable unless you have a solid reason for forcing something else.

On to the Picture Settings window.

(accessed via a button towards the upper right)

SIZE Anamorphic Unless youre doing some manual resizing, youre usually best to use Strict. I cant think of a lot of reasons to use Loose unless youre resizing the video resolution (loose makes it fairly easy). Custom is beyond the scope of this writeup, but allows you to do a bit of manipulation, including changing the aspect ratio if you have a desire to smush/stretch things. Dont use None unless you know what youre doing. SIZE Cropping Use Automatic. That way, it wont waste space trying to save any black bars (your device will add black bars if necessary). On the other hand, if you want black bars manually saved as part of the video stream, feel free to set it to none and change the values to all 0 s. Hitting the Preview button is usually a good idea if youre trying to tweak here. Next, if you click the Filters button

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FILTERS Detelecine Setting to Default is a good idea. If your source is telecined, itll detelecine automatically. If its not, it wont. Set-and-forget. FILTERS Decomb Setting to Default is a good idea here too. If your source is interlaced, itll automatically deinterlace it. If not, it wont. Just like the above. Set-and-forget. You normally dont want to use Deinterlace unless decomb is giving you problems or you have one of those oddball situations where you want to manually set it for some other reason. FILTERS Denoise Usually, keep this off. A couple exceptions: Turn it on if you have noise/grain in your source you want to get rid of. Turn it on if you want to reduce your filesize slightly (or improve overall quality) at the expense of softening your image some. Turn it on and use a CUSTOM value if youre trying to get rid of dancing dots. UPDATE: I put together a new denoise write-up with video and images if youre interested in de-noise settings. FILTERS Deblock Off. Its supposed to get rid of blockiness but in my experience it ends up blurring everything a crazy amount that makes the video hard to watch. On the plus side, it pretty much destroys noise/grain in the process.

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A best settings guide for Handbrake 0.9.9 - mattgadient.com For Audio Settings , Subtitles, and Advanced Settings , nothings really changed so rather than re-write it all, I suggest reading the old writeup for version 0.9.6 if you need further details on those options. That about sums it up. As a quick note, Ive really generalized a fair bit especially when it comes to the Constant Quality vs Average Bitrate part. But hopefully this has given you enough of an understanding that youre comfortable using the new system.

Encoding

none

Comments (13)
#1 | Written by Anon about 2 months ago.

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So no more Advanced settings. Good. Can you explain one thing to me: Why is it that sometimes the encodes will go really fast but the next time they go really slow? I was ripping a cartoon DVD (using your settings) and one disc did roughly 1 minute per episode (5 minute episodes), but the next disc took roughly 10 minutes per episode. I dont get it.
#2 | Written by Matt Gadient about 2 months ago. Reply

Anon: To be honest, a 10x increase in encode time is fairly tough to explain for: Similar content (same series, etc), at Identical durations, at Identical resolutions (in other words, one wasnt a DVD and the other a BluRay), at Identical Handbrake settings Were you encoding directly from the DVD, or did you copy the DVD to the computer first (and encode from the ISO, MKV, etc)? If it was directly from the DVD, sometimes read issues or varied copy protection methods on certain discs can

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A best settings guide for Handbrake 0.9.9 - mattgadient.com throw a wrench into things. A good practice is usually to rip the DVD to the computer first and encode it from there. Beyond that, if everything in the list above holds true, short of some other odd issue like a computer overheating and throttling, Im not sure. Episodes with a lot of fairly static scenes tend to go quicker (youll notice in movies that the end credits tend to encode rather quickly), but that wouldnt justify a 10x difference in overall encode time.
#3 | Written by Anon about 2 months ago. Reply

Thank you for your reply, Matt. - Similar content (same series, etc) Yes (for what its worth, Batfink cartoon DVD). - Identical durations Episodes are around 4:30. - Identical resolutions (in other words, one wasnt a DVD and the other a BluRay) They are all DVDs. - Identical Handbrake settings Yes. Although, do the settings reset when you continue the encoding process the next time? Because I had the episodes in queue, and then resumed where I had left off. I first made a copy of the discs to my HDD (DVDFab created VIDEO & AUDIO_TS folders). From there I selected the folder in Handbrake and encoded them episode per episode. I hope this helps.
#4 | Written by Matt Gadient about 2 months ago. Reply

Anon: Nothing sticks out that would explain it. As for the settings, they do generally persist correctly when bulk-adding in the MacGUI at least (with the exceptions of Audio , Subtitle, and items in Picture Settings). If you exit Handbrake, I believe the next time you open it, you have to reenter your settings again though for any new items you add to the queue old/existing ones in the queue should remember usually saving your settings to a profile helps make things a little quicker the next time you use it.

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A best settings guide for Handbrake 0.9.9 - mattgadient.com You could try checking the log files to make sure the same x264 settings were applied. To do so, open up the Activity Window in Handbrake (from the menu bar), and right-click anywhere in that activity window and choose to open the log file directory. Youll see all the logs show up open up the ones for those 2 videos compare the section under encoder: H.264 (x264) (if you find the file hard to navigate, choose Edit/Find and type in H.264 to jump to the correct area). Alternately, since your stuff encoded pretty quickly, you could just try encoding those 2 again, but 1 at a time (verifying the settings for both) to see if theres any difference. If those settings were indeed the same, Im sure theres an explanation of some sort, but Im out of ideas (sorry!).
#5 | Written by Anon about 2 months ago.

Matt, I just checked the log files. It says H.264. Anyway, I was hoping TV episodes would go fast, too. Turns out it takes roughly 2 and a half hours to encode just one episode (doing this on my laptop) using your settings. Ugh. Thanks for the help anyway!
#6 | Written by Matt Gadient about 2 months ago.

Anon: The options listed just below the H.264 part in the log file are the ones I was referring to. For example, using the x264 presets, youd see something like veryslow. Using the advanced options, youd see something like ref=6:trellis=2:etc. If you get the situation where 1 episode encodes really fast and the next from the same series/disc goes really slow, making sure those settings were the same in the log files can help to rule that out. As for the 2.5 hour encodes, assuming youre using the x264 presets, just try bumping the slider to a faster setting until you get a time frame youre comfortable with. Note that before going off and encoding

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A best settings guide for Handbrake 0.9.9 - mattgadient.com hundreds of videos, it can help to do a few test encodes on the same episode, using different presets. Compare the file sizes afterwards (if using Constant Quality) and see if the time tradeoff is worth it to you. If using Average Bitrate instead of Constant Quality, compare the quality of the videos afterwards, and again, weigh it against the time it took. Good luck.

#7 | Written by frank about 2 months ago.

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thank you for this detailed writeup! cheers Frank

#8 | Written by Mike about 2 months ago.

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Great Website Matt. I recently came back and checked out your other sections and articles-lots of great information. But I have to say your HB information is some of the best currently on the web. Excellent. For me, Id like to see a discussion about using handbrake for some of the Media Streamers on the market (WD Live, Popcorn Houreven some of the smart TVs). Also, how about some downloadable presets that can be further tweaked; for instance something for general MP4 archive or using a streaming box (there seem to be a lot of Apple/Mac stuff and YouTube uploading). Thanks for the website

#9 | Written by david about 1 month ago.

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Amazing content, thanks so much! Rare to find info this good or complete even in the official documentation!! It helped heaps and I learned a lot too. Cheers!

#10 | Written by Ron about 4 weeks ago.

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Finally. Someone who actually explains how some of these settings actually work. Ive been reading the wiki and only get half answers. Thanks so much for takin the time to write this up. Extremely helpful.

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A best settings guide for Handbrake 0.9.9 - mattgadient.com

#11 | Written by Jan about 5 days ago. Reply

Re.: Video menu x264 Preset First of all I fully agree with the other comments GREAT website; easy to understand and very helpful. Im using Handbrake only to be able to tranfer my many Dvds to my newly bought Synology NAS. Im a normal user og Dvds enjoying films for what they are: entertainment. I not a DVD/film geek or nerd interested in the finer points and technical sides of transcoding a DVD. Still Im interested in the best possible quality and highest possible speed of trancoding. I understand thres a trade off. As far as I read your guide, I should be perfectly safe qualitywise using Handbrakes standard H.264 (x264) Video Codec, and should only use the settings under the Advanced menu if I for some reason should alter my status from an ordinary viewer of film to a geeek/nerd being very interested in the intricate and finer points of trancoding a DVD or is this an overstatement? One thing, though. Im slightly bewildered with regard to x264 preset under the Video menu. You write that if one uses Constant Quality, which I do, any setting under x264 preset wont make a bit of difference qualitywise. Quality depends on the RF setting. However, you then continue to elaborate on the differences between ultra fast, medium and placebo settings without having stated whether these diffences only apply to the Avg. Bitrate setting, to the Constant Quality setting or to both settings. Likewise I not quiet sure whether your description of Details apply only to Avg. Bitrate setting, to the Constant Quality setting or to both settings. If I choose x264 Preset, which I do, why not use Ultrafast rather than f.ex. Very Slow and get the same output quality? Slower x264 preset like medium gives me a larger output file than when I use very fast? Why should I choose a transcoding that is slower and at the same time gives me a larger MP4 file? .or am I completely missing your point? Thanks in advance Jan

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A best settings guide for Handbrake 0.9.9 - mattgadient.com

#12 | Written by Matt Gadient about 5 days ago. Reply

Jan, As to the presets vs advanced settings panel, its mainly a matter of the presets doing a great job of getting you the most bang-for-your-buck. The x264 devs put them together theyre quite good when it comes to bumping up the important stuff as the slider moves along. Being as easy as shifting a slider to swap between these settings is an added bonus. The way you stated it is fairly accurate too. There are a few situations where using the Advanced settings to fine tune something can make sense, but most of them are edge cases or used by people who are looking for something very specific. On to the speed settings (ultrafast, medium, placebo, etc), they affect both avg bitrate (slower settings tend to increase quality) and CQ (slower settings tend to reduce file size). As to the question of why you wouldnt use ultrafast instead of very slow, if using CQ, the output quality would certainly be similar, but the file size using ultrafast would usually be a lot larger. Hope some of that helps.

#13 | Written by Jan about 3 days ago.

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Many thanks for your answer. Most helpful. Im not only transcoding my Dvds to be able to play the films on my PC or iPad. I have also bought a Synology NAS server which through WLAN is linked to my state-of-the-art Loewe TV (a german brand which f.ex can play both the MP4 and MKV formats). When trancoding my Dvds Im using the following Handbrake settings based on your excellent guide: Format: MP4 Picture: Anamorrphic is set to Strict. Cropping is set to Automatic. Display size is by default: 1024 x 576. Rest is unaltered. Filters: Default; Default; Off; Off and grayscale is also Off Video: H.264 (x264) and not the advance menu Variable Framerate Constant Quality 19 x264 preset at Medium H.264 Profile: High H.264 Level: 4.1 Subtitles: Burned In Danish subtitles Chapters: Ive checked the create chapter markers checkbox.

http://mattgadient.com/2013/06/12/a-best-settings-guide-for-handbrake-0-9-9/[25/08/2013 10:04:48 AM]

A best settings guide for Handbrake 0.9.9 - mattgadient.com It seems to do the trick!

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