Video Compression and Conversion

[crazycam425]

Hi LTT Community,

Here is what I am trying to do. I have over 1TB of GoPro and other family videos on my hard drive. I would like to compress them down to as small as possible without losing as much quality as possible. I am currently using Handbrake and I am using a custom preset that I downloaded off the internet. This preset works really well and for example, it compresses a 250MB mp4 down to an awesome 17MB mp4 that doesn't sacrifice to much quality. This is compared to Handbrake's "High Profile" setting that compresses the video down to 194MB. Not nearly enough compression to bother with. 

So back to the real question. Is there a better program or handbrake profile that will compress my videos down significantly without losing quality? Please feel free to contribute any thoughts. I am attaching a picture of the handbrake settings i am using to get the results i mentioned above.

Thank you.

[Samfisher]

Your post and your screenshots don't match.  First you say the custom preset works wonders, then the screenshot says the opposite?

[crazycam425]

Dang. Thanks Samfisher for pointing that out. I put the wrong labels on the wrong sides. I replaced the picture with the correct labels. Any thoughts? 

[techguru]

I use megui...super and mediacoder for encoding stuff

[LAwLz]

Change the slide that says "x264 preset" from medium to slow, slower, very slow or placebo for even smaller files. The encoding time will significantly go up though so you might want to test a few files before doing all of them. If you got the time then placebo will give the best results.

 

Also, it's the RF slider (set to 27 in the custom preset and 20 in the high profile preset) that determines quality and size.

Higher RF number = smaller file but worse quality.

Go as high as you feel comfortable with.

[crazycam425]

Change the slide that says "x264 preset" from medium to slow, slower, very slow or placebo for even smaller files. The encoding time will significantly go up though so you might want to test a few files before doing all of them. If you got the time then placebo will give the best results.

 

Also, it's the RF slider (set to 27 in the custom preset and 20 in the high profile preset) that determines quality and size.

Higher RF number = smaller file but worse quality.

Go as high as you feel comfortable with.

I'm not sure I understand. The pop up window says that 18-20 is suggested for standard definition and 20-23 for high definition. But then if you look at the scale below the slider it says that the higher the RF number the lower the quality. So the pop up box is wrong?

[LAwLz]

I'm not sure I understand. The pop up window says that 18-20 is suggested for standard definition and 20-23 for high definition. But then if you look at the scale below the slider it says that the higher the RF number the lower the quality. So the pop up box is wrong?

Screen Shot 2015-12-04 at 1.28.46 PM.png

Don't know why it recommends a higher RF for high def content. But like the text box says, lower RF = higher quality (and thus bigger files).