Handbrake encoding settings

79wjd · March 24, 2016

I'm going to encode some blurays but I don't know what settings I should change. Is there anything I should do other than pick an RF quality?

r3bify · March 26, 2016

Video codec: h.265
x265 Preset: Slow

Framerate: same as source, viariable

Constant Quality: 23

or if you just want to use the ffmpeg cli tool,

ffmpeg -i input_file.mkv -c:v libx265 -c:a copy -preset slow -crf 23 output_file.mkv

That's what I use. I have a script that batch converts folders using ffmpeg.

79wjd · March 26, 2016

7 minutes ago, r3bify said:
Video codec: h.265
x265 Preset: Slow

Framerate: same as source, viariable

Constant Quality: 23

or if you just want to use the ffmpeg cli tool,
ffmpeg -i input_file.mkv -c:v libx265 -c:a copy -preset slow -crf 23 output_file.mkv
That's what I use. I have a script that batch converts folders using ffmpeg.

Is there an advantage to x265 other than being more space efficient? The main reason I haven't been encoding anything at this point is because I found with whatever settings I was using it was taking absurdly long.

How long would it take to encode a 10gb/50 minute show at those settings? Also I don't mind using a lower rf if it means better quality -- if I could get each episode down to 2.5gbish I'd be happy (anything less is just a plus).

r3bify · March 26, 2016

My most recent conversion was Supernatural S11E13 1080p (h264 file, 1.88GB) -> (h.265 file, 440MB) using the settings I posted.

The advantage of h.265 over h.264 is the encoding, so smaller size and less bandwidth for the same quality file. That's, uh... it. As far as I'm aware.

The speed depends on processor (cores, clock speed). It took my laptop 5 1/2 hours to convert, but I use the Slow preset so it's not like I was expecting it to be fast or anything.

I haven't tried a 10GB file yet, but I converted one from ~8.5GB down and it's about 1.6GB now.