by Gand — last modified 2007-06-26 03:08 PM
HandBrake site: here - HandBrake 0.6 How-To
A Command Line Interface guide here.
Intro
Most video files have at least two different types: the container, and the codec(s) used inside that container.
- File Format (container): describes the structure of the file; Handbrake can create MP4, AVI, and OGM file formats.
- Codec ("compressor/decompressor"): is the mathematical routine that compresses the raw video and audio into a stream of bytes.
| Handbrake container/codecs table |
| File format |
MP4 | AVI | OGM |
| Video codec | MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 |
MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 | MPEG-4 |
| Audio codec | AAC | AC-3 MP3 | Vorbis MP3 |
- Encoder: is how the data is written into each frame. Each codec will support one or more encoders. H.264 has: Main and Baseline. MPEG-4 has: FFmpeg and XviD.
Links:
MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 Information
MPEG-4 ASP Information
Ogg Theora Information
Digital Video Formats by Akkana Peck
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Use WM9 today and get Micro$oft controlling the A/V market tomorrow for free.
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Insert your DVD and quit DVD player.
Welcome to HandBrake
- Start HandBrake.
Select your DVD volume (generally only one)…
- … or browse to your folder with VIDEO_TS exctracted from DVD.
- Click Open button and HandBrake will start DVD scan for some seconds.
Source
- In Source panel select the DVD title, the longest is the first of the list and all (default) or one/some chapter/s.
Destination
- In Destination panel select File format (file container) and video Codecs:
MP4 file format
- MP4 file - MPEG-4 video / AAC audio (MPEG)- the Apple audio video format (not DivX)
- MP4 file - AVC H264 video / AAC audio (MPEG)- the Apple audio video format QuickTime 7 - Advanced Video Coding (AVC) for the next-generation High Definition (HD) DVD (*)
AV file format
- AVI file - MPEG-4 video/ MP3 audio (Lame) - the used DivX players .AVI file
- AVI file - MPEG-4 video/ AC-3 audio
- AVI file - AVC H264 video / MP3 audio (Lame) -
- AVI file /- AVC H.264 video / AC-3 audio -
OGM file format
- OGM file - MPEG-4 video / Vorbis audio (OGG)- the open, patended free audio/video format (*)
- OGM file - MPEG-4 video / MP3 audio (Lame) -
(*) We invite you use and spread these free and open formats, they are best quality than other ones.
- Then Browse your hard disk to select file destination folder.
Video
- In Video panel chose encoder; we suggest FFmpeg instead of XviD,
as both are MPEG-4 compliant encoders, FFmpeg is pretty faster on OS X.
- Set Framerate to Default as is the frame rate of your original clip, and it should stay like that.
- Choose your Custom Bitrate for less than 90 min video…
- … or your CD Target size for full video.
- Select 2-pass encoding, it performs a slower but better compression - basically it makes sure you'll get a constant quality so you won't see blocks in fast motion scenes. Though it's disabled by default, is strongly recommend to use it except if you really care about time.
Subtitles
- Select Language subtitle (or None)
Picture Settings…
- Clik on Picture Settings… button to open edit window:
You can re-size Width and Height keeping (or not) aspect ratio
You can scale down to width=512 x height=whatever handbrake says to improve H264 encoding speed and the quality is pretty well unaffected.
- Crop image to remove little black outline borders (we suggest use Auomatic button)
- Deinterlaced picture - only to use if movie has visible scanlines.
- You can** Browse** previous and next scene
- Useles OpenGL effects - play with the previous/next buttons after checking it, you'll see
Audio
- In Audio panel select first (and second language) and audio Sample rate (default 44100) and Bitrate (default 128).
- Click on Rip button to start encoding, a progress bar show encoding perc, fps speed and time remaining.
- Encoding can be paused, resumed or cancelled.
iPod Video settings
Use Instant HandBrake (OS X, UB, 2.8 MB), iPod/PSP-dedicated version of HandBrake. _ (screenshot)
In Destination panel select:
- File format: MP4 file
- Codecs: AVC/H.264 Video / AAC Audio
In Video panel select:
- Encoder: x264 (Baseline profile)
- Quality: Average bitrate (kbps): 400
Note: enter also a value between 400 and 600; higer bitrate = higer quality = higer disk space.
- Select 2-pass encoding, it performs a slower but better compression.
In Audio panel select (as default):
- Sample rate (Hz): 44100
- Bitrate (kbps): 128
Clik on Picture Settings… button to open edit window and set size to:
- Width: 320
- Height: 240 (or less if aspect ratio is not 3:2)
Note: Keep aspect ratio checked. Calculate maximum video size using Podsize
iPod can play the following video formats:
- H.264 video
File formats: .m4v, .mp4 and .mov
Video: Up to 768 Kbps, 320 x 240 pixels, 30 frames per second, Baseline Profile up to Level 1.3
Audio: AAC-LC up to 160 Kbps, 48 KHz, stereo audio
- MPEG-4 video
File formats: .m4v, .mp4 and .mov
Video: Up to 2.5 Mbps, 480 x 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile
Audio: AAC-LC up to 160 Kbps, 48 KHz, stereo audio</li>
Queue tasks
- Click on Enable queue check button.
- Click on Add to queue button to queue tasks.
- Click on Show queue to list queued tasks.
- Click on Remove button to remove task/s.
- Click on Start button to start rip tasks on queue.
How do I play files created by HandBrake
More info at HandBrake WIKI page.
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If you want to learn more about MPEG-4 and relish the idea of wading through technical speak, check out this thread
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Use WM9 today and get Micro$oft controlling the A/V market tomorrow for free.
