[Witchdoctor]

Just curious Geo or anyone what are the settings to use for Handbrake GUI inlcuding adding the CQM . Wanted to try working with that again. Thanks!

[lingenfr_xbmc]

I keep hoping that eventually this thread is going to provide the how-to advertised in the title. It is too bad this pos board does not allow the author to edit the first post.

[idahoxj]

Just curious Geo or anyone what are the settings to use for Handbrake GUI inlcuding adding the CQM . Wanted to try working with that again. Thanks!

I just pasted the settings into the advanced box in the gui and save the result as a preset, everything works fine. I just have a text file I keep my settings in.

For JPSiemers' settings paste this into the advanced window.
level=30:keyint=240:min-keyint=24:ref=5:mixed-refs=1:no-fast-pskip=1:bframes=5:b-pyramid=1:b-rdo=1:bime=1:weightb=1:direct=auto:nf=1ubme=7:partitions=all:8x8dct=1:qpmin=18:vbv-bufsize=1000:vbv-maxrate=5000:ratetol=4.0:me=umh:threads=auto:progress=1:no-psnr=1:no-ssim=1:nr=0:nf:cabac=1:trellis=0:thread-input=1:cqm-file=C\CQM\eqm_avc_hr.cfg

I am also using mediacoder with the same settings selected under the h264 advanced options and with nf=1 added under extra settings. Both methods work well but mediacoder files don't need to be post processed.

I now have about 20 encodes done using both gui programs and I now have zero issues playing the files on the xbox.

[Witchdoctor]

I just pasted the settings into the advanced box in the gui and save the result as a preset, everything works fine. I just have a text file I keep my settings in.

For JPSiemers' settings paste this into the advanced window.
level=30:keyint=240:min-keyint=24:ref=5:mixed-refs=1:no-fast-pskip=1:bframes=5:b-pyramid=1:b-rdo=1:bime=1:weightb=1:direct=auto:nf=1ubme=7:partitions=all:8x8dct=1:qpmin=18:vbv-bufsize=1000:vbv-maxrate=5000:ratetol=4.0:me=umh:threads=auto:progress=1:no-psnr=1:no-ssim=1:nr=0:nf:cabac=1:trellis=0:thread-input=1:cqm-file=C\CQM\eqm_avc_hr.cfg

I am also using mediacoder with the same settings selected under the h264 advanced options and with nf=1 added under extra settings. Both methods work well but mediacoder files don't need to be post processed.

I now have about 20 encodes done using both gui programs and I now have zero issues playing the files on the xbox.

I notice that once I save those settings as a preset I close and reopen the program and everything past ratetol=4 is gone. Is it still taking the CQM?

[Rand Al Thor]

Great thread guys lots of good info here. I am looking for some help as far as settings go. I am running xbmc on linux not the xbox so horsepower is not an issue. Up until this point i have been encoding all my movies with Autogk using 100% quality, AC3 or DTS sound and xvid. I am pretty happy with the results, really nice looking and between 1 to 2 gigs depending on length. I wanted to start using h264 mkv's to see if I could get either better quality at the same or slightly larger file size or same quality at reduced size.

Autogk has a 100% quality setting which as mentioned before is what I had been using. I know some of the programs discussed here have the same setting but it produces files larger than the original, which kind of defeats the purpose. I had read that a QF of 18ish is about dvd quality. Can anyone comment? Anyone know better settings? I am looking for 1:1 dvd copies but obviously since they are encoded more efficiently they should be smaller.

The other thing I like about autogk is that you can tell it to keep only forced subtitles. How are people here handling forced subs? Do any of the programs have a similar feature? I have looked in Ripbot, handbrake and Mediacoder and none seem to have the option. Cheers and thanks in advance.

[u11241897135181]

Greeetings! I need to add a beginners type of question... Hope you guys won't mind.

I have handbrake. 0.9.2 build 2008021900. I understand where to paste the extra settings in the advanced box. My only worry is really about the default presets and settings. I'm after something as close to the actual dvd as possible quality wise.

1) Which preset should I use when pasting these settings into the advanced box.
2) Can i use denoise/deinterlace and those types of filters under picture settings?
3) Under video settings, do i change anything there at all? avg bitrate for example? or do i use constant quality 100% ??
3) does one make any changes under "audio and subtitles"? well except for the language and the subtitles.
4) Should the output settings be set to H.264 and AAC?

Well, those were the questions. Hope you guys can help me out. I'm rather daft when it comes to this stuff. Btw... (can't believe i'm asking this) This IS better than xvid right? I hope so, I want it to be, but I just don't know

[Rand Al Thor]

I think I have narrowed it down to Handbrake as my preferred encoder simply because it autodetects forced subtitles. I am still working on finding settings like i mention in my previous post. I am trying to copy the settings used by Fabio Sonnati (aka the guy who eats codecs for breakfast). If you don't know what I am talking about check this out.

http://www.flashvideofactory.com/test/DE..._500K.html

720p @ only 500kb/s and it looks insane! I found a version (or an approximation) of his settings as applied to MediaCoder (for those interested they can be found here http://forum.mediacoderhq.com/viewtopic....sc&start=0 ). Then I did my best to transfer those to Handbrake so that I could take advantage of the auto forced subtitle detection. My concerns are more quality than anything. I don't really care about encoding time or size and I am running xbmc on linux so I have plenty of horsepower. I am not really sure how well this will work on the good old xbox but if anyone is interested these are the settings I am working with right now.

crf=16:qp-const=60:trellis=1:b-pyramid=1:qp-min=10:qp-max=51:qp-step=4:level-idc=51:me=esa:merange=16:keyint=250:keyint-min=25:analyse=all:direct=auto:nomixed-refs=1:8x8dct=1:analyse=all:deblock=-2,-1:weightb=1:bframes=5ubq=7:direct=auto:b-adapt=1:dct-decimate=1:fast-pskip=1:ref=5:bime=1

From the research I did before starting all of this I read that a crf of 17 or below would be indistinguishable from the original. Using mediacoder at crf=17 gave me a file that was smaller than the same movie encoded in autogk/xvid/100% and it did not have nearly as much "softening" so I was quite happy with that. I am now encoding the same movie with these new settings in Handbrake and hoping that the genius of Fabio Sonatti can make the outcome even better. It will probably take quite a while to encode but I will report back when it is done. Cheers.

[idahoxj]

I notice that once I save those settings as a preset I close and reopen the program and everything past ratetol=4 is gone. Is it still taking the CQM?

It wasn't using the cqm. I have it working now though, I placed the cqm file in the handbrake directory and used cqm=.\CQM\eqm_avc_hr.cfg, and I now get a cqm value for the files.

These are the settings I'm using now.

level=30:keyint=240:min-keyint=24:ref=5:mixed-refs=1:no-fast-pskip=1:bframes=5:b-pyramid=1:b-rdo=1:bime=1:weightb=1:direct=auto:nf=1ubme=7:partitions=all:8x8dct=1:qpmin=18:vbv-bufsize=1000:vbv-maxrate=5000:ratetol=4.0:me=umh:threads=auto:progress=1:no-psnr=1:no-ssim=1:nr=0:nf:cabac=1:trellis=0:thread-input=1:cqm=.\CQM\eqm_avc_hr.cfg

The saved presets seem to be buggy so I just paste this into the options every time.

[fbgd]

I'm no expert at this stuff but in my opinion you really might be better off just using xvid or the lavc mpeg4 encoder than x264 for xbmc on the xbox. It seems like you guys are having to disable a lot of the good stuff about h264 like the inloop deblocking. I am able to get high quality encodes for movies using xvid at a constant quantizer of 2 along with very acceptable file sizes

[Aparker]

It wasn't using the cqm. I have it working now though, I placed the cqm file in the handbrake directory and used cqm=.\CQM\eqm_avc_hr.cfg, and I now get a cqm value for the files.

These are the settings I'm using now.

level=30:keyint=240:min-keyint=24:ref=5:mixed-refs=1:no-fast-pskip=1:bframes=5:b-pyramid=1:b-rdo=1:bime=1:weightb=1:direct=auto:nf=1ubme=7:partitions=all:8x8dct=1:qpmin=18:vbv-bufsize=1000:vbv-maxrate=5000:ratetol=4.0:me=umh:threads=auto:progress=1:no-psnr=1:no-ssim=1:nr=0:nf:cabac=1:trellis=0:thread-input=1:cqm=.\CQM\eqm_avc_hr.cfg

The saved presets seem to be buggy so I just paste this into the options every time.

Hey idahoxj,
I would like to test these settings of yours in handbrake. What are the other settings you use. I'm guessing you use an MKV container? Do you use average bit rate or what? If so what are the bitrates you use? Can you just post all the settings you set before encoding in handbrake, thanks man!

[Aparker]

I'm no expert at this stuff but in my opinion you really might be better off just using xvid or the lavc mpeg4 encoder than x264 for xbmc on the xbox. It seems like you guys are having to disable a lot of the good stuff about h264 like the inloop deblocking. I am able to get high quality encodes for movies using xvid at a constant quantizer of 2 along with very acceptable file sizes

Also fbgd,
What exactly is a quantizer of 2? What would quantizer of 2 translate to in handbreak? I'm guessing it would be a constant quality, but in handbreak the constant quality is a slide bar with a percentage. Any insight?

[Gamester17]

I'm no expert at this stuff but in my opinion you really might be better off just using xvid or the lavc mpeg4 encoder than x264 for xbmc on the xbox. It seems like you guys are having to disable a lot of the good stuff about h264 like the inloop deblocking. I am able to get high quality encodes for movies using xvid at a constant quantizer of 2 along with very acceptable file sizes

You are absolutly correct, good old DivX and XviD (and lavc mpeg4 encoder) are also much more compatible with more players and software. The only reason for making H.264 files compatible with the Xbox is if you want to save harddisk space.

[JPSiemer]

You are absolutly correct, good old DivX and XviD (and lavc mpeg4 encoder) are also much more compatible with more players and software. The only reason for making H.264 files compatible with the Xbox is if you want to save harddisk space.

All my Xvid encodes look like shit compared to my x264 encodes. Can you point me in the right direction for the best settings?

[JPSiemer]

I think I have narrowed it down to Handbrake as my preferred encoder simply because it autodetects forced subtitles. I am still working on finding settings like i mention in my previous post. I am trying to copy the settings used by Fabio Sonnati (aka the guy who eats codecs for breakfast). If you don't know what I am talking about check this out.

http://www.flashvideofactory.com/test/DE..._500K.html

720p @ only 500kb/s and it looks insane! I found a version (or an approximation) of his settings as applied to MediaCoder (for those interested they can be found here http://forum.mediacoderhq.com/viewtopic....sc&start=0 ). Then I did my best to transfer those to Handbrake so that I could take advantage of the auto forced subtitle detection. My concerns are more quality than anything. I don't really care about encoding time or size and I am running xbmc on linux so I have plenty of horsepower. I am not really sure how well this will work on the good old xbox but if anyone is interested these are the settings I am working with right now.

crf=16:qp-const=60:trellis=1:b-pyramid=1:qp-min=10:qp-max=51:qp-step=4:level-idc=51:me=esa:merange=16:keyint=250:keyint-min=25:analyse=all:direct=auto:nomixed-refs=1:8x8dct=1:analyse=all:deblock=-2,-1:weightb=1:bframes=5ubq=7:direct=auto:b-adapt=1:dct-decimate=1:fast-pskip=1:ref=5:bime=1

From the research I did before starting all of this I read that a crf of 17 or below would be indistinguishable from the original. Using mediacoder at crf=17 gave me a file that was smaller than the same movie encoded in autogk/xvid/100% and it did not have nearly as much "softening" so I was quite happy with that. I am now encoding the same movie with these new settings in Handbrake and hoping that the genius of Fabio Sonatti can make the outcome even better. It will probably take quite a while to encode but I will report back when it is done. Cheers.

That really is awesome what that guy can do at that bitrate! However, you are missing the point and are posting in the wrong forum. Your settings will not work for us, so please do not confuse others by posting things that will not work. If you do want to help, try modifying those settings for Xbox playback and post back your results!

[JPSiemer]

It wasn't using the cqm. I have it working now though, I placed the cqm file in the handbrake directory and used cqm=.\CQM\eqm_avc_hr.cfg, and I now get a cqm value for the files.

These are the settings I'm using now.

level=30:keyint=240:min-keyint=24:ref=5:mixed-refs=1:no-fast-pskip=1:bframes=5:b-pyramid=1:b-rdo=1:bime=1:weightb=1:direct=auto:nf=1ubme=7:partitions=all:8x8dct=1:qpmin=18:vbv-bufsize=1000:vbv-maxrate=5000:ratetol=4.0:me=umh:threads=auto:progress=1:no-psnr=1:no-ssim=1:nr=0:nf:cabac=1:trellis=0:thread-input=1:cqm=.\CQM\eqm_avc_hr.cfg

The saved presets seem to be buggy so I just paste this into the options every time.

Ya, Handbrake won't save anything in the preset past a non-number or non-letter character. For instance everything past the ".0" in "ratetol=4.0" will get cut off. Same with the .'s and the /'s for the CQM. This should be considered a bug as it is a major annoyance...