Need advice on Handbrake filters and more

[Udgnim]

I'm starting to get a feel for encoding and I've read the Handbrake User Guide. it seems leaving Detelecine and Decomb on default is a no brainer. I'm not so sure about Denoise and Deblock though.

depending on source, should its use vary widely from no application at all to maximum application or is it better to have bare minimum application as default and then ramp up from there as source material worsens?

are there real differences in quality between the MP4 and MKV container? I've been using MKV with the x264 codec, but the User Guide doesn't really indicate if one container is better than the other.

Is it better to use Handbrake's "Constant Quality" encode or should I manually set an average bitrate to encode to? thanks for any help

 

[thatbox]

You shouldn't need to use a detelecine filter unless the source comes telecined on the disc - go through it frame-by-frame and see if every third or fourth or whatever frame looks interlaced. Supposedly, the decomb filter is safe to leave on all the time since it's only supposed to deinterlace interlaced frames, but who knows how good their detection algorithm is. It can't hurt to check the source manually and then enable or disable as needed.

Beyond those basic operations, I'd recommend not applying any filters like denoising to your encode. You should aim to preserve the director's vision as accurately as possible, and you can use additional filters during the decoding and playblack if you want without baking them into the encode.

MKV has better support for various audio types and subtitles, and unless you need an MP4 for some reason it's usually the better option.

Yes, CRF encoding is now generally a better idea than setting an average bitrate if you don't need to zero-in on an exact size. It eliminates the need for multiple passes and generally results in more consistent quality throughout the encode.

 

[RedChief]

While x264 formatted movies are really nice, there is a compatability issue with older/low powered hardware. I have both a settop PC (atom/ion running XP and XBMC) and a old xbox softmodded to run xbmc. Both are networked to a server which has all my videos. The xbox cannot even play SD x264 files, they have to be encoded w/ mpeg4/FFFMpeg. The settop can do HD x264 if its using a player that offloads to the GPU.