Beginner’s Guide to Handbrake

[† L4ugh]

This is the first guide I've ever done so let me know what you guys think. It's still a work in progress but if you have any ideas or info you think needs to be added let me know. Any questions regarding this guide or handbrake can also be asked here and I'll try to answer them if I can.

Beginner's Guide to Handbrake

This guide will cover some very basic Handbrake usage when encoding video from a ripped DVD source. Being that I am not a professional at any of this, you should take all content within this guide with a grain of salt. To begin with you need to acquire the video content you intend to encode with handbrake. Handbrake supports multiple file types as input sources but can only output to mp4/m4v or mkv container and supports the mpeg4, x264, or Theora codecs. You will also need to have or install VLC media player on your PC if you intend to use Handbrake’s preview feature.

The opening Screen

This is what handbrake looks like when you first run the program. Except for the L4ugh presets, you won’t have them, they‘re special to my version. You will be able to make your own presets by clicking the add button under the presets box and then typing in the name you want it to have.

The first thing we need to do is select a source file to encode by using the source dropdown list button. Click the Source button at the top left of Handbrake and click the folder option or you can use the ctrl+shft+o keyboard shortcut.

Source Dropdown List Button

If you are encoding an episodic disk you will want to check and make sure that the episodes aren’t all combined into one big title. What this means is that handbrake encodes video from a DVD by the individual titles, selecting the longest title by default. This is ok if you are encoding a single movie or an episodic disk that has each episode as its own title. Sometimes all the episodes are combined into one long title and if you don’t tell handbrake to split them up it will encode it as one big title. To split them up you can use the chapter feature built into handbrake. It will let you select only the chapters that make up each episode, so you can encode them separately. To use this feature use the two dropdown list buttons to the right of the Chapters dropdown button. The first dropdown is for the starting chapter and the second one is for the ending chapter. You will need to encode each episode as a separate job, but you can add them all to the queue so they will encode one after the other without any further input from you.

Chapter Selector Dropdown List Buttons

You will need to find out what chapters start and end each episode before you can input them into handbrake. To do this, open the video in your media player then use it to check what chapters start and end each episode.

VLC’s Chapter Menu

Picture Tab

Picture Tab

In this tab you can select the video resolution, crop, and anamorphic settings. There is also an option for modulus too, but I don’t know much about this feature yet, it is a new feature to (9.5). Handbrake has a pretty good auto crop feature built into it but you will still want to check its setting before the final encode.

Video Filters Tab

Video Filters Tab

This tab is where you set the video filters you want to use during the encoding process. The filters you will most likely use the most will be the deinterlace or decomb filters, but you will want to make sure the video needs it first. The way you can check is by watching the source video in vlc and looking for visible lines in the picture. If you see them then you will probably want to use deinterlace or one of the other filters in the video filters tab. I’m not very knowledgeable on the filters or when it’s best to use each one, but the wiki on the Handbrake.fr site is pretty good and the info on the filters can be found here. If you really want the best possible video I would recommend checking out the wiki on some of handbrake’s more technical features.

EDIT: I no longer use Handbrake for interlaced sources due to the limited amount of options offered for deinterlacing. If you are encoding an interlaced source I would honestly recommend using MeGUI+Avisynth. It's a lot harder to learn but you can do things with avisynth that blow away anything handbrake can offer at this time. You don't have to use MeGUI either, if it's not to your liking, but an encoder that supports .avs is needed if you're going to use avisynth.

Video Tab

Video Tab

Here you can select between the different codecs (mpeg4, x264, or Theora) offered by handbrake. You can also set your desired frame rate setting with the Framerate (FPS) dropdown list button. Personally I always go with the default setting same as source but there is a section in the wiki that covers this as well, located here. The other setting in the video tab is the quality settings. You use it to select the quality of your video by either file size, bitrate, or a constant quality setting. I wasn’t a fan of constant quality encodes done with 9.4’s constant quality but 9.5 seems to be much better. When using constant quality, higher numbers (moving to the left) means more compression and smaller file size. If you set your quality by file size or bitrate you have the added option of using 2-Pass Encoding and Turbo first Pass. It should be noted that using 2-Pass will take longer to encode because you are basically encoding the video twice.

Audio Tab

Audio Tab

The next tab is the Audio tab, here you can set what audio tracks you want added to your encode. Handbrake has the ability to add multiple audio tracks to an mkv file. So if it’s in there and you want to keep it, then go for it. The more audio tracks you add the larger the your final file size will be unless you set quality by file size. In that instance you will pay in video quality instead. When you select audio tracks you also have the option to select whether the audio will be encoded into a different format or just passed thru. If you choose to encode the audio you also have options for Mixdown, Samplerate, and Bitrate.

Subtitles Tab

Subtitles Tab

The Subtitles tab is where you are able to choose which subtitle tracks you want added to your encode. Just like with the audio tab, handbrake has the ability to add multiple subtitle tracks. You add tracks by clicking on the track dropdown list and then selecting the one you want. You also have the ability to move the subtitle tracks up and down in the track list box. I personally wouldn’t recommend adding any closed captions, because every time I have added them they were burned into the video. Handbrake does allow you to burn in one subtitle track if you want but all the rest will be soft subs. To do this check the Burn In check box when the subtitle track you want burned in is highlighted. There is a check box for setting the default subtitle track as well. You can import custom subtitle tracks with the Import SRT button, but they have to be in the SRT format.

Chapters Tab

Chapters Tab

This tab is where you set up chapters for your video by importing them with the import button. If you use a ripping program like DVDFab it will save the chapters from the dvd and handbrake will load them automatically when you select the ripped folder as your source.

Advanced Tab

Advanced Tab

Here you can set your Encoding and Analysis settings. The good thing about this tab is that if you hold the cursor over a specific setting you will get a popup describing what the different choices do. This also seems to be where the wiki lets you down, because I haven’t found anything in it yet that really covers anything in the advanced tab.

The last tab is the Query Editor, I really don’t understand exactly what this tab is for so I won’t be covering it.

Finishing Steps

At this point you will want to preview the video, if you haven’t done so already. To do this, use the Preview button at the top of handbrake which will open a new small window.

Video Preview Screen

This window offers two dropdown list buttons one for the starting place and the other for the time duration of the preview. After making your selections click the Play with VLC button. If the cropping isn’t correct you can hit the Custom radio button in the Cropping section of the Picture tab. Then increase or lower the cropping setting for the top, bottom, left, and right. You will then want to preview the video settings again to make sure they are what you want. After you are happy with all the settings you can either click the Start button at the top of handbrake or the Add to Queue button to add it to your queue.

Presets

Handbrake also offers presets that you can use as well if you just don’t feel comfortable messing with any of handbrakes settings. When using the presets you will still need to check your cropping and select the audio and subtitle tracks you want. To make your own presets just input all the settings into handbrake you want the preset to have. Then click the add button under the preset box and give it a name. Watch out for the check boxes that are offered as well because if you select the wrong thing handbrake will save you cropping values to the preset as well.

Closing

At the end of the day, the best advice I can offer you is to clear enough working space on your hard drive to do a few encodes of the same video, and then compare them side by side till you find something you really like. I hope this Guide can be of some help to anyone who is wanting to learn how to encode video with handbrake. If you have any questions about this guide or handbrake fill free to ask them here. I will try to answer them if I can. This concludes L4ugh’s Beginners Guide to Handbrake, so get out there and encode something!

Edited July 12, 2012 by L4ugh

[Nero D. Ace]

Thanks for this guide, L4ugh. I recently started Handbrake so there's some stuff this'll come handy in.

I've seen some MKV videos on the forums which are 60-70 MB in size and still have a very good quality. Do you know what settings i should use to encode videos like that, without ruining the video quality too much or decreasing the frame size?

[† L4ugh]

Are you keeping the original resolution? What is the video's length? Is this for a device like a ipod?

If you are going for a really small file size like that. I would first go with the 2-pass rather then the constant quality. You're compressing a lot and I just don't think constant is up for that just yet. If you aren't encoding for a certain device you could try the setting I have inputted in the Advance tab image. You may may also want to try turning on trellis. I think it will give a bit more compression as well. All these settings will take a while to encode though. If you are encoding for a device you may need to turn CABAC off. I don't think that is supported by some of them.

To save time you could drop Subpixel ME & Mode Decision to a lower setting and use Hexagon for Motion-Estimation Method. I wouldn't drop Subpixel ME & Mode Decision below 6 and I wouldn'd raise it above 9. The 10 setting takes way to long to encode and doesn't really seem to add anything worth the increase in time.

As for the video tab I would just set the quality by file size. I would also keep fps at same as source, because I think if you change the fps to much it could throw off the video/audio sync.

Edit: You will also probably want to use mp3 for your audio tracks.

[Nero D. Ace]

http://forums.kametsu.com/showthread.php?t=6605

this is what i'm talking about. the 75 MB Yibis encodes are very impressive, retaining high quality and resolution even with the small size.

[† L4ugh]

Are you sure they are using handbrake for their encodes?

Handbrake is a good encoder for simple stuff but if you are wanting more advanced encodes like those eps. You will probably need to use avisynth scripts with megui.

If you know anyone that is a member of that group or forum you may see if they can find out what program they use. If they do use megui see if you can get a copy of one of the scripts they use. I'm trying to learn avisynth and megui right now. The encodes done with it are way better then anything you are going to get with handbrake, if it's done right. I want to do a guide for it in the future too but it may be some time before that one happens.

I can try to help you with megui to if you want, I already have a thread here covering it. Encoding with megui will most likely be even slower then encoding with handbrake.

If you do ever get or find a script from them could you pass it on to me?

[Nero D. Ace]

Are you sure they are using handbrake for their encodes?

Handbrake is a good encoder for simple stuff but if you are wanting more advanced encodes like those eps. You will probably need to use avisynth scripts with megui.

If you know anyone that is a member of that group or forum you may see if they can find out what program they use. If they do use megui see if you can get a copy of one of the scripts they use. I'm trying to learn avisynth and megui right now. The encodes done with it are way better then anything you are going to get with handbrake, if it's done right. I want to do a guide for it in the future too but it may be some time before that one happens.

I can try to help you with megui to if you want, I already have a thread here covering it. Encoding with megui will most likely be even slower then encoding with handbrake.

If you do ever get or find a script from them could you pass it on to me?

I found something that involves avisynth and minicoder to make 60 mb files with good quality though i haven't tested it out yet.

I'll send you a PM with details so you can decide if it's any good or not.

[renovalentine]

This guide most useful thanks l4ugh.

[† L4ugh]

Np, I'm glad you found it helpful.

I also went ahead and updated the section for the Video Filters Tab since I now prefer using MeGUI+Avisynth for my interlaced sources. Eventually I'd like to do a guide for avisynth as well, but lately I've been busy running test encodes to better understand the different x264 settings.

[Koby]

Sad thing is HandBrake doesn't support Hi10 and from what I hear they don't plan to either. This season most fansubs have switched to Hi10 encoding.. and thus HandBrake not only cannot encode to Hi10.. but without support when you try to re-encode a Hi10 video it ends up with an old hue and extremely glitchy picture. Making HandBrake useless for re-encoding from Hi10 sources. AutoMen hasn't been updated in over a year either which makes it obsolete as well.

[† L4ugh]

@Koby have you been able to run any test encodes yet. This is really the first I've heard of it, but it sounds pretty interesting.

I don't know how accurate it is but they're saying in the comments section of this Hi10 Anime site that you can use MeGUI, Handbrake, and Staxrip if you switch the x264 version to the newer 10-bit one. Maybe this would also work for people using Automen.

[Koby]

@Koby have you been able to run any test encodes yet. This is really the first I've heard of it, but it sounds pretty interesting.

Yeah. I was trying to re-encode a 10-bit encode that was overly bloated to a more reasonable size and it came out awful looking.

[zolockit]

Sad thing is HandBrake doesn't support Hi10 and from what I hear they don't plan to either. This season most fansubs have switched to Hi10 encoding.. and thus HandBrake not only cannot encode to Hi10.. but without support when you try to re-encode a Hi10 video it ends up with an old hue and extremely glitchy picture. Making HandBrake useless for re-encoding from Hi10 sources. AutoMen hasn't been updated in over a year either which makes it obsolete as well.

AutoMen, well its main back end (mencoder), were never great. Re-encoding is lame to begin with, unless you're re-encoding for playback purposes (wanting to play a file on a device with minimal playback support).

I don't know how accurate it is but they're saying in the comments section of this Hi10 Anime site that you can use MeGUI, Handbrake, and Staxrip if you switch the x264 version to the newer 10-bit one. Maybe this would also work for people using Automen.

You can't have Handbrake use 10-bit.

It is not possible to add encoders to HandBrake (link). All the encoder libraries are built in and not dynamically linked/loaded at runtime.

Unless you get the source itself and compile it to compile with a library for x264 compiled for 10-bit depth encoding, it won't work. And someone who can do that, wouldn't dare to bother unless they are absolutely bored out of their mind. Someone who could do that wouldn't be bothering, they would probably be on #ffmpeg on freenode trolling. Even someone who might have some idea how it works, would use the back end with the frameserver themselves and encode video with just that (x264+avs+NO GUI SHIT).

OP this is a detailed guide, but some of the information you seek (claims of lack help for "advanced") could be found by looking for information about the encoder you are working with (in h264's case, x264). I provided a plethora of starting points in your post here: http://forums.kametsu.com/showpost.php?p=181457&postcount=3

Also 2pass as a preferred encoding method is debatable, again I provided info about CRF on that same post. It's a x264 standard, any frontends using x264 use this the same way.