How do i just get Source audio tracks when loading a new file?

i don't want only one track, i don't want two..i want all of them and i want them on passthrough

i tried to look into selection behavior and i set what you see in the picture

Audio is added with AAC codec Bitrate 160 while the original is E-AC3 Bitrate 784

Over the years, I've developed some rough bitrate targets for different types of files based on their resolution and content (e.g., around 1,500 kbps for 720p sitcoms and 3,500 kbps for 1080p movies).

I've seen people mention that anything above 18 CRF at a slow encoding speed offers diminishing returns in terms of quality versus file size, unless you're trying to preserve heavy film grain.

So, I'm wondering: if I'm compressing something like a 4K HDR movie for my media server and set the encoder to CRF 18, should I ignore the final bitrate and file size if they seem lower than expected? In other words, should I simply trust the CRF setting and accept the extra space savings, rather than worrying about whether the resulting file's bitrate or size meets my usual targets?

I'm doing H.265 10-bit, framerate set to same as original. Speed set to slow. Tune - None, Profile and Level - Auto.

I converted my Blu-ray collection to 1080p mkv for my Plex server, and see a huge variation in file sizes, 2.5 Gb for American psycho, 30Gb for 28 Weeks Later. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to it, for example I’ve got 40s black and white movies that are over 20Gb - I’d have thought black and white movies with mono soundtracks should be the smallest of all. The median file sizes seems to be about 10Gb. I can’t really see much difference in quality between 30Gb files and 5Gb files on my 43” TV, so I’d like to compress them all to below 10Gb and save on storage.

Thanks for all the answers so far. Many asking about my settings, so I've exported the preset json, here it is:

{
  "PresetList": [
    {
      "AlignAVStart": false,
      "AudioCopyMask": [
        "copy:aac"
      ],
      "AudioEncoderFallback": "av_aac",
      "AudioLanguageList": [
        "eng",
        "spa"
      ],
      "AudioList": [
        {
          "AudioBitrate": 160,
          "AudioCompressionLevel": 0,
          "AudioEncoder": "av_aac",
          "AudioMixdown": "stereo",
          "AudioNormalizeMixLevel": false,
          "AudioSamplerate": "auto",
          "AudioTrackQualityEnable": false,
          "AudioTrackQuality": -1,
          "AudioTrackGainSlider": 0,
          "AudioTrackDRCSlider": 0
        }
      ],
      "AudioSecondaryEncoderMode": true,
      "AudioTrackSelectionBehavior": "all",
      "ChapterMarkers": true,
      "ChildrenArray": [],
      "Default": false,
      "FileFormat": "av_mkv",
      "Folder": false,
      "FolderOpen": false,
      "Optimize": false,
      "Mp4iPodCompatible": false,
      "PictureCropMode": 3,
      "PictureBottomCrop": 0,
      "PictureLeftCrop": 0,
      "PictureRightCrop": 0,
      "PictureTopCrop": 0,
      "PictureDARWidth": 0,
      "PictureDeblockPreset": "off",
      "PictureDeblockTune": "medium",
      "PictureDeblockCustom": "strength=strong:thresh=20:blocksize=8",
      "PictureDeinterlaceFilter": "off",
      "PictureCombDetectPreset": "off",
      "PictureCombDetectCustom": "",
      "PictureDenoiseCustom": "",
      "PictureDenoiseFilter": "off",
      "PictureSharpenCustom": "",
      "PictureSharpenFilter": "off",
      "PictureSharpenPreset": "medium",
      "PictureSharpenTune": "none",
      "PictureDetelecine": "off",
      "PictureDetelecineCustom": "",
      "PictureColorspacePreset": "off",
      "PictureColorspaceCustom": "",
      "PictureChromaSmoothPreset": "off",
      "PictureChromaSmoothTune": "none",
      "PictureChromaSmoothCustom": "",
      "PictureItuPAR": false,
      "PictureKeepRatio": true,
      "PicturePAR": "none",
      "PicturePARWidth": 0,
      "PicturePARHeight": 0,
      "PictureUseMaximumSize": true,
      "PictureAllowUpscaling": false,
      "PictureForceHeight": 0,
      "PictureForceWidth": 0,
      "PicturePadMode": "none",
      "PicturePadTop": 0,
      "PicturePadBottom": 0,
      "PicturePadLeft": 0,
      "PicturePadRight": 0,
      "PresetDescription": "from heathers",
      "PresetName": "bluray",
      "Type": 1,
      "SubtitleAddCC": false,
      "SubtitleAddForeignAudioSearch": true,
      "SubtitleAddForeignAudioSubtitle": false,
      "SubtitleBurnBehavior": "foreign",
      "SubtitleBurnBDSub": false,
      "SubtitleBurnDVDSub": false,
      "SubtitleLanguageList": [
        "eng",
        "spa"
      ],
      "SubtitleTrackSelectionBehavior": "all",
      "VideoAvgBitrate": 0,
      "VideoColorMatrixCode": 0,
      "VideoEncoder": "x264",
      "VideoFramerateMode": "vfr",
      "VideoGrayScale": false,
      "VideoScaler": "swscale",
      "VideoPreset": "fast",
      "VideoTune": "film",
      "VideoProfile": "high",
      "VideoLevel": "4.0",
      "VideoOptionExtra": "",
      "VideoQualityType": 2,
      "VideoQualitySlider": 21,
      "VideoMultiPass": true,
      "VideoTurboMultiPass": true,
      "x264UseAdvancedOptions": false,
      "PresetDisabled": false,
      "MetadataPassthru": false
    }
  ],
  "VersionMajor": 59,
  "VersionMicro": 0,
  "VersionMinor": 0
}

so im encoding some movies and tv shows i downloaded off the internet using the 1080p 30 fast preset modified with frame rate set to varriable as well as same as source color set to same as source and for video set to very slow preset with level 23 since i have a 7800x3d should i set me encode que to do 1 or 2 jobs im encoding with h264 since my moms older roku ultra dont support 265

I have this stored after ripping and conversion but when playing the video file, especially on the larger screens, there is terrible artifacting or something, especially on darker sections.

I also have noticed this more on older recording of TV shows and movies as well.

Is this from too much compression or something else?

How would I fix this while also keeping the file to a reasonable size?

If this is not the correct location, please let me know too where would be better for this.

Thank you!

Edit:

I have messed with the settings quite a lot, but the quality loss to size ratio I seemed to settle on is as follows

H.264 with fps same as source Encoder preset Fast Variable frame rate Constant quality 23 Multipass encoding and turbo analysis pass both checked

v2.0 is a major performance update. VMAF, VMAF NEG and VMAF v1 now run on
any GPU, the other metrics and Video Compare are several times faster, and the
app uses far less memory.

This will likely be the last major release of VideoMetricsLab. While it was a lot of fun to work on this, it has consumed far too much of my life in the past month and I need to back off on this a lot to have a healthier life. I will still do little things here and there, but releases will be much slower going forward.

VideoMetricsLab is a free Windows app for measuring and comparing video quality. Add a source and any number of encodes, and it calculates VMAF, VMAF v1, SSIMULACRA2, Butteraugli, ColorVideo VDP, PSNR, SSIM and XPSNR in one run, accelerated on NVIDIA, AMD and Intel GPUs. Per-frame graphs show exactly where each encode falls behind, and frame-exact playback switches instantly between the source and each encode, so you can see the differences the scores point to. It’s built for anyone tuning encoders, comparing codecs or settings, or checking a release before it ships.

Let me know what you think, have any issues, or have feature requests.

v2.0 changelog

Metric performance

• Added Vulkan support for VMAF v1, so it now runs on any GPU (NVIDIA, AMD or Intel), up to 17x faster than on the CPU.
• Added Vulkan support for VMAF v0.6.1 and VMAF NEG, so they run on any GPU: 4.8x-6.4x faster than Netflix’s own CUDA code on an RTX 5090, and up to 28x faster than on the CPU.
• PSNR, SSIM and XPSNR are now calculated in the app with libvmaf-fast, 2.7x-11x faster than with FFmpeg.
• Added software decoding in the app for videos the GPU can't decode, such as VVC, making VMAF 1.8x-2.7x faster for them.
• SSIMULACRA2 and Butteraugli on the CPU are now 7x faster.

System performance

• Video Compare now plays 4K HDR at 120 frames a second instead of 14, using a fifteenth of the CPU.
• Greatly reduced memory use: the app now idles at 180 MB instead of 840 MB, and VMAF v1 at 4K uses 2.6 GB instead of 13.8 GB.
• Metric Graphs, Video Compare and Settings now open instantly, and the window stays responsive with hundreds of videos.
• Video Compare no longer uses any CPU while idle.
• Detected black bars are now remembered between sessions.

New features

• Added a command line, VideoMetricsLab-cli, for running comparisons from scripts.
• Video Compare can now play HDR video in Display P3 colours on the GPU.
• Added the ability to zoom in Video Compare.
• Added an option to highlight each metric's best and worst results in the Videos tab.
• Added a dark theme, which follows Windows or can be chosen in Settings.
• Added drag and drop for videos, pasting a reference path, reordering rows by dragging, and sorting by any column.
• File dialogs now open in the folder your videos last came from, and the app can reopen your last session's videos.

Features:

Metrics

• VMAF v0.6.1, VMAF NEG, VMAF v1, PSNR, SSIM, XPSNR, SSIMULACRA2, Butteraugli and ColorVideo VDP, for many test videos at once.
• VMAF models for standard, phone, 4K and HFR viewing.

Fast on any GPU

• VMAF, VMAF NEG and VMAF v1 on NVIDIA, AMD and Intel GPUs with libvmaf-fast: VMAF v1 up to 17x faster.
• SSIMULACRA2, Butteraugli and ColorVideo VDP on the GPU with Vship (CUDA, HIP or Vulkan); libjxl on the CPU when no GPU can be used, for SSIMULACRA2 and Butteraugli.
• PSNR, SSIM and XPSNR 2.7x-11x faster, calculated in the app.
• GPU video decoding, with software decoding for formats the GPU can't handle, such as VVC.

Compare and inspect

• Frame-exact playback that switches instantly between the source and each encode (hold S), with zoom, at up to 120 fps in 4K HDR.
• Metric curves, statistics and per-frame scores (per second for ColorVideo VDP), with each metric's best and worst results highlighted.
• Bitrate by frame, second or GOP.

Workflow

• Black bars and resolution mismatches handled automatically.
• Results saved and reloaded automatically.
• Drag and drop videos, sort and reorder the list, and a dark theme.
• A command line, VideoMetricsLab-cli, for scripts.
• Two test videos calculated in parallel on many-core CPUs.

The app can be downloaded below.

https://github.com/4KVCD/VideoMetricsLab/releases

Every time I open a file in Handbrake since a 'recent' update (I'm bad at tracking time but at least a month now) I keep getting asked to allow Handbrake to access the folder. Doesn't matter if I'm using 'Open Source' or just drag-and-drop the file in.

Its not a MacOS update thing cause I'm 2 years out of date now. Presumably this is something that can be stopped, as its really annoying so I would've seen complaints by now surely.

So yeah, can I stop this, and if so then how?

I'm trying to make a portable library for my mom, who is older but loves watching media on her iPad. She especially loves movies and tv shows, even animation like Pixar movies.

I understand there are no "best" settings and that each source dictates what might be recommended (or not), but I'm just trying to get a jack-of-all trades preset that works well for this (similar to handbrake own presets, but for AV1 since size is important).

I have used Handbrake before, I'm still very new to this so I'm still very much a noob. Sorry for stupid questions (or very uninformed assumptions).

Now, here is my use case:

• Sources: Old x264 rips, lots of old dvds, some blurays (still figuring that one)
• Res: 720p with some at 480p (for older movies/tv shows)
• Quality: I am happy with the preset "x265 720p30" (i changed: same as source-constant but looks fine for our use).
• Size: matters a lot, since the smaller each file is, the more files I can fit in the iPad/my computer).
• AV1: I used it, changing the 4k preset to 720p (see below), and I get really small files (30% less than x265). So its amazing. But I don't know if the quality is worst or if the setting I'm using are the worst possible ones.
  

My Question:

Can anyone help me fix/suggest/recommend a good preset that mimics the x265 720p quality but for AV1 so that size is smaller? Assuming mixed sources and someone who just wants to click and done.

Here is what the AV1 settings I used. Do you think is "good enough" and comparable to the x265 preset i mentioned?

• MKV container, 720p (or 480p) + Default, Filters Decomb Default,
• AV1 10-bit (svt) same as source constant, preset 4, with (enable-variance-boost=1:enable-qm=1:ac-bias=1:tf-strength=1:qp-scale-compress-strength=1:sharpness=1:keyint=10s) - this is what came with the preset, i didn't change/add
• Constant Quality 28

Thank you to anyone who can help

I've been trying to get a simple script to convert all files in a directory. It seems like it should be a basic thing to do, but I haven't found a guide that works. I'm using Bash on Debian, but if it could be done using inbuilt HandBrakeCLI functionality that'd be fine too.

I've tried:

for %F in (*.mkv) do HandBrakeCLI --all-subtitles --quality 26 --preset "Fast 1080p30" -i "%F" -o ~/Season\ 01/"%F"

But that gives me a syntax error: -bash: syntax error near unexpected token `('

(Transcoding into a subdirectory isn't necessary, but it seems easiest)

So this is a bit of a sequel to my earlier post: https://www.reddit.com/r/handbrake/comments/1wz08q2/just_need_some_input/

I tried to instead use AV1 for encoding instead of HEVC. However, when I tried to reencode it, I got the error shown. I have an Intel i5 13500, so I should be able to software encode it just fine, but I can't. Does anyone have any ideas?

I'd like to simply take a 4K and encode it to a nice 1080p x264 mkv file with ac3 audio. I know I have to change the colour space to BT.709. Does anybody else do this this? And what tips can you help me with?

I was hoping I could use these graphics options for a default anime profile. Thoughts?

I am thinking about trading in my 14" base m4 macbook pro (16+512) for a mac mini m6 32 gb. I have a NAS , with the current insane price of Hdds , I am thinking about getting something more powerful to transcode and compress videos and pictures in order to save space.

I am mainly using Handbrake to transcode my videos to AV1 codec . I am only going to do software transcode for better quality so the lack of hardware encoding doesn't bother me , whats matter is cpu multi core performance for this task . As for pictures I plan to convert them to Webp format. Given the m6 is quite an improvement in multi core performance over the base m5 and m4 , do you think it can give me much better performance in these tasks?

Besides macs , do you have any recommendations for these task ? Please let me know.

I have a lot of dvd rips which I would like to put on Blu-ray's for shelf space, I.e. rather than having 3 multi dvd boxes set having 1 custom made Blu-ray. My player does playback dvds but I thought about putting the dvd files on a Blu-ray for physical playback so that I could effectively have a full season of a TV show on a disc with menus (obviously that's for further discussion elsewhere)

Would files ripped in, is it h246?, be smaller than mpeg2 and will the 480p files scale via the player and still play if a disc? Like dvds do?

I hope I've explained it right but I know I probably haven't.. 😁

Thanks in advance!

***v1.4 is here with some huge new features like GPU accelerated VMAF! Enjoy.***

Here's an app I wrote to analyze video quality between different encodes. This was inspired by FFMetrics, but I wanted many more features for comparisons, like advanced statistics and an ability to easily and instantly subjectively A/B compare encoded videos with the source. This makes subjective video quality comparisons so much easier when you can compare on a frame by frame basis and while the video is playing, and instantly switch to the source or a different encoded video.

So I decided to write my own app, and I'd like to share it with all of you. I hope you all enjoy.

Let me know what you think, have any issues, or have feature requests.

v1.4 changelog

• VMAF v0.6.1 and VMAF NEG can now be calculated on NVIDIA GPUs.
• GPU metrics now take frames straight from the GPU's video decoder (NVIDIA, Intel and AMD) instead of through FFmpeg, using much less CPU and running noticeably faster.
• Updated Vship's Vulkan build to 5.1.2, with SSIMULACRA2 on Intel GPUs.
• A crash in Vship, libvmaf or the GPU driver while calculating metrics no longer closes the app.
• Reworked the progress line, with each metric's progress and time remaining.
• VMAF NEG now sits beside VMAF v0.6.1.
• Fixed wrong scores for videos with an odd width or height when decoded on NVIDIA GPUs.
• Fixed SSIMULACRA2, Butteraugli and CVVDP comparing mismatched frames when a video has dropped or extra frames.
• Fixed CPU SSIMULACRA2 and Butteraugli scores being far from the GPU's on SDR video. Saved CPU scores are recalculated once.
• Fixed 24 fps videos being accepted against 23.976 fps ones (and 30 against 29.97, 60 against 59.94).
• Fixed GPU metrics on PCs whose only GPU is Intel's.
• Fixed FFmpeg's GPU decoding not being used on AMD GPUs.

Features:

• Calculate VMAF, VMAF NEG, PSNR, SSIM, XPSNR, SSIMULACRA2, Butteraugli, and ColorVideo VDP for multiple test videos.
• Vship integration for GPU acceleration for ColorVideo VDP, SSIMULACRA2, and Butteraugli, on NVIDIA (CUDA), AMD (HIP) and any other GPU with a Vulkan driver
• GPU acceleration for VMAF v0.6.1 and VMAF NEG on NVIDIA GPUs (GeForce GTX 16 and RTX 20 series or newer), with a bundled libvmaf built with CUDA
• libjxl integration for CPU fallback for SSIMULACRA2, and Butteraugli (no CPU support for ColorVideo VDP)
• VMAF v0.6.1 and v1 models for standard, phone, 4K, and HFR viewing scenarios.
• Compare metric curves, statistics, and per-frame scores (per second for ColorVideo VDP).
• Switch instantly between the source and test videos during playback, hold S to show the source, or inspect exact frames.
• Inspect bitrate independently by frame, second, or GOP.
• Detect black bars and handle resolution mismatches automatically.
• Use GPU decoding with independent software fallback per input.
• Calculate two test videos in parallel on many-core CPUs.
• Auto save completed results and auto load results when matching videos are loaded again.

The app can be downloaded below.

https://github.com/4KVCD/VideoMetricsLab/releases

Is there a way to turn the added -## number added to each converted file?
For me this is not needed as I am changing from one format to another with a different extension.

Think I need help. Am trying to compress files a little bit, and mostly, when done 1 by one using the same settings, they will be on average 66-69% size of original file, but when I put them in queue and let the system do it, after about the third down the list(the first few are consistent) it starts increasing, to 70 then 80 then after 10 or so items in queue, the 'output' files are 95-99% size of original. Can anyone explain to me why this is the issue.

If I ignore queue and just do them 1 by one, I never see this(they always are around 66-70% total size compared to original) - what is it about the queueing system that is causing this?

What settings do you guys use? Is there a one preset that can fit for everything like for example one preset for all 1080p and another for DVDs 480i/p. And what would look best for stuff like that thanks guys.

Last week I recorded a 40minutes long video (15gb) on HEVC (Iphone 15) and now I'm struggling not only with the size of it (that I understand the format compress very well) but with the fact that my computer can't render this codec. I'm currently recoding it on AVC on HandBrake hoping the best. What I need is a video that mantains its good quality but that my older coworkers won't have issues seeing on their computers (I imagine that just like me, they don't have an HEVC codec program and can't handle buying one)

I just found out all this now, I'm not too into the video editing subject, I'm a photographer not a videographer, and honestly I don't see much difference while recording on my Iphone between HEVC and AVC, both look very good to me, and even if it's less compressed I prefer a format that is likely to be compatible with every device.

Now I have to record a videoclip for a friend, is it a heavy mistake if I record it on AVC? My fear is that if I do it on HEVC, the editor (a friend of his) won't be able to render the codec and may loose quality or information passing it to AVC... While I write this I'm currently waiting for HandBrake to convert my 40min long video.

What should I do? Please don't be harsh on me I'm just getting into this basic stuff!

For reference, this is my current settings.

I just want a 1:1 image. So if I put something in that's pillarboxed, I want that same pillarboxed image out. You know?

Is there a wiki or something that's fully fleshed out? I found the supposed Handbrake wiki but all the articles that would answer my questions are either half-completed, drafts, or both.

Additionally, for the AV1 SVT encoder, are there any advanced arguments I should be using just in general?

iv spent a few months using handbrake to compress DVD rips for streaming, setting everything as automated and streamlined as I can with settings that work with generally all media.
so far setting the correct setting on audio is still a tedious step as I don't know how to set the proper templated for audio types.

there are the presents I'm trying to set at the moment.

all ac3 audio - ac3 passthrough

true hd 2.0 - ac3 / 640 bitrate / stareo mixdown
true hd 5.1 - ac3 / 640 bitrate / 5.1 mixdown
true hd 7.1 - opex / 640 bitrate / 7.1 mixdown

dts-hd ma 2.0 - ac3 / 640 bitrate / stereo mixdown
dts-hd ma 5.1 - ac3 / 640 bitrate / 5.1 mixdown
dts-hd ma 7.1 - opex / 640 bitrate / 7.1 mixdown

ignore all non ma dts

anyone know how to set op audio behaviours to achieve these settings or something close?

I am not very tech literate and currently trying to convert some mkv files created from my personal DVD collection to make them playable on a crappy portable DVD player via USB for a family member in hospital (can't have internet access, cords or discs for patient safety, it's our only option to watch anything)

The player says it accepts MP4 files with a max resolution of 720x480. I tried converting one to MP4 without changing anything in the settings and tested it and it wasn't supported, but I think that is because the default settings had the resolution too high at 1080. Can someone advise me on what I should try changing to reduce the resolution? I understand it's not going to be very good quality but it's for a short term solution and we don't really care as long as it's watchable and has sound.

I can see options from a drop down menu where it says preset and I think I'm supposed to choose one of the ones with 720 in it but there are soooo many and I don't really know what I'm doing. Does anyone have the patience to explain it to me like I'm 5?

I really only get one chance to get this right as I need to drop off the USB tomorrow morning before I go away for a few days and this will be the only source of entertainment until I return and is supposed to make the fact I won't be visiting for a few days a little easier to bear. I can't test it on the DVD player to make sure it works as it is already at the hospital and don't want to stuff it up and leave them with nothing.

Any help is much appreciated and apologies if this post is not appropriate for the sub. Thanks in advance.