Now that I am getting comfortable with Handbrake and its settings I have noticed the dearth of information online about peoples’ preferred settings. I feel that this information is very valuable and so have decided to share some baseline information about my own settings.
Unless otherwise stated I do my conversions to the .mp4 MPEG4 container and extension using h.264 for the video and AAC for the audio. My intent is to have videos that play with excellent quality with consideration to storage requirements on my first generation AppleTV and on VLC. I am not concerned with compression time. I always use two pass compression and do not select “turbo first pass.” I always use the “H.264 (x264)” codec option considering the target devices that I intend to use.
Update: I have since added a Sony Platstation 3 (PS3) to my output targets and am now using Handbrake 0.9.3 which is needed to support the PS3 due to codec limitations. I am using this settings for AppleTV, PS3 and VLC for desktop use.
Anamorphic Cinema Content from 480p Source (such as DVD)
Bitrate: 2,500Kb/s
AAC Stereo: 160Kb/s – 48 & AC3 Pass-Through
Deinterlace: Slowest
Denoise: Weak
Deblock: On
Keep Aspect Ratio: On
Detelecine: VBR
Container: .m4v (Needed for AppleTV support of dual audio.)
Wide Screen HDTV Content from 480p Source
Bitrate: 2,200Kb/s
AAC Stereo: 160Kb/s – 48 & AC3 Pass-Through
Deinterlace: Slowest
Denoise: Weak
Deblock: On
Keep Aspect Ratio: On
Container: .m4v
Newer American Television NTSC (1990s Sitcoms)
Bitrate: 1,800Kb/s
AAC Stereo: 160Kb/s – 48
Deinterlace: Slowest
Denoise: Weak
Deblock: On
Traditional American Television (1980s Sitcoms)
Bitrate: 1,600Kb/s
AAC Stereo: 128Kb/s – 48
Deinterlace: Slowest
Denoise: Weak
Old British Television (1980s Britcoms)
Bitrate: 1,200Kb/s
AAC Stereo: 112Kb/s – 48
Deinterlace: Slow
Denoise: Weak
Cartoons
Bitrate: 400Kb/s
AAC Stereo: 112Kb/s – 48
Deinterlace: Slowest
Denoise: Weak
Deblock: Off
Decomb: On
Hopefully this collection of settings will provide you with a starting point in getting the most out of Handbrake. At this time I am currently using Handbrake 0.93 and getting great results from the x.264 encoder. For computer based playback I highly recommend the use of VLC over QuickTime as its playback is much smoother.