8 ms·

This isn't really a deep dive into HandBrake or video transcoding, it's more of an examination of presets that wrapper provides. You'd be better off diving int

This isn't really a deep dive into HandBrake or video transcoding, it's more of an examination of presets that wrapper provides. You'd be better off diving into the foundation of HandBrake and using it directly: https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki Also, in before, "ffmpeg is too complicated for the average user ..." It isn't, you just need to RTFM.

AndrewUnmuted 10y ago
If the task requires anything more complex than simple transcoding or encoding, then ffmpeg will require a user to understand DSP to some extent to be used successfully. Of course this is no fault of ffmpeg, but a lot of frustrated users end up thinking that anyway.
- msimpson 10y ago
  While true, one should always remember, "If it makes a mistake, it's because I screwed it up."
apocalyptic0n3 10y ago
I haven't looked too deep into Handbrake in a few years (so someone correct me if I am wrong), but I don't think they use ffmpeg. Their core, the codec libraries, is mostly the same as ffmpeg, but ffmpeg is not the "foundation" of Handbrake
- wolf550e 10y ago
  They use libx264 for H.264 video encoding (and maybe libx265 for HEVC). What do you think they use to split the video from the audio in the source file, decode the source video frames, resize and crop every frame, and then mux the resulting new video stream with the (possibly also recompressed) audio stream?
monochromatic 10y ago
The average user knows (barely) how to use a browser and Microsoft Word. ffmpeg absolutely is too complicated for that user.
- msimpson 10y ago
  Your definition of an average user cannot use HandBrake, either.
puzzlingcaptcha 10y ago
Ever wondered about the toolset of pirate movie groups? Typically it involves demuxing the source with eac3to, decoding and indexing the video stream for avisynth (often with ffms2 for Blurays), filtering (such as resizing with a spline kernel, debanding, fixing dirty lines, fixing double range compression, correcting aliasing, removing edge enhancement artifacts, deinterlace/ivtc for DVDs etc.), followed by piping it out through avs2yuv to the x264 encoder. x264 parameters are often hand-tuned over a series of short test encodes at a fixed bitrate. Audio streams are left as is, stripped to the core (DTS-HD MA -> DTS) or transcoded to AC3 (Sony Soundforge), DTS (DTS-HD Master Audio Suite), AAC (qaac/fdkaac) or FLAC. Bitmap subtitles are ripped to text .srt files with subextractor/suprip/SubtitleEdit/ and spell-checked. Finally everything is muxed back together with mkvmerge.
- j_s 10y ago
  I would rather have the various tools, command lines, and settings used than the pirated content. Insert obligatory "why not both?" here but seems like the secret sauce is closely-guarded IP (is this irony?).
  - puzzlingcaptcha 10y ago
    It's not really that much about secrecy. Most of the tools are free or open source (with the exception of audio tools which can be for the most part substituted with eac3to). The problem is that the "body of knowledge" is rather extensive if you want to cover all the corner cases and imaginative ways in which authoring houses screw things up. To be able to filter the video correctly you need to know a bit how the h264 codec works, learn your color formats, color spaces, a little signal processing, a few tables from ITU-R recommendations and some proficiency in RPN wouldn't hurt. As such it is difficult to put it all down in one guide. To make it worse, as with every niche community there are disagreements and transient "fashions". At the end of the day though this is very much chasing rapidly diminishing returns.
    - j_s 10y ago
      Just trying to point out that a great way to learn more would be to review exactly how each release was put together. Even without the "why" this would be a useful learning opportunity.
nom 10y ago
'RTFM' doesn't help much if it requires a strong background in signal processing to make sense of it ;)
- msimpson 10y ago
  A "strong background in signal processing" is not required to generate the results detailed in this article using ffmpeg. Nor does this article provide any information enhancing the user's understanding of the encoding options employed by the various presets discussed or the ultimate effects they hold in regard to signal processing.
pmorici 10y ago
To be fair using ffmpeg today is a world easier than it was 10 years go when Handbrake first came about.

AndrewUnmuted 10y ago

If the task requires anything more complex than simple transcoding or encoding, then ffmpeg will require a user to understand DSP to some extent to be used successfully. Of course this is no fault of ffmpeg, but a lot of frustrated users end up thinking that anyway.

msimpson 10y ago
While true, one should always remember, "If it makes a mistake, it's because I screwed it up."

apocalyptic0n3 10y ago

I haven't looked too deep into Handbrake in a few years (so someone correct me if I am wrong), but I don't think they use ffmpeg. Their core, the codec libraries, is mostly the same as ffmpeg, but ffmpeg is not the "foundation" of Handbrake

wolf550e 10y ago
They use libx264 for H.264 video encoding (and maybe libx265 for HEVC). What do you think they use to split the video from the audio in the source file, decode the source video frames, resize and crop every frame, and then mux the resulting new video stream with the (possibly also recompressed) audio stream?

monochromatic 10y ago

The average user knows (barely) how to use a browser and Microsoft Word. ffmpeg absolutely is too complicated for that user.

msimpson 10y ago
Your definition of an average user cannot use HandBrake, either.

puzzlingcaptcha 10y ago

Ever wondered about the toolset of pirate movie groups? Typically it involves demuxing the source with eac3to, decoding and indexing the video stream for avisynth (often with ffms2 for Blurays), filtering (such as resizing with a spline kernel, debanding, fixing dirty lines, fixing double range compression, correcting aliasing, removing edge enhancement artifacts, deinterlace/ivtc for DVDs etc.), followed by piping it out through avs2yuv to the x264 encoder. x264 parameters are often hand-tuned over a series of short test encodes at a fixed bitrate. Audio streams are left as is, stripped to the core (DTS-HD MA -> DTS) or transcoded to AC3 (Sony Soundforge), DTS (DTS-HD Master Audio Suite), AAC (qaac/fdkaac) or FLAC. Bitmap subtitles are ripped to text .srt files with subextractor/suprip/SubtitleEdit/ and spell-checked. Finally everything is muxed back together with mkvmerge.

j_s 10y ago
I would rather have the various tools, command lines, and settings used than the pirated content. Insert obligatory "why not both?" here but seems like the secret sauce is closely-guarded IP (is this irony?).
- puzzlingcaptcha 10y ago
  It's not really that much about secrecy. Most of the tools are free or open source (with the exception of audio tools which can be for the most part substituted with eac3to). The problem is that the "body of knowledge" is rather extensive if you want to cover all the corner cases and imaginative ways in which authoring houses screw things up. To be able to filter the video correctly you need to know a bit how the h264 codec works, learn your color formats, color spaces, a little signal processing, a few tables from ITU-R recommendations and some proficiency in RPN wouldn't hurt. As such it is difficult to put it all down in one guide. To make it worse, as with every niche community there are disagreements and transient "fashions". At the end of the day though this is very much chasing rapidly diminishing returns.
  - j_s 10y ago
    Just trying to point out that a great way to learn more would be to review exactly how each release was put together. Even without the "why" this would be a useful learning opportunity.

nom 10y ago

'RTFM' doesn't help much if it requires a strong background in signal processing to make sense of it ;)

msimpson 10y ago
A "strong background in signal processing" is not required to generate the results detailed in this article using ffmpeg. Nor does this article provide any information enhancing the user's understanding of the encoding options employed by the various presets discussed or the ultimate effects they hold in regard to signal processing.

pmorici 10y ago

To be fair using ffmpeg today is a world easier than it was 10 years go when Handbrake first came about.