Which video container is best, AVI, MKV, MP4...

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by jvl711

Hmm... I have been using the strict anamorphic PAR, and I have not seen any issues with the HD Extender.

I would think the reason you would not see the issue with the 1.33 movies is because it is not anamorphic, so the setting is probally ignored.

That depends on the video. Technically even a 4:3 DVD video is anamorphic because 720x480 represents a square pixel aspect ratio of 1.5:1. That's why a lot of times you see people convert 4:3 DVD's to 640x480 but then you lose some vertical resolution converting it to square pixels.

I have an interesting situation I came across last night. Clockwork Orange was actually filmed in an aspect ratio of 1.66:1, a little wider than a 16:10 monitor. The DVD is letterboxed 4:3. I decided not to crop it but then I was thinking that once I get an HDTV there won't be any way I can get full frame on the video without chopping off part of the top and bottom of the video. My only option then is to crop it so that when it's displayed on a 16:9 TV I'll get bars on the sides because it's being slightly pillarboxed. Stanley Kubrick sure did try some odd things.

[jvl711]

Originally Posted by Taddeusz

That depends on the video. Technically even a 4:3 DVD video is anamorphic because 720x480 represents a square pixel aspect ratio of 1.5:1. That's why a lot of times you see people convert 4:3 DVD's to 640x480 but then you lose some vertical resolution converting it to square pixels.

That is intresting I did not know that. I assumed that all 4:3 material on a dvd was not anamorphic. Does that mean if you want to perserve as much resolution as possible that you should always use anamoriphic PAR in Handbreak?

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by jvl711

That is intresting I did not know that. I assumed that all 4:3 material on a dvd was not anamorphic. Does that mean if you want to perserve as much resolution as possible that you should always use anamoriphic PAR in Handbreak?

In short yes. The other option if you want to convert to square pixels but not actually lose resolution is to rescale the video up to 720x540. But while you are keeping the vertical resolution you're going to add some blurring due to interpolation. So really the best option is to keep the video at the same resolution and keep it anamorphic.

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by jvl711

Hmm... I have been using the strict anamorphic PAR, and I have not seen any issues with the HD Extender.

I should point out that this isn't just the extender- its my PC clients too.

But, its interesting that you're not having problems. Are you using the Windows version of Handbrake? I might just have bad luck. Another person on the Handbrake forums said that strict anamorphic sometimes gives him problems, depending on the movie he's encoding. Maybe I've just tried the wrong ones in my testing.

[Taddeusz]

I'm curious, what's the difference between strict and loose anamorphic PAR?

The reason I ask is because I don't know what I'm using. Basically I just tell AutoMKV to mux in 27:32 or 8:9 depending on whether the original video is 16:9 or 4:3.

[evilpenguin]

http://trac.handbrake.fr/wiki/AnamorphicGuide

[Taddeusz]

Ok, that means I use strict anamorphic PAR. I have no problems displaying my 720x480 anamorphic videos on any computer or my HD Extender. Now, I had previously had problems on one of the previous versions of SageTV but that problem has been long since corrected.

If I remember correctly the problem existed approximately two release versions ago, maybe three. I've been doing the beta testing thing for so long I really can't remember which was the last release version that exhibited that problem.

One thing I can say about the HD Extender and SageTV in general is that it requires that the video stream be coded with the proper PAR. I found this out the hard way when I discovered that by default MKVmerge strips the stream AR data during mux and so whenever I played the videos in SageTV anywhere they would all display at 1.5:1 because it was ignoring the MKV container DAR.

I've actually had problems where even square pixel HD videos would not display correctly unless they had the proper PAR encoded in the stream. Weird I know, but that was the only way I got the video to play.

I know way too much about this crap. It's so bad I've had nightmares about aspect ratios.

[reggie14]

Out of curiosity, have any of you had to use variable frame rate encoding? I want to encode my DS9 DVDs, but so far I've noticed some scenes are telecined. For instance, it appears the special effects scenes are telecined. I'm trying out Handbrake's VFR feature, which appears to help. But I'm still trying to work out the kinks. Specifically, I'm having problems with audio synchronization. Hopefully I can find some settings that work right.

[sandor]

Originally Posted by Taddeusz

...The DVD is letterboxed 4:3. I decided not to crop it but then I was thinking that once I get an HDTV there won't be any way I can get full frame on the video without chopping off part of the top and bottom of the video. My only option then is to crop it so that when it's displayed on a 16:9 TV I'll get bars on the sides because it's being slightly pillarboxed. Stanley Kubrick sure did try some odd things.

I somewhat doubt Kubrick had anything to do with the encoding of the Clockwork Orange DVD - it wasn't released on DVD until after his death, only VHS previously.

More of the issue is probably that it was released in the very early days of DVD, and the movie houses were still trying to use underpowered expensive hardware to try and determine the best path for dealing with this new digital movie format...

Heck, back in '99 a large number of DVD players could barely handle the full 9.8 mbps DVD bandwidth yet...

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by sandor

I somewhat doubt Kubrick had anything to do with the encoding of the Clockwork Orange DVD - it wasn't released on DVD until after his death, only VHS previously.

More of the issue is probably that it was released in the very early days of DVD, and the movie houses were still trying to use underpowered expensive hardware to try and determine the best path for dealing with this new digital movie format...

Heck, back in '99 a large number of DVD players could barely handle the full 9.8 mbps DVD bandwidth yet...

Certainly he had something to do with it, although not directly, because he blocked A Clockwork Orange in a 1.66:1 aspect ratio. This meant that they couldn't very well convert it to 16:9 without adding a little bit of pillarboxing or compromizing the original artistic intent by cropping it to the wider format. For that reason the movie was converted to DVD in a letterboxed 4:3 format. Consequently, the HD version of the movie is actually in a 1.66:1 aspect with no boxing required.

Stanley Kubrick has always been one to work outside the mold of most film making and block his films in rather odd formats (at least for the time). For example, Eye's Wide Shut was blocked in 4:3 and that is how it is presented on the DVD.

[tmiranda]

What can be used to put VC1 video into a MKV container? It does not seem as if any of the tools mentioned in this thread (Handbrake, AutoMKV, FairUse, mkvmerge) can do this.

I'm trying to get my STX HD100 to smoothly play video encoded to blu-ray specifications and MKV seems to be the best option.

[dadams]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

What can be used to put VC1 video into a MKV container? It does not seem as if any of the tools mentioned in this thread (Handbrake, AutoMKV, FairUse, mkvmerge) can do this.

If its from HD-DVD then I have to use vc1conv to get it to 23.976, then vc12avi (takes the vc1 to avi), then mkvmerge

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by dadams

If its from HD-DVD then I have to use vc1conv to get it to 23.976, then vc12avi (takes the vc1 to avi), then mkvmerge

It's Blu-ray, so already 25 fps. Thanks for pointing me to vc12avi.

[Spriter]

... shed some light for me on a strange topic.

I aslo use AutoMKV to compress my DVD rip in order to access them on my HD extender. I do have some challenge though. Using the default option, should I conver a 16:9 DVD, I would get small black bar on each side of the screen.

Using 2.35 aspect ratio, I would get the same bar. Should you have experiences handling this, I would appreciate.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by Spriter

... shed some light for me on a strange topic.

I aslo use AutoMKV to compress my DVD rip in order to access them on my HD extender. I do have some challenge though. Using the default option, should I conver a 16:9 DVD, I would get small black bar on each side of the screen.

Using 2.35 aspect ratio, I would get the same bar. Should you have experiences handling this, I would appreciate.

Are you converting using Anamorphic Encoding?

[lobosrul]

Originally Posted by Spriter

... shed some light for me on a strange topic.

I aslo use AutoMKV to compress my DVD rip in order to access them on my HD extender. I do have some challenge though. Using the default option, should I conver a 16:9 DVD, I would get small black bar on each side of the screen.

Using 2.35 aspect ratio, I would get the same bar. Should you have experiences handling this, I would appreciate.

I generally just encode my DVD's un-scaled and un-cropped. Sage is smart enough to know to stretch 720x480 video but if you do something weird like crop a 1.85:1 move to 720x464, or a 2.35:1 move to 720x360 it won't. Encoding black bars won't hurt compressibility by much.

[reggie14]

Out of curiosity, what H.264 and AAC decoders (and splitters) do you use? I'm still trying to rip my DS9 DVDs, but I have to use variable frame rate encoding. FFDshow doesn't seem to like that very much, since the audio isn't synchronized quite right with the video. But, playback seems to work fine with VLC and on the HD100 extender. I'd like to find a set of decoders and splitters that will work with my software clients

[reggie14]

Most software decoders don't mind variable frame rate encoded files. CoreAVC, VLC and Quicktime handle it quite nicely (although, I'm a little surprised that QT handles it).

However, the HD100 doesn't handle the variable frame rate encoded files very well. It looks like the scenes that are telecined play back fine, but the rest of the scenes stutter during playback. It kind of looks like its playing back at about 10-15 frames/second. This is sort of strange, because its the opposite of what I was experiencing before I switched to variable frame rate encoding (the telecined scenes stuttered, but the rest played back fine).

[chiledog]

Originally Posted by lobosrul

I generally just encode my DVD's un-scaled and un-cropped. Sage is smart enough to know to stretch 720x480 video but if you do something weird like crop a 1.85:1 move to 720x464, or a 2.35:1 move to 720x360 it won't. Encoding black bars won't hurt compressibility by much.

I also use autoMKV, what are the steps for creating a anamorphic file?

Also, do you crop the black bars (auto-crop). I find cropping the bars save about 10% to 15% of the file size.

Also, when playing the movie, what aspect ration do you have the HD100 on? If I have it on source, the video is scrunched. I have to change the aspect ratio to full. (even when I play on the computer, the aspect ratio is wrong).

If I auto-crop the bars, the computer will play the aspect ration correctly, but the HD100 will fill the screen with the anamorphic video (ie, scrunched). I can not change the HD100's aspect ration to fix it since it it treating the 720 anamorphic pixels as the full width. (hope this makes sense....)

Thanks

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by chiledog

I also use autoMKV, what are the steps for creating a anamorphic file?

Also, do you crop the black bars (auto-crop). I find cropping the bars save about 10% to 15% of the file size.

Also, when playing the movie, what aspect ration do you have the HD100 on? If I have it on source, the video is scrunched. I have to change the aspect ratio to full. (even when I play on the computer, the aspect ratio is wrong).

If I auto-crop the bars, the computer will play the aspect ration correctly, but the HD100 will fill the screen with the anamorphic video (ie, scrunched). I can not change the HD100's aspect ration to fix it since it it treating the 720 anamorphic pixels as the full width. (hope this makes sense....)

Thanks

If you're using an MKV container make sure on the Advanced Settings tab under Muxing Options that you have "--engage keep_bitstream_ar_info" checked. Mkvmerge strips the AR data out by default and you need that in there for the HD100 to playback MKV files properly.

I personally don't crop the black bars. I suppose I'm kind of a purist but I'd rather keep the original 16:9 or 4:3 aspect ratio of the video. I also figure I'll have fewer aspect ratio related problems if I keep it as simple as possible. Besides, storage is ridiculously cheap these days. Not that I have money coming out of my ears but $90 US for a 500GB drive is just awesome.

BTW, what settings do you use to compress? Previously I was using a straight 2000kb/s compression rate. This would give me approximately 1GB/hr with the original AC3 audio. I was playing around a couple weeks ago and discovered that I could cut sizes down by quite a bit by using CRF compression with a quality value of around 23. Depending on the movie I have to turn around and use the variable mode and set a specific size. Some movies look good at 23 and some don't. Just depends. I had an anime with a length of 2hr & 40min come out this morning at about 1.4GB and looked really good. Again, it just depends on the content.