HandBrake Notes

From DreamsteepWiki

These notes refer specifically to video files converted for the Dental Hygiene DOLETA grant project, but are applicable to other video conversion needs.

Step 1

Convert VHS tapes, or Mini DV tapes to MPEG2 by going straight into a DVR at the maximum quality. This produces a video that is virtually indistinguishable from the original, and is a good candidate for conversion to other formats, due to the high bitrate and overall image fidelity.

I have also found that using a DVR is MUCH faster than using a software encoding solution on a computer, even a fast computer. The real-time capability of a DVR to encode MPEG2 gives good results. A capture card with hardware MPEG2 would likely produce good results as well, but the capture process requires a lot of computer resources.

Step 2

On the Mac OS X platform use HandBrake with the following settings:

• 640 x 480 (higher quality format) - 2-Pass, deinterlace fast, 128 Kbps stereo AAC audio, and an average bitrate of 1000.

• 320 x 240 (lower quality format) - 2-Pass, deinterlace fast, 128 Kbps stereo AAC audio, and an average bitrate of 500.

• Screenshot showing Handbrake settings for 640 x 480 format.