Best settings for MKV

WD Legacy Products WD TV Live & Live Plus
1

Hi,

Waiting to receive my HD TV Live, i’m beginning to encode my DVD in MKV format (as i’ve read it seems it the best one for this kind of job… despite i used to think that  MP4 was more standard).

I’ve a Mac and i’m using Handbrake. As i’m a totally noob regarding video encoding, i don’t know what settings would be the best (in terms of ration size/quality)… Hence my questions.

For Audio, i think the best is to choose AC3 passthru

For Video, MKV settings in Handbrake allow me to choose a target size, an average bitrate or a constant quality. By default, Handbrake choose a Constant Quality of 60%.

Default video filters are Detelecine and Decomb.

May i go with these setting or should i play with them ?

These MKV are intended to be seen on a 40" HD Sony Bravia, no home theater devices : i understand i could choose a 100% quality but, in this case, i imagine i rather make a vob… 

Any advices are welcome… as the transcoding process is rather long, i don’t want to create ugly files and having to redo all this work. 

2

Here’s how I set handbrake:

Audio:  Pass thru EVERYTHING, except foreign languages.  I have no use for them.  (Meaning, I include the primary AC3 5.1, any AC3 Commentaries, and also DTS Passthru if it’s there.)

For Video:  h.264 codec, constant quality with a PF setting of 22.  

I don’t use Detelecine, but I do set Decomb to Default.

This yields an MKV usually about 20% of the size of the original VOBs, but that can vary widely. 

This setup coding Animation leaves a lot to be desired; the Decomb doesn’t work in all cases.  I might try them again using the Deinterlace filter (which looses detail and is slow, but might yield better results.)

I wouldn’t limit your MKVs to what equipment you have now; you don’t want to re-encode everything when you get a home theater set up, do you… :slight_smile: