[GAMER101]

I am debating whether or not I should compress my 1:1 bluray rips down to 720p. I notice the Apple TV2 Preset in handbrake results in a 4.5-6GB file in 720p. I thought the quality looked very good on my 60 inch TV. However I do want to build a home theater someday in my home with a 120 inch screen possibly a 140 inch screen. And I am 100% sure the quality would be crap.

Also I don't go crazy about getting every movie I buy in bluray. I only get movies I mostly love and will watch again. Movies such as Disney movies, Kick-Ass, Titanic, and X-Men. Movies such as Yes, Man, Big Daddy, or every single horror movie I will not buy on bluray.

[PatK]

I think you answered your question

I am 100% sure the quality would be crap.

but in defence of a slight compression using one of the newer codecs to a 1080p file, I suspect the gains will be close to 50% stripped of unnecessary extras without a lot of loss. I'm dismayed by some of the Blu-Ray offerings that appear to be plain DVD dumps or upscale, yet asking the Blu-Ray premium prices.

[Prof Yaffle]

Why not compress to 1080 RF 20ish? You'll get a file that's 1/4 the size of the current one without (to me) any noticeable loss. Try it and see.

Of course, the ultimate answer is dependent on space and time... are you lacking the former or do you have too much of the latter, as compressing BRs isn't quick unless you're using a powerful machine. Resolution isn't everything - high-bitrate 720 will look better than low-bitrate 1080 IMO, plus it depends on your screen's resolution and what upscaling algorithms are being used.

[thrak76]

For future-proofing with a large projection system, I'd just do lossless rips of the main title if hdd space is not an issue - and really, these days it's not.

I still compress some titles to 720p with core audio (DD or DTS) if I know it doesn't matter too much to me about the PQ. Some comedies, all TV shows, etc. That's entirely subjective though. It doesn't look bad to me on a 46" TV, and I suspect I'd be fine with it on a projection system too considering the video processing that takes place in a PJ would help.

All that being said, I agree with Prof Yaffle. High Profile preset, 1080 with CR 20 nets a great-looking file with significant space savings, dependent on title. Animation saves tons of space. Old, grainy movies, not so much.

[Prof Yaffle]

For future-proofing

And there's the rub... a good few years ago, I thought that XviD/DivX MPEG-2 encodes to somethingx320 were the mutt's nuts - look, DVDs on my PC! Then I realised how awful they looked on a bigger screen... and watching them on TV (albeit via RF connections to a PAL CRT...) was truly grim... so full-resolution MPEG-2 was the way to go... and then full DVD H.264... then Bluray with AAC stereo... then AC3 5.1... then BR with core DTS... then HD audio...

Whatever you do now, in five years it'll look crap on your ultra hi-def 240" TrueLife(SM) projector system. And just wait until the holoprojectors kick in, then all those videos of your grandchildren you took in 2040 will look really terrible.

[GAMER101]

One of my friends compress all their movies to 720p and they play just fine on his 100 inch screen. The average file size for them is 5-7.5GB and about 1GB per TV episode.

[tential]

Depends on display size and how big of a compression you're going to do.

If it's good for you though is what counts so do some tests and see what you like.

That said, there was a time where I thought YIFY style encodes were the best when I used my laptop. they were still good when I used my 42 inch HDTV. On my 70 inch though, they weren't good, but the issue with this is, I didn't notice they weren't good until I saw better quality.

So there are two things that effect your choices.
The first is choosing something that works well for you now that you like.
The second is choosing something that will work for you in the future as well if you plan on upgrading yoru display size. For that reason alone, I go for as high quality as I can withstand and I'm on Thark's reasoning with that it depends on the file. TV Shows, especially lame comedies (Big Bang THeory, How I met your mother) aren't things I care about where as HBO shows, I'll do as high of a quality as possible.

---

One of my friends compress all their movies to 720p and they play just fine on his 100 inch screen. The average file size for them is 5-7.5GB and about 1GB per TV episode.

There is a "What you don't know can't hurt you." Factor with these things though.
I watched YIFY 1080p movies and LOVED it and constantly said "Why go bigger?" After watching 1080p 10GB files, I'll never go back. It's just so hard.
I've always said "I'm happy with XYZ quality why go higher?" until I saw the higher quality encodes/definition standards, etc.

4K may be the first time this doesn't happen though but well, most likely I'll just use it as a reason to move the TV closer to the sofa since I like sitting super close to my screen and feeling super emerged in content lol.

[GAMER101]

I did a preview on the High Profile preset. I love the quality in that. One question though. Should the framerate be set on constant framerate? Also what file size of RF should I aim for. I don't mind file sizes of 10GB-15GB.

[tential]

It's dependent on you. What's acceptable for me may not be acceptable for you so my statement for you testing it still stands.

Framerate should be set to same as source.

I'm not sure what you mean when you say "Also what file size of RF should I aim for?" You don't aim for a file size with RF. You aim for a quality level. A movie with tons of high speed content in constant RF (I'm assuming you chose constant RF) will have a large file size as it will take a lot more space to hold all that high speed content at a high quality.
A movie with no motion where people just stand and talk barely move and just nothing will have a low file size as there isn't much happening.

https://trac.handbrake.fr/wiki/ConstantQuality

That'll give you some idea of what to do but even their RF recommendations are still dependent on what you're encoding. I doubt you'd want to encode Man of Steel with a High RF value if you still want to include that Grain that is in the movie and retain quality in the action scenes. Also, they say those RF values to keep "reasonable file sizes" but then don't note the file size.

I wish there were concrete numbers and I looked for them myself a LOT when I wanted to start using Handbrake but I ended up having to do some experimentation myself.

Edit: Seems I might be wrong on the high motion content compression stuff. Some more reading on the subject here:
http://slhck.info/articles/crf

So I'd start at around RF20, then go from there. Lower numbers if you still want more quality and higher numbers if you aren't noticing any improvement.

[ertman]

I rather go lossless, but in a pinch I like an RF around 18. It may just be a placebo, but the extra headroom in quality (and file size), makes me worry less about quality degradation.

[GAMER101]

So it really depends on the movie. Movies such as the average Disney movie could probably have a higher RF? But movies such as Kick-Ass or Transormers I'd want a lower RF?

[calev]

If its a movie with a lot of darks and flames I like to use a high RF of 18. Nothing is worse to me than a bunch of blocks around a torch in a dim scene. South park would look fine with a RF of 23. Not a lot going on there.

[tential]

So it really depends on the movie. Movies such as the average Disney movie could probably have a higher RF? But movies such as Kick-Ass or Transormers I'd want a lower RF?

Yup.

Also depends on how much you care about the content. Like Disney Movie/Comedy show? I don't really care so an RF of 22+ is fine for me.

A movie though, especially a thriller? An RF of 18-20.
Like Calev said though as well, movie has darks/flames? Then that may influence your decision. There are lots of things that can influence what settings you will use in handbrake and I'm sure some of the most popular encoders have tons of presets that they have made to produce high quality encodes. Experimentation is the only real way you'll know though what RF levels are acceptable for yourself but yes, your general premise is correct.

Animation also just in general doesn't usually need a high RF.

[nickr]

I have seen many people recommend RF of 18 for a good encode.

[davilla]

Muck about too much with custom settings and you will bork hw decode