[chris1bass]

Hello guys, thank you for taking some time out of your lives to assist me. I have rip many of my movies and have some movies from other places. Anyways a lot of my movies are about 30GB's or more. Some that I got from online are much lower usually 10GB's. Anyways the container is MKV, using h.264 MPEG 4 part 10. Anything else better? I heard promising things on H 265, I also heard that it really only makes any difference at super high resolutions like 4k/8k and not necessarily at 1080P. Another 4TB HDD coming this Christmas but that won't last long, deleting stuff is not something I am fond of.

[lrusak]

Yes H265 will decrease the file size substantially, but it is still too soon to do so.

There is no (or very limited) hardware GPU decoding support for H265, I'd wait till this is mainlined.

Kodi 14.0 Helix can play H265, but it is all done via CPU decoding, so it requires a midrange quad core processor.

[skylarking]

I ripped an episode from one DVD (720x576 mpeg2) using MakeMKV (1.8.14) and then used Handbrake (svn6509 nightly) to re-encode the mkv file to h.264 and to h.265 using the default settings in both cases.
The original (mpeg2) mkv rip was a 42 minute episiode and was 1,764,947 KB in size while the h.264 file was 496,717 KB and took 3 minutes to re-encode and the h.265 file was 455,467 KB and took 16 minutes.

In theory h.265 should be about 1/2 the size of h.264 (which itself is 1/4 size of mpeg2) but it didn't quite turn out that way.
Possibly the h.265 implementation in Handbrake is (still?) alpha which may have something to do with the results i've seen, or the difference is not noticable within standard def movies... i don't know as i'm not an expert it video encoding.

I expect re-encoding the main movie of a BD to h.265 would result in something closer to the theoretical 1/2 size file though i haven't tried it as yet.
But playback was not an issue on Kodi 14.0 or in VLC for that matter as i've got a relatively powerfull machine.
So it's the encode time that stops me from moving to h.265 at this stage
Large HDD are not obscenely expensive and much easier than leaving the PC on for days re-encoding my videos

[chris1bass]

Thank you for replying guys! So I went ahead and left some files to encode in h265 using handbrake. 1080P h.264 movies let my CPU stay under 20%, switching to h.265 bring it up to 80% and up. It would not be an issue on my main system as it has better airflow and cooling, but on my HTPC this is actually something that worries me. I would prefer my GPU to malfunction over my CPU on my HTPC. Plays files very smooth though, 1080P with DTS HD MA. Leaving my BattleStation working overnight to convert the videos is not an issue or a problem as my main battle station is always running anyways. I found that removing unneeded languages is somewhere where I can SERIOUSLY save a lot of file size. I think I will stick to h264 for now. I can definitely tell that H265 is at least 1 year away. I am however EXTREMELY pleased that Kodi was able to play it.

[wgstarks]

Thank you for replying guys! So I went ahead and left some files to encode in h265 using handbrake. 1080P h.264 movies let my CPU stay under 20%, switching to h.265 bring it up to 80% and up. It would not be an issue on my main system as it has better airflow and cooling, but on my HTPC this is actually something that worries me. I would prefer my GPU to malfunction over my CPU on my HTPC. Plays files very smooth though, 1080P with DTS HD MA. Leaving my BattleStation working overnight to convert the videos is not an issue or a problem as my main battle station is always running anyways. I found that removing unneeded languages is somewhere where I can SERIOUSLY save a lot of file size. I think I will stick to h264 for now. I can definitely tell that H265 is at least 1 year away. I am however EXTREMELY pleased that Kodi was able to play it.

That's the main drawback right now with hevc IMO. From what I understand Kodi currently only supports software decoding so CPU load is fairly high. Probably too high for many low end boxes. I'm sure this will change in time once more GPU manufacturers support the new codec.

Edit: Since I started using unRaid, file size isn't nearly as much of an issue.

[chris1bass]

Edit: Since I started using unRaid, file size isn't nearly as much of an issue.

http://lime-technology.com/

I search Unraid, what can you tell me about it? I am very interested because my HTPC has 4 HDD inside of it already. I have heard the terms NAS but I do not know enough about them to know or even describe it to someone else. Is it basically just a device where I can plug like 4+ HDD? it just doesn't run windows or anything?

[wgstarks]

The basic UnRaid configuration is a linux build although you can run Windows in a VM if you want. XBMC also. Most people would build their own machine to save money, but prebuilt machines are available. You could probably build your own low end media server for ~200.00 US. Not counting the drive cost. Most of the basics are described on the Lime Tech website. If you want you can post questions to their forum.

[N.O.W.A.L.L]

Using HandBrake with 4.1 LightHd gives excellent result.

Dont forget to paste this in the advanced section of Handbrake:

ref=6:trellis=0:bframes=4:b-adapt=2:direct=auto:me=umh:analyse=all:open-gop=0:rc-lookahead=50:level=4.1:fast-pskip=0ubq=7:merange=16

details here (in french sorry): http://tutox264.wordpress.com/

try to match bitrates in HandBrake for optimal result:

[wgstarks]

Using HandBrake with 4.1 LightHd gives excellent result.

Dont forget to paste this in the advanced section of Handbrake:

ref=6:trellis=0:bframes=4:b-adapt=2:direct=auto:me=umh:analyse=all:open-gop=0:rc-lookahead=50:level=4.1:fast-pskip=0ubq=7:merange=16

details here (in french sorry): http://tutox264.wordpress.com/

try to match bitrates in HandBrake for optimal result:

What is 4.1 LightHD? I'm guessing maybe the 4.1 is an x264 profile maybe Not a clue about LightHD though. Tried to read the article you linked, but my French is awful.

[N.O.W.A.L.L]

HDlight is like MiniHD, just a way to mean HD quality with light weight, but with special algorythm so that the compression is not noticeable.

4.1 is just a profile in Handbrake (follow instructions in the french tutorial. even if you dont understand the language, you should manage with the pictures). To achieve max quality you have to set "2-passes" in HandBrake (the 1st one can be set to "fast" though), and you have to copy-paste the special lines in advanced tab.
With these settings I manage to have multi languages movies in crystal-clear quality for about 1.6 Gb (720p) or about 3Gb (1080p).
I compress in MKV, x264, AAC (yeah I know AC3 would be better, but AAC is compatible with more devices)

But be warned. "Light" HD profile when set correctly gives really incredible results, with smooth gradients even in dark or fast paced scenes, but it requires TIME and POWER!

I gave up compressing on my MacBook Pro at home, the CPU was at 1000%, the fans were screaming, the battery yelling and took more than 10 hours for a fullHD movie.

But at work I have a 2012 MacPro very very powerful, and I compress there the movie while I work on usual daily design projects. At full quality, 2 passes, a 1080p FullHD of 90min takes about 4 hours to be compressed, a 720p HD about 2 hours.



The new version of Handbrake have beta support of x265.
But I advice you to not use x265 for now:
1) the standard is not defined, still in discussion so you may have compatibility issues with devices later.
2) no hardware acceleration in Kodi

[wgstarks]

I guess what's throwing me off is the name "LightHD". I don't see this anywhere in my Handbrake app (version 0.10.0). Is it just a preset I need to create? My MacPro is a little old, but I think the dual Quad Core Xeons will have enough power. The time really isn't a problem. I just load the queue and let it run.

[N.O.W.A.L.L]

You are right, it is just a preset to create in Handbrake

you can find numerous movies compressed this way on the net (nooo, I will not give URL that's not the point)
in their file name it is written LightHD, or HDLight, or MiniHD or mHD depending of the coder or team.

All that matters is that we can say Divx/Avi is now officially and finally dead, you can have HD/FullHD movie with about the same size in x264 already (and it will be better in a couple of years when/if x265 will be s standard)

[wgstarks]

Thanks for the info. I'll have to give it a test run.

[N.O.W.A.L.L]

in the advanced settings, just put the "Treillis" on "ALWAYS" (makes the analysis and compression longer, but gives awesome results)

[wgstarks]

If you are using 2 pass encoding, what do you have Average Bitrate set at? I've always used Constant Quality CF=20.