Difference from Handbrake GUI?

[ghender3]

I've been a fan of your CLI efforts for years, but I've got one question about the new, improved project. Is there any fundamental difference, for the video encode in particular, starting with a 1080p source, between using transcode-video.rb, and using a current version of Handbrake GUI, and telling it to output a 1080p MKV, 5000 kbps, multipass, with Turbo for the analysis pass? Based on your Read Me, and looking for a while at the ruby script itself, that looks Handbrake is being told to do. For your default transcode, of course. I certainly may be vastly oversimplifying what I think I see.

Also, with the previous version of the project, there was the target - big option. Are you happy with what you see at 5000 kbps, vs. , say 7,000?

Thanks

[lisamelton]

@ghender3 Thanks for being a fan! And these are all really good questions.

Using the HandBrake GUI settings you describe would, indeed, be the same as the default ratecontrol with transcode-video.rb for 1080p SDR inputs. But my script also modifies the cropping method to not suck and, more importantly, dynamically sets the framerate mode as well as the target bitrate for other resolutions. Not only that, the default mode will automatically scale 4K inputs to 1080p as well convert them from HDR to SDR.

And that only describes what transcode-video.rb does for video using the default mode. My script has automatic and dynamic behaviors for handling both audio and subtitle tracks.

Again, that's only when using the default mode. MY script gets more flexible and clever with its other video and audio modes.

Doing all that with the HandBrake GUI is, to be blunt, a PITA for a single video, not to mention multiple videos in a batch. Which is why I wrote transcode-video.rb in the first place.

As for whether I'm happy with the target bitrate of 5000 Kbps for 1080p output with the default mode? I'm so happy that I often reduce the target to 4000 Kbps, LOL. Seriously, this works great for TV episodes.

BTW, there is a "secret" behavior of the --bitrate option in transcode-video.rb which gets you something similar to the old --target small and --target big options when using the default mode. Simply pass --bitrate 1 (or any small number) to get the minimum bitrate for that resolution (which would be 4000 Kbps for 1080p) or `--bitrate 1000000 (or any big number) to get the maximum (which would be 8000 Kbps for 1080p).

I hope that answers your questions.

Again, thanks for using my scripts!