Video Encoding
Encoding Restrictions
More specific encoding restrictions for the audio stream could be added, but a general rule of thumb, most AAC configurations should work, just do not use extreme lows or highs with the sample rate. Also max supported amount is 4 channels, although encoding with more channels may still play. This needs to be tested.
Encoding with HandBrake
HandBrake is one of the go to tools for re-encoding videos. Another powerful tool is ffmpeg however that has a much larger learning curve that would not be friendly to a beginner. For that reason we are providing some additional tips and resources for HandBrake.
Presets
HandBrake allows the ability to export and import presets. These presets pre-configure and alter the behavior of some features. We are providing some presets as a starting point for you to tune to your available hardware for encoding.
Unfortunately we do not have any presets at this time for other dedicated video encoders from AMD and Intel. These are shown as QSV for Intel and AMF for AMD instead of NVENC under the the list of video encoders available on the video settings tab. You could easily open one of the existing presets and change the selected video encoder. Annoyingly though this will alter some settings like the encoder preset, profile, and level. Make sure to change those back to what it was before. Then just save the preset by selecting Preset > Add Preset.
How to Import and Use a Preset
Install HandBrake.
Download the preset JSON file above and store it somewhere you can find it later. I recommend saving it to
%APPDATA%/HandBrake/on Windows or equivalent on other operating systems so you can easily find it again in the future and will be stored with HandBrake's main preset file that you will be importing into.Open HandBrake and either press the cancel button or select a video you would like to re-encode.
At the top of HandBrake there is a menu bar select
Presets > Import from file. It should open your default file browser and ask you to select which file to import. Find the downloaded preset and select it.Now that the presets have been imported, you can now select one. Select
Presets > Presets, put your cursor over it and it will show you a long list of presets. If you select one it will change your encoding configuration. Ours most likely will be at the bottom of the list annoyingly.
To force our presets to show at the top of the presets list, there is a trick to achieving this. Select the first Presets > Delete Built-In Presets. Now forewarning if you edited the built-in presets you will be losing this data unless you back it up. Then if you want the built-in presets still you can once again by selecting Presets > Reset Built-In Presets and it will add back the built-in presets but after the ones you just imported. Another way to do this without deleting the built-in presets and re-adding them would be to manually edit the presets.json file located at %APPDATA%/HandBrake/.
What Settings are Safe to Change?
If you are new to this and are unsure what is safe to change, no worries we go you covered. All you have to worry about is a few settings on the Video Settings tab.
Encoder Preset - This changes the amount of compression it will try and perform. The also directly correlates with how long the encoding will take to complete.
Quality Subsection
Constant Quality - This determines the quality which can also increase how long it takes to complete but not as much as the encoder preset. This also directly correlates with how large the file will be. This may seem confusing as we just explained that the encoder preset determines compression. Constant quality determines a level of quality it will try to encode to. More quality means a larger file. Encoder preset determines how hard it will try and fit more data in the same amount of allotted space. A very fast encoder preset and a lower (better quality) constant quality could potentially create a video that is larger than its source and then the compression rate would be in the negatives.
Avg Bitrate (kbps) - This is an alternative to Constant Quality. This allows you to have more control over the final file size of the encoded video. Constant Quality tries to maintain a certain quality regardless of how much space it will take. Average bitrate is measure in Kilobits (kb) per second which is similar to Megabytes (MB) per second. 1 MB is equal to 8000 kb. If you have a 30 second video and you want the file size to be around 30 MB then you would set the desired average bitrate to be 8000 kbps. You can also use an online unit conversion tool or simply Google it like
1MB to kbif you do not want to do the math yourself.Multi-Pass Encoding - This causes an encoding to do two passes over the video when you have Avg Bitrate enabled instead of Constant Quality. This will make the final file size closer to the desired average bitrate. Average bitrate with a single pass tries its best to maintain a certain average bitrate but this is difficult to do on the fly and requires a certain amount of hindsight to do well, multi-pass encoding provides this hindsight. One major point to note is that multi-pass encoding can significantly increase the time it takes to encode.
Turbo analysis pass - This speeds up the initial pass if you want the final file size to be closer to the desired average bitrate but do not want to wait as long. It will result in a loss of accuracy towards maintaining the desired average bitrate but is still better than no multi pass encoding at all. Turn this on if you want to save significant time but want a more accurately maintained bitrate.
Multi-Pass Encoding is only available for CPU encoding not GPU encoding.
It is recommended to play around with the encoder preset and constant quality when first beginning and see what works with your hardware and your desired quality and compression. Cranking all the settings or just a single setting to the max most likely is not viable nor is the minimum. However, if you have a newer NVIDIA GPU (RTX 4000 series) I have found that the slowest encoder preset is not too long. You just choose what quality/file size you want by adjusting the Constant Quality and that is all you have to do.
Which Preset Should I Use?
There is a lot of considerations to think about when choosing a preset. Does your content have HDR? Does your hardware your encoding with have a GPU with a dedicated video encoder on it? How long do you want to wait?
Picking between a CPU and GPU NVENC preset is probably the most simple task. If you have an NVIDIA GPU, anything better/newer than the GTX 750 from all the way back in 2015 should be able to do H.264 or H.265 NVENC. If you are able to use a NVENC and there is not a large time gap between the release of your GPU from your CPU then I highly recommend only using the NVENC presets. At the cost of maybe slightly worse results quality and compression wise to actually being better than a CPU encode in a fraction of the time. NVENC is a significant time saver. A resource on determining if your NVIDIA GPU supports NVENC.
Unfortunately we do not have any presets at this time for other dedicated video encoders from AMD and Intel. These are shown as QSV for Intel and AMF for AMD instead of NVENC under the the list of video encoders available on the video settings tab. You could easily make your own preset by copying over values from our presets to your very own preset.
Presets containing the term H.264 will be the quickest to encode, however, H.265 (a.k.a. High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC)), can provide better quality for the same size file. That is H.265 is better at compression, however, for a CPU encode this can take longer to do.
Presets containing the term "8-bit, Non-HDR" and "10-bit, HDR" are basically just asking you if you want the final video encoded to support HDR. You only want to do the HDR option if the source video you are using has HDR support it self. Most content generally does not have HDR, however, if you are so inclined to check you can easily check with VLC Player and opening the source video and going to Tools > Codec Information and seeing if the video stream contains a field called Color Primaries and has the value ITU-R BT.2020.
How Do I Finally Encode A Video?
Specifically for our PS5 / PS VR2 application we recommend going to Tools > Preferences > Output Files and for the MP4 File Extension set it to Always use MP4.
Open HandBrake and when it opens it will ask you to select a source video, do so.
After selecting a source video, it should allow you to change settings. Assuming you imported our presets and selected one using our preset guide.
If you are new to this only adjust the settings as laid out here.
Then choose a save location like your sideloading external drive, RSS Feed, or DLNA server at the bottom of the application.
Finally, hit the Start Encode button at the top. Or you can press Add to Queue then open the Queue, also at the top, and start encoding from the Queue popup menu by pressing the Start Queue button. The queue allows you to queue up a multiple videos for encoding all at once before starting or even let you queue more videos for encoding while its encoding.
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