Difference between revisions of "DVD Rip Using DVDfab and Handbrake"

Revision as of 18:26, 6 July 2010

HandBrake is an open-source, GPL-licensed, multiplatform, multithreaded video transcoder, available for MacOS X, Linux and Windows. It allows you to convert digital video, such as from a DVD source (MPEG2) to the more advanced MPEG4 H.264 format.

On a Linux system Handbrake can read encrypted DVD source when used with the VideoLAN Player (VLC). On a windows system an encrypted DVD would first have to be decrypted with another program and copied to the system harddrive.

Review

This is the latest video conversion tool to be reviewed, and when compared to traditional tools Handbrake comes out a clear winner. This software is completely free and it can compete head on against expensive commercial applications to do the same thing.

For the software's specific purpose, converting MPEG2 to H.264, Handbrake receives one of our highest ratings! Handbrake doesn't have all of the different conversion format options and edition functionality of some commercial packages, but it is designed to be a very specific tool for a very specific task, and for that it is clearly a rock star.

Complete Process Guide

Subtitles: forced only, burned in, default

Whether you choose "burned in" or not depends on the container. With MP4, you have no choice (the subs will be burned in), with MKV, it's up to you to decide whether you want soft subs (not burned in) or if you prefer the subs burned in the video.

When encoding, go into the subtitles section, select English from the list and then tick all three boxes next to it "Forced Only", "Burned Inn" and "Default". This will burn subtitles for foreign audio into your movie.

• Track: Foreign Audio Search (Bitmap)
• Checkboxes: Forced Only, Burned In, Default

Forced Subtitles can be captured and burned into the source video. HandBrake can scan the source for subtitles that appear only 10% (or less) of the time in addition to scanning for the presence of any forced subtitles. To enable this functionality within the HandBrake user interface, from the “Subtitles” tab select the “Foreign Audio Search (Bitmap)” option from the “Track” dropdown menu and click the “Forced” Checkbox.

If you do not get a foreign section only subtitle track in your output file, then you may have to manually find and select the correct subtitle track from the “Track” dropdown menu.

Audio Settings

Normalize makes the audio peak 1.0dB and adjusts the volume across the board to slide it "up" or "down" to reach that peak. Relative volume between scenes will still vary widely - soft will still be soft, loud will still be loud, but the overall volume will be louder.

Dynamic range compression makes loud sounds softer and soft sounds louder, "flattening" the volume somewhat across the entire rip.

Use HandBrake's DRC (Dynamic Range Control) to flatten the highs and lows. Increasing DRC (dynamic range compression) reduces the difference between quiet sounds and loud sounds.

On the Audio tab:

• Source: Automatic
• Audio Codec: AAC (faac)
• Mixdown: Dolby Pro Logic II
• Samplerate (kHz): 44.1
• Bitrate: 128
• DRC: 2