[HOW TO] Using Handbrake To Convert Video For The Nook Color

[gadgetrants]

The deepest I've dipped so far is DVD, 720 x 480. Which, remember, is 480i. I ripped with DVDShrink and converted with Handbrake (e.g., Lord of the Rings) and it looks super. FYI, overall bitrate was about 800 Kbps (24fps) and dimensions were 720x304 (widescreen).

-Matt

 

[faceman]

The deepest I've dipped so far is DVD, 720 x 480. Which, remember, is 480i. I ripped with DVDShrink and converted with Handbrake (e.g., Lord of the Rings) and it looks super. FYI, overall bitrate was about 800 Kbps (24fps) and dimensions were 720x304 (widescreen).

-Matt

Final file size for that 480i movie is approximately what?

 

[gadgetrants]

Since each ran pretty long (3 hours) I decided to transcode with a fixed filesize of 1GB...if that sounds big than just call it ~350MB per hour. Or about 750MB for your typical movie. I have a 16GB sdcard (about $25) that holds 15-18 movies.

-Matt

 

[faceman]

perfect, that's about what I was looking for... i had some ~2hr movies coming in at ~1.5g and that seemed more than necessary for the little screen. i will play around some more, thanks!

 

[armyjeffries]

KInd of a sad question, but I converted an episode of Archer as a pilot. What app are you using to watch the ripped/converted video on the nook?
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[surfmly29]

KInd of a sad question, but I converted an episode of Archer as a pilot. What app are you using to watch the ripped/converted video on the nook?
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army - I have tried Rockplayer Lite and the stock NC video player. Once you have the file on your NC, just 'browse' to it in your favorite file manager and click on it. My NC opens a box asking which player I want to use (stock of Rockplayer) and I can choose (I have not set a default yet as I am trying them both out). So far I actually like the stock player better.

 

[envygreen]

I'm pretty happy with Doubletwist for playing mp3s and my ripped movies. I need to check out Rockplayer though.

If you use fixed file size, are you doing a two pass encode? I tried that (with first pass on turbo) for action movies and a two hour long dvd action movie came out crystal clear at 1 gig.

 

[lartomar2002]

what is the name of the process so i can look it up in the task manager. i have been trying to convert a file and i gave it a destination but i can not find it.

 

[Budge]

Hi. This is my first post. I found this thread while trying to figure out the best Handbrake settings myself. I've been working on getting a smooth copy of Tron: Legacy (Blu-Ray) on the Nook. I followed the How To on this thread with the following changes. 1. Set the video width to 854. 2. Changed the audio to 44.1 and 128. 3. I used a DRC setting of 2.

The resulting video looks great and the audio is louder and in sync. The problem is that the video still has a slight stutter, especially during sweeping/panning shots. Any ideas on how to fix that? My Nook Color is overclocked to 1.1 GHz.

 

[Budge]

Is this thread dead?

 

[gadgetrants]

Hi. This is my first post. I found this thread while trying to figure out the best Handbrake settings myself. I've been working on getting a smooth copy of Tron: Legacy (Blu-Ray) on the Nook. I followed the How To on this thread with the following changes. 1. Set the video width to 854. 2. Changed the audio to 44.1 and 128. 3. I used a DRC setting of 2.

The resulting video looks great and the audio is louder and in sync. The problem is that the video still has a slight stutter, especially during sweeping/panning shots. Any ideas on how to fix that? My Nook Color is overclocked to 1.1 GHz.

Hey Budge, not dead...just a bit dormant. I'm on a business trip at the moment, so only time for a quick response.

I don't have any direct experience ripping Bluray so maybe someone else can chime in on that issue. My naive impression is that you're starting off with a pretty challenging file.

A few questions:

(1) What was your quality setting? Did you go with fixed size/bitrate, or use the QC setting? If QC, I would definitely try a higher setting (more compression) than what you first used.

(2) What is the filesize and bitrate of your output file? The NC processor may be choking a bit if it's on the high side. Does the file play without stutter on your PC player?

(3) I noticed that you used 854 for width. I think there is some debate on this setting, but I'd speculate that the naked eye can't see much difference if any between 854 and 720 (have to do a "blind" test to check!). Consider scaling down a few pixels, to save on filesize and maybe bandwidth.

(4) Have you played with the "Preview" setting? As I recall, it generates a transcoded sample at whichever timepoint you select, so I'd suggest moving it to a high-speed scene, and playing around with the settings some more. You could generate 4 or 5 different alternatives, and quickly test them on the NC.

Sorry for the lag in responding. If you get a chance, please try out some of these options and report back if things look better!

-Matt

 

[Budge]

Hi Matt. Thanks for getting back to me. I treat a Blu-ray the same as a DVD. I'm rip the disk to my hard drive using AnyDVD HD, the point Handbrake to the folder. The videos play back perfectly on my computer, PS3, and my iphone 3G (though with different settings than the one for the Nook). For the record, I am using Froyo 2.2 overclocked to 1.1 Ghz. Youtube videos play back perfectly.

As for your questions: (1) My quality setting was left on 20. (2) The movie is 2 hr 5 min, and the filesize came out to 1.07 GB. The bitrate was 1,096 Kbps and the total bitrate was 1,223 Kbps. The frame rate was 23.976 fps. The file plays flawlessly on my PC. (3) I tried lowering the width to 720 and got the same result. (4) I haven't really played with Preview much, but I will give that a try. It's a great suggestion.

I'm worried that it might be something wrong with my Nook. If it's the ROM, then I can try to reload it or switch to a new one. Otherwise, I need to try to play a file that works fine on other people's Nooks. I did try the "How I Met Your Mother Clip" and it had some stutter problems too. Do you have any samples you can post?

Thanks.

 

[nspeer]

GREAT THREAD and thanks for all your hard work making the tutorial.
I have been trying to use the latest Handbrake version to rip a DVD to MP4 using the xda thread as guidance (Nook Color preset for Handbrake - xda-developers).
Each time and on several different DVD's, my MP4 comes out totally unwatchable with huge multicolored squares (like large pixels) all over the video when I try to preview it on my computer. I have not actually put any of these on my Nook. I ended up using a demo version of a different software called AnyDVD Converter (Video Converter, DVD Ripper - Any Video converter - The versatile video converter for iPod, iPhone, PSP, Zune, cell phones and more). It was easy and the sound and video quality is great. However, in the movie I ripped, called Wall-e, the video was not full screen. It did go from edge to edge horizontally on my Nook (Cyanogen mod 7 run from my SD card only), but it did not fill the screen vertically with large black areas above and below the video window. I am using MoboPlayer to view the video (free from Android market) as the native player didn't work.

Does the method of ripping DVD's to the hard drive discussed here (using for example DVDshrink) and then converting with Handbrake produce a FULL SCREEN video window on the Nook? Seems like kind of a pain to have to break it into a two step process, ie ripping to my computer's hard drive and then having Handbrake convert to MP4, but if that's what it takes....
thanks for your replies,
Neil

 

[theksp111]

Does anyone have a recommendation for converting .mkv files?
wuld like the keep them under 1gb also.

 

[miabelle1967]

I've followed the instructions explicitly, and handbrake is estimating over 12 hours to convert a DVD??? What am I doing wrong? Please help...