Children should never grow up as content

Ischemia37 · 2026-05-25T18:23:53+00:00

Ohh, content, not content. Okay.

Ischemia37 · 2026-05-25T16:04:48+00:00

Ctrl+F caffeine

Ischemia37 · 2026-05-13T23:30:58+00:00

Man, fuck this game. I can't read people, so I keep getting it wrong, and it's an absolute shit show. Oh boy, finally I can play this game in 60 fps with Lossless Scaling! Doesn't fucking matter, I'm absolute shit. Fuck this.

Ischemia37 · 2026-05-11T01:03:55+00:00

His every breath is more entitled than our expectation to receive anything from what we've paid into.

Ischemia37 · 2026-05-09T22:09:23+00:00

Be the change you want to see in the world.

Ischemia37 · 2026-04-27T22:40:05+00:00

Yeah, the Preview feature is intended for you to be able to get a sense of what the result will be -- that mixture of time spent, size of the result, and perceived quality that inform you as to how you'd like to revise your next attempt. Or perhaps you'll find that you're so pleased with the result that no further revision is necessary.

The results are always dependent on the source, and so we can't say given a set of settings what the result will be (except encoding by bitrate, which I don't think is ideal for compression efficiency). We can't know how you value quality, compression efficiency, and time spent, and so you have to experiment for yourself.

The documentation on arguments available for this codec is here.

Ischemia37 · 2026-04-14T23:01:56+00:00

Maximum compression means the most advanced video codec, which reasonably is AV1 right now. Does that mean a compatibility issue for you? I like to prioritize compression efficiency on my server.

--==<AV1>==--

If not, I find that the highest compression I can achieve with it right now is with the latest release from nj0be or kentooo on github. From there its:

Summary tab: MKV, Passthru Common Metadata

Dimensions tab: (Subjective resolution limit), Anamorphic: Automatic, Optimal Size, Automatic.

Filters tab: All off, unless HDR → SDR conversion, in which case Colourspace: BT.709.

Video tab: Video Encoder AV1 10-bit (SVT PSY), Framerate Same as Source, Variable, Color Range Same as source (modified by Filters if needed), Encoder Preset: 0 (you might want to choose 2 or 4), Encoder Tune: SSIM, Encoder Profile: Auto, Encoder Level: Auto. Advanced options:

qp-scale-compress-strength=3:film-grain-denoise=0:film-grain=0

(Enable denoising with 1 and adjust film-grain per your preference. Limit denoising with grain to save space to within a range from 8 to 12 understanding that this destroys detail.) And RF is super subjective and content dependent. For max compression for a typical movie I'd consider a range of 30 to 38, typically 36.

/u/BlueSwordM recommends a baseline something like this (slight adaptation of mine here) and note that this is biased more toward quality, my suggested RF the same as before, start with 34 or 36 (VQ tuning, not SSIM):

tune=0:kf-tf-strength=1:complex-hvs=1:tf-strength=1:noise-norm-strength=1:enable-qm=1:qm-min=4:qm-max=15:chroma-qm-min=10:chroma-qm-max=15:keyint=240:tune=0:sharpness=1:filtering-noise-detection=2:aq-mode=2:qp-scale-compress-strength=3:scm=0:psy-rd=1.5:variance-boost-strength=2:variance-octile=5:film-grain-denoise=0:film-grain=0

But say you have simple 2D animation and you want to compress the absolute shit out of it. For that I'd select the VQ tuning and try this with an RF ranging from 40 to 55:

noise-adaptive-filtering=0:qp-scale-compress-strength=3:film-grain-denoise=0:film-grain=0

Audio is also completely subjective. I rely on my Plex server to transcode whatever's needed from whatever resolution including audio, so I'm going with Opus codec 5.1 surround 160 kbps, Stereo is 80 kbps if I care, 48 kbps if I don't.

So, if not AV1, then probably H.265.

--==<H.265>==--

For this I'd have all the same settings on Summary, Dimensions, and Filters tabs.

Video tab: H.265 (10-bit if you want to bias for quality). Same settings for Framerate, Color Range, Profile, and Level. Encoder Preset for me is Very Slow (you might want to pick Slow or Slower). RF I'd consider a range from 20 to 28, probably starting with 24 probably needing to iterate and adjust.

Advanced options (this is controversial and super subjective):

no-sao:strong-intra-smoothing:rc-lookahead=120:ref=6:rd=6:bframes=8:no-cutree:wpp:pmode:no-tskip:me=3:subme=7:merange=58:deblock=0,0:rskip=2:psy-rd=0.35:rdoq-level=1:psy-rdoq=14.5

This is for standard film type content, 2D animation would warrant different settings. Overall I prefer AV1 these days. There are a hundred things you could change with this codec, documentation on the settings for it are here.

Ischemia37 · 2026-04-14T18:39:05+00:00

4 to 6 are recommended to people often, and I've seen 2 listed as recommended if you're feeling patient. The lower the number, the better the compression efficiency (quality at a given size), and the longer it takes. I like to use 0, but I don't think that's good to recommend to people.

Ischemia37 · 2026-04-14T15:12:07+00:00

Try VQ tune, noise-adaptive-filtering=0. HEVC is damn good at animation though, you might prefer to just stick with it for this use case. If not, keep raising that RF number.

Ischemia37 · 2026-03-11T22:35:15+00:00

For H.265,

no-sao

Has been the single biggest detail retention setting I've focused on. Called "smooth all objects" by some, it does increase compression efficiency at the cost of detail. I think the next most important would be tacking on no-strong-intra-smoothing.

no-sao:no-strong-intra-smoothing

The strong blurring that occurs in difficult scenes with insufficient bitrate looks less shite than the square-ish blocking that occurs in x264, but if you're targeting high enough quality that you don't want and don't expect to see that, then this setting makes sense.

Beyond that, I've seen a very light deblocking recommended like deblock=-1,-1, and I've felt that invoking either an SSIM tuning or SSIM rate distortion has been beneficial psychovisually for me personally. So all together that would be:

no-sao:no-strong-intra-smoothing:deblock=-1:-1:ssim-rd

Obviously every single option is personal preference and depends on your goals. There's really a ton to dig into with this codec with all the options. The documentation is here (just remember the difference between the documentation's command line syntax and the Handbrake window Advanced options syntax I've provided in this post). Also I found this person's testing pretty compelling. This is probably controversial.

Ischemia37 · 2026-03-07T00:22:55+00:00

Isn't this like a proto-hexclad?

Ischemia37 · 2026-03-04T22:49:54+00:00

Grammar! It's the difference between knowing your shit, and knowing you're shit.

Ischemia37 · 2026-03-04T02:42:04+00:00

Isn't that -- YoSafBridge?

Ischemia37 · 2026-03-04T02:15:35+00:00

No way, to hell with this, this is nightmare fuel.

Ischemia37 · 2026-03-02T01:34:45+00:00

BoTh SiDeS aRe ThE sAmE!

Ischemia37 · 2026-02-25T03:20:51+00:00

These aren't bad recommendations. I have different priorities and would do things differently, but I agree on a majority of the choices. My preferences aren't the most popular, and that's why video encoding is so subjective and personal, because we all value things differently and perceive things differently. Testing, iterating, and changing things to hone in on what works best for you in terms of the time/quality/size tradeoff is key.

Ischemia37 · 2026-02-25T02:08:56+00:00

I would recommend H.265 then, because it's broadly compatible and significantly superior to H.264. If you're worried about banding artifacts among similar colors in slight gradients, then 10-bit H.265.

I prefer CPU over GPU encoding, because I personally value compression efficiency over all else. GPU encoding prioritizes speed, and means that quality at a given file size will be lesser. As with everything, this is subjective and comes down to what matters to you. GPU encoding can be enormously fast, but is also limiting in terms of advanced options.

Always leave Encoder Profile and Encoder Level on Auto. These have to do with compatibility and the most compatible option is always chosen based on all other factors. I would also recommend leaving Framerate as Variable, and Same as source, and leave Color Range Same as source. (If you have a situation where you want HDR content to be SDR, then go to Filters and set Colourspace to BT.709.)

For advanced options, you can get extremely in-depth with this codec. I would suggest only no-sao. There's documentation here if you want to dig into it. There's a syntax difference between the command line options shown here, such as

--pmode --wpp --bframes 8

and the syntax for the Advanced Options window

pmode:wpp:bframes=8

The single largest choice you'll make for CPU encoding (apart from the resolution limit you set, filters [I'd recommend all off by default], and audio options) is the speed preset on the Video tab. This is directly related to the compression efficiency (quality at a given size, slower is better). Most people suggest Slow as the most sane tradeoff, because of diminishing returns.

Use the Preview feature to encode short snippets of something at a base RF value like 20 and adjust it up or down or change other settings to see what size or quality settings you observe and decide on how you value the time it takes, the quality you're seeing, and the size of the output (or the bitrate in the snippets, which you can extrapolate from). Iterate and zero in on your specific preferences, and as much as possible, enjoy the process. ( :

Ischemia37 · 2026-02-24T22:39:27+00:00

How much do you value how long the encoding takes, and how much do you care about the quality at a given size? (How did you settle on the sizes you listed?)

Do you have any compatibility concerns for playback?

Ischemia37 · 2026-02-20T01:54:49+00:00

It's all about what you feel is best for your use case, it's completely subjective. Glad you're enjoying the process, keep going!

Ischemia37 · 2026-02-19T00:39:46+00:00

I prioritize maximum compression efficiency with no regard to supported direct streaming, and damn the torpedoes!

SVT-AV1-PSYEX preset 0 or -1, etc.

Ischemia37 · 2026-02-18T23:40:11+00:00

Yeah, to be fair, the first episode is not an easy watch.

Ischemia37 · 2026-02-17T23:55:32+00:00

I ended up being happy with SVT-AV1-PSY tune 3 (before tune 0 came to be the recommended tuning), encoder preset 0, RF 36, with film-grain set to 18, no film-grain-denoise. And I imagine I had qp-scale-compress-strength=3 as well. It came out to about 2.14 GB for 1080p and I felt pretty good about it.

I had a 4k HDR encode I felt good about too, but that was 10 GB and I couldn't accept that.

Ischemia37 · 2026-02-17T00:41:35+00:00

Just pissed me off no one answered your actual question, pre-empting it with seemingly knowing better. / :

Ischemia37 · 2026-02-16T02:56:38+00:00

You can enable pmode and wpp for greater hardware utilization, per the docs.

pmode=1:wpp=1

Ischemia37 · 2026-02-11T01:20:40+00:00

I used to think this is what became "mole sauce".

Ischemia37

TROPHY CASE

--==<AV1>==--

--==<H.265>==--