www.makemkv.com

I have a new Apple TV and I have been re-encoding the files from makemkv into .m4v files for my Apple TV.

I want to make sure that I get the highest possible quality when going from the 1080p Blu-Ray rip to the 720p ?TV version.

Currently:

Handbrake - 2Pass (Turno 1st Pass) - 5000Kbps Video Bitrate - Convert any DTS to AC3 first then remux to .mkv file using MKVToolnix (Mac)

Most movies are between 4 and 5.5 GB. I do not believe I can get any better quality out of the video, however if there are different tweaks that I could make to Handbrake that anyone knows of please share.

Also - Is there a better alternative to Handbrake? Compressor? Any from the Mac App Store? I used to ise VisualHub but since it has been discountinued and not updated for awhile I need to find an alternative and handbrake seems to be the winner at this point.

Any other ideas?

Remux to MKV??? The AppleTV doesn't support the MKV container natively…

Sorry order wrong.

If the mkv file is DTS audio I will strip out the dts file convert it to AC3 and then remux it back into the mkv before I convert with Handbrake

What's wrong with HandBrake's AC3 encoder? Quality isn't top notch, but it's improved a bit in the nightlies (Justin Ruggles ported the Aften code back to FFmpeg).

Handbrake uses x264 which is leaps and bounds better than what compressor can output. Apples H.264 encoder is well known for being crap.

Default handbrake settings should be ok.

i use the handbrake default AppleTV 2 settings - 720p except i bump the quality thingy (not sure what it is called) from 20 to 17 sometimes 16 and i get much more detail... more natural shadows and gradients and smoother detail on things like smoke etc.... otherwise at 20 smoke and some shadows and gradients look a bit jaggy or pixel-ish.... noisy....

slightly larger file size but looks much better to me...