Handbrake x264 "Constant Quality" (RF) comparisons

I don't see a lot of talk about other settings. 22 RF. I use Placebo for speed, Tune is Film as opposed to none, Profile is High444, and Encoder level at 6.2, I get the smallest size possible without sacrificing quality. Auto or Main will give you a slightly larger file size. Film and encoder level also effects file size by shrinking it. Constant or Peak framerate don't make a difference. I use Handbreak to shrink my videos before upload. You can fit a lot of information in 1 minute. I got that down to 2.23 MB's.

Great stuff Matt, your website has always been helpful also for encoding.

excelente comparacion, aunque se nota mas la diferencia en escenas de accion o con imagen granulada.

Thank you

I don't notice a difference. They all look the same to me. 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

This is the best video about this

made a typo when you mentioned "weak settings", you said RF 22, 24, 26

love ya <3

Super helpful! Thank you :)

I've just started ripping my collection and was trying to figure Handbrake out. I've been doing well using presets, but not understanding what any of the settings meant.. until I found your videos/website. And I didn't think I needed to until I started converting my PAL shows into NTSC. I followed someone's settings and was shocked at how much larger each episode was compared to the others. And it all had to do with the kbps set to 5000 (I had no idea it altered the file size). Now, armed with knowledge, I can figure out a better setting. Thank you. I am so happy I found your site.

VERY HELPFUL VIDEO!!! Thank you!

thanks, what does RF actually mean ?

In handbrake, if I load an mkv file and only change the codec (from h.265 to h.264.) at 0 RF - the output should theoretically be lossless from the source, right?

Dammit so less is better right? Smaller file size I suppose

Very well explained.

NOOO CHLOE

22 is close to the perfect balance in my opinion.

nice job bro. thanks

Nice comparison and web page. Handbrake's site says (although it's 3yrs old) Standard Definition (e.g DVD's) Use an RF value of around 20 +/- 1. (20 being the default) High Definition (e.g Blurays 720/1080) Use an RF value of 22 +/- 1. (I think that's too much in one test I did) I used MakeMKV to rip a BR Title which looked fine in VLC. But was squashed anamorphic. Handbrake made it anamorphic. I used the film setting. Your site's reported 355.6MB file size is good.

I don't understand your video... isn't the higher the number the better quality? Like RF 20 is better quality than RF 18, right?

SD RF = 21
HD RF = 23

What does "RF" mean?

This compressor is crazy
It compresses video to 99.97%. 
5.47 Gb = 15.6Mb 
insane

Thank you! Clear :)

Thanks for the post! Another newb handbrake user here, trying to figure it all out.

Great job - helpful.

very nice :D

Thanks for this info. BTW you left the medium setting numbers when you showed the weak settings.

Thaks, this helped a lot!

Valuable information. I just recently got into encoding with handbrake and found this comparison of RF quality very useful. Thank you for posting!

first, i have to say i'm surprised no one has commented. this is extremely helpful if someone really doesn't understand how constant quality and RF works. it came in handy when i needed to explain to someone why this setting can be very important.