Encoding problems/questions

[Karkas]

I'm still converting many piles of standard DVD's to my HDD storage and run into a few issues. I've been able to work around them, but I don't really understand what is going on.

This is being done mostly with Handbrake (I know not the most advanced/versatile, but its easy to feed Video_TS folders and the quality seems pretty good).

I try to put everything in an MKV container and encode/mux with AVC & AC3 5.1. Sometimes the encode will freeze up in the first few seconds, then I try avi container and it seems to work without a hitch. No big deal, I'm just curious why...

Handbrake will also freeze occasionally when I use 2 pass and it transitions to 2nd pass, so I'll change it to 1 pass and it works fine.
:stupid:
Question #2: I've been encoding the main movie at 1500kbps, which usually yields files 1.1-1.6GB. Can anyone comment on your opinion on this quality with x264? It looks decent to me, but maybe someone has a suggestion for higher or lower bit rate...

I did try searching around for some of these issues, but all I get are crappy search results.

Thanks in advance!

[Inspector.Gadget]

Question #1 is unanswerable until you post your Handbrake log files from failed encodes.
Question #2 is largely unanswerable unless others have encoded from the same disc or can take a crack at a sample of your video source. x264 quality varies widely with the settings you use as well as bitrate (and obviously depends in large part on your source).

[Karkas]

I'm at work so I can't post any log files atm, I'll try to post some up though when I get a chance. I was hoping this was just a common issue that I was ignorant to.

Regarding the quality question this is from commercial, standard def DVD's such as Finding Nemo, Toy Story, & Cars to name a few. All settings on Handbrake are set to default @ 16:9 source & output (not resizing, applying filters, or anything other than default.

Thanks for the replies so far BTW.

[msoon77]

I'm a handbrake user too and I'm trying to rip some asian movies using Handbrake for my iphone, but there's no way of getting the english subs to go over from the subtitles file.

Does anyone know how I can burn in the subtitles into the video as a hardsub?

Can someone help?