Recommended Video Encoding for the Roku Digital Video Player

HandBrake


Very good results have been obtained using HandBrake with the following settings:


Preset: Regular - High Profile

Container: MP4 File - make sure Large file size is checked.

Picture Tab

Size

DVD

Anamorphic: Use Strict or Loose - Anamorphic will attempt to create a widescreen effect from a DVD format.

Cropping: Automatic

Others

Anamorphic: None

Check Keep Aspect Ratio

Cropping: Custom - make sure all settings are 0.

 

Video Filters Tab

Filters

Detelecine: Off

Decomb: Default - this will automatically deinterlace only if needed.

Deinterlace: Off

Denoise: Off

Deblock: Off

Grayscale Encoding: Leave unchecked

 

Video Tab

Video

Video Codec: H.264 (x264)

Framerate (FPS): Same as source. If your source is greater than 30 and you experience playback problems such as rebuffers, change the FPS to 29.97.

Quality - You can use Constant Quality, or Average Bitrate. Experiment to see which is best for you.

Constant Quality: RF 17 to 21 should work well. Smaller RF settings will result in smaller files, but less quality. Larger RF settings will result in larger files, but better quality.

or

Avg Bitrate (kbps): Usually 1500 to 2500. For fast action videos such as sports shows, use a larger number. If your video shows jerkyness on fast action scenes, use a larger number.

 

Audio Tab

Audio Tracks

If your source has a digital audio track, use two audio tracks - one digital passthru, and one AAC analog. This will give you high quality audio on devices that support digital tracks, and will give you analog audio on devices that don't support digital tracks.

Source

1st track: (AC3)(5.1 ch)

2nd track: (aac)(2.0 ch)

Audio Codec

1st track: AC3 Passthru

2nd track: AAC (faac)

Mixdown

1st track: None

2nd track: Dolby Prologic II or Stereo

Samplerate

1st track: Auto

2nd track: Auto

Bitrate

1st track: Auto

2nd track: 128 or 160

DRC

1st track: Auto

2nd track: (your choice)

(From the HandBrake Guide)

Dynamic Range Compression

The dynamic range of an audio track is the difference between the softest and loudest sounds.

Dynamic range compression reduces the gap between those extremes.

•1.0-2.5 are good values to use.

•0, the default, turns it off completely.

•1.0 uses the compression hints embedded in the AC3 track.

•Values greater than 1.0 compress the range further by boosting the volume of soft sound samples while leaving loud samples as they are. This squeezes down the range between the softest and loudest parts, but should make the softer ones easier to hear in noisy listening environments.


Note, this is not the same as a gain or volume boost control.

Compatibility

Dynamic range compression only works when the source audio is AC3 and you are encoding to another format, like AAC. It has no affect on AC3 pass-through or on DTS or MPEG-2 audio.

 

Subtitles Tab

Roku does not currently support embedded subtitles, but you can add them for future use, or if you're going to use the encoded video on something else that does support them.

 

Chapters Tab

Like subtitles, Roku doesn't currently support chapters, but you can include them for future use. Check the Create chapter markers box if you want to include chapters.

 

Advanced Tab

Use the defaults.


 

HandBrake User Guide