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.