So, for some time now I have been using my own custom HandBrake settings when encoding for the AppleTV. I have two eSata modded AppleTV’s and by and large these HandBrake settings have been stellar. They have also been used by other HandBrake testers and fervent users on stock AppleTv’s with much success. So I figured I would post them here now.

Having said that though, I suggest these settings be used with one of the snapshots posted on the HandBrake forums. HandBrake 0.9.3 is almost a year old and the current HandBrake snapshots produce much smaller files with better quality than the older 0.9.3 public release.

1. To start, pick the Apple > AppleTV preset in HandBrake which is built in.

2. Instead of the built in presets constant quality of RF 20, slide the slider up so you get RF 19.25 ( RF goes lower as your quality gets higher, much like in golf ). One word of warning: constant quality is determined based on the source file. 19.25 is proven for SD DVD. Now if you are doing HD sources like say a 720P or 1080p mkv or whatever, then try more like RF 23 or so as 19.25 on HD sources will give you a pretty high bitrate depending on the source file.

3. Click on the Advanced panel and paste this string into the ” Advanced Options String ” textbox at the bottom (note the crappy code box.. gotta work on it but functions just fine):

Here’s our original post on optimizing HandBrake settings for the best quality.