Best Handbrake settings

I've now encoded 400+ TV shows and movies using Media Fork which is an evolution of the Handbrake method. Go to the handbrake website and you will be able to download it. The settings I use are:

2-pass = yes
Bitrate = 2116
Audio = 48k, 192kbs
Accept default output ratio and cropping
Use x264 encoding (rather than Mp4)

Everything I have endcoded with MF using these settings look almost indestinguishable from the original DVD on my Panny 42" Plasma via ATV.

F ***g awsome app. The best for producing quality output at a resonable pace.

Good Luck

I agree that the quality of a Handbrake ripped DVD is almost indestinguishable from the DVD. I have ripped over 250 DVD's and have been very pleased. My Handbrake settings are as follows:

File format = MP4
Codec = MPEG-4 Video/AAC Audio
Encoder = FFMPEG
2-pass = yes
Average Bitrate (kbps) = 1800
Audio Sample Rate (Hz) = 44100
Audio Bitrate (kbps) = 128

In regards to streaming, I have my media server (MacPro) connected to my Airport Extreme (10/100/100, wireless G) via a 1000 Base T Ethernet Hub and then streamed wirelessly to the ATV. I have watched around 20 hours of video on it so far and have never had any instances where the video has become choppy. In fact, I have restarted my computer a couple of times while streaming video and the cached video seemed to be sufficient to not skip a beat either. I was shocked by that!

Also, restarting a video from the last time played has also worked flawlessly and quickly. I have been very pleased that video begins playing within 2 to 3 seconds whether from the beginning or somewhere in the middle of the movie. I do not see any reason to sync video on my system.

Using MF should it really take 6hours to rip a 42min TV program? I'm using the video encoder h.264.

In the past I have used MPEG-4 Video, this is a lot faster (1h30min for 42min show) but on some shows the image appears a lot darker.