this post was submitted on 11 Feb 2025

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file formats encodings profiles types.. what is good enough? (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I have recently gotten my arrrr setup functional!! fuck ya! I am just about ready to cancel all my streaming subs. Feeling liberated here. BUT I am quickly running out of HDD space. I need to get a handle on file formats etc etc. This is just about videos.

Regarding videosHaving a huge confusion about "quality profiles" and the general issue of file formats. All the info seems to be directed at, no offense, rich snobs. I'm neither.

What I want:

Efficient use of HDD space
Don't overwork the shitty offbrand >10 year old android-turned-linux TV box when playing/rendering
Audio: I don't know if this is relevant but it is really annoying when there are drastic changes in volume e.g. talking very quietly then an action scene and it's 20x louder and you accidentally woke up your neighbors

I'd be interested in how to mitigate that problem

Video: See enough detail to tell what's happening in all cases including read text, hard coded subs etc from across the room on a small tv
For a select few media that I anticipate will be more difficult to re-obtain, I will keep higher quality versions to be forward looking

What is the range of qualities I should look for?

A chart from bottom to top? does it exist?

In terms of the media I have that's taking up so much space, I guess I need to use handbrake of something to transform it into something smaller.. what should be the target?

Other advice...?

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Thanks for the advice it is all helpful.

From what I can tell I have much much lower standards than anyone who is writing online about this stuff. :)

My TV is either 720p or 1020p. Sources disagree I am not sure why and haven't investigated too deeply; maybe it is situational. I am satisfied with whatever it is. So as I understand 4k would be indistinguishable in any case.

Looking in my reasonably-sized series/film directories I am seeing a lot of files named like [HDTV-720p][AAC 2.0][x264], [SDTV][AAC 2.0][h264].mp4 so your advice on 264s is probably good for me.

Is the h264 or x264 part of the name the bitrate? If so is there a list somewhere of what term corresponds to what bitrate? I also find terms like DivX, HEVC TrueHD 7 1 (is HEVC the bitrate there?), XVID (these ones are very small and actually seem not to be picked up by jellyfin/kodi--- it was an older hard to find TV show IIRC it was all I could find).

I just tried to play a file that is [HDTV-1080p][AAC 7.1][x265].mkv which has a pretty big filesize compared to length and it made my TV/device freak out--- had to hard reset it. Is it x265 that is so much harder to handle than x264? I don't find anything else in my collection that includes this.

[–] RvTV95XBeo 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Is the h264 or x264 part of the name the bitrate?

No, that's the encoding algorithm, aka codec. As another person pointed out, AVC/h264/x264 (all different names for what is effectively the same thing) is a lot easier to process than HEVC/h265/x265 (again, different names, same end result).

Bitrate is just the overall file size divided by the movie duration, basically indicating how compressed the movie is, with compression coming at the loss of finer details. You can generally gauge bitrate based on file size. A 5000 Mb file that is 1000 s long is, on average, 5000/1000=5 Mbps.

Since you're very clearly not picky, you're probably best off going for 720p or 1080p content with small file sizes (1-5 GB / movie). Feel free to download smaller though, if it doesn't impact your experience, just make a mental note if you ever find anything that is too small for you to tolerate, and set your minimum file size somewhere above that.

Based on your criteria, you probably want to steer clear of terms like Atmos, TrueHD, DTS-MA, and DTS-X. These are all terms for different flavors of totally uncompressed audio, which alone can be up to 5GB of unnecessary (for you) added disc space for a given movie. Instead you want compressed audio like DDP, AAC, or AC3

DivX/XVID are really old video codecs, kinda like x264. I wouldn't fuck with them even with your preferences unless you have no other choice, given your average potato nowadays can handle x264.

TL;DR, based on your preferences, look for / avoid these terms, but know not all files have all of the same fields identified:

GOOD

Video

AVC/h264/x264

720p or 1080p

8-bit (you'll want this over 10-bit, if specified)

Audio

DDP, AAC, or AC3

Overall

1-5 GB file size / movie

MEH

Video

DivX/XVID

Overall

Be mindful of files smaller than 1 GB / movie, they may be fine for you but this is where you can really start to see some gnarly banding

AVOID

Video

HEVC/h265/x265 or VC1

2160p

HDR, HDR10, HDR10+, DoVi, or DV (not mentioned earlier but these need special, more modern, displays)

Audio

Atmos, TrueHD, DTS-MA, and DTS-X

Overall

Really large or comically small files.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Thank you so much this is exactly what I needed to know!!

You should post it somewhere people can find it like trash guides or smthg. Surely I am not the only person who doesnt have all this knowledge to start with.