I finally figured out a good preset for HandBrake to encode DVD videos for my new TV, the Samsung PN50B650 plasma. The resultant video files work on the USB stick as well as via DLNA, which is what I was looking for. I based this preset off the “Television” default preset that comes with Handbrake. I made changes, so that the settings match those listed below. There are screenshots that show all the settings.
One quirk of this TV is that it does not properly display anamorphic video files. You must disable the anamorphic feature in Handbrake, unless you want everyone and everything in your video to look squished.
Another quirk of this TV is that it doesn’t play all video formats via DLNA. It plays basically all video formats correctly via a USB stick (though it doesn’t scale anamorphic videos), but it only plays a mysterious few via DLNA. DLNA isn’t the best playback option on this TV, but it is adequate for short videos, such as 22-minute sitcoms.
Video
- Format: AVI file
- Video Codec: H.264 (x264)
- 2-pass encoding (checked)
- Turbo first pass (checked)
Picture Settings
- Output: 704 x 400
- Anamorphic: Off
- Keep aspect ratio: on
- Crop: Auto
- Denoise: Off
- Detelecine: Yes
- Deblock: Off
- Decomb: Default
Audio
- Average bitrate (kbps): 1300
- Audio Codec: MP3 (lame)
- Mixdown: Dolby Pro Logic II
- Sample rate: Auto
- Bitrate: 128
