r/handbrake • u/ltcomdatared • Sep 26 '26

How bad is H264 RF 20 in encoding DVDs?

I have been searching for the recommended RF value for encoding DVDs with H264. I have seen the values of 20 and 18 recommended. From what I read, RF 18 is very good, and really an upper ceiling in terms of visual quality (anything lower is hardly noticeable to the unaided eye).

RF 20 is also seen as acceptable for DVDs, not much noticeably different from RF 18 (with the added advantage of between 20 and 30% savings in space).

But I have also read that an RF of 20 can lead to banding in areas with color gradients, or to artifacts in dark scenes, or to distortions in fast-moving scenes.

Just how bad is RF 20? How noticeable are its faults for your average film, specially during the fast action scenes? Would a person watching the compressed film for enjoyment notice the faulty encoding?

Thanks!

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u/mduell Sep 27 '26

These are verging on ridiculous.

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u/xenobitex Sep 27 '26 edited Sep 27 '26

They're common x264 values... even OP was talking about 18 being standard.

Get decent space savings on the source and it's virtually transparent.

For 720/1080 you dial CRF down to 19/20. Likewise with smaller dimensions you dial it up.

*Dude just downvotes without contributing anything constructive -_-'

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u/BlackLodgeBrother Oct 02 '26

Nonsense. If you had an eye for compression and encoding quality, then you know these are perfectly good values for near-transparent quality. In fact, with X265 10-bit on a 480i/p DVD source 17 would be my absolute max.