The flexibility argument makes sense. By the way, what sort of bitrates and options would work if I wanted to make a 720p version that fits on a DVD-9 as a “fake” (AVCHD) Bluray. I tried doing a 2 pass encode through Handbrake at 8900 kbps and while the resulting file looks great (certainly better than HD from Netflix), the resulting data doesn’t fit on a DVD after being run through tsmuxer. How low can you go before things start looking like crap? Is it possible to go down to 4000 or so and fit on a DVD-5? I’ve currently just burned the raw MKV of my 720p encode to a DL DVD, but I understand that an AVCHD-format disc might have better compatibility with hardware players.
After a certain point, going lower in bitrate while maintaining the same resolution will result in worse quality than just dropping the resolution. e.g. 480p @ 4Mbps might look better than 720p @ 4Mbps. With something as grainy as Star Wars, I’d recommend sticking to 480p resolution if you have to use a DVD-5. On DVD-9 720p should still be reasonable, you may just need to play with the bitrate a bit to get it to fit. All of this is a bit moot when using Handbrake though, which can produce some pretty terrible looking encodes. I recommend MeGUI if you need a “wizard” to help you through it.
On the topic of cropping vs. not cropping, it all comes down to how many encodes TN-1 are willing to produce. I don’t know the logistics behind their setup, but you’ve gotta keep in mind that there is more than one project to be worked on and that each additional encode adds a lot of render time. In a perfect world, I think TN-1 should offer two options:
- Full BD-50 format 1080p encode with any audio tracks planned.
- BD-25 sized 1080p MKV, cropped, with any audio tracks planned.
- Chotab’s Dream Sequence: 2160p, x264 encoded @ ~85-100 Mbps, cropped.
Ignore 3, I was just daydreaming a bit. 😉 Anyway, between options 1 and 2 you have a lot of your bases covered. You’ve got the disc crowd and the encode crowd happy, at least the 1080p users. The only people not covered are those that want 1080p at lower bitrate which they can transcode themselves from either 1080p release or lower resolution which works the same way. I personally think it’d be a waste of time for the team to make AVCHD format releases, 720p, etc. because if we have to pick and choose I would prefer only the highest quality offerings that the other formats can be created from at our leisure.