Using Handbrake to re-encode Hi10P content

Tokumei Sentai Gobusters premiered this week, and was picked up by Over-time for subbing. As they have with Kamen Rider Fourze they're using h.264 10-bit encoding to produce smaller file sizes with equivalent or better picture quality over the more traditional 8-bit methods. If you want a technical explanation of this you can find it elsewhere. Bottom line is you save space without sacrificing quality. The downside is that you need recent video codecs and a strong enough cpu to decode everything in software.

There is currently no hardware support for Hi10P content. That means if you're like me and use a dedicated HTPC (I have a Zotac Mag HD, with a little atom processor), you are unable to watch such content even with the latest codecs, as you're machine just isn't strong enough. Don't worry it's possible and simple to transcode the content to something with HW acceleration support, and I'm going to show you how.



1. Download VLC. You'll need at least 1.1.8, This is required by handbrake.

2. Download Handbrake Nightly. That's right we can do it with handbrake, an incredibly simple and easy to use video encoder.  You will need a nightly build to do this and you can get one for your platform here. I recommend the GUI, because it makes things brain dead simple.

3. Open Handbrake and select the 10-bit file as your video source. This can be done by clicking on "Source->Video File" or by pressing Ctrl+O on your keyboard.

4. Pick a Container Type and select destination. You can encode the video as either a MKV or m4v (MP4) file, the choice is yours. If you also want to take the opportunity to turn the file into a hardsub I recommend MP4 as you will have greater compatibility with devices like the Playstation 3 or an iOS device. When you select the destination make sure you don't overwrite the source file. I suggest adding "8-bit" to the file name to avoid any confusion.

5. Add the Subtitles. I know what you're thinking, "but doesn't our source file already have subtitles?" The answer is of course yes, but we need to tell handbrake that we want those subtitles in our new encoding. To do that we go to the subtitles tab and select the first English track, as seen in the screenshot below. Now pay attention. If you want hardsubs click the checkbox above "Burned In." If you want softsubs don't. Click the "Default" checkbox to make the subtitles be on when the video is started. Now click the add button, and you're ready to encode.

The Screenshot Below.

6. Click the Start Button. That's it. Handbrake will start encoding your new file and when it's done you'll have a brand new file (~500MB) that can be played on a much wider range of devices.

I hope this guide can be of help to people, if I missed a step or something's wrong in my instructions please leave a comment. Ohranger 6 should get translated this week, and I'm working on uploading everything to FileServe.