[Acer Iconia A500] Bergen79:
I've been testing Handbrake settings for the last couple of hours. This is optimized for playback on the A500. Not for HDMI output.

As it turns out, the A500 is capable of decoding 7 Mbit H.264 video without any stuttering. However, at a resolution of 1280x800 you don't need 7 Mbit. No visible detail is added above ~5 Mbit, because the screen is not fast enough.

After you have opened a video, let's first set the destination filename.

The container must be an MP4 file. The 3 checkboxes ("large file size", "web optimized" and "ipod 5g support") must all be unchecked.

In the "picture" tab, we need to set the correct resolution and aspect ratio. The settings depend on the content you loaded.

If you are loading DVD content with an aspect ratio of 4:3 (old stuff, before wide screen tv's were made), then simply set anamorphic to "strict" and you're done in this tab.

If you are loading DVD content with an aspect ratio of 16:9, then set anamorphic to "custom" and uncheck "keep aspect ratio". Now the settings below this checkbox depend on your system.

If you have PAL content (720x576), then set the display width (not the normal width! this one is further down below) to 1024, the PAR (Pixel Aspect Ratio) width to 1024 and PAR height to 720.

If you have NTSC content (720x480), then set the display width to 848, the PAR width to 848 and the PAR height to 720.

If you are loading 1920x1080 or 1280x720 HD content, then set anamorphic to "none", keep the "keep aspect ratio" option checked and set the width to 1280.

If you are loading 1440x1080 HD content, then it actually has a source aspect ratio (SAR) of 1.333 so the content should be stretched to 1920x1080. Set anamorphic to "none", uncheck "keep aspect ratio" and enter 1280x720 in the width and height.

If you have HD content in another resolution, then please do the math yourself or ask here. Some unusual resolutions might not work.

In the "video filters" tab you might need to enable deinterlacing. It depends on your content. If you have interlaced content, like most DVD content then you might want to deinterlace it. Interlacing should not be a problem for H.264 encoders, but I don't see any interlacing flags in Handbrake, so I am not sure if Handbrake understands encoding interlaced material. To stay on the safe side, I recommend enabling deinterlacing. This is not only for DVD content but also for 1080i content. (The i stands for interlaced!) There are 3 options: fast, slow and slower. You can safely assume that slower means higher quality. BUT, deinterlacing is sloooowwwwww. Setting this option to "slow" results in half the encoding speed. A sample 1080i video encoded at only 22 fps instead of the normal 45 fps on my Intel i7 860. Try encoding 1 minute first, before encoding a whole video. You can limit the encoding length at the top of the Handbrake window, where it says "Chapter". Change that to "seconds" and enter some numbers, like 0 and 60 to encode only the first minute.

In the "video" tab set the codec to H.264. The framerate can usually be set to "same as source", unless the content is 50 fps. Your A500 is not able to handle to 50 fps, so convert that to 25 fps. If you don't know the frame rate of your content, then download a free tool called "GSpot" and load your video in it. GSpot will show you lots of details about your video. Set the constant quality to "RF:20" (RF = rate factor). A higher number means lower quality and smaller filesize. There is a filesize limit of 4 GB and at a rate factor of 20 you can store 1:30 to 2:00 of video in 4 GB.

In the "audio" tab, set the "Mixdown" to stereo. You could lower the bitrate to 128 kbit because of the tiny low quality speakers in the A500 but maybe you are listening with better quality headphones, so let's leave it at 160 kbit.

I'm skipping the "subtitles" tab because that is all pretty straightforward.

Leave the "chapters" tab empty.

Finally, the "advanced" tab. The NVIDIA Tegra 2 chipset can only handle so-called H.264 "Base Profile" (BP). It can not process the more advanced "Main Profile" (MP) encoded material. This means some options need to be disabled in this screen. I will walk you through all options:

Reference frames: 3

Maximum B-frames: 0 (not supported by BP)

Uncheck CABAC (not supported by BP)

Uncheck 8x8 transform

Uncheck weighted P-frames

Uncheck No DCT-decimate

Motion estimation method: Uneven Multi-Hexagon (better trade-off between speed and quality)

Subpixel ME & Mode Decision: 6

Motion Estimation Range: 16

Leave both sliders in the middle

Partition Type: Default (most)

Trellis: Off (trellis is overrated, only slows down encoding)

Deblocking: 0 and 0

If you want, you could save the preset by clicking the "add" button below the presets list and name it "Iconia A500" or so. But remember that your settings regarding resolution, aspect ratio and deinterlacing might be content specific.

That's it. Comments and questions are more than welcome!

Happy encoding! ;)