Handbrake now uses a full 10-bit pipeline

[krausfadr]

Handbrake's July 2021 release now uses a full 10-bit pipeline. Prior to this it would always revert to 8-bit during processing. This is a good improvement making Handbreak the easiest to use true 10-bit encoder. I'll be using Handbreak now in addition to Staxrip for various tasks. For a much better quality final product, consider exporting a master from the NLE in Cineform (Filmscan 2) or ProRes (422 HQ) and then using Handbreak to convert that to HEVC or H264 using a constant quality setting of 22, 20 (or lower). You will have a much better looking image than what the NLE can render to HEVC or H264. Note: the Cineform format mentioned above will give a better quality image than ProRes, and at a lower filesize!

More info on how to maintain 10-bit in Handbrake:

HandBrake Documentation — 10 and 12bit encoding.

 

[asterixsmeagol]

For those of us who don't know (myself included), how do 8-, 10-, and 12-bit encoding differ?

 

[krausfadr]

Practically speaking, 10-bit can produce better results than 8-bit especially when it comes to eliminating banding artifacts. 12-bit might increase filesize without much noticable benefit. Some of the best looking (and most efficient) encodes can be HEVC 10-bit.

Edit: And technically speaking a 10-bit image can display up to 1.07 billion colors. An 8-bit image can only display 16.7 million.