Compress

Compress re-encodes video to make it smaller. Everything here feeds a job that runs in the Queue.

If you only want to tidy tracks and filenames, you do not need this stage at all — Organise’s Apply without encoding does that in seconds without re-encoding anything.

Choosing what to encode

Files added to the app appear in the list on the left. Each has a Compress this file checkbox, so you can bring in a whole folder and skip the two files that are already small enough.

Settings apply to

Above the settings, a toggle: All files or This file.

• All files — edits change the batch settings, used by everything without its own override.
• This file — edits become an override for the selected file only. A file carrying one shows Reset this file to batch settings to drop it.

This is what makes a mixed batch workable: one RF for the folder, a lower one for the file that happens to be full of fast, detailed effects.

Presets

The bar above the settings selects a preset: your own first, then the built-ins in their groups (HD, 4K, Special sources, and Playback & tracks). A line under the bar says what the selected built-in is for. Modify anything and it shows Modified · revert, so you always know whether what is on screen is the preset or your unsaved changes. Save changes saves over your own preset, and Save new preset saves under a name. Either way the saved preset becomes the selected one and the Modified marker clears, since nothing is unsaved any more.

Summary

The first tab is a read-only account of what the current settings will actually do to the selected file — source format, what changes, what passes through untouched. Worth reading before a long encode; it is where a setting you did not mean to change shows up.

The picture preview shows a frame with the current filters applied. HDR video is shown converted to standard dynamic range, as it would look on an ordinary screen, whether or not the encode keeps HDR.

Test a sample

The size shown with the command is an estimate from the settings alone. It can’t know how grainy or busy the film is, and grain alone can triple the size. Test a sample, under the command, measures it instead. It’s optional, and nothing else depends on it.

It encodes one minute from the middle of the file, with exactly the settings the real encode would use, audio included. Then it shows:

• the size of the whole file, scaled up from the minute, and how that compares with the source
• how long the whole file would take to encode on this PC, scaled up the same way
• Compare before and after: the source and the encode in one picture, with a divider you drag across (or move with ← and →). The source is cropped and sized exactly like the encode and not encoded, so the only difference is the encoding. Fit shows the whole picture; 100% shows it at full size, which is where grain, banding and smeared detail show. There are three moments from the minute to choose from.

A minute is a sample, not the whole film: a grainier or busier stretch comes out bigger, so treat the figures as a good guide rather than exact. The sample leaves out subtitles, which add very little to the size, so a burnt-in subtitle isn’t in its picture.

Change a setting afterwards and the result says it’s out of date, until you test again. A sample can’t run while the Queue is encoding, since the two would slow each other down and the time would be wrong.

Dimensions

Resolution — a Resolution limit (8K down to 480p) scales the picture down to fit while preserving aspect ratio, and does nothing if it is already smaller unless Allow upscaling is on. A Width or Height overrides the limit: set both for an exact size, or one and the other follows the picture’s shape. 0 means not set. Sizes apply after cropping and rotation, so they describe the finished picture.

Output size — Anamorphic: Automatic keeps the source’s pixel shape; Off resizes to square pixels, for players that ignore pixel shape. Cropping (Automatic detects and removes letterbox bars), Rotation, and Padding: Fill fits the picture inside the width and height (or the resolution limit) and adds black bars around it.

Filters

Applied in the order listed. Cropping and resizing happen after Denoise, so deinterlacing and cleanup work on the untouched picture.

• Detelecine — reverses 3:2 pulldown on 24 fps footage converted to video rates
• Deinterlace — Yadif or Bwdif, one frame per field pair or per field
• Interlace detection — only appears once Deinterlace is on, because it only does anything then. Off deinterlaces every frame; otherwise only frames detected as interlaced are touched
• Deblock — Ultralight through Very Strong
• Denoise — hqdn3d, or NLMeans, which keeps more detail for the same saving. NLMeans runs on the graphics card where one can be used, at no cost in encode time; otherwise it runs on the processor with a smaller search, and the encode takes about a quarter longer. Denoise strength and, for NLMeans only, a content Tune. Custom NLMeans parameters always run on the processor, exactly as written
• Sharpen — Unsharp or Lapsharp
• Greyscale — discards colour

An Advanced group takes raw parameter strings for detelecine, interlace detection and denoise, and appears only when the corresponding filter is set to Custom.

Video

Encoder — H.264 (x264), H.265 (x265), AV1 (SVT-AV1), the hardware encoders H.265 via NVENC, Quick Sync or AMD AMF, or Passthrough to leave the video stream untouched. Passthrough copies the picture exactly as it is, so cropping, resizing, filters, burned-in subtitles and frame-rate changes are skipped, and the Compress screen says so.

A hardware encoder this computer can’t use is greyed out. FileVerdict tries a one-frame test encode with each one, so a missing graphics card or an outdated driver shows up here rather than as a failed job in the Queue. If you load a preset made on another computer that asks for one, FileVerdict offers to switch it to x265, which makes the same kind of file on the processor. You can also keep it as it is, to edit or export the preset for the computer it was made for, but files set to it won’t be added to the Queue on this one.

Tip

Hardware encoders are dramatically faster and produce a visibly larger file at the same quality. Use them when you are encoding a lot and disk is cheap; use x265 when the file matters more than the wait. Passthrough is the right answer whenever you only wanted to change the audio or the tracks.

Encoder preset trades time for size — slower presets give a smaller file at the same quality. Tune, Profile, Level and Bit depth appear only for encoders that actually support them, rather than being shown and quietly ignored.

Bit depth of 10 keeps HDR10 and HLG video as HDR. At 8, which has no room for HDR, FileVerdict converts it to standard dynamic range (SDR) as it encodes, and the Summary tab says so.

Quality — Rate control is either Constant quality or Average bitrate. Constant quality is the usual choice: lower is better quality and a bigger file. Each encoder reads the number on its own scale, so the slider’s name, range and advice change with the encoder:

Encoder	Slider	Range	A good range for 1080p
H.264 (x264)	RF	0–51	18–23
H.265 (x265)	RF	0–51	18–24 (1080p Balanced uses 20)
AV1 (SVT-AV1)	RF	0–63	24–32. RF 26 looked about the same as x265 at RF 20 in testing, in a smaller file
NVENC	CQ	1–51	CQ 26 came out close to x265 at RF 20 in testing
Quick Sync	Quality	1–51	Not compared; try a short sample first
AMD AMF	QP	0–51	A fixed quantiser, so the size follows the content more than with RF

Switching encoder keeps the number. If it is outside the new encoder’s range, it is encoded at the nearest end of that range, and the slider shows that.

Two-pass applies to bitrate mode. With it on, x264 and x265 also offer Turbo first pass, which runs the first pass with lighter settings. The finished file uses your full settings either way. With x265 it makes the first pass about twice as fast, so a two-pass encode takes about a third less time. Also here: Color range, Framerate mode (Variable, Constant, Peak limited), Framerate, and Extra encoder options passed straight through for x264 and x265.

Audio

The Audio tab decides what every kept audio track becomes. It has its own guide, Audio encoding, which covers every setting, how much bitrate stereo, 5.1 and 7.1 tracks need, and example setups. In short:

• Your preset audio preferences has one row per source layout (7.1, 5.1, Stereo and Mono), each with an Encode as, Channels and Bitrate. Every kept track uses the row for its own channel count, so one preset can keep a 7.1 track at 7.1 and still give a 5.1 track a bitrate of its own. Below the rows are Passthrough fallback, Samplerate, Gain and Dynamic range compression, for every encoded track.
• Tracks in lists the selected file’s audio tracks, what each becomes, and where that came from. Override for this file gives one track its own settings, for that file only, and never changes the preset.

A few rules hold throughout:

• Channels are never added, and AC3 and E-AC3 stop at 5.1.
• Bitrates match HandBrake’s list, and each one shows only what its encoder can write for the layout.
• Which tracks are kept is Organise’s decision, not this tab’s.

A file whose audio needs a look is marked Check audio in the file list.

Note

AAC 7.1 and Opus 7.1 don’t play properly on every device. Some players are reported to play AAC 7.1 as stereo, and some to put Opus 7.1 channels in the wrong speakers or play no sound. Check on what you watch with, or mix down to 5.1.

Subtitles

Burn in renders subtitles permanently into the picture — None, a foreign audio scan, or the first kept track. Forced only keeps just the forced cues from each track. Default track sets which subtitle the player selects automatically: none, the first kept track, or your preferred language.

Which tracks survive at all is decided in Organise, not here.

MP4 can only hold text subtitles. A file set to MP4 that keeps a picture-based subtitle (PGS or VobSub) is written as MKV instead, so the subtitle isn’t lost, and the Summary says so. To keep that file MP4, remove those subtitles in Organise or burn one in.

Chapters

Chapter markers — whether chapter markers are written into the output.

Running it

Adding files to the queue starts them from the Queue stage, where progress, speed and ETA are shown and the whole queue can be paused.