Make sure to read the Wiki on Video Playback basics (credit to Chris Cross) here.
EDIT: My final conclusion on video issue here.
OK everyone, we've takin' it to another level. Follow this thread for the real HD experience.
Video playback on Blackstone (as well as on other Mobile devices in general) depends pretty much on many factors:
1. Video Format and Container
2. Video Bitrate
3. Audio Bitrate
4. Combined (general file) Bitrate
5. Video size
6. Processor speed
7. Video acceleration
8. Device/Internal/SD Card Storage speed
Doing some thinking about each of the points above will take you to a conclusion which will give most of you the answer as to why Blackstone (or any other Mobile device) will not - by far - play back video files that your PC or Notebook can (Hint: think about Processor, RAM and Disk Access) and as to why is conversion needed.
We can't really do pretty much with the Processor speed and Video acceleration (well, we aren't talking about overclocking here and we aren't referring to the so much discussed driver issue either), but can tweak Video Format and Container, Video/Audio/Combined Bitrate and Device/Internal/SD Card Storage speed.
1. Video Format and Container
This section refers to what type of video file is generated via conversion (Hint: AVI, MPG, 3GP, etc.) and what codec is used inside that file (Divx, Xvid, FLV, etc.).
Here's a small hint to let you see the differences between these.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
* Benchmark has been done on the same file, converted at same audio and video bitrate, but save to different formats and container. Coreplayer was used for both Benchmark and Playback. SUPER video converter, which is a free and fantastic all in one video conversion solution, was used to convert video files.
We obviously see that AVI format/container with FLV codec is a winner here. We also notice the difference in playback as to SD Card playback is generally slower than Internal Storage playback (we will discuss this at point 7.)
2, 3 and 4. Video/Audio/Combined (general) Bitrate
As you can see in the same chart, playing with the Bitrate offers different results. That is, lowering the bitrate will get you higher benchmark results simply because the amount of data that needs to be processed is less.
5. Video Size
Video size refers to the dimensions of the video canvas, the resolution if you want. Lowering the resolution will also give you better benchmark results. The explanation is the same, the amount of data that needs to be processed is less.
6. Processor speed
Not discussed
7. Video acceleration
Not discussed
8. Device/Internal/SD Card Storage Speed
Fire up your favorite system benchmark application (i.e.: SKTools) and run a benchmark on Device Storage and one on SD Card. You will obviously see that Device Storage is way faster (like more than 3 times faster) than SD Storage. "What the...? I have a Class 6 SDHC Card?" Yes you do! There are also Operating System drivers for that. The thing is, the Operating System is not configured properly to take advantage of that.
Solution: Download my attached cab, install to Device, Soft Reset, run your benchmark again! What do you see?
CONCLUSION:
Taking all these into consideration, after alot of cigarettes and beer spent in front of the PC and my Blackstone, I've came up that the perfect solution for video playback on Blackstone (probably other devices too) is: FLV format in AVI container at 560x304 resolution, encoded at 1200 kbps video and 128 kbps audio. That generates a Combined Bitrate of 1328 kbps. You can probably go even higher, as to 1500 kbps video and keep 128 kbps audio, having a General Bitrate of 1628 kbps. Should be no problem after my SD TuneUp cab, but I personally consider such high video bitrates a waste of space.
I found that going beyond 1200 kbps video has no impact on quality, 1200 kbps reached maximum, but this may depend on your file and your needs.
So, short story:
Code:
FLV @ 560x304 pix. @ 1200 kbps video & 128 kbps audio
You can play a little bit with resolution and bitrate, but keep it around there.
Having installed my SD TuneUp cab and using the settings I recommend, you will get fantastic video playback experience on Blackstone in any Media Player (yes, classic Windwso Media Player and HTC Album too).
I upped a converted HDTV trailer here (scores around 120%) and another one here. Go play!
EDIT: My final conclusion on video issue here.
When I'm more awake (or maybe just a tad more experienced in these things!), I'm sure that will actually make a lot of sense!
(please note - this is down to my lack of understanding, not the way you're explained it!)
Many thanks!
Sounds good but I am allready playing Avi, dix, xvid kinda movies straight from torrent sites, I just download the 700mb divx files which are: 564x308 25fps mpeg-4 video they gave me a benchmark of 102.59%
For me its perfect no more converting or anything.
But keep up the good work, I appreciate it a lot !
Louis said:
Sounds good but I am allready playing Avi, dix, xvid kinda movies straight from torrent sites, I just download the 700mb divx files which are: 564x308 25fps mpeg-4 video they gave me a benchmark of 102.59%
For me its perfect no more converting or anything.
But keep up the good work, I appreciate it a lot !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, my post referrs to HD files, which are either HD720 or HD1080.
The downloaded files already are converted, so no need for that, Blackstone plays them back just fine!
P.S.: Watch for piracy issues! There are copyrights!
I mean kitesurfing videos and other sport videos
The following video I can play at the HTC HD alsmost fine.
http://flexifoil.com/video-download/Revolve2008.mov/
Good enough to watch, maybe you can give it a try.
A benchmark of only 63.15%
installed but what next?
I installed the tuneup cab on my touch hd and cant see it in program files to activate it or tweak stuff. Am I missing something. Thanks.
truthseekers said:
I installed the tuneup cab on my touch hd and cant see it in program files to activate it or tweak stuff. Am I missing something. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're not missing anything, you don't need to activate anything, it just made your SD card access 3 times faster.
Louis said:
I mean kitesurfing videos and other sport videos
The following video I can play at the HTC HD alsmost fine.
http://flexifoil.com/video-download/Revolve2008.mov/
Good enough to watch, maybe you can give it a try.
A benchmark of only 63.15%
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can't access that so no opinion from my side for now.
Great work !
I played the movie Ice Age 1 656x352 25fps. And the HD couldn't do it. Now after your .Cab it seems to work perfectly !
I think your theory about the slow SD is true !
Nice work, thanks !
Louis said:
Great work !
I played the movie Ice Age 1 656x352 25fps. And the HD couldn't do it. Now after your .Cab it seems to work perfectly !
I think your theory about the slow SD is true !
Nice work, thanks !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One more happy customer!
Glad you're satisfied with this gorgeus device!
Hi! First of all, thanks for the tip!
Second, will the encoding make the files larger, or smaller?
Bungieman said:
Hi! First of all, thanks for the tip!
Second, will the encoding make the files larger, or smaller?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The sample I upped was initially 110MB, after conversion, you can see from the link at post #1, is approx. 10-11MB.
So is your tweak a general tune up for any data moving from (to?) SD card or is it only a video tweak?
Great first post incidentally - good science and good writing!
iain.fraser said:
So is your tweak a general tune up for any data moving from (to?) SD card or is it only a video tweak?
Great first post incidentally - good science and good writing!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
SD TuneUp is a general SDHC tuner, it has to do with general SD card data access.
Thanks!
Thanks (in advance) TNYYNT !
Though I'm not too clear how to install the cab file. But I'll get to that bridge when I actually get my Touch HD (hopefully next week! )
SingaporeAirlines said:
Thanks (in advance) TTYYNT !
Though I'm not too clear how to install the cab file. But I'll get to that bridge when I actually get my Touch HD (hopefully next week! )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just download the file to your device, launch it from File Explorer, install it to Device and soft reset.
Just wanted to say thanks for the solution, just tried it with a few HD movies I had, end result is fantastic.
What audio codec would you suggest? Does it matter? I went with mp3 and strangle ended up with reduced volume.
tnyynt; Big thanks for the great topicstart and the speedup cab!
I just benchmarked a moviefile before installing the cab; 97.53% speed, after installing the cab(and softresetting afterwards); 97.58%... Maybe the file was already read fast enough before benchmarking.
The FLV encoding looks like the best option now, thanks for posting the benchmarks, this really makes clear which format we need to use if we want to encode a file.
What does the tuneup cab actually do? Is it a cache optimisation or something else?
_macca said:
Just wanted to say thanks for the solution, just tried it with a few HD movies I had, end result is fantastic.
What audio codec would you suggest? Does it matter? I went with mp3 and strangle ended up with reduced volume.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
128 kbps stereo MP3 will do it.
Guus_ said:
tnyynt; Big thanks for the great topicstart and the speedup cab!
I just benchmarked a moviefile before installing the cab; 97.53% speed, after installing the cab(and softresetting afterwards); 97.58%... Maybe the file was already read fast enough before benchmarking.
The FLV encoding looks like the best option now, thanks for posting the benchmarks, this really makes clear which format we need to use if we want to encode a file.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you downloaded the file I upped in post #1, then there's something strange, I get close to 120% with that file.
tboy2000 said:
What does the tuneup cab actually do? Is it a cache optimisation or something else?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Something like that.
Related
PROBLEM SOLVED - CONCLUSION OF THREAD updated 9/3/10:
1). Coreplayer and TCPMP don't work well on my device when playing back avi (divx/xvid) because they don't support hardware accelaration, although others seem to have no problems which still confuses me. Playback is juddery dropping many frames. I have tried Shasaraks settings (which are the best) and all others with no luck.
2). Because WMP and the HTC player don't support avi (divx/xvid) converting to mp4 is the only option for me.
3). CONVERSION: I have tried many converters including: TMPGEnc.XPress, handbrake, xvid4psp, mediacoder and others. The ones that do work well for the HD2 all have the same problem and that is a delay in audio putting speech out of sync when played back on the device. Even when playing back avi's in coreplayer i had to manualy adjust the sync.
The only converter that works well and is fast and can put the audio in sync for playback on HD2 is winmenc available here (freeware) http://winmenc.blogspot.com/
Download my profile which has the audio sync tweak already in it (thanks to Kr00ton) and put it into the profiles folder. I have tweaked Kenkiller's original profile, see here for info: http://forum.xda-developers.com/show...7&postcount=38
I have changed Kenkillers profile from 2000 to 1000 kbps to save file size and have also got rid off the 2 pass encoding to save time (and lots of it!). You also need to tick FIT TO WIDTH AND SPEED & QUALITY CONTROL AND MOVE IT TO FASTEST. I done various tests and found no noticeble difference to SD videos doing it my way. This speeds up conversion time to around 30 mins for a 700mb avi and keeps the file size about the same as the original.
If you have more time on your hands and or you are converting HD then maybe use Kenkillers original profile, although i converted HD stuff in my profile and it looked great. It all depends if file size and conversion time is an issue for you.
4). For some reason the HTC player still judders for me, i'm pretty sure it didn't do that in stock rom 1.44 but it certainly does on my 1.66 ROM leaving only WMP that performs perfectly It's a shame that it isn't very finger friendly for srolling through the video etc but i'll live with that.
I can only report my findings and experiences, you may not have the same issues i have had. Conversion may wield different reults on other OS's. I'm using windows 7 64 bit and can confirm that when i used winavimp4 converter on xp it was perfect but used on windows 7 it puts audio out of sync. Having said that it is without a doubt the fastest converter i have come accross converting a 700mb file in around 10 mins on windows 7 64 bit. It was around 30 mins on my old xp machine.
5). I can now relax and enjoy my films on my HD2, which is the main reason i bought it!
ORIGINAL 1ST POST
I bought this phone because of its screen. I watch movies on my long journeys to work and i'm getting increasingly frustrated with the phones poor performance on playback.
Coreplayer judders with many dropped frames no matter what settings (tried shasaraks direct draw settings) or version of coreplayer i use and disabling sense and using plane mode makes no difference whatsoever. It will play flawlessly for a while then judder then be ok then judder on and on...
So i decided to convert to mp4:
coreplayer still has poor performance. HTC player was ok but since upgrading to 1.66 it's performing worse than coreplayer now (yes, i did a hard reset after flashing)
The only player that works is wmp. I now have some questions:
1). Is there an option in wmp to sync the audio manualy like in coreplayer? some films are slightly out of sync.
2). are there any other players that work well on the HD2 apart from tcpmp (tried that, same results as coreplayer)
3). CONVERSION:
What are the best settings for video conversion for the HD2? If I can't use coreplayer to play avi this is my only solution and aslo solves the problem of coreplayer not supporting ac3 audio. I'm talking bitrate etc for video and audio. If you are succesfully converting video what converter and settings do you use? PLEASE!
I tried searching but couldn't see a thread dedicated to optimum conversion settings for the HD2.
4). Could the problem lie with my 16gb sandisk sd card? i noticed another thread for the blackstone where a cab was designed to speed up the cards performance by 3 times, is there something like this for the HD2 and would me formatting it to fat 32 make any difference at all to my problem?
This is really winding me up now and i've spent hours messing with settings etc, the one function i really need and it wont perform which i find very surprising for a phone that has this super fast snapdragon processor.
PLEASE HELP ME
END OF ORIGINAL POST, PROFILE FOR WINMENC BELOW
1) no
2) none even close to that
3) can't tell, as I don't really do it much, coreplayer works well for me
4) could be, as coreplayer works well for me.
jonbaker76 said:
4). Could the problem lie with my 16gb sandisk sd card? i noticed another thread for the blackstone where a cab was designed to speed up the cards performance by 3 times, is there something like this for the HD2 and would me formatting it to fat 32 make any difference at all to my problem?
This is really winding me up now and i've spent hours messing with settings etc, the one function i really need and it wont perform which i find very surprising for a phone that has this super fast snapdragon processor.
PLEASE HELP ME
many thanks...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could well be the card, as it sounds like it gets to the end of a buffer, buffers, then continues, causing the lags.
I know that reporting my own experience is of relatively low usefullness to you as it's not step by step instructions on how to solve your problem, anyway:
1) I use TCPMP to watch AC3 audio-encoded series like frasier
2) I use Coreplayer to watch non AC3 encoded series like sex and the city
3) tcpmp is slower than coreplayer for those videos that coreplayer CAN play, I get ~120% bench for SATC in coreplayer and ~90% in tcpmp, but nonetheless I can watch everything (...that I tried until now) in tcpmp without noticing the slightest issues, and I always "zoom to fit screen", which means the video fills the entire 800x480 resolution
4) I watched videos on my old ipaq 214 as well, sure we're talking about a different device, but we're aso talking about a device with a 600MHz cpu and without an accelerated graphics subsystem (and I do have chainfire patch for the graphics subsystme of my hd2)... well I only used tcpmp on the 214 and no issue there... and I watched the whole Death note series, crappy bench results but no issues with jumps in the video
5) I have a 16gb class 2 sandisk microsd, and despite it being class 2, I get ~7mb/s transfers both ways in the sd reader of my laptop, so if we're using the same memory card, that should not be the problem...
6) probably you watch "heavy" encoded movies?
Look at this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=5331497&postcount=38
Post Nr. 38 and download th profiles.
Use Winmenc 0.81 Beta (Freeware). Copy the downloaded profiles into Winmenc subfolder "profile".
Edit the profile like told in this thread
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=5341496#post5341496 Post Nr. 32 from krooton.
Important ist to set the audiodelay.
With this solution you can get very good *.mp4 Files with audio in sync playable with Manila album or Mediaplayer.
I tried a lot of things but this was the only way to get good video with audio in sync.
Sorry, but english is not my first language.
For coreplayer i'm using v 1.3.5 build 7340 but the newer 1.3.6 build 7427 also performs the same.
What version are you guys using?
Failing that i'll format the card to fat32 to see if that makes a difference and have a look at that winmenc.
Any other suggestions are very welcome
ephestione said:
6) probably you watch "heavy" encoded movies?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
defo not this. I converted a film to the lowest spec audio and video wise and it resulted in 350mb file... It played the same as the 1.2g original!
I used handbreak to convert to MP4 and then used the built in player in sense.
Seemed to be HW accelerated as 45minutes of playback took about 8% of the battery charge and I would expect doing soft decode of H264 would take more than that.
Only downside was waiting 15minutes to go from 720p to iPhone profile in handbreak. I am going to experiment with remuxing
Jim
I have created a preset in handbrake specifically for the HD2 - Let me get home and post it back for you.
have been using this - converted about 20 movies and loaded up around 10 on the HD2 for a trip. All of them played perfectly in HTC album (Looks like it's hardware accelerated). Approx 4-5 hours on a single full charge (around 2 1/2 movies back to back).
Best part - converstion takes about an hour on a 4 yr old laptop - should happen much quicker on new ones.
Source files are all mkv (for Blu-ray rips) or iso (for standard DVD)
vivek310 said:
I have created a preset in handbrake specifically for the HD2 - Let me get home and post it back for you.
have been using this - converted about 20 movies and loaded up around 10 on the HD2 for a trip. All of them played perfectly in HTC album (Looks like it's hardware accelerated). Approx 4-5 hours on a single full charge (around 2 1/2 movies back to back).
Best part - converstion takes about an hour on a 4 yr old laptop - should happen much quicker on new ones.
Source files are all mkv (for Blu-ray rips) or iso (for standard DVD)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
please do mate, looks like a nice converter, if you post the sttings you are using i'll give it a bash tonight.
I don't know what is going on with coreplayer, i used it a while ago and it played lovely, about 2 drops in 10 mins. I just tried again, 11 drops in 10 seconds what does this tell us!?!?!?!?
Could also be that you have something running in the background that's using the CPU badly...
This thread is worth checking out for video settings: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=582122
A converter that is reasonably idiot-proof (although its maximum bitrate is a teensy bit too low, IMO) is MP4ForHD, which you can find here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=478050 I think it lets you incorporate an audio delay into the video (thus negating the need to do it in the player).
I've bought Core PLayer and Kinoma PLay but the only one i use to play my videos and series is TCMP, its litter and complete doing its tasks.
I prefeer TCMP.
kilrah said:
Could also be that you have something running in the background that's using the CPU badly...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is what i thought but no, everything is shut down. Does the same after a soft reset. Disabling sense and using plane mode also makes no difference.
But like i say, soemtimes it works and sometimes it drops like a mother f*****
it's completely random
what i will try is another sd card, i got the 2gig one indoors, i'll put the same vid on that and report back... all rather boring but it's doing my head in and i don't like being beaten
Shasarak said:
This thread is worth checking out for video settings: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=582122
A converter that is reasonably idiot-proof (although its maximum bitrate is a teensy bit too low, IMO) is MP4ForHD, which you can find here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=478050 I think it lets you incorporate an audio delay into the video (thus negating the need to do it in the player).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks, will take a look
I just don't see the point in encoding especially for a mobile device.
That's iphone madness, not ours
I've been watching videos encoded for proper pc's since when I had my ipaq hx2400 back then, after that I kept doing it with my ipaq 214, and now I am happily doing the same on the HD2. I am sure there's something that's preventing jonbaker from watchgin movies normally, and using an alternate encoder is not a "solution" but a complication. Occam would say the same.
More specific info on file size/length/codec/bitrate/tcpmp-coreplayer bench results/microsd transfer rate (tested with read/write operation in usb disk mode) would be useful.
If memory card access is causing the problem with CorePlayer then you could try increasing the amount of memory CorePlayer uses to buffer. You could also try out these registry settings which sometimes improve SD card performance: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=5547319&postcount=8
Shasarak said:
If memory card access is causing the problem with CorePlayer then you could try increasing the amount of memory CorePlayer uses to buffer. You could also try out these registry settings which sometimes improve SD card performance: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=5547319&postcount=8
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
any chance you can suggest what i increase the settings to in the coreplayer memory buffer? not sure what im doing there! wouldnt mind giving that a go.
jonbaker76 said:
any chance you can suggest what i increase the settings to in the coreplayer memory buffer? not sure what im doing there! wouldnt mind giving that a go.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm operating entirely on guesswork, so no, no chance at all!!! I guess it needs to still be small enough that there is no danger of running out of memory on the phone, but larger than the default value. Might not make any difference, of course, depends on what's causing the bottleneck.
Have you tried getting CorePlayer to play video and audio in the background and then opening up the task manager to see what the CPU usage is doing? That might at least tell you whether it's a lack of processing power as opposed to something else.
Shasarak said:
Have you tried getting CorePlayer to play video and audio in the background and then opening up the task manager to see what the CPU usage is doing? That might at least tell you whether it's a lack of processing power as opposed to something else.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
RIGHT i set coreplayer to play in background: BUILT IN TASK MANAGER:
mem - 7.94m CPU sitting around 45 - 65%, then will drop to around 20% then back up to 60%
RESCO TASK MANAGER:
mem - reports 2.68m
don't know why they give different results memory wise don't think resco task manger gives cpu usage
is all that normal?
Team,
Thought I would throw this out here so people don't have to hunt it down.
Standard DVD:
The Samsung Galaxy S has a big, beautiful screen that just begs for some quality video to show off. But what is the best way for you to convert your favorite videos and transfer them to your Galaxy S? In this guide, we show you what software you need to convert videos for viewing on the Galaxy S, and we also show you how to get your newly converted videos onto your handset.
Requirements:
1. Installed copy of Handbrake software from here http://handbrake.fr/downloads.php
2. Video files and or DVD of your choice
3. Samsung Galaxy S with microUSB cable
Step I: Launch the Handbrake application on your computer and select the video source
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
1. Launch Handbrake (figure 1)
2. In the menu on the right-hand side, select the iPod Legacy preset (figure 1)
3. Select your video source by clicking on the Source dropdown menu (we used a DVD for our testing purposes)
4. Select the destination and name for the file once it has been converted (both the .mp4 and .m4v extension work for the Galaxy S)
5. Confirm that the container is set to MP4 File and that Large file size, Web optimized, and iPod 5G support are unchecked
Step II: Adjust Handbrake's Video Settings
Picture Tab:
1. Uncheck Keep Aspect Ratio
2. Set the Galaxy Sd Width and Height (the Galaxy S supports a maximum of 800 x 480 pixels)Video Tab:
(click to enlarge)
1. Set Handbrake's encoding settings by clicking on the Video tab (figure 2)
2. Confirm the Video Codec is set as H.264 (x264)
3. Framerate (FPS) should be set to Same as source
4. Under Quality, select the Avg Bitrate (kbps) and change it to 1500
Step III: Adjust audio settings
(click to enlarge)
1. Set Handbrake's audio settings by clicking on the Audio tab (figure 3)
2. Confirm the Audio Codec is AAC (faac)
3. Mixdown should be set to Stereo.
4. Change the Samplerate to 48
5. Change the Bitrate to 160
Step IV: Save as a preset for future use
1. Click on the Presets menu and select New Preset
2. Enter Galaxy S in the dialog box and click Add
3. "Galaxy S" will now be saved as a preset and listed on the right hand side in Handbrake to be used in the futureStep V: Convert the video and copy to your Galaxy S
1. Click on the Start button in Handbrake
2. A command line/DOS window will open and start to process the video conversion
3. Once the conversion is done, mount your Galaxy S on to your computer via USB (figure 4)
4. Once mounted, create a folder named Video in the root folder on the Galaxy S
5. Copy converted file into the Video folder
That's it! The converted video can now be played on your Galaxy S using the Gallery app. It should look fantastic on the Galaxy S's screen as long as the original source was of good quality.
A few things to keep in mind when converting video:
1. The Galaxy S does not like video file sizes over 2GB (the settings in Step II should help insure that the file size is kept under 2GB)
2. Your converted video will only be as good as the source video
3. If your source is over 800 x 480, you must be sure to set the width and height to a maximum of 800 x 480 as noted in Step II
Blu-Ray:
Coming Soon:
Thanks OP. Great instructions....
I just have to say, you don't need to limit the dimensions to 800x480, the phone will play 1280x720 (720p) videos just fine.
raduque said:
I just have to say, you don't need to limit the dimensions to 800x480, the phone will play 1280x720 (720p) videos just fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm changing my stance. This post is not to convert to HD. It will depend on your source your using. You can't just take a DVD and use Handbreak to convert video to 720p your source will have to support that. That will be another topic.
TGA_Gunnman said:
Good point, I will try that out and see how it performs. Let me know if anyone tries it before me and i'll update the resolution setting in the post.
If anyone wants to try 5.1 audio in their settings let us know your results.
I want to get video and audio going as good as it can get.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, in keeping balance between (1) quality and (2) file size, what is the benefit of coding in 720p when the max screen res is lower? For TV out? And if that's the case, can the tv out cable even handle above 480p? I definitely want to have the best quality possible, but I don't want to have needlessly large files taking up space, bc ultimately I'd like to have a decent size library of media.
Input would be appreciated. I'm relatively inexperienced in the ways of the videophile.
EDIT: I guess maybe 720p would work over DLNA? That might be worth it if pushing to xbox 360 works as people have claimed. Can't wait to get mine on Wed and try!
TGA_Gunnman said:
Good point, I will try that out and see how it performs. Let me know if anyone tries it before me and i'll update the resolution setting in the post.
If anyone wants to try 5.1 audio in their settings let us know your results.
I want to get video and audio going as good as it can get.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Under the video tab, I Uncheck keep aspect ratio, but I can't set it higher than the original aspect ratio of the file. So it won't let me set it to 800X480. Any ideas?
edykes1 said:
Under the video tab, I Uncheck keep aspect ratio, but I can't set it higher than the original aspect ratio of the file. So it won't let me set it to 800X480. Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm changing my post to the original. Let stay at native screen res and sound for this howto.
You can experiment on 5.1 and 720p if you want.
If you use 720p source you can choose classic ipod and crank your settings to create great looking HD videos that run good on the Galaxy S
Gunnman from Galaxy S
awesome stuff, thanks!
israel941 said:
So, in keeping balance between (1) quality and (2) file size, what is the benefit of coding in 720p when the max screen res is lower? For TV out? And if that's the case, can the tv out cable even handle above 480p? I definitely want to have the best quality possible, but I don't want to have needlessly large files taking up space, bc ultimately I'd like to have a decent size library of media.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Even on a lower resolution screen, a higher-resolution video file is going to look better. Actually, I take that back, it's more about the bit rate than the resolution. A 1280x720 video encoded with a low bit rate isn't going to look as good as a high bit-rate 800x480 video.
Encoding at 720p generally uses higher bit rates anyway, around 3-5Mb/s for 720P and 10-13Mb/s for 1080p using H/X.264 to encode. Some MPEG streams can be as high as 30+Mb/s! It looks like the OP is encoding about half-HD bitrates (1.5Mb/s) - that outta be fine on the Vibrant's screen, though personally, I'd encode to 2-2.5Mb/s.
raduque said:
Even on a lower resolution screen, a higher-resolution video file is going to look better. Actually, I take that back, it's more about the bit rate than the resolution. A 1280x720 video encoded with a low bit rate isn't going to look as good as a high bit-rate 800x480 video.
Encoding at 720p generally uses higher bit rates anyway, around 3-5Mb/s for 720P and 10-13Mb/s for 1080p using H/X.264 to encode. Some MPEG streams can be as high as 30+Mb/s! It looks like the OP is encoding about half-HD bitrates (1.5Mb/s) - that outta be fine on the Vibrant's screen, though personally, I'd encode to 2-2.5Mb/s.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
good info. i'm gonna play around with a few bit rates and resolutions then and see what the difference is in file size and how much difference my eye can pick up and go from there. getting my vibrant tomorrow so i'll probably post back with some results in a few days.
Tagging this .
So you can convert a movie you have on DVD to play on the phone?
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
vinnydakid said:
So you can convert a movie you have on DVD to play on the phone?
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
..................................yup
It seems that most of my DVDs are protected and my files come out all pixelated.
Does anyone know a good way around this?
For some reason when I encode full length movies this method does not work.
I've converted multiple music videos using these settings, and they look AMAZING.
However, when I try to encode a movie from a 720p source the movie only shows a black screen with no sound on my Vibrant. The counter counts, the slider moves, but there is no picture or audio...
I have been encoding my files into an MKV container but used the target size to be under 2 gigs...The file does not play. Is the bit rate limit on the vibrant 1.5 mbps? What is the best bit rate to keep for a dvd conversion that will play on the Vibrant? I wouldn't mind doing this for playback on the PS3 as well. BTW I prefer mkv over mp4 container for obvious reasons.
PS
The method works but Don't like Mp4 container as it doesn't show the movie length on the file and it will not save the spot where I last viewed after exiting...
Any advised welcomed.
I've followed these instructions and yet when I convert a BR video the audio gets distorted (kind of a slow sounding distortion), the video shows up perfectly however. If I just put the file straight from my comp to the phone i still get great video but no sound. Anyone have any advice?
xavice said:
I've followed these instructions and yet when I convert a BR video the audio gets distorted (kind of a slow sounding distortion), the video shows up perfectly however. If I just put the file straight from my comp to the phone i still get great video but no sound. Anyone have any advice?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need to rip the BR first to a file. Then convert it to use smaller space. I havn't used handbreak to rip BR just AnyDVD. This HOWTO is for standard DVD. I will work on a BR post later.
TGA_Gunnman said:
You need to rip the BR first to a file. Then convert it to use smaller space. I havn't used handbreak to rip BR just AnyDVD. This HOWTO is for standard DVD. I will work on a BR post later.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is a BR rip. And that might best explain why I can add any of my DVD rips with no problem without having to convert but any BR rips I have problems.
Team,
Thought I would throw this out here so people don't have to hunt it down.
The Samsung Galaxy S has a big, beautiful screen that just begs for some quality video to show off. But what is the best way for you to convert your favorite videos and transfer them to your Galaxy S? In this guide, we show you what software you need to convert videos for viewing on the Galaxy S, and we also show you how to get your newly converted videos onto your handset.
Requirements:
1. Installed copy of Handbrake software from here http://handbrake.fr/downloads.php
2. Video files and or DVD of your choice
3. Samsung Galaxy S with microUSB cable
Step I: Launch the Handbrake application on your computer and select the video source
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
1. Launch Handbrake (figure 1)
2. In the menu on the right-hand side, select the iPod Legacy preset (figure 1)
3. Select your video source by clicking on the Source dropdown menu (we used a DVD for our testing purposes)
4. Select the destination and name for the file once it has been converted (both the .mp4 and .m4v extension work for the Galaxy S)
5. Confirm that the container is set to MP4 File and that Large file size, Web optimized, and iPod 5G support are unchecked
Step II: Adjust Handbrake's Video Settings
Picture Tab:
1. Uncheck Keep Aspect Ratio
2. Set the Galaxy Sd Width and Height (the Galaxy S supports a maximum of 800 x 480 pixels)Video Tab:
1. Set Handbrake's encoding settings by clicking on the Video tab (figure 2)
2. Confirm the Video Codec is set as H.264 (x264)
3. Framerate (FPS) should be set to Same as source
4. Under Quality, select the Avg Bitrate (kbps) and change it to 1500
Step III: Adjust audio settings
1. Set Handbrake's audio settings by clicking on the Audio tab (figure 3)
2. Confirm the Audio Codec is AAC (faac)
3. Mixdown should be set to Stereo.
4. Change the Samplerate to 48
5. Change the Bitrate to 160
Step IV: Save as a preset for future use
1. Click on the Presets menu and select New Preset
2. Enter Galaxy S in the dialog box and click Add
3. "Galaxy S" will now be saved as a preset and listed on the right hand side in Handbrake to be used in the futureStep V: Convert the video and copy to your Galaxy S
1. Click on the Start button in Handbrake
2. A command line/DOS window will open and start to process the video conversion
3. Once the conversion is done, mount your Galaxy S on to your computer via USB (figure 4)
4. Once mounted, create a folder named Video in the root folder on the Galaxy S
5. Copy converted file into the Video folder
That's it! The converted video can now be played on your Galaxy S using the Gallery app. It should look fantastic on the Galaxy S's screen as long as the original source was of good quality.
A few things to keep in mind when converting video:
1. The Galaxy S does not like video file sizes over 2GB (the settings in Step II should help insure that the file size is kept under 2GB)
2. Your converted video will only be as good as the source video
3. If your source is over 800 x 480, you must be sure to set the width and height to a maximum of 800 x 480 as noted in Step II
This program crashed whenever i try to convert a vob file that is over 1gb in size. Smaller vob files convert just fine.
Great guide TGA_Gunnman thanks!
But since Galaxy S supports Matroska files, why don't some of them work on the phone? Example episodes of the Simpsons and TopGear work just fine if I throw them to my fone in 720p format. But Futurama, Band of Brothers and such do not. Even if I convert the Furutama episodes to the native resolution, BUT keep the mkv-format: still they don’t work. But they work in .mp4-format ofcourse, but this conversion method takes a a lot of processin power and a LOT of time.
jokuvuan said:
Great guide TGA_Gunnman thanks!
But since Galaxy S supports Matroska files, why don't some of them work on the phone? Example episodes of the Simpsons and TopGear work just fine if I throw them to my fone in 720p format. But Futurama, Band of Brothers and such do not. Even if I convert the Furutama episodes to the native resolution, BUT keep the mkv-format: still they don’t work. But they work in .mp4-format ofcourse, but this conversion method takes a a lot of processin power and a LOT of time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Correct me if I'm wrong but are not MKV files just containers for audio/video/subs?
So you can have in a MKV an AVI+MP3, or MP4+AAC and so on...
TGA_Gunnman said:
Team,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks but it did not work. I actually tried to convert a 2.6 GB mp4 file using handbrake following a guide by someone in the forum to convert videos to play in the SGS. It produced a 2.1 GB mp4 but SGS will not play it just skips over to the next video file.
I even tried to convert the video using Kies but the video quality is so crap, can't believe how samsung can provide such a software where it converts all movie frames not above 300 pixels whereas SGS is having 800!!?
Worked for me, ripped my Avatar DVD into a 2.5GB file with Handbrake and it plays perfectly.
Arkymedes said:
Correct me if I'm wrong but are not MKV files just containers for audio/video/subs?
So you can have in a MKV an AVI+MP3, or MP4+AAC and so on...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's my understanding as well.
Some mkv files play on my PS3, some do not; just depends on the underlying codecs used. Same thing for the Galaxy S.
?????????? convert???????? why???????
Guys,
One of the main points of having an SGS is that you DONT HAVE TO CONVERT "videos".
EDIT: I see you are referring to DVD's!!
aah, ok
DVD is different from "videos", DVD is just one kind of way to deliver videos.
Of my +1200 divx, xvid, wmv, mkv, mp4 videos, VERY few have been unable to play, I have not even considered the hassle of a conversion software, this isnt an iphone after all ;-) Even some 720p HD videos play with no conversion with my SGS... awesome phone.
Mark
I think it is an issue more with the audio than the video for why some mkvs don't play. There is a program, can't remember the name ATM, that is used I icon vert mkvs into xbox compatible mp4s. Ot takes about ten or twenty minutes, I think it only modifies the audio but does nto transcode the video.
drizek said:
I think it is an issue more with the audio than the video for why some mkvs don't play. There is a program, can't remember the name ATM, that is used I icon vert mkvs into xbox compatible mp4s. Ot takes about ten or twenty minutes, I think it only modifies the audio but does nto transcode the video.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah I used Popcorn mkv converter http://www.videohelp.com/tools/PopCorn_MKV_AudioConverter, it was so simple, I don't have to do extract audio - reencode - repatch manually all was taken care of the software like a breeze, great work by the developer and he is worth to be appreciated with some gift as he saved me now. The fix was so easy it just took some 5 + mins for a movie and around less than a minute for my song video. Now it plays in my SGS. Remember it only supports mkv files. Audio codec that was not supported by SGS was VORBIS in those files.
My only problem is to reencode my mp4 avatar which is great quality but audio missing in SGS, anyone suggest how I can do this easily like the above.
Hey guys
this program works great and all but I noticed some videos show up in the mediaplayer with length of 0:00? They play fine and in the actual video the correct length shows up, but when browsing through the media player library the length shows up as 0:00.
anyone know how to fix this? For some vids I don't have thsi problem, but for a lot I do.
Hi guys,please help me out with this,it's driving me crazy.
I did everything on this howto, I converted some avi files to mp4 but my SGS doesn't play it at all,I keep getting the message "I can't open this file" or "file not supported"
players used: galaxy s video player,Vplayer,Meridian, same thing every time.
suggestions?
Thanks
Just buy an external memory card
You dont have to convert nothing it almost plays everything. Converting is time and energy lost and you sure in theory loose video quality..
The only problem galaxy have is to downmix 5.1 channel movies to stereo, but you can do that with tools that just change the audio file without touching video, like yamb and audio transcoder.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Thanks for the quick reply.
I already have an 8gb kingston card.
I tried to play avi,mp4,mkv with different players.nothing at all.
Am I missing something?
Please help.
Bet you flashed some custom firmwares
Just, factory reset, I advice to flash 2.2.1 oficial, no lagfix, through kies, its probably better than every custom firm
I also have subtitles support with this firmware
luposurfer said:
Thanks for the quick reply.
I already have an 8gb kingston card.
I tried to play avi,mp4,mkv with different players.nothing at all.
Am I missing something?
Please help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Actually I have:
Firmware Froyo 2.2
PDL:I9000RSJP5
Phone:I9000XXJPP
CSC:I9000ITVJP3
Kernel Version:2.6.32.9
[email protected]#1
Froyo.RSJP5
Does it make any sense to you?
Well, does it open any video file at least? If there are only a couple of videos, than they can be corrupted, or not supported,
otherwise I would still recommend factory reset or/and flashing.
Why do you install all these video players, do they offer anything more than the stock?
I tried Meridian and it was laggy .
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
After some testing, it seems to me that the stock player prefers 44.1khz audio sampling frequency. 48 khz also works, but with considerable stutter due to dropped frames.
On a side note, I find the color enhancements done by the stock player to be absolutely horrendous. Some people, mostly asian hardware companies, seem to love extra colors...but it looks awful to the rest. Please samsung: add an option to turn it off...we are not all color blind.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
I think HD video look gorgeos on the stock player, thats why I dont convert, and I`m not asian,
anyway I prefer Windows Media Player to all other pc video players,
sonci said:
I think HD video look gorgeos on the stock player, thats why I dont convert, and I`m not asian,
anyway I prefer Windows Media Player to all other pc video players,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, WMP does not do anything weird with the picture or colors. The stock SGS player seem to boost the contrast and colors for a higher "wow"-factor. Come to think of it, this is exactly what Samsung TV's do by default (the "Dynamic"-setting, which thankfully can be turned off). However high the wow-factor is, the colors are not correct, and they make any movie look like a cheezy commercial. If the film producer wanted higher contrast and more colors, he would have added it
I believe the voodoo colorfix corrected this exact problem (look at http :// project-voodoo.org/color for an example), however I don't think it is available for 2.2.
(Sorry about the spaces in the url, but I'm not allowed to post proper urls :-( )
Update 5/28: Honeycomb 3.1 upgraded TF101 can playback 720p High Profile natively!
Verified with native player and Mobo(HW playback). Modified steps 3-3.1 to reflect HP settings, added HP preset and sample. Enjoy!
Since this question gets asked a lot lately and my post on one of the thread was buried, so I figured a separate thread would be helpful.
Background
As I understand it, Tegra 2 should playback up to High Profile 720p and Main Profile 1080p. However, with limitation on Honeycomb and/or lack of driver release by Nvidia, current crop of HC tablets do not playback anything above Baseline Profile smoothly. Future updates by Google/Nvidia should fix this issue, but it looks like we may have to reencode High/Main profile media for the time being.
Note that there are few software codec players(Mobo/Vital) that are able to playback High/Main profile H264 media files. My experience with these players were less than satisfactory and I wanted to stick with hardware decoding to maximize smoothness.
Guide
HandBrake is an open-source, GPL-licensed, multiplatform, multithreaded video transcoder, available for MacOS X, Linux and Windows. It offers variety of H264 encoding options via GUI and easy to use. Best of all, it is FREE.
You can obtain HandBrake from this link.
Once you have HandBrake installed and have a source file opened, there are only few tabs you need to setup.
1. Select the mp4 container and set the picture width to 1280. Anamorphic should be loose and Modulus 16. Large File Size can be check for better compatibility.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
2. Under Video Tab, Make sure the options are set to "H.264","Same as source", and "Constant Quality". You can keep it a RF:20. Optionally, you can change the RF slider for better quality or smaller size. Higher RF number means smaller size but less quality. Also, you can choose "Average Bitrate" or "Target Size" option if you like.
3. Update: For Honeycomb 3.1, Follow step 3.1 for high profile settings. Last Tab but most important, set your advanced options exactly same as picture below. You can play with settings but CABAC, 8x8, and P-Frames has to be checked off to keep it baseline profile.
3.1 This is High Profile settings for HC 3.1 TF101.
That's it. Start your encode and enjoy your 720p on your Transformer.
Included below is my presets and sample movies I encoded using the profiles.
Baseline Sample on Megaupload
High Profile Sample on Megaupload
Whoa, baseline can't use B-frames? No wonder it's so much worse than main/high. I hope 720p high profile support gets fixed soon.
hows the file sizes after conversion? i have some movies that are 6GB and won't fit on the formats required for android memory.
so i was hoping to do something like this to knock them down to under 4.
With constant quality, average bitrate comes out to about 2600Kbps for above sample. Source file size for the above sample(130mb) was around 480mb. For better size control, you can try the target size option from video tab.
I encoded a 720p 130MB file and it turned out at 146MB with the profile file.
I used this Handbrake preset on a 986MB 720p high profile 2 hour movie and the resulting file size was 2.48GB. Movie played great with the default video player, just can't get many on an 8GB microSD card.
I used to use MeGUI to reencode videos for my PSP,and it's good at this job.
I'll have a try according to your post,thanks.
If you are used to MeGUI, then no need to use Handbrake. Just select the baseline from x264 option and configure the rest to your likings.
Is badaboom any good for this purpose? Both handbrake and badaboom have cuda acceleration, correct?
looking at the demo video of badaboom, there is baseline setting under advanced option so I assume it will work as well. It doesn't seem to have detailed options so tweaking doesn't seem possible though. I wouldn't spend $40 on badaboom while handbrake does the job for free.
I've converted it to your settings. However my file is only 1.3GB. When I connect my unit through usb and try to add it by dragging and dropping, it says that the operation cannot continue. My only options are to stop or skip the file transfer.
Edit- Nevermind. It wasn't finished converting yet! Duh!
the demo clip in the OP is excellent and plays smooth as butter on my E pad and looks brilliant
I have played 1080p AVCHD files via moboplayer and they are flawless. Or am I missing something?
Players like mobo, rock, and vital are all utilizing software decode playback. While software decoding handles some/most of HD profiles, it certainly is not the end-all be-all answer. Software decoding does a decent job of playback HD on some media, but tends to choke once the decoding process gets complicated. Re-encoding allows you to playback your media files with player of your choice including default player using hardware decoding. Until there is a HC/Nvidia "fix" to allow maximum hardware decoding capabilities of Tegra 2, re-encoding is the best at the moment solution for smooth playback. However, if you are happy with software players, I don't see a reason to waste time on re-encoding.
I made a mistake. When I streamed my AVCHD files from my core i5 laptop, they were great. When I streamed the same files from my Core2Duo laptop there were problems.
dont understand high profile /main profile stuff but i can confirm i used these handbrake settings on a 1920 x1080 .ts of i robot it went from 9.89 gog to 3.27 gig and work flawlessly on my transformer , excellent picture and no audio out of sync, as i plan to us the dock as well then a using the SD card slot for loads of films to take on holiday etc for the kids should not be an issue
my only question now is why in the gallery when you see movie folders and all the movies does it not display the titles underneath?
buri73 said:
Players like mobo, rock, and vital are all utilizing software decode playback. While software decoding handles some/most of HD profiles, it certainly is not the end-all be-all answer. Software decoding does a decent job of playback HD on some media, but tends to choke once the decoding process gets complicated. Re-encoding allows you to playback your media files with player of your choice including default player using hardware decoding. Until there is a HC/Nvidia "fix" to allow maximum hardware decoding capabilities of Tegra 2, re-encoding is the best at the moment solution for smooth playback. However, if you are happy with software players, I don't see a reason to waste time on re-encoding.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
could you maybe explain this a little more? what's wrong with software decoding if it's smoother than hardware? does it use a lot more battery or something?
combat goofwing said:
my only question now is why in the gallery when you see movie folders and all the movies does it not display the titles underneath?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's gallery by design. It doesn't show title of any media inside the folders.
fastfood8891 said:
could you maybe explain this a little more? what's wrong with software decoding if it's smoother than hardware? does it use a lot more battery or something?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Like I said above, if you are happy with software decoding then you don't have to reencode anything. Some of high profile/bitrate HD media can not be handled by software alone. That's where re-encoding comes in.
I don't know if this is the best analogy, but software decoding to me is like you buying a hybrid car and only be able to use the gas engine only. With the help of 3rd party modification(software player in our instance), you may get more mileage out of the gas engine, but you are not utilizing the car to it's full potential.
Players like mobo, rock, and vital are all utilizing software decode playback. While software decoding handles some/most of HD profiles, it certainly is not the end-all be-all answer. Software decoding does a decent job of playback HD on some media, but tends to choke once the decoding process gets complicated. Re-encoding allows you to playback your media files with player of your choice including default player using hardware decoding. Until there is a HC/Nvidia "fix" to allow maximum hardware decoding capabilities of Tegra 2, re-encoding is the best at the moment solution for smooth playback. However, if you are happy with software players, I don't see a reason to waste time on re-encoding.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you sure there will be a fix? Asus manual says the transformer supports simple profile. Of course, they could lose sales if they do not "fix" it.
buri73 said:
looking at the demo video of badaboom, there is baseline setting under advanced option so I assume it will work as well. It doesn't seem to have detailed options so tweaking doesn't seem possible though. I wouldn't spend $40 on badaboom while handbrake does the job for free.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep. Handbrake doesn't do CUDA, but it does use multiple cores if you have them available. Last I heard, badaboom's output wasn't all that great anyway.
Many people still seem to have lots of misunderstandings about H.264 support and they often try to feed wrong kinds of files to their tablets resulting in choppy playback, so I create this thread to help atleast some of them:
*****************************************************
* The Iconia Tab A500 does support H.264 video in 720p baseline-profile on 3.0.1 stock ROM, it doesn't support hardware playback of 1080p video at all and that will be choppy. The tablet simply doesn't have enough processing power to do 1080p video in software fast enough, so you'll have to update or install a custom ROM for that.
* The tablet on 3.1 (or newer) does support H.264 video in 720p resolution in baseline-, main- and high-profiles, but 1080p resolution video only in baseline-profile. This means that if you're getting choppy video playback on 1080p video then it's not baseline-profile and doesn't use hardware playback.
* The difference between baseline-profile and high-profile is that high-profile produces better quality output and smaller files. On a mobile device with limited storage it's obviously then better to use high-profile as often as possible.
* The tablet only has 720p screen so it's pointless to play 1080p on it. You should only use 1080p video if you plan to display it on big screen via HDMI.
*****************************************************
Handbrake: what and where?
Handbrake is an application that is meant for easy transcoding -- ie. converting from one format to another -- of video. It does the transcoding job in software so it can take a lot of time, especially if your computer isn't too beefy, but then again it produces a lot, LOT better quality output than any of the applications that utilize hardware encoding.
Handbrake can be downloaded from http://handbrake.fr/downloads.php
Handbrake can't use encrypted DVDs as input, ie. almost any regular DVD-movie. You need to strip those first to your HDD and then use Handbrake for transcoding. On their website they suggest using Fairmount paired with DVD2OneX if you're on Mac, or AnyDVD on Windows.
As transcoding jobs usually take several hours per movie I personally like to set up what I want transcoded and add several movies to queue and leave Handbrake to do its job during the night when I'm sleeping. That way it doesn't bog down the system when I'm actually using it myself.
As for hardware-assisted encoding: such solutions are really a whole lot faster, like using Cyberlink MediaEspresso I can transcode a whole 2 hour movie in just 15 minutes. But the downsides are bigger files and lower quality, and so far I have not seen a single hardware-assisted transcoding application that does high-profile, only baseline-profile. Thus I personally only recommend using such when you're in a hurry, otherwise use Handbrake.
*****************************************************
Set-up a 720p high-profile job on Handbrake:
* Load up a video
* On the first tab ("Picture") find a setting called "Anamorphic" and change it to "Loose"
* Set "Width" to "1280"
* Go to the 3rd tab ("Video") and select "Constant Quality", set it to 20.0
* Go to the 4th tab ("Audio"), select the audio track(s) you wish to use, and set the settings as follows: Audio Codec AAC(faac), Mixdown Dolby Pro Logic II, Samplerate Auto, Bitrate 160, DRC 0.0
* Go to the last tab ("Advanced") and set the settings as follows:
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Set-up a 720p baseline-profile job on Handbrake:
Do otherwise the same as in above steps, but replace the last step with the following:
* Go to the last tab ("Advanced") and set the settings as follows:
*****************************************************
Set-up a 1080p baseline-profile job on Handbrake:
* Load up a video
* On the first tab ("Picture") find a setting called "Anamorphic" and change it to "Loose"
* Set "Width" to "1920"
* Go to the 3rd tab ("Video") and select "Constant Quality", set it to 20.0
* Go to the 4th tab ("Audio"), select the audio track(s) you wish to use, and set the settings as follows: Audio Codec AAC(faac), Mixdown Dolby Pro Logic II, Samplerate Auto, Bitrate 160, DRC 0.0
* Go to the last tab ("Advanced") and set the settings as follows:
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How to add subtitles
Handbrake doesn't support rendering of external subtitles in the output, ie. your only option is to use a videoplayer application that supports external subtitles, or use another transcoder software. Mediacoder can handle rendering of subtitles in the output if you really want hardcoded subtitles and Mediacoder has a pretty nice configuration wizard you can use, but it also has a GAZILLION different options and tweaks and thus there's plenty of things you can ruin your transcoding with if you don't know what you're doing.
Mediacoder also supports using CUDA on NVIDIA GPUs for speeding up the transcoding but again it cannot do high-profile H.264 then, you'll need to use CPU encoding for that.
If you're interested in using Mediacoder instead then go to http://www.mediacoderhq.com/ and download.
As for media player software that supports external subtitles: Moboplayer for example is one that has worked fine for me so far. If it doesn't work for you then leave a comment and state clearly what fails and what kinds of files you're using.
Where to get subtitles then? Well, I for one like to use www.subscene.com, they've got a great selection there for almost all possible languages.
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Disclaimer: I am not an expert in these things and thus I don't promise anything whatsoever nor accept any responsibility for anything. However, these instructions SHOULD work
UPDATE: Added ready presets in a zip file at the bottom, just import them in Handbrake and you're good to go.
UPDATE #2: Had a major brainfart and forgot to add a preset for encoding DVD-videos; they're only 480p or 576p, depending on the DVD, so using even 720p preset is a waste of bandwidth and storage space. Do find the dvdsource.zip - preset in the attachements below!
HALEP, Why is the resulting file so big?!
I personally seriously hate compression artifacts and wish to retain every single possible detail so I had left the Constant Quality setting somewhat high. In hind-sight I should have included presets with Constant Quality set lower so the output files are also smaller. Well, now you have it; just download the "Smaller output files.zip" from the attachments, import the profiles and use those instead when transcoding if you want smaller files and do not mind the slightly lower visual quality, the resulting output file should be anything between 30%-60% smaller.
epic
Too cool of you!
Thanks Werecatf!
Great job!
cheers!
I do fair number of encoding using Handbrake and this will certainly help me to encode in 720p high-profile
Thanks for the tut! Gave you a click, truly awesome help for those that watch movies on their A500s!
Might be a good idea to create some profiles too, so folks can just import them into handbrake.
This should be a sticky!
cd85233 said:
This should be a sticky!
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++++ 1
Updating the thing a bit, planning to add a few more sections to it like e.g the subtitles and so on. Ask away if there's something you don't understand, I'll try to clarify things.
What video player do you use Cat?
Zylograth said:
What video player do you use Cat?
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I find MoboPlayer good for my uses. I usually have subtitles in .srt as a separate file in the same directory as the movie so I don't have to do anything special to get subtitles working, and otherwise I don't need any kind of special features from a video player.
Thsi is AWESOME!
I Must share this to the world on Google Plus.
Great guide.
https://plus.google.com/u/0/113884569404079501384/posts/Ak6FFUvz1Kz
Weird. I tried the 720p high settings on a 1080p video and there was a lot of artificing. I'll try a different vid and see what happens.
edgie168 said:
Weird. I tried the 720p high settings on a 1080p video and there was a lot of artificing. I'll try a different vid and see what happens.
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That's strange, I don't get such myself. Did you try with another vid already?
Very, very useful thread! And you've prepared presets as well - good job, WereCatf!
Ok
I used the 720p preset for a DVD and it came out very "soft". There was no detail and everything was blurry. Think this is because its native format was 480 (dvd) not 720. Is this correct or is there a bigger issue here?
Aaron Camp said:
Ok
I used the 720p preset for a DVD and it came out very "soft". There was no detail and everything was blurry. Think this is because its native format was 480 (dvd) not 720. Is this correct or is there a bigger issue here?
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You cannot increase the quality of the video - encoding a 480 video @ 720 will just make it look like crap.
I actually went out and asked the Handbrake developers if they're planning to add the option of burning-in external subtitles to the output file, their response was that "no one needs that" and thus they will not add it.
I found the response.. well, not too convincing, and was disappointed to hear that. I doubt it'd be much work for them to add that. But I guess that's that then.
I'm now wondering if I should do a similar how-to for MediaCoder in case some people wish to use that instead, like e.g. if they really need the ability to burn in their subtitles.
Stupid newbie question. How do you get going watching movies. Ie; What format are the movies in, file size, program used and now I'm confused about this Handbrake thingy! I appreciate any help!
tedpc01 said:
Stupid newbie question. How do you get going watching movies. Ie; What format are the movies in, file size, program used and now I'm confused about this Handbrake thingy! I appreciate any help!
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The files created by Handbrake are .MP4, but the A500 can also play some .AVI files by default. You can also install one of the players from Market to get support for extra formats. I personally use MoboPlayer.
The file size for 720p high-profile videos created by Handbrake are something around 1.5Gt-2Gt, depending on the length of the video obviously.