Database Users

Coreplayer/TCPMP Bliss...

That's right, blissful viewing on your VGA Athena. How?
Don't expect to run it in a full screen window, that's how. The CPU (powerful as it is) cannot handle native VGA 640x480 full screen encodes. Probably due to the many other things it has to do simultaneously.
For full screen 640x480, we need the ATI Imageon chip acceleration support, which as we all know is not yet available and ATI/AMD have not been forthcoming in helping CoreCodec in revealing the nature of their hard/software embedded implementation. Nuff said.
320x240 resolution with extremely high bitrates won't give you the sharpness a QVGA device can playing the same resolution.
On the Hermes with the ATI chip, they finally got a resolution/fix as there seemed to be some buffering issues regarding Audio (not entirely sure if these reports were accurate), so I've been playing with Audio codecs and lower bit-rates, to some benefit....but not enough.
The best 'in-between' results I have found till we get a fix for our Imageon hardware (if ever) is as follows.
P.S. I've tried playing with H264, X264, DivX 6.xxupwards, Mpeg 4 etc and various encoders from Virtual Dub and Guardian ... to DVDx and too many to mention to be honest (over 20-30 encoders over the last few years).
For movie clips or entire movies to look really good on a VGA screen IMHO and experience, you have to encode higher than QVGA but less than VGA unless like the Dell's you have a accelerator that actually work with TCPMP or Coreplayer. Our only works with the ATI software renderer, which is still miles better than any other option open to us.
So I now encode at:
Video: 480x320 at 850kbps
Audio: AAC @ 44100hz and 128kbps (if music video)
Audio:AAC @ 22050hz and 64kbps (for everything else)
I can only yield benchmark results of around 118% but
I've successfully played over 72500 frames with only 45 frames dropped!
Trust me..that is really good. 0 frames would be nice and very possible by encoding at 320x240 but the video looks to soft whereas at 480x320 it actually looks quite sharp indeed.
If you encode a genuine High def clip or movie at this resolution, the end result will look like the original HD clip or worst way, like a super-bit DVD.
1% frame 'droppage' = 725
45 frames dropped out of 72500 = less than 1/16th of 1% which = Bliss
You do the maths.
Depending on the source video, if it is full screen, so will the encoded video, but if it is in wide screen format, so will your encodes be.
For DVD conversion I got best results vs speed using (freeware) Handbrake v2.25 and Mpeg 4 decoder.
http://handbrake.m0k.org/
For individual files (VOB files), I use Any Video Converter (yeah, that's the name of the application). Same results.
For all other video files I love Smartmovie with the same setup as outlined above, except for the encoder..I use Xvid in Smartmovie.
I'll try to upload a sample video to rapidshare or something if anyone wants to view the quality and performance...but my time is somewhat limited at the moment.
P.S. The above mentioned apps are dummy proof and not too complex for noobs, so why not try it out and let us know how you get on.
Last but not least, in Coreplayer v1.1.1 or even TCPMP , if you suffer from lipsync problems, try adjusting
Menu/Tools/Preferences/Select Page/Advanced...scroll down and adjust the 'Manual A/V offset'. Mine is currently at:
-0.200 but depending on other videos I might have to adjust to -0.600...it works wonderfully (menu navigation in TCPMP might be slightly different to Coreplayer, but the option is still there).
Good luck and if you have better results than these, please post back and share your findings. Thanks

I found that the DiVx converter from DiVx works brilliantly if you set it to 'mobile'... I dont get any of these issues that everyone else seems to have - I use the official DiVx player on the Ameo and its great full screen.

adamelphick said:
I found that the DiVx converter from DiVx works brilliantly if you set it to 'mobile'... I dont get any of these issues that everyone else seems to have - I use the official DiVx player on the Ameo and its great full screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had tried that some months ago and wasn't that impressed, but maybe they have improved it. What version are you using?

mackaby007 said:
That's right, blissful viewing on your VGA Athena. How?
Don't expect to run it in a full screen window, that's how. The CPU (powerful as it is) cannot handle native VGA 640x480 full screen encodes. Probably due to the many other things it has to do simultaneously.
For full screen 640x480, we need the ATI Imageon chip acceleration support, which as we all know is not yet available and ATI/AMD have not been forthcoming in helping CoreCodec in revealing the nature of their hard/software embedded implementation. Nuff said.
320x240 resolution with extremely high bitrates won't give you the sharpness a QVGA device can playing the same resolution.
On the Hermes with the ATI chip, they finally got a resolution/fix as there seemed to be some buffering issues regarding Audio (not entirely sure if these reports were accurate), so I've been playing with Audio codecs and lower bit-rates, to some benefit....but not enough.
The best 'in-between' results I have found till we get a fix for our Imageon hardware (if ever) is as follows.
P.S. I've tried playing with H264, X264, DivX 6.xxupwards, Mpeg 4 etc and various encoders from Virtual Dub and Guardian ... to DVDx and too many to mention to be honest (over 20-30 encoders over the last few years).
For movie clips or entire movies to look really good on a VGA screen IMHO and experience, you have to encode higher than QVGA but less than VGA unless like the Dell's you have a accelerator that actually work with TCPMP or Coreplayer. Our only works with the ATI software renderer, which is still miles better than any other option open to us.
So I now encode at:
Video: 480x320 at 850kbps
Audio: AAC @ 44100hz and 128kbps (if music video)
Audio:AAC @ 22050hz and 64kbps (for everything else)
I can only yield benchmark results of around 118% but
I've successfully played over 72500 frames with only 45 frames dropped!
Trust me..that is really good. 0 frames would be nice and very possible by encoding at 320x240 but the video looks to soft whereas at 480x320 it actually looks quite sharp indeed.
If you encode a genuine High def clip or movie at this resolution, the end result will look like the original HD clip or worst way, like a super-bit DVD.
1% frame 'droppage' = 725
45 frames dropped out of 72500 = less than 1/16th of 1% which = Bliss
You do the maths.
Depending on the source video, if it is full screen, so will the encoded video, but if it is in wide screen format, so will your encodes be.
For DVD conversion I got best results vs speed using (freeware) Handbrake v2.25 and Mpeg 4 decoder.
http://handbrake.m0k.org/
For individual files (VOB files), I use Any Video Converter (yeah, that's the name of the application). Same results.
For all other video files I love Smartmovie with the same setup as outlined above, except for the encoder..I use Xvid in Smartmovie.
I'll try to upload a sample video to rapidshare or something if anyone wants to view the quality and performance...but my time is somewhat limited at the moment.
P.S. The above mentioned apps are dummy proof and not too complex for noobs, so why not try it out and let us know how you get on.
Last but not least, in Coreplayer v1.1.1 or even TCPMP , if you suffer from lipsync problems, try adjusting
Menu/Tools/Preferences/Select Page/Advanced...scroll down and adjust the 'Manual A/V offset'. Mine is currently at:
-0.200 but depending on other videos I might have to adjust to -0.600...it works wonderfully (menu navigation in TCPMP might be slightly different to Coreplayer, but the option is still there).
Good luck and if you have better results than these, please post back and share your findings. Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey Mark,
A couple of things that might work...try running your video's with your advantage plugged in..
another thing...if you have 16:9 video convert it into 532x300
that consistently gives me good result...
and last but not the least...try splitting your video into smaller files...none larger than 600mb

The player on my Ameo is version 0.88 andthe DivX converter is version 6. Hope that helps.
It rips straight from DVD to my Ameo SD card too.... quite quick. Although I am having problems with no subtitles at the mo the rest is fine.

fallenczar said:
Hey Mark,
A couple of things that might work...try running your video's with your advantage plugged in..
another thing...if you have 16:9 video convert it into 532x300
that consistently gives me good result...
and last but not the least...try splitting your video into smaller files...none larger than 600mb
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks my friend. I'll try those suggestions and let you know.

adamelphick said:
The player on my Ameo is version 0.88 andthe DivX converter is version 6. Hope that helps.
It rips straight from DVD to my Ameo SD card too.... quite quick. Although I am having problems with no subtitles at the mo the rest is fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cheers for that mate, Just downloading it now, will try it soon.

I stand by my findings...
1) Divx Converter Using Divx 6.6
1) adamelphick's Divx Encoder
80% Benchmark Result
Resolution 592x448 (original was lower than default VGA 640x480 Portable Profile - so kept orig. Resolution of 592x448)
over 350 frames dropped
Only 20.xxx fps vs mine @ 23.79 out of 23.975 Original
2) I Used Any Video Converter with fallenczar's recommended resolution for widescreen movies for full screen viewing
Benchmark Result 131.28% Excellent.
Resolution 532x300 (slightly vertically stretched, but very viewable)
only 9 frames dropped out of 3842! Excellent!
Superb fps playback of 23.920 out of 23.976
3)I Used Any Video Converter xvid codec!
125.11% Benchmark Result
Resolution 480x320
only 4 frames dropped out of 5690!
Superb fps playback of 23.959 out of 23.976
4)I Used Any Video Converter Mpeg4 codec. Visually not quite as good as xvid, but still very good.
123.06% Benchmark Result but the audio sounded extremely slowed down! ?!??!?
Resolution 480x320
only 5 frames dropped out of 5938!
Superb fps playback of 24.979 out of 25.000 Mpeg4 codec would not allow me to keep NTSC format & I was forced to use 25fps.
Sorry if all that info above is a bit confusing, so here's the bottom line.
I've tested the Divx Encoder and Divx Mobile Player.....sorry, but it's still seriously lacking compared to Coreplayer or TCPMP. Handheld profile encodes at low resolution unfit for VGA device if you're a quality freak.
Portable Profile seriously looks good. No doubt about it and so it should as its native resolution for encoding is VGA (640x480), but then you hit the performance issues related to non accelerated Vids on VGA devices.
Verdict? No good for Athena but probably excellent for quick encodes using QVGA devices. The Player is also only capable of handling AVI vids and the encoding specs had better match its Players ability else it won't play the file.
For Fallenczar's recommended Resolution for widescreen vids, I can only say..Nice & Thanks for the tip.
If you don't mind the original Video/movie being slightly elongated, you won't notice a performance hit at all. You'll even get slightly Benchmark results than by using my method. But the benchmark results is not the sum of its parts and should only be used as an indicator, not a 'actual playback' performance gauge.
Verdict? Great tip! I'm definitely keeping this in mind for future encodes of wide screen movies & Vids. Thanks again.
Lastly I used an application called 'Any Video Converter', but in all honesty, there are many others that can do the job as well and better if you don't mind the complexity of some of the more advanced apps. But as a quick solution, you'll be hard pushed to beat this for casual and quick video files conversion. For DVD encoding I'd definitely stick with Handbrake...it's bloody fast too and uses MSDOS and no fancy GUI for viewing the video as it encodes, hence it encodes a 90 minute movie in a third of the time of the entire movie. i.e. 90 min video encoded in just under 30mins.
As the results show in no 3 & 4, even though my benchmark results are slightly lower than with fallenczars resolution for widescreen format vids, it's hard to beat how little frames are dropped whilst retaing a visually HQ video/movie.
Verdict? I absolutely stand by my findings until someone finds a way of encoding videos at native VGA at HQ with virtually no hit on performance.
I want HQ with great performance. Don't get me wrong people, we can easily achieve benchmarks in excess of 500 - 600kbps but the quality of sound and video isn't worthy of such high end PPC's. We paid a lot of dough for these devices and I'll be damned if I can't get slick HQ video on the Athena. I refuse to get a dell or Archos or whatever just to accelerate video and games....if that was my priority I'd buy a PSP and a get myself another compact HTC Hermes.
Just wait till we get some support for our Imageon devices. Let the good times roll.
P.S. Divx Encoder can't encode whatever you throw at it, mostly AVI files. Any Video Converter and quite a few others can handle most formats including high def files.

mackaby007 said:
1) Divx Converter Using Divx 6.6
1) adamelphick's Divx Encoder
80% Benchmark Result
Resolution 592x448 (original was lower than default VGA 640x480 Portable Profile - so kept orig. Resolution of 592x448)
over 350 frames dropped
Only 20.xxx fps vs mine @ 23.79 out of 23.975 Original
2) I Used Any Video Converter with fallenczar's recommended resolution for widescreen movies for full screen viewing
Benchmark Result 131.28% Excellent.
Resolution 532x300 (slightly vertically stretched, but very viewable)
only 9 frames dropped out of 3842! Excellent!
Superb fps playback of 23.920 out of 23.976
3)I Used Any Video Converter xvid codec!
125.11% Benchmark Result
Resolution 480x320
only 4 frames dropped out of 5690!
Superb fps playback of 23.959 out of 23.976
4)I Used Any Video Converter Mpeg4 codec. Visually not quite as good as xvid, but still very good.
123.06% Benchmark Result but the audio sounded extremely slowed down! ?!??!?
Resolution 480x320
only 5 frames dropped out of 5938!
Superb fps playback of 24.979 out of 25.000 Mpeg4 codec would not allow me to keep NTSC format & I was forced to use 25fps.
Sorry if all that info above is a bit confusing, so here's the bottom line.
I've tested the Divx Encoder and Divx Mobile Player.....sorry, but it's still seriously lacking compared to Coreplayer or TCPMP. Handheld profile encodes at low resolution unfit for VGA device if you're a quality freak.
Portable Profile seriously looks good. No doubt about it and so it should as its native resolution for encoding is VGA (640x480), but then you hit the performance issues related to non accelerated Vids on VGA devices.
Verdict? No good for Athena but probably excellent for quick encodes using QVGA devices. The Player is also only capable of handling AVI vids and the encoding specs had better match its Players ability else it won't play the file.
For Fallenczar's recommended Resolution for widescreen vids, I can only say..Nice & Thanks for the tip.
If you don't mind the original Video/movie being slightly elongated, you won't notice a performance hit at all. You'll even get slightly Benchmark results than by using my method. But the benchmark results is not the sum of its parts and should only be used as an indicator, not a 'actual playback' performance gauge.
Verdict? Great tip! I'm definitely keeping this in mind for future encodes of wide screen movies & Vids. Thanks again.
Lastly I used an application called 'Any Video Converter', but in all honesty, there are many others that can do the job as well and better if you don't mind the complexity of some of the more advanced apps. But as a quick solution, you'll be hard pushed to beat this for casual and quick video files conversion. For DVD encoding I'd definitely stick with Handbrake...it's bloody fast too and uses MSDOS and no fancy GUI for viewing the video as it encodes, hence it encodes a 90 minute movie in a third of the time of the entire movie. i.e. 90 min video encoded in just under 30mins.
As the results show in no 3 & 4, even though my benchmark results are slightly lower than with fallenczars resolution for widescreen format vids, it's hard to beat how little frames are dropped whilst retaing a visually HQ video/movie.
Verdict? I absolutely stand by my findings until someone finds a way of encoding videos at native VGA at HQ with virtually no hit on performance.
I want HQ with great performance. Don't get me wrong people, we can easily achieve benchmarks in excess of 500 - 600kbps but the quality of sound and video isn't worthy of such high end PPC's. We paid a lot of dough for these devices and I'll be damned if I can't get slick HQ video on the Athena. I refuse to get a dell or Archos or whatever just to accelerate video and games....if that was my priority I'd buy a PSP and a get myself another compact HTC Hermes.
Just wait till we get some support for our Imageon devices. Let the good times roll.
P.S. Divx Encoder can't encode whatever you throw at it, mostly AVI files. Any Video Converter and quite a few others can handle most formats including high def files.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey Mark!
Since you seem to have loads of free time why don't you try converting your video to .mov, try it with a small 20-40 mb movie clip first..
if my memory serves me right then you should be able to get better results with it...though converion to mov if time consuming

fallenczar said:
Hey Mark!
Since you seem to have loads of free time why don't you try converting your video to .mov, try it with a small 20-40 mb movie clip first..
if my memory serves me right then you should be able to get better results with it...though converion to mov if time consuming
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Blimey, I haven't used that format for years, except for downloads from Apple.com...thanks for the tip. I'll look into it once I get some more free time.

Test Clip for download...
Just in case you can't be bothered or have the time to test these settings, just download this test video and see what you think...it's about 8.5 MB in size:
DownloadLink: http://rapidshare.com/files/50811286/10000_BC_HD_xvid.avi

Will the Advantage play a 640x480 .wmv in Windows Media Player?

mackaby007 said:
That's right, blissful viewing on your VGA Athena. How?
Don't expect to run it in a full screen window, that's how. The CPU (powerful as it is) cannot handle native VGA 640x480 full screen encodes. Probably due to the many other things it has to do simultaneously.
For full screen 640x480, we need the ATI Imageon chip acceleration support, which as we all know is not yet available and ATI/AMD have not been forthcoming in helping CoreCodec in revealing the nature of their hard/software embedded implementation. Nuff said.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I discovered that TCPMP can not play full screen. As I have installed SmartMovie which can play full screen movie beautifully, therefore I do not bother to try run TCPMP to play movies, just use TCPMP to play music with enlarged lyrics appearing at the same time along with the pace of music. That is a joy forever.

juiceppc said:
Will the Advantage play a 640x480 .wmv in Windows Media Player?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Possibly, if the encoding specs match that of the ones outlined in the Athena Handbook, but I believe you will get better performance from using MP4 under WMP as it will use the Imageon Hardware decoder that Coreplayer cannot use.
However from my experience, WMP is far too restrictive, hence TCPMP/Coreplayer is the best on the market. .wmv is pretty crap for PPC playback IMHO compared other formats. .wmv is fine on Full blown PC though.

panvita said:
I discovered that TCPMP can not play full screen. As I have installed SmartMovie which can play full screen movie beautifully, therefore I do not bother to try run TCPMP to play movies, just use TCPMP to play music with enlarged lyrics appearing at the same time along with the pace of music. That is a joy forever.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No disrespect panvita, but you obviously have no idea what I've been talking about. Take any of those movies that you say is full screen in Smart Movie and run some test with it,(I use the latest version) and the Smartmovie converter cannot even encode at full VGA 640x480 by default and the PPC SmartMovie player doesn't like most videos encoded by other encoders (its limited).
What I'm trying to say is SmartMovie Player on the PPC is inferior by far to TCPMP and Coreplayer. Check the options in SmartMovie player to show framerate whilst a movie is playing and check the actual resolution too. I think you'll find that it is more often than not, Not real VGA res and when it is, your frame-rate will be terribly slow.
Then run the same movie file in TCPMP or Coreplayer and check your property settings after playing your movie file and you'll see again the frame rate achieved and how many frames were dropped.
Don't mean to sound arrogant or like a Mr Know-it-all, but it is pretty much common knowledge that Coreplayer and TCPMP is far superior to all other PPC based Video players on the market to date, even though 'It' still has its shortcomings.

mackaby007 said:
Possibly, if the encoding specs match that of the ones outlined in the Athena Handbook, but I believe you will get better performance from using MP4 under WMP as it will use the Imageon Hardware decoder that Coreplayer cannot use.
However from my experience, WMP is far too restrictive, hence TCPMP/Coreplayer is the best on the market. .wmv is pretty crap for PPC playback IMHO compared other formats. .wmv is fine on Full blown PC though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Core is good but if my main objective is to watch my movies(of which all are .wmv) full screen with no hiccups then why not just use WMP to do that. I like .wmv for it's simplicity. But that's just me.

juiceppc said:
Core is good but if my main objective is to watch my movies(of which all are .wmv) full screen with no hiccups then why not just use WMP to do that. I like .wmv for it's simplicity. But that's just me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't argue with that at all. Coreplayer is crap for WMV but that is exactly the format WMP likes to play.

TCPMP on x7501
I am using the TCPMP player on my new Advantage x7501 & it works perfectly!

I advise to use DirectDraw as an output! it's really better than that sucker ATI IMAGEON! Take a look at the configs and Benchmarks! (Configs in both benmarks are the same)
-Video
Video Output: DirectDraw
Video Quality: High
Smooth zoom: ON
Dither: • (on)
Accleration: ◘ (off)
-Buffering
Turned on to Micro Drive mode
Buffer Size: 32000kb
Start at: 2944
-Benchmark Using DirectDraw(File Size: 138 mb)
Average Speed: 183,86 % (!)
Video Frames: 8821
Audio Samples: 15598708
Amount of Data: 14443 KB
Codec: DivX
*PLZ PAY ATTENTION TO ANOTHER BENCHMARK USING ATI IMAGEON AS VIDEO OUTPUT*
-Benchmark Using ATI IMAGEON(File Size: 138 mb)
Average Speed: 58,71%
Video Frames: 8776
Audio Samples: 15488972
Amount of Data: 14354 KB
HOW IS IT MARK????

Try different settings...somethings wrong with yours.
hirad_sabaghian said:
I advise to use DirectDraw as an output! it's really better than that sucker ATI IMAGEON! Take a look at the configs and Benchmarks! (Configs in both benmarks are the same)
-Video
Video Output: DirectDraw
Video Quality: High
Smooth zoom: ON
Dither: • (on)
Accleration: ◘ (off)
-Buffering
Turned on to Micro Drive mode
Buffer Size: 32000kb
Start at: 2944
-Benchmark Using DirectDraw(File Size: 138 mb)
Average Speed: 183,86 % (!)
Video Frames: 8821
Audio Samples: 15598708
Amount of Data: 14443 KB
Codec: DivX
*PLZ PAY ATTENTION TO ANOTHER BENCHMARK USING ATI IMAGEON AS VIDEO OUTPUT*
-Benchmark Using ATI IMAGEON(File Size: 138 mb)
Average Speed: 58,71%
Video Frames: 8776
Audio Samples: 15488972
Amount of Data: 14354 KB
HOW IS IT MARK????
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ooh do I detect a tone of anger or possibly sarcasm in that last statement/question? hehe
OK, the reason is probably that when you use Coreplayer or TCPMP, you have the Imageon Decoder activated...No good, NOT fixed to work with Coreplayer or TCPMP as yet.
Coreplayer: Under your video settings, ensure you have the following settings checked or enabled:
Video Output: ATI IMAGEON
Video quality: High
Smooth Zoom: On
Dither: Ticked
Acceleration: UNticked (else you'll be using the hardware decoder - no good)
Under Preferences select Direct Draw options page and select the following:
Overlay with colorkey - Ticked
Use blitting instead of overlay - Blank
Use device stretching for blitting - Blank
Overlay format - YV12
There you have it. Last but not least, don't encode videos much beyond 480x320 otherwise the Athena cannot handle it.
Try that my friend.
Same set-up for TCPMP:

What video encoder do you guys recommend?

Prefer something that is fast and easy to set? It seems even with coreplayer there are some codecs such as sorenson that still can't be handle by the player, would love to have a nice video encoder to do the job for the odd video that doesnt play on hd2.
Thanks!

im using TMPGENC EXPRESS 4.0 .
quality is very good
i have opened a video performance thread in LEO-LEO forum. please check. thanks.

I'm trying different codecs to see which would be better to use.
So far I'm using the mpeg4 standard (MPEG-4 AVC/AAC/MP4), and it works almost flawlessly when using a bit rate of about 3000kbps at 30 FPS (800x480). The videos taken using the Camera are also encoded with mpeg4.
Oh, and I'm using the HTC video player. CorePlayer's performance for the HD2 using either GDI or the raw buffer makes me cringe (and it somehow reduces colors, not sure why; compare HTC's promotional video played in the Album and in CorePlayer).
I'm encoding with MediaCoder, which is free but isn't exactly what I'd call user-friendly.
EDIT: And the performance is even better in Windows Media Player itself.
What the hell, everything's upside-down.

What's wrong with Video Encoding GUI?

tnyynt said:
What's wrong with Video Encoding GUI?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nothing
This one is nice too:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=478050
-I like the results from this one a little better than 'Video Encoding GUI'. The colors are a bit more saturated which I find nice when I watch on the go..

Yunabeco said:
EDIT: And the performance is even better in Windows Media Player itself.
What the hell, everything's upside-down.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, do you mean that the performance in Windows Media Player is better than the performance in HTCAlbum?

Shasarak said:
Sorry, do you mean that the performance in Windows Media Player is better than the performance in HTCAlbum?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I find it to be so (I had much less frame skips in WMP). Then again, it might depend on the video.

Try Media Coder its free and works really well.

hassan said:
Try Media Coder its free and works really well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It knows about Nvidia's CUDA . It's the best !!!

I use Handbrake:
http://handbrake.fr/downloads.php
The latest version works very well - choose the iphone/ipod touch preset and increase the resolution from the puny 480x320 that the iphone can handle.

tnyynt said:
What's wrong with Video Encoding GUI?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seeing as this thread has come back to life anyway: the Video Encoding GUI does a very good job of converting for a Touch HD, TP2 or TD2, but it has a maximum bit-rate of 1000kb/s, which is really not high enough for an HD2. (On lesser phones if you make the bit-rate any higher you lose smoothness of playback, but on an HD2 you don't have to make that trade-off). MP4ForHD has the same problem. It'd be nice if the author of either of those could do an HD2 version.

So, I'm not sure we've actually come to any useful conclusions in this thread. As I have an HD2 arriving tomorrow, I'm quite keen to start converting some videos for it.
What I need is:
For an original video that is <= 800x480, the resolution should remain unchanged. For a video > 800x480 it should be downscaled to fit within 800x480 with an unchanged aspect ratio. (So, for example, a 512x384 capture should be output as 512x384; 640x360 should be output as 640x360; 1280x720 should be output as 800x450. No cropping under any circumstances.)
The output frame-rate should always be the same as that of the original clip.
The output audio should have the same volume and same sampling rate as the input audio. If the input audio is > 2 channels, it should be downmixed to stereo.
It needs to support container and codec options that are optimised for playback on the HD2 using either HTCAlbum or WMP. (Not sure yet which of these will be best, and am still researching encoding options in other threads!)
The output bitrate should be appropriately reduced for lower-resolution clips automatically.
All of the above needs to be something that is retained from session to session so that you can simply point it to the input file and click "Start" without having to reselect options each time.
It needs to be able to queue up multiple files and process them one at a time.
Good output quality and smoothness of playback is obviously important.
Something that does the encoding quickly rather than slowly is a plus (but I'm stuck using a creaky old 3GHz Pentium IV with on-board GPU at the moment, so am not expecting miracles).
It should be able to handle 720p .mkv files with ac3 audio, and also lower-resolution xvid files.
Freeware would be a big plus.
I've checked out a few of the suggested applications (not all) and most of them seem to lacking at least some of this. Things like Video Encoder GUI or MP4ForHD do an excellent job for lower-spec phones, but the bit-rates are capped at a level that is far too low for optimum performance on the HD2. Some of the more sophisticated applications have some surprising omissions, such as not being able to store settings between sessions, or not being able to specify 800x450 as an output resolution, or not being able to specify 800x480 as a maximum resolution and have it choose the actual output res depending on the input res, or having no option to keep the original frame-rate or the original audio sampling rate, or bit-rate.
There must surely be something out there that covers all this?

Shasarak said:
I've checked out a few of the suggested applications (not all) and most of them seem to lacking at least some of this. Things like Video Encoder GUI or MP4ForHD do an excellent job for lower-spec phones, but the bit-rates are capped at a level that is far too low for optimum performance on the HD2. Some of the more sophisticated applications have some surprising omissions, such as not being able to store settings between sessions, or not being able to specify 800x450 as an output resolution, or not being able to specify 800x480 as a maximum resolution and have it choose the actual output res depending on the input res, or having no option to keep the original frame-rate or the original audio sampling rate, or bit-rate.
There must surely be something out there that covers all this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Strangely enough, for me the HD settings on MP4ForHD for encoding did quite a good job of 300 and A Scanner Darkly. Smooth playback and an acceptable quality for a DVD rip. The only issue I faced was a bit of an audio sync issue with 300. The output sizes were approximately 600-700mb
If there could be better output or an easy way to ensure the audio syncs with the video properly, the HD2 would be golden. (I am stuck on a 3 year old laptop which has had some minor processor/hdd/ram upgrade and took 4 hours to encode a DVD for my HD2.

Shasarak said:
Seeing as this thread has come back to life anyway: the Video Encoding GUI does a very good job of converting for a Touch HD, TP2 or TD2, but it has a maximum bit-rate of 1000kb/s, which is really not high enough for an HD2. (On lesser phones if you make the bit-rate any higher you lose smoothness of playback, but on an HD2 you don't have to make that trade-off). MP4ForHD has the same problem. It'd be nice if the author of either of those could do an HD2 version.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe going further above bitrate wise is just a waste of space and that 2 pass encoding at such bitrates from both converters just means optimal output.

tnyynt said:
Maybe going further above bitrate wise is just a waste of space and that 2 pass encoding at such bitrates from both converters just means optimal output.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is a perfectly valid opinion, but (having done some viewing of the output on a PC screen) it is not one that I happen to share. (Not for downscaled hi-def material, anyway).

What's with MediaCoder? Have you tried this?

seed_al said:
What's with MediaCoder? Have you tried this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I glanced at it. Having spent 10 minutes trying and failing to get it to produce 800x450 output, I gave up. Maybe I should have another go....

niknik76 said:
Nothing
This one is nice too:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=478050
-I like the results from this one a little better than 'Video Encoding GUI'. The colors are a bit more saturated which I find nice when I watch on the go..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i use that one aswell

tnyynt said:
Maybe going further above bitrate wise is just a waste of space and that 2 pass encoding at such bitrates from both converters just means optimal output.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have tested, and for sure that downscaling HD media to a 800x480 screen requires more than 1000kbps to bring out the details.

Are you saying I can install new codecs and be able to record video with them? At the moment I use MPEG at 640x480...I can get better resolution?

Encoding MKV....always get lip sync problems?

I have tried loads of converters and can get GOOD quality videos if i like with no lip sync problems but i want EXCELLENT quality video like the encodes i had for my HD2 but just can't find a stable converter which works all the time.
The best video quality i can get is by using....
Winmenc then DVD Catalyst 3 then Any dvd Converter.
I can get stunning video from Winmenc but some clips either dont display the picture on the phone or have lipsync problems.
DVD Catalyst comes a close second for video quality and all clips play but still get lip sync problems.
Any dvd converter gives good quality video with no lip sync problems but picture is nowhere as good as Winmenc.
Anybody got any custom profiles or programs to get excellent quality video with no lip sync problems?
Thanks for any help

Try this..http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=478050
I absolutely love it

benko286 said:
Try this..http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=478050
I absolutely love it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks
I think i may have tried an older version of this.....will give it another go.
What profile are you using?
Cheers.

I've been using Super(c) for years with custom profiles and it works as perfect as anything I've yet heard about or seen. Plenty of such settings can be adjusted in it perfectly.
-------------------------------------
- Sent via my HTC Desire -

I use AnyDvD Converter Pro, playback is flawless using the following settings:
VIDEO
custom mp4
800x480 (or any other scaled resolution with 800px width that preserves the aspect ratio, unless source was low res to begin with, in which case i'll stick to the source's original res)
x264 video encoding
bitrate 2000kbps (again,provided the original bitrate was higher of course, otherwise,source's value )
25/23.97fps depending on source of course
AUDIO
aac audio encoding
bitrate 320kbps
sampling 48000/44100 depending on source
2 channels
I have converted uber quality 1080p rips ( 20-30Gb worth, 20-25Mbps video bitrate, 1536+kbps 7.1 DTSHD audio) with these settings, and the results are GREAT . I havent tried pushing the video bitrate any higher, but it might playback nicely with higher values as well.

MacCarron said:
I use AnyDvD Converter Pro, playback is flawless using the following settings:
VIDEO
custom mp4
800x480 (or any other scaled resolution with 800px width that preserves the aspect ratio, unless source was low res to begin with, in which case i'll stick to the source's original res)
x264 video encoding
bitrate 2000kbps (again,provided the original bitrate was higher of course, otherwise,source's value )
25/23.97fps depending on source of course
AUDIO
aac audio encoding
bitrate 320kbps
sampling 48000/44100 depending on source
2 channels
I have converted uber quality 1080p rips ( 20-30Gb worth, 20-25Mbps video bitrate, 1536+kbps 7.1 DTSHD audio) with these settings, and the results are GREAT . I havent tried pushing the video bitrate any higher, but it might playback nicely with higher values as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is it possible for you to upload a sample video encoded with above settings to try on our desires??

Double Twist
Why don't you try to use DoubleTwist?
It looks like iTunes, and when you sync any type of movie or audio with Desire, it will convert to the format that Desire can play. Just like that, no need to configure anything.
It also run quite fast, and it's free!

jpopgt said:
Thanks
I think i may have tried an older version of this.....will give it another go.
What profile are you using?
Cheers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Diamond but changed a little bit, max res is 800x480, veryhigh, x.264 one pass
MacCarron said:
I use AnyDvD Converter Pro, playback is flawless using the following settings:
VIDEO
custom mp4
800x480 (or any other scaled resolution with 800px width that preserves the aspect ratio, unless source was low res to begin with, in which case i'll stick to the source's original res)
x264 video encoding
bitrate 2000kbps (again,provided the original bitrate was higher of course, otherwise,source's value )
25/23.97fps depending on source of course
AUDIO
aac audio encoding
bitrate 320kbps
sampling 48000/44100 depending on source
2 channels
I have converted uber quality 1080p rips ( 20-30Gb worth, 20-25Mbps video bitrate, 1536+kbps 7.1 DTSHD audio) with these settings, and the results are GREAT . I havent tried pushing the video bitrate any higher, but it might playback nicely with higher values as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1500 is more than enough, I use 1000kbps and video is fantastic
i will try with 1500, but I think that is overkill too
Does AnyDvD Converter Pro supports subtitles?

Thanks for the replies

th3 said:
I've been using Super(c) for years with custom profiles and it works as perfect as anything I've yet heard about or seen. Plenty of such settings can be adjusted in it perfectly.
-------------------------------------
- Sent via my HTC Desire -
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You got some settings you could pass on for Super?....i have never got great results with it.
Cheers.

I have encoded this Lady Gaga clip using the settings mentioned here with Winmenc, Any DVD Converter Pro and MP4forHD
Winmenc i think still has much better picture quality but lip sync is way out, especially if you fast forward or back....
Any DVD looks great to but i think the lip sync is slightly out....
And MP4forHD looks great and plays fine when i set audio delay to 0.3.
Any DVD Converter....
http://rapidshare.com/files/389703402/Any.mp4
MP4forHD....
http://rapidshare.com/files/389712600/MP4ForHD.mp4
winmenc.....
http://rapidshare.com/files/389707134/winmenc.mp4
Maybe someone here could modify this profile for winmenc to get the lip sync sorted....
http://rapidshare.com/files/389723529/_0-HTC_HD2__MP4_H264_800x480_2000kbps_Sharpened__AAC_44Khz_96kbps.ini
All credit goes to the person that made this profile for the HD2.
Cheers.

Sorry for the late reply, here are the megaupload links to a couple of video clips i've encoded using the preset i posted yesterday. Souce was a 1080p BRrip in both cases.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=V8TPXP3T
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=3V318NMP
The Transformers' souce had a subtitle track and it was embedded in the rip, so that answers the previous question about subs. I have yet to check if subtitles can be disabled, but i guess it can be done (in my case, i am interested in plain english audio tracks, i don't even know what language is that )
edit: for some weird reasons the audio is noticeably out of sync WHEN PLAYED ON A PC...they are perfect on the Desire though. Pretty weird, last time i checked my pc kicks asses so the problem must be resting in the mp4 container..

You got some settings you could pass on for Super?....i have never got great results with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll upload the profile for you when I get back on the PC (by weekend). I change some things around with every vid though, depending on its properties. Too many internal coder settings you can tweak for slight visual/acoustic differences including how much to raise the sound in db and how much of the clip to cut out.
-------------------------------------
- Sent via my HTC Desire -

th3 said:
I'll upload the profile for you when I get back on the PC (by weekend). I change some things around with every vid though, depending on its properties. Too many internal coder settings you can tweak for slight visual/acoustic differences including how much to raise the sound in db and how much of the clip to cut out.
-------------------------------------
- Sent via my HTC Desire -
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok Thanks

Just to quickly add - I don't tend to use automated profiles although I know it's what most are after (quickest).
What do you think of YouTube HD? Good enough quality for you or, you'd like better?
I had a quick look at your upload vid properties and they have different internal recode settings and different end file sizes. As such, a true cross-comparison is very difficult (all things kept consistent, the stream with the highest bit-rate and file size will have better visuals). The point of transcoding really is to keep the file size as small as possible with video and audio at your accepted levels -- that level differs for everyone depending on a variety if factors. Many YouTube HD vids are for instance only 480-560 Kbps streams. But all things which impact quality were not automatically kept fixed in these transcodes. Your vids were;
1) Any
Duration : 2mn 1s
Overall bit rate : 2,091 Kbps
Video
Format profile : [email protected]
Format settings, ReFrames : 2 frames
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 1,865 Kbps
Width : 800 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Frame rate : 25.000 fps
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.194
Stream size : 27.1 MiB (89%)
2) MP4
Duration : 2mn 1s
Overall bit rate : 1,994 Kbps
Video
Format profile : [email protected]
Format settings, ReFrames : 1 frame
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 1,544 Kbps
Maximum bit rate : 2,932 Kbps
Width : 800 pixels
Height : 448 pixels
Frame rate : 25.000 fps
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.172
Stream size : 27.0 MiB (93%)
3) Winmec
Duration : 2mn 1s
Overall bit rate : 2,713 Kbps
(missing vital info it would not show here)
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 2,579 Kbps
Width : 800 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Frame rate : 25.000 fps
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.269
Stream size : 37.4 MiB (95%)
So the Winmec transcode should have much better visuals than the other two here, even just looking at the empirical data, however, how much of that better-ness is perceptible to untrained and trained human eyes? Judging by mass-accepted online "HD" video, usually not much - and on portable phones - even less (perceptible difference threshold decreases with decreasing display size).
I'll upload a few transcodes using different settings... see which you feel is better (on the intended phone).
-------------------------------------
- Sent via my HTC Desire -

Thanks for the info.

Another update:
Looks like your A/V sync issues are caused by too high bit-rate video streams being too power demanding on the hardware of the phone and so the CPU can't keep up. While running some test encodes for the post I had promised, upon checking playback on the Desire, I noticed getting the same A/V sync problems which don't exist on the Desktop. Dropping the video bit-rate alleviated that problem completely albeit the visual quality dropped too. I better check the vids in the default player too just to be sure now (I use Act 1 or Meridian video players mainly). So do keep in mind that higher bit-rate video playback requires more hardware power and hence much higher battery usage than lower bit-rate.
At the moment, I'm stuck with the latest update I've just installed for Super(c) not changing internal codec settings no matter what options I choose (same Lady Gaga 1080p video taken from a Blu-ray rip). Very strange. Just working on getting that running before posting some transcodes. Bear with me, please...
-------------------------------------
- Sent via my HTC Desire -

sorry if this is irrelevant but how do i hardcode subtitles with mp4hd?

nikosrs4 said:
sorry if this is irrelevant but how do i hardcode subtitles with mp4hd?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You just need the srt file with the same name as the movie in a folder and have the srt option selected in the edit settings of MP4forHD.

maybe I forgot the language selection..I'm trying again now, thanks

Best movie convert settings.

Hello DHD owners
I've got my DHD today. I'm familiar with Android as I have used Leo and Desire with same OS. Now I really like the screen on DHD! I want to convert movies and other epic movies/clips I have on my PC. Last year I've ripped all my DVDs to my external hardrive.
Which settings and converter program is best?
Size is not a big deal, 32GB here, quality matters
I'm on costum ROM, overclocked to 1,5GHz. Just so make clear I won't have any issues with playback for lager file sizes. I remember I had this on my Leo while I was on WINMO. :/
Thanks for your time
Sent from my Desire HD

Haha same. The HD2 was the only WinMo phone I actually enjoyed using! Hmmmm well you can convert videos in either 800x480 or 720p, as the Desire HD can playback both. However our phone has a screen res of 800x480, so best to go with the native res. Anyways, for high quality, I always use MP4 video format. Codec, Mp4 or h264. Bitrate, CBR. Approx. 1500kbps. Sound, 128-320kbps. You can also crop video to remove black bars, that's your choice. My arsenal of video converters includes: Pinnacle Studio, AVS, and most of the time DVDPean and Xilisoft Video Converter Ultimate. Hope I helped
Note, too high values for audio and video bitrate can cause your device to lag. Keeping your phone OC'd above 1.22ghz while watching a video for 1hr plus may severely overheat your phone.

I found this app. Free Video to Android Converter
It looks a little silly, and nags you everytime you exit, but it makes beautiful movies at native res (800x480) from just about any format (avi,mp4,mkv,mov,wmv). It's also a bit slow, due to only using 1 core (I got 8 on i7).
All converted movies can play in the default player, with hardware decoding of course.
The settings I use is the preset for HTC Desire, Nexus One. Havent had to try any other formats.

Elemental_Fire said:
Haha same. The HD2 was the only WinMo phone I actually enjoyed using! Hmmmm well you can convert videos in either 800x480 or 720p, as the Desire HD can playback both. However our phone has a screen res of 800x480, so best to go with the native res. Anyways, for high quality, I always use MP4 video format. Codec, Mp4 or h264. Bitrate, CBR. Approx. 1500kbps. Sound, 128-320kbps. You can also crop video to remove black bars, that's your choice. My arsenal of video converters includes: Pinnacle Studio, AVS, and most of the time DVDPean and Xilisoft Video Converter Ultimate. Hope I helped
Note, too high values for audio and video bitrate can cause your device to lag. Keeping your phone OC'd above 1.22ghz while watching a video for 1hr plus may severely overheat your phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I play games on my phone @ 1,5Ghz Or, I did on my Leo. It did get pretty hot(!) but never caused a damage. So I think it will be safe Atleast, I hope so
I'll try this settings when I get home. I do a bit video editing, I usually use Sony Vegeas PRO. You can check here, I have only one video on this account, but few more in my other. www.youtube.com/user/ITuNaYI
I'll check if I can do it with Sony Vegas PRO!
leppie said:
I found this app. Free Video to Android Converter
It looks a little silly, and nags you everytime you exit, but it makes beautiful movies at native res (800x480) from just about any format (avi,mp4,mkv,mov,wmv). It's also a bit slow, due to only using 1 core (I got 8 on i7).
All converted movies can play in the default player, with hardware decoding of course.
The settings I use is the preset for HTC Desire, Nexus One. Havent had to try any other formats.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll check this as well when I get home

i think format factory is the way to go, just use native resolution 800 x 480

Looool! Damn I miss GTA IV...so fun when first released, now everyone's on COD

Elemental_Fire said:
Looool! Damn I miss GTA IV...so fun when first released, now everyone's on COD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol
I still play GTA IV, have done that for 3 years now. And there is a few pro players left. But it is like, everyone knows everybody. I also do have CoD BO, but not fun as GTA IV. Sub for more vids

DHD native player doesn't play flv format. Unconverted 700Mb video doesn't play smoothly on my DHD. It seems to lag badly.

I have no problems playing video's on my DHD.
It's still stock and i use Rockplayer to play video's.
I download a TV-show from the internets and i put it on my phone and it plays almost without lag.

Okay, guys, I'm back now. I had to flash a new ROM as it did not support HQ video playback. Now, I'm on Android Revolution HD, with LeeDroid Kernel. Overclocked to 2Ghz (!) I'm getting exlent performance.
I had totally forgot that I had Any Video Converter Professional, bought years ago. However, I'm now converthing a 1h 16m long Top Gear epsiode, just to give it a try.
Settings are;
Video Codec: mpeg4
800x480
Video Bitrate: 2500 (just testing it out )
Video Framrate: 25 (what do you think? This is default, should I change it?)
Audio Bitrate: 320
Sample Rate: 44100 (?)
EDIT!
I've rolled back to 1,2Ghz, as I did really not see any big improvment @ 2Ghz. Heat vs. performance ratio is not worth it.
However, I'm still converting that video. The problem is that the output file is about 1GB now And the input is 699 MB
It must be the high video bitrate!
UPDATE:
The quality is amazing! The final size was 1,44GB. But it is just perfect! I'm now converting even more
yet another UPDATE:
The avi files I have converted is in amazing quality. Now I'm converthing a Blueray movie. Lets see how this ends up

[Q] Xoom HD playback capability

There are a lot of MP4 video clips that I cannot get to play on Xoom smoothly but they play back really well on my HTC Desire.
On Xoom the video is laggy while the audio is audible. This happened to both 720p and 480p videos. I used both the default player and Moboplayer to ensure I am using the hardware acceleration.
Strangely on my Xoom the Moboplayer can soft-decode 480p MP4 with ffmpeg and playback without any problem. 720 is smoother but the decoding was too slow which resulted in A-V async.
Again, all those clips play really well on my HTC Desire. Tegra 2 should be able to handle them.
Anyone knows anything?

Please search the forum before asking questions. This has been asnswered.
The problem you're having is to do with the clips using high profile encoding.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=968640&highlight=video
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=968308&highlight=video
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=972812&highlight=video
There's lots more. All I can say is, learn to love Handbrake and be prepared to have your computer running all night every night if you ever want to watch HD movies on this thing.

I dont agree; I have transcoded 2 blue rays, hellboy and start trek 2009 in about an hour each, using my imac and handbreak
Oh, and download Vitalplayer from the market for the best hd video playback..

wase4711 said:
I dont agree; I have transcoded 2 blue rays, hellboy and start trek 2009 in about an hour each, using my imac and handbreak
Oh, and download Vitalplayer from the market for the best hd video playback..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, well, I don't agree.
I converted 2 720p mkv 90 minute movies and a 40 minute 720p mkv TV show last night and it took 6 hours. This was done on an Intel Core 2 duo P750 2.26GHz
Not everyone has the same hardware. I suppose I could run out and buy an i5 or i7 for the sole purpose of encoding video for the XOOM.
Maybe Motorola can partner with a PC company. How about 20% off a new laptop when you buy a XOOM that way you will be able to take advantage of its HD video capability in 2 hours instead of six.

Digital Man said:
Yeah, well, I don't agree.
I converted 2 720p mkv 90 minute movies and a 40 minute 720p mkv TV show last night and it took 6 hours. This was done on an Intel Core 2 duo P750 2.26GHz
Not everyone has the same hardware. I suppose I could run out and buy an i5 or i7 for the sole purpose of encoding video for the XOOM.
Maybe Motorola can partner with a PC company. How about 20% off a new laptop when you buy a XOOM that way you will be able to take advantage of its HD video capability in 2 hours instead of six.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It all depends on your settings, and keep in mind that the imac is going to have similar hardware to your machine. The recommendation is to set max width to 1280, set B Frames to 0, turn off CABAC, 8x8 Transform, and Weighted P frames. If you do that, you'll find fairly consistent encoding times even with older hardware. Also, keep in mind that encoding is entirely processor bound and will do better the more cores you can throw at it.

mcnutty said:
It all depends on your settings, and keep in mind that the imac is going to have similar hardware to your machine. The recommendation is to set max width to 1280, set B Frames to 0, turn off CABAC, 8x8 Transform, and Weighted P frames. If you do that, you'll find fairly consistent encoding times even with older hardware. Also, keep in mind that encoding is entirely processor bound and will do better the more cores you can throw at it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Been there done that. There are no shortcuts. Good quality takes time or more cores. Or harness the GPU ie CUDA but that causes horrendous macroblocking in bright scenes.
No matter how you sugar coat it, re-encoding video is a time consuming pain in the ass for most people.
I also seem to remember there are multiple versions of the imac, with variable hardware specs, from dual core up to quad core 3.6GHz - so your claim of similar hardware seems unlikely.

..........

e.mote said:
>I converted 2 720p mkv 90 minute movies and a 40 minute 720p mkv TV show last night and it took 6 hours.
Suggest using 800 max width for substantially faster encode speed and smaller size. Quality diff is negligible on a 10".
If using 2-pass, switch to 1-pass for both faster encode time AND better quality.
Unfortunately, HB doesn't provide x264's speed presets. You can gain additional speed (at cost of some nominal size increase) with the faster presets. Hmm, I should update my HB script to allow "downloadables" as input.
>The recommendation is to set max width to 1280, set B Frames to 0, turn off CABAC, 8x8 Transform, and Weighted P frames. If you do that, you'll find fairly consistent encoding times even with older hardware.
Encoding to baseline profile (what the above basically means) gains speed by disabling more advanced "compression" features. The trade-off is significant size increase, about +30% vs high profile.
Using a lower res allows more efficient settings. At 800 width, you can use main profile. Speed diff between main & baseline is insignificant. Speed gain for the lower res is substantial.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I appreciate that your trying to help, but those are the settings that I have been using already: 1280, set B Frames to 0, turn off CABAC, turn off 8x8 Transform, and turn off Weighted P frames....
and it is still taking well over 3 hours to re-encode a 1:30 movie.
I understand that lowering the resolution will decrease the encoding time, but I consider that a last resort compromise. In fact I would consider that basically a failure of the XOOM.
I have considered buying an i5 or i7, but I feel stupid buying a new laptop for the sole purpose of encoding for the XOOM, when I could just pick up my Galaxy Tab and just play these videos immediately. No encoding. Just copy them over and play.

I am quite sure those videos are not high profile. Their bitrates were around 2M, way below 20M.
And, as I said, I can even do soft-decode to play the 480ps which does not play well with hard-decoding.
480ps, man. 480ps. Stunning.

e.mote said:
Last edited by e.mote; Today at 10:19 PM. Reason: reply removed, as recipient can't read
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your sarcasm needs work. It lacks creativity. And removing the original post is just immature.

Digital Man said:
Your sarcasm needs work. It lacks creativity. And removing the original post is just immature.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't really care about the encoding stage, I have an i7-950 which encodes a blu-ray in handbreak in well under an hour.
What I'd like to know, is are the codecs really this lacking, and will we see a solution?
I, like the OP have a HTC Desire and I could be devastated to find the XOOM can't handle the videos my Desire can.
Does it natively support mkv? I like to watch TV episodes in mkv like the 86MB Big Bang Theory episodes.
All my non-TV stuff I rip myself so I'm not concerned. Other than the DRM wmv I buy. Which play back fine on my galaxy tab.

alias_neo said:
I don't really care about the encoding stage, I have an i7-950 which encodes a blu-ray in handbreak in well under an hour.
What I'd like to know, is are the codecs really this lacking, and will we see a solution?
I, like the OP have a HTC Desire and I could be devastated to find the XOOM can't handle the videos my Desire can.
Does it natively support mkv? I like to watch TV episodes in mkv like the 86MB Big Bang Theory episodes.
All my non-TV stuff I rip myself so I'm not concerned. Other than the DRM wmv I buy. Which play back fine on my galaxy tab.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most TV shows that are 720p mkv, and are privately enoded, and downloaded, average about 1.2 GB and will and not play. Support for MKV as a container isn't a problem, its the profile of the h264 video in the container that is the problem.
If the Video that you like to watch is only 86MB, that doesn't sound like high profile 720p. So it might play, only way to know is to try or download mediaInfo and check its properties.
Good to hear that the i7 that you have can do a blu-ray in an hour. That sounds like what I should do eventually. Wonder if an i5 will do as well. I've heard that the i7, though it has 4 physical cores, is seen as 8 due to multithreading, wheras the i5 is limited to 4.
I watched two re-encoded episodes of fringe last night, and the Video on the XOOM is really amazing. It actually is almost worth the wait.

Digital Man said:
Most TV shows that are 720p mkv, and are privately enoded, and downloaded, average about 1.2 GB and will and not play. Support for MKV as a container isn't a problem, its the profile of the h264 video in the container that is the problem.
If the Video that you like to watch is only 86MB, that doesn't sound like high profile 720p. So it might play, only way to know is to try or download mediaInfo and check its properties.
Good to hear that the i7 that you have can do a blu-ray in an hour. That sounds like what I should do eventually. Wonder if an i5 will do as well. I've heard that the i7, though it has 4 physical cores, is seen as 8 due to multithreading, wheras the i5 is limited to 4.
I watched two re-encoded episodes of fringe last night, and the Video on the XOOM is really amazing. It actually is almost worth the wait.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's correct, it's an 8 threaded processor, running on an Asus ROG III Gene.
As for the videos I'm watching:
Video
ID/String : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format_Profile : [email protected]
Format_Settings_CABAC/String : Yes
Format_Settings_RefFrames/String : 4 frames
Format_Settings_GOP : M=4, N=48
CodecID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration/String : 20mn 24s
BitRate/String : 465 Kbps
Width/String : 624 pixels
Height/String : 352 pixels
DisplayAspectRatio/String : 16:9
FrameRate/String : 23.976 fps
Standard : NTSC
ColorSpace : YUV
ChromaSubsampling : 4:2:0
BitDepth/String : 8 bits
ScanType/String : Progressive
Bits-(Pixel*Frame) : 0.088
StreamSize/String : 67.8 MiB (77%)
They're not 720, but they're nice enough on my Galaxy Tab. They are High Profile @ L4.0 though which I'v heard a lot of bad-mouthing about on the forum lately. I'm no expert on media codecs and frankly couldn't care as long as theyre watchable. I'd love to know I could rip my Blu-Rays at 720p and watch them on the XOOM comfortably though.

What you are posting is interesting. Its high profile, but low bit rate. Some of the early claims for the Tegra 2, which is used in the XOOM, said it actually could play high profile but only at a low bit rate, but I haven't heard it confirmed. I suspect this video will not play, but later on I will try encoding a video in a simliar manner to yours and see what happens.

Digital Man said:
What you are posting is interesting. Its high profile, but low bit rate. Some of the early claims for the Tegra 2, which is used in the XOOM, said it actually could play high profile but only at a low bit rate, but I haven't heard it confirmed. I suspect this video will not play, but later on I will try encoding a video in a simliar manner to yours and see what happens.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great, if you like I can dropbox the file I have and PM you the link for testing. These files playback flawlessly using the Galaxy Tab with every single player software I have tried, whether hardware or software decoding. FOr them not to play on the XOOM would be a killer.

Got your file. Sorry, it plays but with no sound. I tried RockPlayer and Moboplayer and the System Player and all play the same - silent.
The Video is actually pretty good. Smooth and very acceptable. So I guess it can technically play high profile, very low bitrate files - just not with sound. Have to Play around some more and see if I can learn anything else that might get this to play correctly or figure out what the problem is.
Edit: Actually, this is a Divx encoded file, not h264, so that is why it plays. So I am a little surprised about the lack of audio. And its only mp3 audio!!! This is really amazing. I can't believe the XOOM isn't playing this correctly. Has to be a way.
Update: Ok, success! It does play correctly in Rockplayer in software decoding mode. With sound. So it looks like you will have no problem.

Digital Man said:
Got your file. Sorry, it plays but with no sound. I tried RockPlayer and Moboplayer and the System Player and all play the same - silent.
The Video is actually pretty good. Smooth and very acceptable. So I guess it can technically play high profile, very low bitrate files - just not with sound. Have to Play around some more and see if I can learn anything else that might get this to play correctly or figure out what the problem is.
Edit: Actually, this is a Divx encoded file, not h264, so that is why it plays. So I am a little surprised about the lack of audio. And its only mp3 audio!!! This is really amazing. I can't believe the XOOM isn't playing this correctly. Has to be a way.
Update: Ok, success! It does play correctly in Rockplayer in software decoding mode. With sound. So it looks like you will have no problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting, if somewhat concerning that it won't play this in the standard players or with hard-decoding even though it uses mp3 audio.
How about VPlayer Advanced? I find this plays most of my videos nicely on the Tab.

Probably just lack of Divx support in hardware. Thats not a big deal, even a single core CPU of lower power can easily decode low res, low bitrate Divx. I don't consider that a flaw at all. Software decoding video like this with the XOOM's dual core A9's is trivial. Results are fine. Just need an app like RockPlayer that does it. XVID files will probably not work in hardware either.
From Motorolas website:
PLAYABLE FORMATS
AAC, H.263, H.264, MP3, MPEG-4, ACC+ Enhanced, OGG, MIDI, AMR NB, AAC+

Digital Man said:
Probably just lack of Divx support in hardware. Thats not a big deal, even a single core CPU of lower power can easily decode low res, low bitrate Divx. I don't consider that a flaw at all. Software decoding video like this with the XOOM's dual core A9's is trivial. Results are fine. Just need an app like RockPlayer that does it. XVID files will probably not work in hardware either.
From Motorolas website:
PLAYABLE FORMATS
AAC, H.263, H.264, MP3, MPEG-4, ACC+ Enhanced, OGG, MIDI, AMR NB, AAC+
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeh that's pretty fair I guess. How do you think it would manage if converted to MP4? I can do it on my 950 when I get home and send you it if you like? I'd not mind converting the whole lot if it played in the stock player.