Related
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:
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?
Hello,
Can this HD2 actually display real good video clips?
I have tried a load of converters and played about with various settings but all video looks average at best and most are jerky.
Anybody got some tips for converting great looking video to show off this screen?
Any tips appreciated.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=5341496&postcount=32
worked a treat for me
Try 'Mp4forHD'- just google search and it should be the first link.
Works like a treat and plays via HTC albums.
Thanks for the reply
I will check them out.
HDencoder (you can get it here on xda-dev)
Originally designed for Touch HD, but still working outstanding.
The encoder is the same than MP4forHD, but the GUI is more simple.
Set bitrate to custom and encode with 1000kbit @ 800x480 for 720p or 1080p videos.
HD2 is capable of higher bitrates but HDencoder only support 1000kBit max...and the difference to higher bitrates is not really visible. Higher Bitrates causes only much bigger files and more battery drain....
jpopgt said:
Hello,
Can this HD2 actually display real good video clips?
I have tried a load of converters and played about with various settings but all video looks average at best and most are jerky.
Anybody got some tips for converting great looking video to show off this screen?
Any tips appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it can play back very high quality video perfectly. I have transcoded a 720p movie file down to the HD2's native resolution (800x480) and its looks absolutley stunning. Its fun to show your iPhone friends and watch their faces as they see just how stunning the screen looks displaying a proper native resolution image taken from a higher resoluution source... Simply stunning.
Thanks again for the replies!
I am can see some stunning video now.
Cheers.
Bimme said:
HDencoder (you can get it here on xda-dev)
Originally designed for Touch HD, but still working outstanding.
The encoder is the same than MP4forHD, but the GUI is more simple.
Set bitrate to custom and encode with 1000kbit @ 800x480 for 720p or 1080p videos.
HD2 is capable of higher bitrates but HDencoder only support 1000kBit max...and the difference to higher bitrates is not really visible. Higher Bitrates causes only much bigger files and more battery drain....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is this a different encoder from HTC Touch video converter 1.21?.......the bitrate can only be set to 999 max on this program.
I can't seem to find a program called HDencoder.
Bimme said:
HD2 is capable of higher bitrates but HDencoder only support 1000kBit max...and the difference to higher bitrates is not really visible. Higher Bitrates causes only much bigger files and more battery drain....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I strongly disagree. MP4ForHD will go up to 1600kb/s and the improvement in visual quality between that and something encoded at 1000kb/s is (to my eyes) dramatic, not subtle. If you watch some of the videos from this post (encoded at 2000kb/s and using CABAC) that's another quite visible step up in quality. Beyond 2000kb/s the benefits start to become a bit more ambiguous.
(The above assumes a good-quality, high-definition source, of course - lower bit-rates are quite adequate if you're converting something with <800x480 res, but your average xvid dvd rip plays quite happily in CorePlayer anyway, so there would be no need to convert it).
I get inspired every once in a while to convert some full length movies, and put them on whatever phone I have at the time. I have had mixed success (mixed failures?) and would like to see what people are doing that actually works!
I grabbed a couple of Blockbuster on Demand Movies (The two free ones that are offerred to HD2 Owners, plus a couple I paid for. They were formatted horribly, sounds was just acceptable, and like others, I was hoping for the kind of product that the Transformer conversions were. No such luck. Blockbuster, being A MOVIE RETAILER, does not deem information such as "Screen Format" or "Sound Encoding" to be important enough to share with us. The 4 films I have viewed were "Widescreen Format" but, since 800x640 is not 16:9, you end up with two very noticable black bands top & bottom of the screen. Try showing off your HD2, only to have some wiseass 8 year old comment "How come it doesn't fill the screen?" t seems like the wiseass 8 year old has a better sense of what's right than the wizards at Blockbuster (Using "Roxio Cinema Now" technology)
Okay, so much for delivering content to the "Hardest working Screen in the Business" Who then has a tried and true method for converting Ripped DVDs into our beautiful media device? I don't have the patience to try this and that ripper, this and that converter, get the demos, look at 5 minutes of video, or have a huge watermark all while NOT getting a nice conversion to begin with. What I dream of is a 2-3 step process, not a 8-10 step process, that I have to lord over the whole time. I would GLADLY pay for a properly done ripper/converter so I could simply watch a movie on this device that was made to do just that.
I also would like to know.
Have you thought of using TCPMP? (project is somewhere in this site) I just copy over movies (Xvid AVIs) and they play just fine.
1clickDVDConverter
1ClickMovie
AnyDVD + Handbrake (Handbrake is free and excellent, but you need a proggy like Anydvd for...backing up your movies).
This link is at the top of this forum as a sticky
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=666971
DVD Fab platinum
this is the program that i use to put movies in my gadgets... I've put 10s movies in my htc hd2. try it, it has a very simple GUI, and the results is very nice too..
and just a little more detail, you can set up the resolutions output too so it will match the HD2 screen.
for the hd2, i converted my dvd to generic mp4.
danxtian said:
this is the program that i use to put movies in my gadgets... I've put 10s movies in my htc hd2. try it, it has a very simple GUI, and the results is very nice too..
and just a little more detail, you can set up the resolutions output too so it will match the HD2 screen.
for the hd2, i converted my dvd to generic mp4.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here, using DVD Fab... It is FABulous to use.
i just use handbreak. it works really well. im currently using a profile i made that is bassicaly the iphone/ipodtouch preset with the resolution set to 800x48 for hi def and whatever the size is on lower def videos. i also have custom anamorphic which is set at
xxx = width if source file or 800 whichever is greater
800
800
i also have keep aspect ratio off.
on a test of the start trek blu ray i was able to full my screen with the people looking normal and not cutting anything off anything.
i have it on average bit rate of 640 with 2 pas and turbo 1st pass. with audio at 128. the movies look really good to me. Just for comparison the transformers movies weren't all that great looking on my pc at all. they look grainy and for that they are not really utilizing all the bandwidth they are consuming.
with these setting i am very happy of the video quality on my HD2 and the audio is also very good. I also didnt like the blockbuster offering. at these settings it is about 350mb per hour and thats including audio.
To make it with my same exact setting all you need to do is select the iPhone/iPod touch presert, make the resolution say 800x480 or whatever the max is allowed, just dont pass 800 x 480. the anamorphic is set to custom with
800
800
800.
look at the screen shot.
Good luck
Well as noted above, I had been using Handbrake, but my ripping mates have come up with a program that already had the HTC HD2 in mind.
A freeware coverter with an actual preset specific for the HTC HD2 and it works just fine my friends.
The proggy is called: Xmedia Recode 2.2.3.2
http://www.freewarefiles.com/downloads_counter.php?programid=47942
Choose HTC model.
Choose the HD2
Choose your video prefs.
Much love.
Ok, I present to you what I believe to be the best trade off between file-size and quality, given when I'm likely to watch a film on this thing. Feel free to disagree, everyone has their own preferences.
Why have I chosen these settings?
Well, given that I normally watch films on a television, watching them on the Tab is only gonna happen when I'm on the move. So a >1GB video seems pointless, as on a screen that size you'll barely notice the difference in quality. So I aimed to get a film in to ~500MB and to a quality that is still watchable. I went for 500MB as a target because a film that's ~700MB on a 15.6" laptop screen is perfectly watchable. On the Tab the screen is smaller, and the pixel density higher, so we can afford a smaller file size for a video of the same dimensions. I chose to upscale during the encode instead of during playback because the Tab does a really bad job of upscaling (horribly pixilated, especially in high contrast). I think that you could get a film to 400MB, but that's too far for my taste.
To reiterate, I use these settings to keep file size to a minimum while maintaining a watchable quality. I do not need a 2GB HD film when I can fit 4-5 films in that space. If I want to watch a film at a high quality I use my 42" TV, not a 7" tablet.
What you need:
A film to convert for use on your tablet
Handbrake
Time
How do I do it then?
Load up handbrake, and select your source and destination files.
Ensure the preset is set to "Normal"
On the "Picture" tab make sure "Anamorphic" is set to "None"
Ensure "Keep aspect ratio" is ticked
Set the height of the output to the max it'll allow (assuming you're using an SD film. If not, set the width to 1024)
Switch to the "Video" tab
Ensure "Constant Quality" is used, and set the RF value to ~27. Larger numbers mean lower quality, and it's a logarithmic scale.
Switch to the "Audio" tab
Change the mixdown to stereo and the sampling rate to 48
Hit "Start"
After a number of hours (at least the length of the film you're converting) you'll have a ~500MB video file (depends on the length of the film, and genre) ready for playback on your tab. When you hit play tap the screen, then tap the zoom setting button (top right) once. This will correct the aspect ratio.
For higher quality (and larger file sizes) make the RF lower (eg: 22).
Feedback is welcomed, I want to know how you guys do it.
Interesting posts
A few interesting posts are littered through the thread, here are a few:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=10934317&postcount=5
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=11021354&postcount=28
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=11022128&postcount=30
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=11044836&postcount=35
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=11046438&postcount=38
Sounds like pretty solid advice to me. When I convert I just use a freeware converter called iWisoft which has a ton of preset options for different media devices.
I've never worried too much about trying to cut their size down though because you're right, a 700 mb movie on a laptop is perfectly watchable. And to this day, with multiple movies, backed up images and ROMs, pics, backed up apps, etc, I've yet to run out of space on my 16 gig SD.
Sent from my SCH-I800 using XDA App
Thumbs up on the howto. This is how I've been converting videos for my SGS and SGT. Handbrake is great software.
Cool. Glad you like this.
I've just done a few more and the lowest I've seen is 306 MB. Lol (short film, not action) EDIT: And I forgot to upscale. Damn
Well. On Linux (Ubuntu 10.10) this is what I do..
Had a load of .ogm files that won't play on default player.. so...
I have a file called convert_vids.sh
Code:
> touch convert_vids.sh
Make sure you can run it..
Code:
> chmod +x convert_vids.sh
Open in a text editor
Code:
> nano convert_vids.sh
Then copy & paste this into it..
Code:
#!/bin/sh
for z in *.ogm
do
echo Converting file "$z" to "$z".avi
mencoder "$z" -aid 1 -slang en -ovc xvid -oac mp3lame -lameopts br=192 -mc 0 -xvidencopts pass=1:bitrate=1000 -o "$z".avi
done
And run it in the directory you wish to convert
Just use the main function if you only want to convert a single file or to test it works first!
Code:
mencoder thefilm.ogm -aid 1 -slang en -ovc xvid -oac mp3lame -lameopts br=192 -mc 0 -xvidencopts pass=1:bitrate=1000 -o thefilm.avi
You can play with the settings but basically it'll pick the first audio track, English subtitles, and encode it to xvid with a video bitrate of 1000kbps and mp3 audio of 192kbps and output the file with the same name as before but .avi added to the end. (These settings might be higher than some people want, but I like to future proof them..)
I like my manga in the original language with subs..
Enjoy.
A very elegant solution.
(mac only) Or downliad the handvrake nightly and update the presets. remove it and download and open 0.9.4 and use the ipad preset (tab has a 1024 * 600 screen compared to the ipads 1024*768)
Sent from my GT-P1000 using XDA App
Is there any way to upscale standard DVDs using Handbrake or something else? I'm less concerned about the size of the file as I am with the quality of the video.
Everything I do rips only to 720 wide. It always looks pretty junky on the Tab's screen.
Sent from my SCH-I800 using XDA App
Ripbot264 is an excellant tool. With a lot of features and simple to use.
slamorte said:
Is there any way to upscale standard DVDs using Handbrake or something else? I'm less concerned about the size of the file as I am with the quality of the video.
Everything I do rips only to 720 wide. It always looks pretty junky on the Tab's screen.
Sent from my SCH-I800 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, follow these instructions. Use the arrows on the height field, and click the up one until it maxes out
Sent from my Legend using XDA App
slamorte said:
Is there any way to upscale standard DVDs using Handbrake or something else? I'm less concerned about the size of the file as I am with the quality of the video.
Everything I do rips only to 720 wide. It always looks pretty junky on the Tab's screen.
Sent from my SCH-I800 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why would you want to upscale for the Tab?
DVD's are 1024x576 (480 US), so its the perfect size for the Tab, just throw it into a decent x264 front end like Handbrake or Ripbot and set video quality to 21, AAC 160kb audio and it should a transparent copy.
TheGrammarFreak said:
Cool. Glad you like this.
I've just done a few more and the lowest I've seen is 306 MB. Lol (short film, not action) EDIT: And I forgot to upscale. Damn
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Size means nothing, just quality.
If you set it to constant quality of around 21, it will be pretty transparent and the size will be whatever it will be.
dansus72 said:
Size means nothing, just quality.
If you set it to constant quality of around 21, it will be pretty transparent and the size will be whatever it will be.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The size doesn't bother me too much, as long as it's below 600mb. That example threw me, as I was expecting about 450mb for the film. With upscaling it was 430
dansus72 said:
Why would you want to upscale for the Tab?
DVD's are 1024x576 (480 US), so its the perfect size for the Tab, just throw it into a decent x264 front end like Handbrake or Ripbot and set video quality to 21, AAC 160kb audio and it should a transparent copy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I upscale because, in the UK, films are stored in a frame that is 720*480, so widescreen films are squashed into that. When played back it's stretched lengthways to restore the aspect ratio, resulting in a display size of ~1024*480. Seeing as Android ignores PAR and just stretches the footage to fullscreen, actual size or full width we need to fix the aspect ratio in Handbrake. However, this results in films that are 720*3xx. Which looks awful, especially when you let the Tab scale it up to fullscreen. So I upscale in handbrake, because it does a better job of it, and it results in a film that's about the same size as the Tab's screen
Sent from my Legend using XDA App
TheGrammarFreak said:
I upscale because, in the UK, films are stored in a frame that is 720*480, so widescreen films are squashed into that. When played back it's stretched lengthways to restore the aspect ratio, resulting in a display size of ~1024*480. Seeing as Android ignores PAR and just stretched footage to fullscreen, actual size or full width we need to fix the aspect ratio in Handbrake. However, this results in films that are 720*3xx. Which looks awful, especially when you let the Tab scale it up to fullscreen. So I upscale in handbrake, because it does a better job of it, and it results in a film that's about the same size as the Tab's screen
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If your encoding a 16:9 pixel (Anamorphic), and Android doesnt read the PAR, just force 1024x576 (PAL) or x480 (NTSC) in the settings and it should be fine.
If you cant force 1:1 pixel in your program of choice, i suggest you try Megui.
That forcing it essentially what I'm doing. Handbrake doesn't add padding though, which is why I max out the height
Do me a favor, go dl bourne ultimatum hd trailer u will know y
Sent from my GT-P1000 using XDA App
I'd much rather you explained why. I assume you're wanting me to witness the joy of 1080p footage on the tab? My answer to this would be thus: if I wanted to watch 1080p footage I'd watch it on my 42" TV with surround sound
To each of his own. My point is it doesn't matter where I watch it (TV or the tab), I always have the highest quality video and it looks gorgeous on either output
Upscale in handbrake
I must be thick cos I can't get Handbrake (0.9.5 on Win 7 64 bit) to upscale at all. If I load a film which is say 720x304, then (turning anamorphic to none) use the arrows to up the height (or width) it just defaults back to the original width and height. Am I missing something?
{EDIT.. If you use custom in the Anamorphic setttings it lets you upscale}
quattr0 said:
To each of his own. My point is it doesn't matter where I watch it (TV or the tab), I always have the highest quality video and it looks gorgeous on either output
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And twice the battery drain.