Best Video Settings - Space Not Big Issue - HTC Excalibur

If space isn't a major issue (I mean I'd like to reduce the video size, but I have a 2gig card that I plan to use only for video so it's not super important to get the vids as small as possible) - what are the best encoding settings for 3gp video with respect to quality playback on the dash.
Is there a way to encode something larger so that it could be played relatively decently on a laptop but still work okay on the phone too? There might be occasion where I'm on the road with a work laptop and would prefer to simply copy the movie over and watch it on the larger laptop screen as opposed to directly on the phone.
I've done some searching around and did some encoding with DVDFAB but I was using a custom profile someone whipped up for a dpod and while the playback is acceptable for on the phone, there is some pixelation and since the encoding was specifically for the phone, I suspect playback on a larger laptop screen would be terrible.
Thanks for the help!

Related

dvd rip size

hey guys. ive been reading on here for a few days and decided to make my account cuz it looks like its the best excalibur forum ive found so far
im a mac user and i use a program called handbrake to tip my dvds to put on the s621. my question is what size am i supposed to put the movie to fit the screen right? i want decent quality is imortant but memory saving is also important since this thing doesnt take more then 2gb from my knowlidge
pierrohhh said:
im a mac user and i use a program called handbrake to tip my dvds to put on the s621. my question is what size am i supposed to put the movie to fit the screen right? i want decent quality is imortant but memory saving is also important since this thing doesnt take more then 2gb from my knowlidge
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The maximum resolution of the Excalibur/Dash/s620/s621 is 320x240, however your resolution should be a little less since Handbrake will scale your video in such a way that it maintains the aspect ratio (and doesn't stretch out your image). Set the bitrate to, at most, about 256 KbPS. And for the love of God, don't choose to use h.264. The amount of overclocking required to get the thing to decode h.264 would likely cause your device to 'splode. Use MP3 as the audio codec, don't bother with chapter markers either.
Those settings ought to do just fine for your Dash or other similar device. And if you wanted to be really cool, you'd share the preset for anyone else using Handbrake (Its home may be on the Mac, but there's a Linux version available and a Windows version planned)
what do u mean id share the preset? i just put the dvd in the macbook and then i open handbrake. i would love to help out people by making a thread about it once i have figured it all out. but i still have to test it on my phone . im getting it in 2 weeks when my upgrade is due. i just wanna get all my stuff ready to upload.
ohhh yah and im using mpeg4 and taking out the dolby 5.1 (im guessing stereo would make the file even smaller)

Orb to Stream Videos on Rhodium/TP2

Hi all, I'm sure this is a common topic but unfortunately, the search term "orb" doesn't come up with anything since it is only three characters and using the google search isn't coming up with much up to date info.
I've managed to get it working, but the quality seems kind of shaky. I haven't re-encoded any of the video files on my computer, but from what I understood Orb transcodes on the fly to lower the bitrate to make a good match with the upstream and downstream capabilities of both your home computer and your phone or whatever device you are viewing the media on.
Is it just dropping the bitrate by dropping frames and decreased the sound quality or is it actually transcoding the resolution of the frames, etc.? Maybe a better solution, if I don't want to go through my entire library and re-encode everything to lower resolution would be to use TVersity which does for sure transcode...
...................................
If you make it stream through SteramingMedia it is a lot less studdery, but the quality is way low. I found that to stream movies Kinoma Freeplay is the best so far. I am currently looking for alternatives for streaming my LiveTv.

Video playback and some testing

So after reading up and finding that video playback isnt brilliant on the tp2 i thougt i would do some tests.
my goal was to find an easy way to watch films. I dont really want to have to convert all my films to mp4 and use the htc album, but i dont really want to have to switch of sense and soft reset every time i have a spare 1/2 hour.
So using the same footage I ran multiple formats on the following players:
coreplayer, TCMP, Media Player and HTC album.
Not really sure how conclusive it is ( and there is certainly more testing that can be done)
i am going to try using MP4forHD to convert the file a last time and try that on all players
have a look at the results and let me know what you think
So basically what you're saying is that the only videos that work are the original AVI and some MP4s with coreplayer without Sense turned on. That sucks.
Interesting results. I have never bothered trying with sense or spb mobile shell off, but for most videos I watch (640x320 or something close, i.e., vga resolution), they seem to work ok on the tilt2. I get some annoying pixelation with TCMP, but the default windows media player seems to play them pretty crisply and smoothly. the only tradeoff there is WMP is pretty low on the totem pole feature wise.
it also seems odd to me that your results get worse when sense is turned off. It's more intuitive that it would work better if you have more ram available. Could this be an issue with a custom rom you flashed? I am using the stock ATT with spb mobile shell. Did you try a different media file?
I am using the stock rom
from what i understand the HTC and windows media use some sort of graphics acceleration
so you dont need to turn off sense.
stringman said:
I am using the stock rom
from what i understand the HTC and windows media use some sort of graphics acceleration
so you dont need to turn off sense.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True, that makes sense. Still not sure why things get worse with Sense off, but maybe that is just the human side of the measurement, as they do all look pretty close between the two sets? And actually, it gets better for Core, worse for TCMP, and then about the same for the other two.
Do you think it would be worth trying with a different SD card, or better: trying a small video loaded from the device? If you play from the device, you at lease take the age/quality of the SD card out of the experiment as a variable. Even though you wouldn't watch a video from the device in real life, it may be a better way to benchmark, unless you are benchmarking for a specific card.
I think adding a streaming file to the test would be interesting too. Anyway, thanks for the research on this. It is a very interesting topic, imo.
The muisc player wasn't working for me either, and movies really sucked! nothing would play.
I switched roms and now everything works, music plays and comes up in the player, and movies look and play good.
I converted with AVS here are my settings:
Video codec: MPEG4(divX/Xvid compatible)
Audio codec: MPEG2/4 Audio
Frame Size:
Width: 368
Height: 208
Frame Rate:
Bitrate: 520
File Type: mp4 PSP
Channels: Stereo Sample Size: 16bit
Sample Rate: 48000Hz Bitrate: 128kbps
I watched on the built in player and didn't have to turn anything off, my fully charged battery lasted for almost 4 hours of nearly constant use ( i turned it off after i got under ~7% left).
PocketDiVXEncoder
hard to go wrong with PocketDiVXEncoder
http://www.pocketdivxencoder.net/EN_index.htm
its free, and makes amazingly good playable .avi's out of almost anything
the 1.7mb :30 second clip attached below was encoded at 300k video/96k audio, and the whole movie is about 390megs @ this level of quality.
Anything made in PDE thats <= 1200k/128k/640x480 seems to play flawlessly in COREplayer
my issue is that if i have to convert any file to anyformat its a real pain.
on the td2 i could tranfer a avi fil from my laptop to the sd card and watch the film no problem.
now i have to convert it to a mp4 or something and to a particular resolution
ok so its about 40mins but its a pain
so bearing in mind that this does need to be done
whats the best format ( i am leaning to mp4)
whats the best resolution settings
whats the best prog ( i am using mp4for hd at the moment)
cheers

[Q] Converting Video for WP7

Hi all,
just wondering what people are using to convert .avi/.mkv/etc to mp4/wmv/etc so Zune/Wp7 can use them?
ATM i'm using anyvideoconverter and converting the video's to "Zune HD" but it seems to leave a black border of about 5mm around every edge of the video which is really annoying me, so anyone got any other good ones?
Only confirmed ones please, i've used dozens of Conversion apps that say they'd do the job but in reality they don't, so only post if you've used one for WP7/Zune.
Just convert your Video to MP4 or WMV with WVGA resolution.
Audio said:
Hi all,
just wondering what people are using to convert .avi/.mkv/etc to mp4/wmv/etc so Zune/Wp7 can use them?
ATM i'm using anyvideoconverter and converting the video's to "Zune HD" but it seems to leave a black border of about 5mm around every edge of the video which is really annoying me, so anyone got any other good ones?
Only confirmed ones please, i've used dozens of Conversion apps that say they'd do the job but in reality they don't, so only post if you've used one for WP7/Zune.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think this application should solve your problem....you can adjust everything....
http://www.any-video-converter.com/products/for_video_free/
It was great,I use it to convert videos for my android and Iphone...and it is very flexible.You can adjust the bit rate,size...almost everything...and it is free...
That's what i'm using at them minute sylau as i said in my post
Audio said:
ATM i'm using anyvideoconverter and converting the video's to "Zune HD" but it seems to leave a black border of about 5mm around every edge of the video which is really annoying me...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you know of a good one which will let me just convert to mp4 WVGA Paul?
*EDIT* Just found This Thread which Recommends a GUI for MENCoder called "SUPER". My dealings with MENCoder have been great in the past so i'll give it a go and let others know what it's like.
FWIW the Microsoft way is to use Expression encoder for WMV. It's free, it's nice, and it does a good job encoding, so if you want WMV you should use that one.
paul_43 said:
Just convert your Video to MP4 or WMV with WVGA resolution.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My Zune does not even want to read WMV files so I can not upload. I have multiple copies of DVD's/Blu-Ray's with digital copie of movie for portable devices.
I can copy those movies to my PC and watch them, I can watch them on HD2 but zune doesn ot see them so I can not copy them on to phone. They are all in WMV or MP4 format.
MP4 don't work in Zune!
I tested with this videos: http://cid-e9230930f20e0820.office.live.com/browse.aspx/Windows Phone 7 Ads
deleted, please ignore this message
Same problem, I have digital copy's of blu-ray's that came with them, they play using WMV but the Zune Software won't see them and won't play them.
Download 'Expression Encoder'. There's an option to encode specifically for Zune.
Portos2008 said:
MP4 don't work in Zune!
I tested with this videos: http://cid-e9230930f20e0820.office.live.com/browse.aspx/Windows Phone 7 Ads
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Funny as phone by default records in mp4
Mabe the audio stream?
I was just playing around with this last night, and the biggest issue was the audio stream. While it plays h264 streams up to the High Profile level 3.0, it did not like an AC3 stream. I had to demux a video that I had in an mkv container, convert the audio to AAC and remux into an mp4 container. Microsoft has a whole detailed table of stream type compatibility with bit rates, profiles, etc. I can't seem to post links, so search for it at the msdn dot microsoft dot com under this title "Supported Media Codecs for Windows Phone". The list on the WP7 consumer site sucks btw.
The AAC has two compatible types, AAC-LC and HE-AACv1 or v2.
I used MeGui to redo the audio, and yamb to mux it.
Thanks dgetz, here is the link to msdn.
Audio said:
Hi all,
just wondering what people are using to convert .avi/.mkv/etc to mp4/wmv/etc so Zune/Wp7 can use them?
ATM i'm using anyvideoconverter and converting the video's to "Zune HD" but it seems to leave a black border of about 5mm around every edge of the video which is really annoying me, so anyone got any other good ones?
Only confirmed ones please, i've used dozens of Conversion apps that say they'd do the job but in reality they don't, so only post if you've used one for WP7/Zune.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
for the time being i have been using "HTC Touch HD Video Converter"
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=467112
Seems to work very well
anyone try clonedvd mobile. I have used this in the past with the sony psp settings and gotten very good results, just a very small black strip (maybe 1-2mm) across the top and bottom of the screen (on my hd2).
Portos2008 said:
MP4 don't work in Zune!
I tested with this videos: http://cid-e9230930f20e0820.office.live.com/browse.aspx/Windows Phone 7 Ads
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can confirm that MP4 works on the Focus, using TV shows previously converted for my iPhone 4
I use handbrake on Windows and Mac to convert my videos, using the settings from
http://lifehacker.com/5572037/handbrake-presets-for-your-new-ipad-or-iphone-4
The results have been good, but using the frame(middle) setting shown in that article does bump up the file size a good amount, and as I'm sure a lot of you have heard, storage space isn't so easy to come by on WP7 yet...
Handbrake
I too can vouch for handbrake. All of the videos I have made for my ipod touch with it work just fine on the Focus. Unfortunately, the library I have for the touch is lower resolution, with videos at about 1/2 DVD resolution and at 500kbps encode rate. I end up with about 500 MB for the about 90 min. It is nice because they don't take up a lot of room, but still look decent. When output to a standard definition TV they look fine as well.
When I first put a few of these home videos on the Focus the lower quality was immediately noticeable. To see how I could push the phone, in my reply above I took a full DVD resolution video 720x400 (16x9 non-anamorphic) and corrected the audio stream. That video looks gorgeous on the Focus screen and is great for showing off the phone. It also takes up over 2.5 GB!!!! It is encoded at a rate of about 2100 kbps. As with any video encoding for a mobile device you have to make your own decision about resolution, encoding rate, etc in that constant game of quality versus size.
One thing to note. If there are black bars on your video, then either you have a video that was not encoded in a proportion that matches your screen or it was hard coded with the black bars. The second thing should be rare nowadays (eliminating this wasted information space was the point of an anamorphic DVD). The first is actually very common. IF your media is a studio movie, almost every action film these days comes at 2.35:1 instead of 16:9=1.77:1. Personally I like viewing any of my content in the way it was originally intended to be viewed and don't ever re-proportion anything. At the moment I am not sure if the Focus/WP7 'stretches' videos. I know on my ipod touch this was an option you could toggle by double tapping the video during playback...
Maybe I will play around with a few options tonight and report back.
have a zunehd and remember seeing this thread on abi
anythingbutipod.com/forum/showthread.php?t=58183
it converts the audio of any avi/mkv and keeps the video the same, so converting only takes a few mins, and zune software recognizes it..for the zunehd anyways, maybe someone can try w/ wp7
Since I couldn't find right settings for MediaCoder (best video converter ever).
I was using Prism Video Converter for my Omnia7.
About settings for prism:
For .wmv use as video compresor WMV9 and for sound WMAV9, i am not changing the resolution as it is not bothering me at all. All files (mostly avi or mkv) played smooth after conversion.
If anybody have good settings for MediaCoder I will be much appreciated for sharing.
Thx
Okay, so MP4forHD works. The quality still isn't stunning, but it'll do for now (i guess.) However, i've encountered an issue with contrast. All my blacks appear as dark grays, which drives me nuts

Video Conversion/Playback/Best Methods...Anyone need help?

**Just in case there are still those out there looking for the best methods for video file conversion/playback, HD, mkv, avi, divx, mpeg... I enjoy troubleshooting A/V hiccups for any who could use the help, don't have ALL the answers but it's fun for me and want to contribute all I can!
Sent from this phone
With that said...
WinX HD Video Converter free for download today by liking their facebook page:
http://www.f******k.com/WinXDVD?sk=app_208195102528120
replace the stars with the appropriate letters, duh...
dcxgod said:
With that said...
WinX HD Video Converter free for download today by liking their facebook page:
http://www.f******k.com/WinXDVD?sk=app_208195102528120
replace the stars with the appropriate letters, duh...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good lookin' out! Thanks for this! Another free alternative is Freemake Video Converter, it's the VLC Player of file converters with device presets preloaded.
Sent from this phone
with this phone i even forgot the last time i converted/encoded anything... MX Video Player is simply the best and will play anything you throw at it up to 720p. 1080p plays smoothly as well but not always. oh, and multi-subtitles/multi-audio tracks are supported as wel. only issue i found with it is it won't display embedded bitmap "vob" subtitles (other subtitles, both mixed in and external play just fine)
as far as video conversion, i take the geeky approach. AviSynth + x264 + neroAacEnc. with proper settings you will get the best results, ever... seriously. if you're scarred of command line, use the MeGUI or Handbrake frontends. same encoders, different approach.
i've spent many years experimenting with various video encoders/compressors and from my experience i've concluded that regardless of what you're trying to accomplish, h264/aac codec combo will give you the best quality than any other codec out there. oh, and make sure to use mkv container. it's the most flexible of popular container formats.
lastly, if you just want an easy tool, use Sorenson Squeeze. very flexible, easy to use, has gpu acceleration, and gives quite impressive results. only downside is its hella expensive, that is if you're trying to stay legal
frifox said:
with this phone i even forgot the last time i converted/encoded anything... MX Video Player is simply the best and will play anything you throw at it up to 720p. 1080p plays smoothly as well but not always. oh, and multi-subtitles/multi-audio tracks are supported as wel. only issue i found with it is it won't display embedded bitmap "vob" subtitles (other subtitles, both mixed in and external play just fine)
as far as video conversion, i take the geeky approach. AviSynth + x264 + neroAacEnc. with proper settings you will get the best results, ever... seriously. if you're scarred of command line, use the MeGUI or Handbrake frontends. same encoders, different approach.
i've spent many years experimenting with various video encoders/compressors and from my experience i've concluded that regardless of what you're trying to accomplish, h264/aac codec combo will give you the best quality than any other codec out there. oh, and make sure to use mkv container. it's the most flexible of popular container formats.
lastly, if you just want an easy tool, use Sorenson Squeeze. very flexible, easy to use, has gpu acceleration, and gives quite impressive results. only downside is its hella expensive, that is if you're trying to stay legal
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very true, our device will typically play most formats stock without a complaint. I mostly set this thread in motion for our fellow xda'ers who were having trouble finding options to overcome a single file size limitation without splitting. Your info was spot on my man.. well said!
Sent from this phone
http://www.mirovideoconverter.com/
That is a very simple, no options (other than picking the phone model) encoder. I don't know off hand that phone in its list has similar resolution with our phone (800x480 I think) but it works without a fuss. It doesn't do batch, only one at a time. I don't know if it's 2 pass or not. My preference is handbrake. If you use something like that, check in the settings that CABAC is off. That is a feature that will make smaller files but it will need more cpu to decode during playback. Off setting has larger file sizes but it's less cpu intensive during playback. I haven't made a comparison between on and off but I don't think off makes the file really huge. If you're doing DVD resolution encodes, dual pass encoding with video bitrate of 2000 is sufficient with no noticeable difference in artifacting from 2500.
Another suggestion is with the video the phone camcorder makes. It's bigger than it needs to be file size wise. Run it through handbrake with default settings, only changing CABAC to off, and perspective (screen) to none. That makes a 1080 2 gig 20 minute video down to about 300mb and I don't see the difference in video quality.
patrick_1 said:
Another free alternative is Freemake Video Converter, it's the VLC Player of file converters with device presets preloaded.
Sent from this phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for this heads up, but I have a question. I was converting a DVD to test this one out, and it seems to work flawlessly so far, but I did notice if I choose to convert to Android 800x480 with the defaults everywhere else, I wind up with files around 1.25GB. Is there a particular set of settings I can use to shrink that size or a way to take the mp4 files and reduce their size? I'm used to mp4s being ~300 - 500MB, so just wondering if there is a way to set it up I'm not seeing.
I use Hand brake without issue on my epic touch. Just throwing out another program for everyone to try.
darthstewie said:
Thanks for this heads up, but I have a question. I was converting a DVD to test this one out, and it seems to work flawlessly so far, but I did notice if I choose to convert to Android 800x480 with the defaults everywhere else, I wind up with files around 1.25GB. Is there a particular set of settings I can use to shrink that size or a way to take the mp4 files and reduce their size? I'm used to mp4s being ~300 - 500MB, so just wondering if there is a way to set it up I'm not seeing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Welcome! Yeah you can change a few things, the bit rate and format play a lot in the over all file size. Mp4 will compress more as apposed to avi. The ps3 setting is a useful one for that. You can click on each of the presets setting and get an overview of the container/codec/bit rate/frame rate that are being used to give you an idea.
Sent from this phone
Thanks again. I found in the dialog box that allows me to rename the mp4 I can also limit the maximum size of the file. It automagically changes the bitrate that way, and I have much more manageable files now.
darthstewie said:
Thanks again. I found in the dialog box that allows me to rename the mp4 I can also limit the maximum size of the file. It automagically changes the bitrate that way, and I have much more manageable files now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice! Glad it's working for you! BTW..."darthstewie" damn I wish I'd thought of that as a username!!
Sent from this phone

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