Database Develop

What video encoder/settings do you use?

After a lot of experimenting I've settled on Mediacoder as encoder: free, fast, from everything to everything. The only big disadventage is that it isn't very easy to use (altough the Web UI is ok).
These are the settings I use. I've chosen them because they produce the smallest file/quality compromise while retaining smooth plaback. Also you don't need a special player to view it, WM/the HTC player can do it (altough that might only be since the diamond2 since I use gen.Y's D2 rom)
Container: MP4
Video codec: H.264 (x.264 encoder)
Bitrate: 256 Kbps 2-Pass (target bitrate/average bitrate will produce same sized file faster altough with bit less video quality, since I usually only transcode short music clips etc. and have a fast computer I use 2-pass, but if you want to encode 6 hours of movies you might want to select average bitrate)
Resolution: 640x480
Profile: Baseline - Level 3.0
Audio codec: AAC (Nero encoder)
Bitrate: 96 Kbps
Profile: LC-AAC (make sure you use this, most players can't play HE-AAC yet, e.g. Apple can only do it since iTunes v9, iPhone OS 3.1 and the iPods of fall 2009)
As I said: smooth playback, small filesize and good quality...
Sometimes I have a file which doesn't play really smooth, but lowering the bitrate to 200 Kbps usually fixes that. That is also usually the bitrate I choose for video if I have a really large file and/or want to be sure the file (e.g. film) plays smooth. In my experience lowering the resolution helps a bit on smooth playback, but doesn't really help much. The only reason I use a lower resolution is because I like [email protected] Kbps better than [email protected] Kbps (200 Kbps differs a bit from case to case). Remember: the bitrate gets "divided" over all the pixels so more pixels => less bits per pixel. The only reason to use a higher resolution is because it's sharper but you don't usually see that on such a small screen and low bitrate.
Another thing: I really recommend using x.264 as an encoder rather than the nVidia CUDA encoder. Altough it is waaay faster it also produces worse quality results, especially at low bitrates. So if you have the time: use x.264. If you have the power and space: use the CUDA H.264 encoder.
What do you use?

try handbrake... its free

Pacman15 said:
try handbrake... its free
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, that doesn't sound very good to me...
AVI: AVI is a rough beast. It is obsolete. It does not support modern container features like chapters, muxed-in subtitles, variable framerate video, or out of order frame display. Furthermore, HandBrake's AVI muxer is vanilla AVI 1.0 that doesn't even support large files. The code has not been actively maintained since 2005. Keeping it in the library while implementing new features means a very convoluted data pipeline, full of conditionals that make the code more difficult to read and maintain, and make output harder to predict. As such, it is now gone. It is not coming back, and good riddance.
OGG/OGM: HandBrake's OGM muxer is just as out of date. It hasn't been actively maintained in years either, and it too lacks support for HandBrake's best features. ... This one is not coming back either. ...
XviD: HandBrake, these days, is almost entirely about H.264 video,... Meanwhile, XviD's build system causes grief...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, avi I can understand. Anyone who combines AVI with H.264 is just being stupid. But OGM? Xvid? Sound to me more like: we were to lazy to update our requirements and now they're out of date and awfull so we're just removing them...
Removing Vorbis and Xvid from your encoder... Whut?

CM6 Video Frame Rates?

Anyone know what the frame rates are for the various video quality settings for CyanogenMod-6.0.0.0-N1
High (30m) - 720p - MPEG4
Low (30m) QCIF - H263 (I'm guessing 480P?)
MMS (Low, 30s)
YouTube (High, 15m)
Custom

elusivepeanut said:
Anyone know what the frame rates are for the various video quality settings for CyanogenMod-6.0.0.0-N1
High (30m) - 720p - MPEG4
Low (30m) QCIF - H263 (I'm guessing 480P?)
MMS (Low, 30s)
YouTube (High, 15m)
Custom
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
720p is up to 27fps, 480p is up to 30fps.
Framerates are variable, if you wanted to check you can play the video in VLC or another more "advanced" player or video tool and bring up info to see what the fps is.

AFAIK, framerates are dependent on the ambient light conditions. The brighter the better. I've captured low-light videos @11fps... but in broad daylight, I have video recorded @26fps...

You guys rock. Thanks a bunch.

knightnz said:
720p is up to 27fps, 480p is up to 30fps.
Framerates are variable, if you wanted to check you can play the video in VLC or another more "advanced" player or video tool and bring up info to see what the fps is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, unfortunately frame rate and bit-rate are both variables, so the only constant is the resolution. Meaning that editing and re-compression/conversion are going to be a ***** to say the least. I really wish they would make the bit-rate be the only variable and leave the frame rate as a constant, but it is only a phone after all..

[Q] Best movie settings?

can you guys tell me some good settings to work on the nook? and what do you guys use to convert videos?
P.S. I have already seen the "Nook Color preset for Handbrake" and it said it would take over 4 hours to convert it!

EverythingNook said:
can you guys tell me some good settings to work on the nook? and what do you guys use to convert videos?
P.S. I have already seen the "Nook Color preset for Handbrake" and it said it would take over 4 hours to convert it!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Depending on resolution.
For low def videos on my OC kernel at 1.1Ghz, I can use moboplayer with software decoding without any issues with my AVI files.
(no need for conversion).
Not with 720p videos... They will need to be converted and using handbrake, I can achieve around real time or about 1.5x real time. (2 hr video will encode in about 1 1/2 hours) Just que them up and go to sleep.

hpark21 said:
Depending on resolution.
For low def videos on my OC kernel at 1.1Ghz, I can use moboplayer with software decoding without any issues with my AVI files.
(no need for conversion).
Not with 720p videos... They will need to be converted and using handbrake, I can achieve around real time or about 1.5x real time. (2 hr video will encode in about 1 1/2 hours) Just que them up and go to sleep.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for the info! so avi files dont need to be converted?

Encoding time depends on the source vs output somewhat, but normally it takes anywhere from 1/2 to 1:1 the time length of the video to encode, regardless of the encoding software (I've used Handbrake, DVD Catalyst 4, Videodub(mod), and a handful of others over the years).
My solution for this is just to batch queue a bunch of files to be re-encoded and do the encoding overnight when I'm sleeping
My settings (for any encoder, but I'll put them in order for Handbrake here):
Container: MP4 file, Ipod 5G support
Picture:
1. If source > 854x480 then set Width: 854, Anamorphic: Loose, Modulus: 16.
2. If source < 854x480 and the bitrate of the original file is high, can upvert to higher res, otherwise same settings.
3. If source< 854x480 and the bitrate of the original file is low, encode at the original resolution with the same settings as 1.
Video Filters: None
Video Codec: H.264
Framerate: Generally same as source, if you have issues force to 24 (or 23.976)
Regarding 1-pass vs 2-pass encoding, see below
Quality/Bitrates:
(Here's the tricky part for quality issues)
For high-action lots of changes animation / non-animated video I prefer:
1. - average bitrate of 1500 kbps
a) 2-pass encoding if I'm concerned about overall quality (I usually batch jobs overnight when I'm sleeping). *Caveat: This will increase encoding time to ~2x versus ~1:1*
b) 1-pass encoding if I'm in a hurry, it's good enough for many videos
For things that don't require a lot of movement and have large areas of flat color, like say, South Park*:
2. - (constant) RF:20 resulting in 1/2 the file size of the bitrate used in 1.
**** Out of all the parts of encoding a video, this is your most subjective part. If you want to find a sweet spot for yourself I would suggest setting the encoder to encode a small section of a sample video and play around with these settings to find what you like best. This is what works best for me ****
Caveat: RF:0 (lossless H.264) videos will not work on your Nook Color without resorting to software decoding, which currently does not work anywhere near as well or smoothly as hardware decoding. You will most likely get video stutter, audio desync, and other issues (plus the default movies android player won't play them at all.)
Audio:
- Source: Choose your desired (language) track.
- Audio codec: AAC encoding
- Mixdown: Stereo or your choice. Dolby Pro Logic II works fine on the Nook as well.
- Samplerate: Downsample the usual 48k to 44.1. 48k with high bitrates can cause issues on NC.
- Bitrate: 128 if you want to save space, 160 otherwise.
- DRC: 0
Subtitles:
- If you don't watch foreign language (that you don't speak) videos, you don't need to be concerned with this section.
In-depth explanation of subtitling in Handbrake: https://trac.handbrake.fr/wiki/Subtitles
1. Select the correct subtitle track, if it's included in the original file.
1a. If not, find and select the subtitle file (usually a .srt) to include as a track. Make sure this SRT is actually meant for the (original) video that you are encoding, or you will have desync issues with audio / video
2. The default video player in CM7 doesn't seem to support soft subs, and many players do not (Mobo is one that does but only for selective formats). If you find one that does and care about soft (can be turned on and off) subbing, then ignore 2a.
2a. Burned In is checked on. This hard-writes the subtitles track onto the actual images so they become part of the video. This means you cannot turn them off. This might be an issue if you decide to watch the video on a larger screen, e.g., 1080p tv (jagged edges from being upverted) , but why you would want to watch a low res non-HD video encoded for the Nook on there is beyond me
Forced Only and Default are not checked.
2b. If soft subbing, don't enable Burned In. Regarding Forced Only see the Handbrake guide linked above.
3. Handbrake specific: Click on Add to make sure it's actually added as a track to your encoding.
Chapters:
If you want to be able to move around your video the way you can on a regular DVD (divided into sections that you can >> to rather than manually dragging the bar), you can enable chapter markers. This may or may not be supported on your choice of video app for Android. What this also does is force the extension (.xyz) to change from .mp4 to m4v, which (in short) is the correct nomenclature anyway but we're used to the .mp4 extension thanks to Apple.
If your player is having issues with the m4v extension, keep Chapter Markers unchecked (also make sure that Handbrake is set to name the file as .mp4).
Advanced: (Handbrake) Leave as is.
Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions
* - I am not in any way endorsing the copying or re-encoding of copyrighted materials, even for personal use.

EverythingNook said:
thanks for the info! so avi files dont need to be converted?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It depends on the AVI file. If the bitrate is too high or the resolution is above the maximum that the Nook supports (854x480), or both, your video app may attempt to play it in software decoding mode, which at the moment isn't very good.

angomy said:
Encoding time depends on the source vs output somewhat, but normally it takes anywhere from 1/2 to 1:1 the time length of the video to encode, regardless of the encoding software (I've used Handbrake, DVD Catalyst 4, Videodub(mod), and a handful of others over the years).
My solution for this is just to batch queue a bunch of files to be re-encoded and do the encoding overnight when I'm sleeping
My settings (for any encoder, but I'll put them in order for Handbrake here):
Container: MP4 file, Ipod 5G support
Picture:
1. If source > 854x480 then set Width: 854, Anamorphic: Loose, Modulus: 16.
2. If source < 854x480 and the bitrate of the original file is high, can upvert to higher res, otherwise same settings.
3. If source< 854x480 and the bitrate of the original file is low, encode at the original resolution with the same settings as 1.
Video Filters: None
Video Codec: H.264
Framerate: Generally same as source, if you have issues force to 24 (or 23.976)
Regarding 1-pass vs 2-pass encoding, see below
Quality/Bitrates:
(Here's the tricky part for quality issues)
For high-action lots of changes animation / non-animated video I prefer:
1. - average bitrate of 1500 kbps
a) 2-pass encoding if I'm concerned about overall quality (I usually batch jobs overnight when I'm sleeping)
b) 1-pass encoding if I'm in a hurry, it's good enough for many videos
For things that don't require a lot of movement and have large areas of flat color, like say, South Park*:
2. - (constant) RF:20 resulting in 1/2 the file size of the bitrate used in 1.
**** Out of all the parts of encoding a video, this is your most subjective part. If you want to find a sweet spot for yourself I would suggest setting the encoder to encode a small section of a sample video and play around with these settings to find what you like best. This is what works best for me ****
Caveat: RF:0 (lossless H.264) videos will not work on your Nook Color without resorting to software decoding, which currently does not work anywhere near as well or smoothly as hardware decoding. You will most likely get video stutter, audio desync, and other issues (plus the default movies android player won't play them at all.)
Audio:
- Source: Choose your desired (language) track.
- Audio codec: AAC encoding
- Mixdown: Stereo or your choice. Dolby Pro Logic II works fine on the Nook as well.
- Samplerate: Downsample the usual 48k to 44.1. 48k with high bitrates can cause issues on NC.
- Bitrate: 128 if you want to save space, 160 otherwise.
- DRC: 0
Subtitles:
- If you don't watch foreign language (that you don't speak) videos, you don't need to be concerned with this section.
In-depth explanation of subtitling in Handbrake: https://trac.handbrake.fr/wiki/Subtitles
1. Select the correct subtitle track, if it's included in the original file.
1a. If not, find and select the subtitle file (usually a .srt) to include as a track. Make sure this SRT is actually meant for the (original) video that you are encoding, or you will have desync issues with audio / video
2. The default video player in CM7 doesn't seem to support soft subs, neither does either of my preferred video player apps (mobo and vitalplayer neon). If you find one that does and care about soft (can be turned on and off) subbing, then ignore 2a.
2a. Burned In is checked on. This hard-writes the subtitles track onto the actual images so they become part of the video. This means you cannot turn them off. This might be an issue if you decide to watch the video on a larger screen, e.g., 1080p tv (jagged edges from being upverted) , but why you would want to watch a low res non-HD video encoded for the Nook on there is beyond me
Forced Only and Default are not checked.
2b. If soft subbing, don't enable Burned In. Regarding Forced Only see the Handbrake guide linked above.
3. Handbrake specific: Click on Add to make sure it's actually added as a track to your encoding.
Chapters:
If you want to be able to move around your video the way you can on a regular DVD (divided into sections that you can >> to rather than manually dragging the bar), you can enable chapter markers. This may or may not be supported on your choice of video app for Android. What this also does is force the extension (.xyz) to change from .mp4 to m4v, which (in short) is the correct nomenclature anyway but we're used to the .mp4 extension thanks to Apple.
If your player is having issues with the m4v extension, keep Chapter Markers unchecked (also make sure that Handbrake is set to name the file as .mp4).
Advanced: (Handbrake) Leave as is.
Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions
* - I am not in any way endorsing the copying or re-encoding of copyrighted materials, even for personal use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wow man thanks for the amazing info, i will try these out!

To add to this, I'm watching a 1-pass, 1500 kbps average bitrate (44.1/AAC/160kbps audio) hard subbed movie at the moment and tbqh I'm not sure if it's even worth it to 2-pass encode --- if you're really anal about any artifacting you may want to 2-pass, but for me it's not worth the extra time to encode unless I'm batching up for the night. To give you an idea of the size/time ratio, one minute of encoded video with these settings is ~12MB/min.
25 min episode: 300MB
2 hour movie: 1.44GB
If this is unacceptably large, I would suggest trying RF:20 fixed bitrate (which is roughly 1/2 the size) to see if you don't mind the occasionally visible artifacting.
Also, Mobo player doesn't seem to want to expand the videos edge-to-edge, but VitalPlayer and the default movie player both do. Unless I'm doing something wrong with Mobo, which is a possibility since I use VitalPlayer Neon the most. <-- never mind, I had clicked something in Mobo that prevented it from doing so initially, but they actually do display edge-to-edge by default.

angomy said:
It depends on the AVI file. If the bitrate is too high or the resolution is above the maximum that the Nook supports (854x480), or both, your video app may attempt to play it in software decoding mode, which at the moment isn't very good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Using Moboplayer (free) software decoding, I have no issue watching 704x400 AVI(xvid with mp3 audio). No skipped frames. Total bitrate of 1.3mbits (including audio I believe).
Like I mentioned, I am using OC kernel at 1.1GHz though.

i used tool to converter my videos to mp4, h.264, 854*480 for playing on nook color, all are ok. i can play in full screen with high quality.
i also tried handbrake, and i think it is difficult to use, which takes me a lot of time to import my video.

[Q] LG P990 Video Problem

Hello Community,
so I gat the following problem:
The phone should show and record 1080p and 720p videos. No problem with recording, but I gat a problem with playing a video. Every 1280x720 / 1680x1050 / 1920x1080 video is constantly laggy, but the sound works perfect.
640x360 videos are working perfect, no matter what codec.
The sample videos in 1920x1080 are working perfect, so I think it's a problem with the codecs, but all videos are H264, so what's the problem here?
I hope you can help me!
Thanks,
Max
ps: found no topic about that thing, I hope it's not already existing!

I think tegra 2 doesn't support it (yet?)
Sent from my Optimus 2X using XDA Premium App

aren't they in mkv container? if that's the case, then it's normal... no mkv support yet

sorry but you both failed at my answer.
The LG P990 does support 1920x1080! As I mentioned above the sample videos are working perfectly, but other videos in 1920x1080 are laggy , even when it's the same codec, so what's the problem here?
what do you mean with mkv container?

For all who have the same problem:
I gat the answer now:
The H264 Profile of the video files must be baseline, otherwise your video will lag
You can convert to h264 baseline for example with the program SUPER
Regards,
Max

the problem is the encoding profiles used to create the videos you try to play
You dont mention where these videos come from or if you encoded them yourselves, but video are much more than just the codec.
When videos are encoded there are many different encoding settings that can be used, settings like bitrate, resolution, macroblocks, cabac, reference frames, b-frames, etc. etc. - for H264 these different settings is arranged into something called profiles and levels. Levels go from 1 up to 5.1 and profiles is called baseline, main and high
Each level and profile describe the set of encoding settings that can be used.
Read more details here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC
Different types of content for playback on different kinds of units allows different profiles and levels, like HDTV specifies a maximum profile level to be used and Bluray another maximum profile level to be used. The idea is then that manufacturers of Bluray hardware decoders design their hardware codecs to support up to the maximum profile level for Bluray (which is High L4.1)and the content creators can encode their Bluray videos to the same specifications and thereby ensure that the content can be played on Bluray players.
The Tegra2 chipset support recording and playback of content up to 1080p, but that is only a specification of the resolution - you also have to know which maximum profile levels of encoding specifications it support before you can encode video properly for the Tegra2 chipset. And since it isnt designed for Bluray but for mobile use, it doesnt support the same high encoding specifications as Bluray but only a lower profile level.
The maximum supported profile level for the Tegra2 is 1080p Baseline L4.0 or 720p Baseline L3.1
If you download pirated HD movies, then most of these are encoded with similar or even higher specifications as Bluray movies - these will not play on a Tegra2 chipset.
And if you encode yourself, then you have to ensure that the settings you choose in the encoding application does not exceed the specifications supported by the Tegra2 chipset.
In short - if you download movies you can never be sure it will play because you have no control of how it was encoded. If you want to make sure videos will play, you have to encode them yourself and make sure to use the correct settings.
The videos you have that doesnt play right, will have to be reencoded with correct settings to play.
Edit: I see you found an answer while I was writing this

thanks for the answer
just something to add: The baseline things just getting important when the resolution is higher than 640x480 , my LG P990 can display all videos with all codecs and baselines with 640x480 but 1920x1080 for example will lag So these films are not a problem, because mostly they are 640x480 for mobile phones and not higher, that your Card isn't full with 2 vids

so what program would be best to convert a video to, as stated above :-
The maximum supported profile level for the Tegra2 is 1080p Baseline L4.0 or 720p Baseline L3.1
I normally use Total video Converter but cant find any of the L4.0 ect setting on it.

Kickasskev said:
so what program would be best to convert a video to, as stated above :-
The maximum supported profile level for the Tegra2 is 1080p Baseline L4.0 or 720p Baseline L3.1
I normally use Total video Converter but cant find any of the L4.0 ect setting on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
going to bump this, would be awesome to know exactly what setting and a program to use.

Kickasskev said:
so what program would be best to convert a video to, as stated above :-
The maximum supported profile level for the Tegra2 is 1080p Baseline L4.0 or 720p Baseline L3.1
I normally use Total video Converter but cant find any of the L4.0 ect setting on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll bump again just in hope

[Q] Compress 720p video size

Hi! I did some video and I noticed that their size is excessive.
I recorded a video of 02 minutes and 52 seconds and its size is 200MB!!! I don't think it's normal but, anyway, I was looking for a method/software that is able to compress the size but keeping quality on pc. Have you one to suggest? Thanks in advance.

Well one idea is that you can go to /etc/media_profiles.xml and edit the "bitRate" line under the 720p encoder section and reduce it. This will reduce both the quality and size of the video while recording.
If you want to compress a video on your computer, use something like AutoX264. It uses the x264 codec like your phone, which is currently the best video codec (x265/HVEC out next year), and is easy to use.

AutoX264 give me an error with all codecs (ffmpeg, mencoder ecc..) it seems that it cannot retrieve video's filesize information. Is there a software less complicated and more "auto"?