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Newb question: Best video decoding settings.

Im going to try and make this short.
I realize this may not be the best place to ask but i know you guys are the best to ask.
What are the best 1) resolution 2) bit rate 3) quality settings for encoding video for the gtab that give you a nice picture and dont break the ram bank.
At 768x450 2000bits/sec My test movie is 1.3gb. At the native 1024x600 the file size hits in the 1.7gb neighborhood (nice looking but probably not feasible unless i am only going to put one or two movies on here at a time...would like to do 5 or 6)
I tried it at 512/300 (50% of the native resolution) and a bit rate of 800bps and did manage to get the file at around 500mbs but the quality was just sub par for my tastes (fuzzy VISIBLY jerky).
Rather than me testing for days and days..i was wondering what settings you guys had set on (and why).
Thanks!
Allen
Edit: The H.264mp4 format was causing artifacting that i couldnt fix at any setting..
Right now i am using .mp4 at 768x450 (or a 75% scale of the native resolution) and a bit rate of 1,500 with the sound set at DVD quality (which actually does help since i use blue tooth head phones). File size still just at 1gb (that maybe about the smallest i can do with the quality i like). Even at that setting...its still a tad jerky. What should i try? Lowering the resolution and upping the bit rate a tad more???
Still wanting to know if any of you guys have a magic setting for me!
The good news here is that i am not loading my up memory with mp3/songs (have an iphone for that) using pandora radio instead. Regular apps dont take up too much room so i figure i probably have around 10G to play with for video. (when vegan gets the SD card utilizatin fixed ill have another 8G on top of that).

Bump:
Still looking for settings suggestions.

I am using 720X480 @ 1,500kbs in MP4. This gets me ~1.2gb files. It is the actual resolution of a DVD, which is where my material is sourced. This lets the display device do the scaling, rather than the encoding process.

Robert Duncan said:
I am using 720X480 @ 1,500kbs in MP4. This gets me ~1.2gb files. It is the actual resolution of a DVD, which is where my material is sourced. This lets the display device do the scaling, rather than the encoding process.
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Duh that makes total sense!
Testing now.
Any ideas what the "video quality output settins are". 1 is best, 32 is worse. 26 is recommended.
I dont have much to go on. I see the recommended settings for an ipad are 1335 bit rate and a quality setting of 24.
UPdate: When i did a test run with higher settings i noticed the video would lag every three or four seconds. I concluded that the settings were too high for the hardware to handle. Likewise when i set them too low..it was jerky, and i concluded the bit rate was too low for smooth frame rates.
At 720x480 1500Bits (and a "quality setting of 24"). The lag is MUCH better, but it still lags about every 20 seconds or so (very briefly). I will test at 1400bits/26q and see what happens.
Jeeze! A lot of work.... its too bad someone hadnt already figured all this out and just given me the quick answer! lol
Thanks again for the answer!

You should be able to play 1080 with no lag?
Sent from my V9 using XDA App

You may want to grab a program called Mediainfo. This program analyzes the video file and tells you what profile was used, video and audio encoding stats. I was using this to make sure my source and output files were not using the "High" profile. I have some 1080 files re-encoded under the "Simple" profile and they look great with zero lag. I have re-encoded all my files with Handbrake and the all work without lag.
I used the info listed in roebeet's FAQ post: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=842899

daml said:
You should be able to play 1080 with no lag?
Sent from my V9 using XDA App
Click to expand...
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BUT why when the screen resolution is only 1024x600?
DONT need media info unless reatail dvds are encoded with more than one setting Are they?
I saw roebeets post about using the ipad settings but that makes no sense. THE ipad has a different resoultion and a less powerful processor.
I am getting lag at 720x450 1500bits but not at 720x450 1400 bits. Very interesting.

There's a new software wich can enhance the camera

In fact I'm not sure it is new, but I tried it and it works with our tabs.
The software name is "lgcamera" and it can replace the stock camera software.
I tried it yesterday and it is possible to record videos in 1024x600 using H.264 codec and MPEG4 format. It's also possible to chose the bitrate for the video and for the audio. The stock camera can only produce 720x480 videos so that's a nice enhancement. There's settings like sharpness that are not available in the stock app. I found the videos look slightly better with this proggy. Try it and come and report what you think.
You can find a free version on the market and it is fully functional.

Tried it and i got a bunch of FC of the app and at one point my tab froze. I removed it. Nice idea but it needs to be worked on.

adinis78 said:
Tried it and i got a bunch of FC of the app and at one point my tab froze. I removed it. Nice idea but it needs to be worked on.
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You're right, but I only got freeze when I tried to select wrong video size with wrong encoder types.
1024x600 using H.264 codec and MPEG4 format work well with no freeze and seems to be a real enhancement over what offer the stock app.
800x600 works well too.

Nice looking program but it crashed on me a minute into recording 1024x600 video. Not worth using if you can't depend on it to record when you really need to.

Working perfect on my latin tab
Sent from my GT-P1000L using Tapatalk

why didnt they just make it 1280x720, then id be happy

[SOLVED] Video performance issues

Am I being unrealistic in my expectations WRT playback of video on the Transformer? (NB After some of the replies below, I've added this comment to emphasise my point - I am NOT talking about high-def video here [e.g. 720p], just normal PAL or NTSC video taken from standard DVDs.)
I've ripped some DVDs using Handbrake on my Mac, using the default High Profile settings. The resulting h.264 files play smoothly and nicely on the Mac.
However, on the Transformer, the playback is juddery.
These are standard-resolution DVD rips, from TV shows and movies.
I wouldn't have been surprised for HD content to be a bit dodgy, but I was surprised not to be able to play SD content smoothly.
Has anyone else got good video playback (i.e. do I have a dodgy tablet) or is the Transformer with its Tegra 2 really not up to playing full-screen SD video?

Don't use high profile. Search before you post - there is many threads about video issues of Tegra2 devices here and in Xoom forum.

Why do people keep doing this, you have a Google tablet, Google this.
The Tegra 2 has a strange limitation, it doesn't play high profile. Before you make the mistake everyone else does, high profile is not a measure of quality, its the measure of compression. The bit rate is the quality.
Put it on high profile go to advanced, turn off 8x8 transform and Weighted P Frames and Subpixel ME to 6, use MP4.
Don't bother with other peoples presets, just use Moboplayer and you will be good with this setup.

Thanks
OK, thanks to you both for sorting me out with this. I did (contrary to appearances) try to find a thread on this topic but failed. Clearly I must brush up on my searching skills.

What about YouTube playback? Even this works terrible on my transformer. It keeps droping how of frames with latest firmware update.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk

ivan.volosyuk said:
What about YouTube playback? Even this works terrible on my transformer. It keeps droping how of frames with latest firmware update.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
there will be an update for this, also the browser player works fine for me.

Settings that work
OK. After some testing with the first chapter of the Matrix DVD (because I have it to hand and it's got some nice pans and action to check the juddering against), I have found that the following settings in Handbrake give me acceptable performance on my Transformer with the h.264 codec. This is standard-definition video, please note, NOT high-def.
Note that sorting this out is far from as simple as "Google it" because there are a great many mutually contradictory sets of advice out there!
I took the Normal profile, then went to the Advanced tab and disabled CABAC and set the max B frames to 0.
This was the least dramatic setting that gave smooth playback on my Transformer. So I guess I should repeat my original question - given that my tablet appears to require much lower video settings than generally advised AFAICS in order to get smooth video playback (it's hard to measure this but this is my preception), should I worry? Or is this pretty much what everyone finds with the Transformer?
(The easiest way to get smooth video seems to be just to switch to the MPEG-4 codec and to increase the quality to about 3 to compensate. However, this gives files that are 40-50% larger, so I wanted to avoid that if possible.)

I usually use Handbrake for everything but I was in a hurry so I tried Freemake Video Converter. I converted a few downloaded x264 MMA videos. It has built in settings for Android. I was surprised how well it looked.
I'll still probably go back to Handbrake as soon as I have time to setup and test various suggested settings listed here and some other forums.

FtL1776 said:
Why do people keep doing this, you have a Google tablet, Google this.
The Tegra 2 has a strange limitation, it doesn't play high profile. Before you make the mistake everyone else does, high profile is not a measure of quality, its the measure of compression. The bit rate is the quality.
Put it on high profile go to advanced, turn off 8x8 transform and Weighted P Frames and Subpixel ME to 6, use MP4.
Don't bother with other peoples presets, just use Moboplayer and you will be good with this setup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the info.
Are you using handbrake? If so, are you using constant quality, bitrate or target size for your encode?

The Tegra 2 supports 720p High Profile Hardware Decoding, but Honeycomb can't utilize it yet. 3.1 or something later should address this.

frosty5689 said:
The Tegra 2 supports 720p High Profile Hardware Decoding, but Honeycomb can't utilize it yet. 3.1 or something later should address this.
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Link please?

NOT about high-def content
Can I reiterate that my query is NOT about high-def content (e.g. 720p)? I'm talking here about being able to view simple SD content from a DVD I've bought, without juddering.
Can other folks view standard DVD rips on their Transformers using standard Handbrake settings, with no juddering during whole-screen update sections (e.g. pans or action sequences)?

I just used Adobe Media Encoder CS5 (part of the Creative Suite) to encode a file and it played flawlessly on my xformer. I used the Apple TV Preset as a base then modified the profile from main to baseline.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA Premium App

cd419 said:
I used the Apple TV Preset as a base then modified the profile from main to baseline.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could you share which modifications you made? As I don't have access to CS5, I'd need to reproduce the settings on my software.
Thanks!

there's a handbrake profile for video encoding for the transformer. search for it.

seshmaru:
Unless you know something is there then you don't know to search for it. Now I know, I have searched and found that what I posted above is basically the situation - no B frames, no CABAC.
That being said, all the discussion I have seen has been based on 720p content rather than standard def so it's not clear to a newcomer to video issues that tthe same restrictions necessarily apply.
Anyhow, that seems to be the answer so thanks to all for the help.

[Q] Best handbrake settings for Honeycomb 3.1?

I have a Handbrake profile saved from back in March. I found it from a YouTube video links section, where the author of the "how-to" video about re-encoding video for the best playback on the Xoom posted a link to a pretty good Handbrake preset for the Xoom.
I am just wondering... if video playback is now better in Honeycomb 3.1, if there would be a better setting (for better quality video) out there? Does anyone have a Handbrake preset that looks really good on the Xoom that is new for the 3.1 update?
The preset I have from March works well, and videos encoded using the preset play without stutter - but the quality is a bit blurry at times... which leads me to wonder if the Xoom couldn't handle higher quality video now.

I had lots of trouble finding the right combo with Handbrake. Videos would play fine but weren't very crisp.
Switched over to the latest version of an old app - DVD Fab. Works extremely well, videos are sharp and play buttery smooth.

JFMFT,
What setting are you currently using? I'm at work so cant check mine right now. I know whatever settings I was using seemed to work pretty well-will get back to you with specifics.

If you have a solid preset to tweak, then try using the "Constant Quality" setting under the "Video" tab:
Constant Quality - Handbrake
CRF Guide - Handbrake
Read the above links; they have great info. If you don't, then at least note that higher RF means lower quality (higher compression).
For me, a single Handbrake preset doesn't produce the results I want -- good quality balanced with decent file sizes -- across different kinds of video. Animation differs greatly from fast-paced action (frames, distinct lines/edges, blur, etc.), for example.
In Handbrake, I started with H264 baseline profile settings, then settled on some tweaks in the "Advanced" tab after some reading and experimentation:
Motorola Support FAQ: Motorola XOOM - Optimal video settings
HandBrake Docs (links to option descriptions): x264 Options - Handbrake
Now, I vary only the "Constant Quality" parameter between RF 19 and 25, depending on the type and quality of the source. It takes some trial and error, but I think it's a worthwhile effort. Working first with short samples (5-10 min) from the video source will help things move quicker, too.

Get RockPlayer, it literally plays everything.

Forget Handbrake / DVD Fab. Free vs Cost issue aside, DVD Catalyst 4 FTW!

Away from home currently, but I will check into my settings & report back soon.
Sent from my ThunderBolt using Tapatalk

http://www.opinionatedfool.com/2011/05/2-part-mini-series-part-2-what-can-i-do.html
Hit the link above there is a section provided Handbrake info and a download link to a working preset file. =)

jiwengang said:
http://www.opinionatedfool.com/2011/05/2-part-mini-series-part-2-what-can-i-do.html
Hit the link above there is a section provided Handbrake info and a download link to a working preset file. =)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Link doesn't work for me

kev0153 said:
Link doesn't work for me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://www.4shared.com/file/dCvb641f/Xoom.html?
try this one?

Here are my Handbrake settings for my Xoom.
I'm getting pretty good results in term of quality/size.
For the Picture settings, I'm changing the Anamorphic to None and setting the Width to 1280 (be sure to check the Keep Aspect ratio).
Maybe the Anamorphic could be changed to other, I didn't test to see the difference.
You can try setting Constant Quality or increase the Bitrate value (I'm using 1500 which seems to be enough)
Encoding is quite fast (depending of the PC of course)
Enjoy playing them with the default HC video player

JFMFT said:
I have a Handbrake profile saved from back in March. I found it from a YouTube video links section, where the author of the "how-to" video about re-encoding video for the best playback on the Xoom posted a link to a pretty good Handbrake preset for the Xoom.
I am just wondering... if video playback is now better in Honeycomb 3.1, if there would be a better setting (for better quality video) out there? Does anyone have a Handbrake preset that looks really good on the Xoom that is new for the 3.1 update?
The preset I have from March works well, and videos encoded using the preset play without stutter - but the quality is a bit blurry at times... which leads me to wonder if the Xoom couldn't handle higher quality video now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
"video playback is now better in Honeycomb 3.1" i agree. Honeycomb 3.1 improve the hardware capabilities, so video will play more smoothly. but for video conversion, you need to increase the bit rate. this is my own experience.

[TIPS]A/V out of sync when compressing 720p videos

I'm sure you noticed that when you record a 720p/1080p video with a smartphone, the bitrate will be pretty high, in the 10-15Mbps area.
This is not really necessary if you watch the videos just on your smartphone or on a limited size LCD TV, and you can just recompress it using x264 codec at about 2Mbps without severe quality loss (unless it's a sport video).
However you'll notice severe audio video out-of-sync issues if you compress both audio and video tracks and DON'T CHOOSE MP4 (which is the default container for the videos recorded by the smartphone) as default container for your x264 video.
Furthermore, if you want to compress and then JOIN different videos, you have to compress them one by one and THEN join them, otherwise you'll notice glitches in the playback.
I tried with mkv and avi but I kept having sync issues, so I thought that it was worth to share this tip.

SUPER @ video conversion program
Have you tried a video conversion program called SUPER @? Here's its link:
http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html
The program can be pretty intensive in terms of memory used but it usually does a great job for me and bitrates can be chosen for just any vid type you might want to save to. Usually, I turn off my internet connection prior to executing it (so it can't do an update check) and run it by itself.

Yep, I guess it's something similar to Wondershare Video Converter Ultimate, it's just that I prefer more control over encoding parameters (so I tend to use programs such as Avidemux)

flapane said:
Yep, I guess it's something similar to Wondershare Video Converter Ultimate, it's just that I prefer more control over encoding parameters (so I tend to use programs such as Avidemux)
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You've probably already thought of this but you can load your video in virtualdubmod and have it change framerate so video and audio match perfectly.
No re encoding needed and even on large files it takes less than a minute or two.
If you find virtualdubmod won't recognise the video you can download a suitable vfw codec and it should then.
Dave
( http://www.google.com/producer/editions/CAownKXmAQ/bigfatuniverse )
Sent from my LG P920 using Tapatalk 2

The problem is that vdubmod won't help, because framerate is not constant and it varies from some 19 to 30fps, at least on Vibrant.
In a lot of cases the fps number gets lost during encoding (and you'll obtain a video which has a constant framerate of 29.97fps), because softwares such as Avidemux doesn't have an option to leave the FPS untouched (or at least it seems that the fps number gets lost if you want to use MKV as container).

flapane said:
The problem is that vdubmod won't help, because framerate is not constant and it varies from some 19 to 30fps, at least on Vibrant.
In a lot of cases the fps number gets lost during encoding (and you'll obtain a video which has a constant framerate of 29.97fps), because softwares such as Avidemux doesn't have an option to leave the FPS untouched (or at least it seems that the fps number gets lost if you want to use MKV as container).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've used it in similar situations so it might be worth a try as it doesn't need a constant framerate, it looks at the audio length then adjusts video framerate to match.
If it is just a problem created while actually recording, ie if the video itself records at varying framerates it would suggest that it can't write to storage quick enough and is dropping frames.
In that case you would need to record in lower resolution or perhaps find a replacement camera application and see if that could fix your problem as sometimes default apps are not all that good.
It also makes a difference if you can close un needed background apps to free ram if low on memory. That can cause frames to drop as well.
Dave
( http://www.google.com/producer/editions/CAownKXmAQ/bigfatuniverse )
Sent from my LG P920 using Tapatalk 2

Actually it seems that the framerate is lower in case of dark scenes, which seems to be a behaviour found on other phones. I'm writing on the internal storage and I always kill everything before taking a video, so I gotta try another Camera app and see if anything changes.
I'll also take a look at that interesting vdubmod feature, I didn't know it.
Thanks.

flapane said:
Actually it seems that the framerate is lower in case of dark scenes, which seems to be a behaviour found on other phones. I'm writing on the internal storage and I always kill everything before taking a video, so I gotta try another Camera app and see if anything changes.
I'll also take a look at that interesting vdubmod feature, I didn't know it.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is there a setting where you can change encoding parameters of your x264 on your phone?
On a pc the codec has a feature that can compress more data per frame in darker areas, on a phone I don't know if that is active or not but might be worth checking. Sorry I couldn't help more but hope you find a solution.
Dave
( http://www.google.com/producer/editions/CAownKXmAQ/bigfatuniverse )
Sent from my LG P920 using Tapatalk 2