Cartoons on Maemo 4

[Addison]

Okay this is for us Diablo users only, and as far as I know, this hasn't been talked about yet. :)

All of the DVD cartoons that I've been checking out at the library are 720x480.

For some reason, I'm a pixel purist, not sure why transcoding videos seems "dirty" to me.

Anyway, I'm wondering if there's anyone here with really good number theory that can figure out the best settings to reserve the original resolution for these cartoons using Handbrake or some other program.

I know such a resolution is pounding the tablet intensely hard so there has to be a few sacrifices made.

Just hoping that someone might offer the best solution on this.

So far, this is about as close as I can get for such a thing to still play using mplayer.

[Removed linked]

I would love to hear any feedback from you guys. :)

Thanks boys!

[Den in USA]

@addison, I use DVD Catalyst 3, set for Nokia N800, 400x240, 500Kbps, 1 pass, divx_mp3, framerate=30, volume=25. Just converted Toy Story.

[Addison]

Hiya Den! :)

Okay, I think you might have read my post wrong for some reason.

I'm talking about just cartoons here. Toy Story is CG Animation which is something completely different, well, at least in my opinion.

Your settings when compared to mine are extremely different.

Basically, the resolution for what I'm trying with cartoons is 3.6 times the clarity of how you're transcoding your videos.

Mplayer absolutely loves cartoons for some reason.

Because of this, they can be handled entirely different than other videos.

Download that sample video I posted and you will see the difference.

I'm just wondering if I've completely maxed out mplayers performance with the settings I'm using or if there's just a little bit more wiggly room to push it even further.

Cheers. :)

[Addison]

Ah nuts.

I just knew that I probably wasn't going to get any responses on this. :(

That would mean someone still needs to own a N8x0 and who also loves watching cartoons.

I wish I would have posted this 3 years ago, I think it would have gotten some good attention back in the day.

Anyway, here's another test video that I tried if anyone would like to check it out on their Diablo device.

[Removed Link]

You need to have full volume and it also runs a little chunky but, quite honestly, I think it looks really sexy on my older tablet and am very happy with the results so far.

I've got a new reason to enjoy my N800 for awhile longer. :)

[linuxeventually]

I'll give them a test.

But honestly I can never figure out what the right settings are so I can't really help you there. I transcoded something and thought it would play but it was dropping 95% of the frames even though the settings seemed correct for the device. Heh, sometimes my low-end cellphone plays videos better than my N810. It sure does music better than any of the media players that I've used on the device.

MPlayer is definitely the best media player to use, there is front-end for x86 called SMplayer and I use that a lot.

I'm pretty sure there have been a couple threads similar to this one but you are correct in that cartoons [can be] clearer than film and thus need to be treated accordingly. It can be a difference akin to a vector versus a raster image. Of course you must "HD"/DVD rips as source, if it's ripped from a VHS tape it won't make any difference.

[Addison]

I'll give them a test.

But honestly I can never figure out what the right settings are so I can't really help you there. I transcoded something and thought it would play but it was dropping 95% of the frames even though the settings seemed correct for the device. Heh, sometimes my low-end cellphone plays videos better than my N810. It sure does music better than any of the media players that I've used on the device.

MPlayer is definitely the best media player to use, there is front-end for x86 called SMplayer and I use that a lot.

I'm pretty sure there have been a couple threads similar to this one but you are correct in that cartoons [can be] clearer than film and thus need to be treated accordingly. It can be a difference akin to a vector versus a raster image. Of course you must "HD"/DVD rips as source, if it's ripped from a VHS tape it won't make any difference.

Yeah, Xmms is by far my most favorite app for my older tablet. I just found out that you can also use it for radio internet as well about three days ago.

And like Den had mentioned, he's transcoding his videos to 400x240, which most people have done in the past.

For me, I'm going all out and maxing it at 720x480. The difference is huge and I absolutely love the visuals this way.

But anyway, it kills the frame rate, but with cartoons, I don't know, it doesn't really bother me that much.

At least it's better than reading comic books on the tablet, that's for sure.

Thanks for the response Linux dude. I've missed seeing you around these parts. :)

[linuxeventually]

*bumpity bump*

Old Simpsons:
http://www.20id.org/uploads/users/431/files/%5Bsimpsons%5D%20Classic%20moment%20makeupgun.jpg
HD Simpsons:
http://www.highdefdiscnews.com/reviews/the_simpsons_movie/image3full.jpg
A comparable example would be Justice Friends animation (which I have only ever seen very very pixelated) versus Justice League animation which is clear.

Added to:
@ Addison
Hahaha. You have good taste in cartoons Addison :D

So at first I was thinking Red Planet (2000) but no. So what happens next?:p Something related to the Martian Manhunter?

The default osso media player spits out an error "Video resolution not supported". Had to use mplayer.

The scene where it's dark is too dark on the N810 screen, can't see the details that I am able to on my laptop's screen. Additionally the flash of light screen was a lot brighter than on my laptop's screen (both devices have their brightness levels set to max).

The latter is really strange I must say. But it seems to play fine with minimal [if any] choppiness. :D

It's too bad "things" >.> formatted for iCrap have too high of resolution for the N8X0 to handle.

Yeah like Dan mentioned it seems the rule is to transcode the video at half the native resolution of the device. :(
But good to know we can use 720x480. Still would like the full 800 but I guess that would require stretching.

Also both of these clips have similar start sequences. Coincidence? :rolleyes:

And yes nice to see you around these parts too! :)

[Addison]

Not to sound rude here or anything linux dude.

But were you drunk last night?

You usually don't write this poorly. *lol*

[crasbelize]

aura4you is my choice.....

it has a zoom feature that elimates the box on the left and right side off your converted video.

it cost a few bucks....sorry.

[Addison]

Okay. So far I am now able to get a 25% increase in frame rate since first posting this. :)

I think I might even be able to top it off with a 50% gain but Handbreak won't let me enter in a certain custom number that I need to do this.

What are some other good, free converters that I can try out?

[linuxeventually]

avidemux (http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux/download.html) (Linux, Win, OSX, BSD) GUI

SUPER (http://www.erightsoft.biz/GetFile.php?SUPERsetup.exe) (Win only) GUI

mencoder (http://videotranscoding.wikispaces.com/mencoder) (mplayer + ffmpeg tricky, tricky) CLI

Good luck.

P.S. Does writing scripts all night long count as drunk? ;)

[Addison]

Okay, here's my latest attempt.

Anyone that's still using an older N8x0 tablet, give this a look and tell me what you think.

The video holds quite well so I'm fairly sure that I'm not quite there in pushing mplayer to the absolute edge.

My main concern is for the video to not look grainy at all and I think I've avoided this quite well. :)

Anyway, here it is.
Doctor Strange (http://www.mediafire.com/?p8851il58z8zsoy)

I sure wish there was at least one other person who has the same interest here but my expectations were quite low to begin with. :)

Thanks for the links, linuxeventually. I couldn't quite figure them out but I'll try again in a few days and see if anything comes of it.

Cheers little men. :)

[silvermountain]

I like comics/manga/anime on my N810 but 95% of the time I don't do any or much fine-tuning of any settings :)

[Addison]

Okay, I'm still crunching some new numbers over here when I get the free time to do this.

I've been pumping huge numbers for the bit rate and it's still holding it's own to where I should keep pushing it further to see how far I can take it all.

The only real downside is that a show now clocks in just over a gig in memory with my settings. *lol*

I think I've got about 4 more test runs to where I'll know exactly how far I can take this little bugger. :)

[Addison]

Okay, I've got killer results so far.

Seriously, no older tablet users are interested in this?

[silvermountain]

I swear I often can't tell the difference between a movie I don't do anything with...and one I take through a converter to 'optimize' it.

If you got say a 4-5 min clip of a movie without anything done to it..and one with your settings I would LOVE to take a look and see if that could maybe open my eyes for what good conversion can do :)

[Addison]

Okay, Silver.

Try this video out and tell me what you think. See if you can't compared it with something you already have and tell me if you notice any differences in the clarity of it all.

I usually go into offline mode before playing a video but I'm not sure if that really matters or not.

Doctor Strange Final Test Video (http://www.mediafire.com/?vem15k3j31t7u9l)

Write back when you have the chance. :)

[Addison]

Okay. Last post then I'll let this thread fall over to it's death. :)

If anyone here enjoys the TV reality show Survivor, Total Drama Island is a fun cartoon season to watch and it encodes really, really nice at it's original 720x480 display. :)

Here's a preview.

Total Drama Island (http://www.mediafire.com/?fd2jsv9rjmalu1c)