Transcoding problems with DVDs
 

I have been trying to come up with a simple formula for converting DVDs to a format for my N800. Now before anyone tunes me out because these questions have been answered so many times before...Please be assured that I have read many of the posts and tried many of the solutions. I have, in the wings, N800 video Converter and nokia's converter.

I am using Handbrake because I like the feature set, I have Mplayer loaded on the IT. I have tried many combinations of settings on Handbrake including simply opening it and setting

Encoder:MP4 (And Xvid, and H.264)
Audio:Mp3 (128 kbps) (sample rates 44.1 or 48)
W/H 400x224
Avg Bitrate 1500 (and many others)
Video frame rate 23.976 (and Auto, and 25 and 30)

I have tried so many combinations that I am going nuts. My result is either

1) A video that plays as if it is being fast forwarded
2) A video that is nearly stuck, it will play a frame every few seconds and a blurp comes from the speakers.

I have also tried this on multiple PC's so it is not the PC...This leaves ME or the N800 as culprits.

Advice would be appreciated.

Re: Transcoding problems with DVDs
 

http://mediautils.garage.maemo.org

It's all set and ready to go for the tablet (you can actually up the bitrate and resolution a touch if you want), and it handles rips from VIDEO_TS just fine.

Re: Transcoding problems with DVDs
 

Actually I've been assembling a Windows XP box for some work on this and other things (I've been mired in Mac, Linux, and some Vista) but...

There's a Media Converter plugin that has a "check your local laws before using" caveat: Direct transfer of DVD to Internet Tablet friendly video. Untested by me, but looks interesting.

Where do you find such a gem?

http://code.google.com/p/tutorial2tablet/

Get it now before it gets hit with a C&D order.

Re: Transcoding problems with DVDs
 

And here's a video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu_moia-oVI

Re: Transcoding problems with DVDs
 

This post has instructions for using DVD Shrink, Handbrake, and Media Converter 2. I haven't tried it yet though.

Re: Transcoding problems with DVDs
 

I've had a lot of luck using Handbrake, by itself, with the following settings:

Format: MP4 file
Codecs: MPEG-4 Video/AAC Audio

Framerate: 23.976 (NTSC Film)
Encoder: FFmpeg
Average bitrate: 800

Picture Output: 400 x
Anamorphic: On
Keep Aspect Ratio: On
Crop: Auto
Denoise: Off
Detelecine: No
Deinterlace: Off

It seems to give me the best video quality, even in full screen, with the least amount of skips or stutters. When I encode a 4x3 source it's usually best to lower the output resolution even more (the 400 is the width, not the height, so the Nokia seems to choke a bit on scaling the full screen image down).

Recently I tried using the new OS X media converter on the files I've created using the above settings, but the quality of the output was horrible. The Handbrake files are a bit larger, but they look great, so I'm willing to sacrifice memory space for the better quality.

Good luck!

Robb

Re: Transcoding problems with DVDs
 

Thanks Thoughtfix you learn something new everyday.

Re: Transcoding problems with DVDs
 

I haven't used Handbrake, but typically when re-encoding a NTSC DVD you'd use a inverse telecine (IVTC) filter and 23.976fps (24000/1001), or a deinterlace filter and 29.97fps (30000/1001), depending on content. Films, animation, and many TV shows would get IVTCed, while pure video would get deinterlaced.

Mixed content is problematic, but smart IVTC and variable frame rates (VFR) can partially overcome that. But VFR is probably overkill for a quick and dirty N8X0 encode. ;)

Re: Transcoding problems with DVDs
 

Has anyone else tried the ITVC plugin yet? I'm having problems with Windows lately. Only Mac and Linux love me now.

Re: Transcoding problems with DVDs
 

I'll also be interested to know how the ITVC plugin works. I wasn't quite sure what the converter was/did when the General linked to it above, so I installed it. I only spent a minute or two with it, but it didn't seem to like VOB files. Will the plug in allow me to drop VOB files into the converter?

Also, I've just been using DVD43+DVD Shrink+ N800 Video Converter, and I've been generally happy with the result. So a question: should I not be happy with the result?

Re: Transcoding problems with DVDs
 

I used it last night, but have yet to check out the video size/quality and all that stuff. I had some initial setup issues with the thing not being able to figure out where my DVD was, but after a few file edits, it rocked straight on through.

On a side note, the Nokia Internet Tablet Video Converter, which I tried with the first version and then dumped completely, has come a long way. I'm impressed. I'll report more when I've checked out the file.

But it does indeed work. All you do (after installation) is launch ITVC and then open My Computer, and drag-n-drop the DVD into ITVC. A perl window pops up and you answer a few questions as to which parts fo the DVD you're wanting, and then boom. REAL easy.

Re: Transcoding problems with DVDs
 

Can you file a Bugzilla bug about this along with some details (source and maybe a sample of the original file)?

Re: Transcoding problems with DVDs
 

Just checked it out. From the original Gone in 60 Seconds DVD, I ended up with a ~650MB MP4, and unfortunately I have no idea how long it took it to rip+convert (I fell asleep last night).

Loaded onto my tablet, looks REAL good, playing with the default media player. No skips or stutters or anything at all, and the sound is crisp. I normally use Urho's media converter to convert AVIs, but this seems to be higher quality and better on-tablet performance. I'll try to compare the same video converted with both, but in the meantime, I'm a fan of this for DVD converting in one stop.

Re: Transcoding problems with DVDs
 

If you mean tablet-encode, it should handle VOB files - either with the appropriate `-m' option already - or with a small enhancement.

Re: Transcoding problems with DVDs
 

or do you mean the ITVC plugin that Thoughtfix mentioned? If so, it seems to want you to drag/drop your DVD drive icon and it works from there. I am guessing that it won't work just with the raw VOB file as the target.

Re: Transcoding problems with DVDs
 

Sorry about not responding to this sooner, Vbrilon. This thread kind of got away from me.

Regarding filing a bug on Bugzilla, I would be happy to do so, but I'm a bit hesitant for a couple of reasons:

1. Not having seen a lot of discussion about the output quality of the Internet Tablet Video Converter I'm not sure if what I'm seeing is common performance or if I'm actually witnessing a bug. Basically, about once every second, the image has a subtle blur as if the file is going out of focus for a moment. It's pretty subtle and not noticeable in fast cut scenes or in things in motion, but when there is a static image or long shot, you can see it.

At first I thought it was an effect caused by dropping frames, so I bumped the quality up to Best to keep it at 30 fps. It seems to help, but I can still see the "blips."

I'm sure most people wouldn't have an issue with it, but I'm pretty sensitive to light and that pulsating, regular glitch is really bothersome.

2. My ISP doesn't give me much online space to post a sample movie. I'll try to get some screen grabs to illustrate the problem and report back.

Is this glitching I'm seeing common? For what it's worth, I only see it with files I convert using the Internet Tablet Video Converter. The steady glitching is visible on my computer using Quicktime and on the Nokia n800 using the Media Player. I've tried several "sources" of files, including DVDs I've ripped using the settings I posted earlier in this thread and files I've downloaded from the internet.

Robb

Re: Transcoding problems with DVDs
 

I took a couple of screenshots from an internet video to illustrate what I'm seeing. The quality of the video isn't the greatest to start with, but you should still be able to see what I'm talking about.

The first image is "normal" quality.
http://home.earthlink.net/~robbneu/images/image1.JPEG

The second image, a frame or two later, shows the glitch that I'm talking about:
http://home.earthlink.net/~robbneu/images/image2.JPEG

It seems to repeat every second, on the second.

Is this normal? Or, should I report this as a bug?

Re: Transcoding problems with DVDs
 

It probably repeats every second or so because that's the keyframe interval. A keyframe (also called a I-frame) is similar to a standalone JPEG image, it doesn't depend on other frames.

So, you're seeing crisp and clear keyframes followed by progressively blurrier predicted frames, until you get to a new keyframe, and then it starts again. Boosting the quality of the predicted frames is probably what needs to be done.

Re: Transcoding problems with DVDs
 

Well, not exactly. I may not have described the issue very well. The image is fine for 29 frames, then on the 30th frame (or 1st) it glitches out. So, every second, you get the quality shown in my second image above, and the other 29 frames are the quality of the top image. The timing of these single frame quality dips is consistent, so every second, on the second, it blurs as shown in the example frame.

Unfortunately, there's no way to increase the quality of the frames using the Internet Tablet Video Converter. This is already set at "best" quality.

Re: Transcoding problems with DVDs
 

As Ace said, it definitely sounds like a keyframe issue. I am not sure what we can do about this if you're already using the "best" quality. On OS X we're relying on the underlying QT codecs to manage this kind of stuff, whereas on Windows we actually ship very high quality commercial codecs that seems to be better quality wise for certain types of videos.

I think you definitely have a more sensitive eye for this than most people (and I mean that as a compliment). Would it be possible for you to try the Windows version of ITVC and see if the results are better to your eyes? Also, can you reproduce this problem with all types of video sources (i.e., high quality and with different codecs)?

Re: Transcoding problems with DVDs
 

QuickTime's mpeg4 encoding pretty much sucks, unfortunately. The biggest problem I've always had with QuickTime Pro exporting is keyframing, the defaults always give you the pulsing picture quality. You might try extending the keyframe interval a bit to see if that helps (as that made the pulsing go away for me, at least until I moved to mencoder ;)).

Re: Transcoding problems with DVDs
 

Hehehe. Thanks! As I said, I have a sensitivity to flashing lights and such, so it stuck out for me.

I've tried a number of different files, ranging from DVDs that I ripped using Handbrake and movie files I downloaded off the 'net, and I seem to get the same results (one "off" frame every second) regardless of the file type (mp4 vs mov). I haven't done much with AVI files, so that's worth checking.

I can probably give the Windows version a go on my office PC, but that might not happen for a while, as I'm away from my office a good chunk of time. Still, when I have a chance, I'll try it and report back.

Sorry about the thread-jacking! That wasn't my intent at all! :o

Re: Transcoding problems with DVDs
 

Yeah that does suck and unfortunately I am not quite sure what we can do about it :/

You *do* know that with a small amount of perl, java, or python, it's fairly trivial to write a plug-in for ITVC that will let it use an external encoder, right? :)

Re: Transcoding problems with DVDs
 

No, not particularly, but Jaffa already wrote that code for me. :p

Talk somebody else into making the awesome mencoder plugin! :D

Re: Transcoding problems with DVDs
 

I've got a prototype thingy around tablet-encode which acts as an encoder for ITVC - wasn't sure how valuable it really was, but might look at it again; especially if QT's mpeg4 encoding is crap.

Re: Transcoding problems with DVDs
 

Well, all of QuickTime isn't crap, just its mpeg4 encoder (for instance, h.264 encoding fine and it does fine at playback). ;)

Re: Transcoding problems with DVDs
 

Indeed, I was being lazy and slack with my language. Edited post to clarify :-)