[cdkg]

I've been looking around but can't find much. Does anyone know what are the exact encoding specs for the storm: max bitrate, max fps, different kinds of containers, etc

Also, are there any suggested endoding specs that people have found work well?

[c4v3man]

I'm using videora (which is free) and converting some divx tv shows that used to work on my Q. I've made my own profile using the following settings:
Encoder 2 pass Generic FFMPEG VI
H.264 Baseline Level 3 (although 1.3 seems fine and I think may be faster to encode)
Mode: ABR 192 Kbps
Leave resolution settings on auto/original
Autoresize down to 480x360

Audio I'm using AAC-LC at 64kbps stereo

I end up with 80MB 42 minute tv episodes. Video quality is good but not quite as good as the video that comes on the storm. Increase the bitrate if you want better quality video, but I prefer to have alot of content vs great quality content. If the Babylon video is 100 percent, then my encodes come out at 80 percent or so. I also have the audio encoder increase the volume 20 percent, since I may be splitting the audio to two headsets.

Good luck, hope this helps.

[catstide]

look here
http://forums.crackberry.com/f86/bla...n-howto-99653/

[PvT]

*subscribed* (since there still is no subscribe feature via WAP) I convert lot's for my Bold. Hope to remember to get back to this thread with some usefull input next time

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[c4v3man]

look here
http://forums.crackberry.com/f86/bla...n-howto-99653/

Quite honestly, those settings he specifies would be better for playback on a tv, not a mobile device. A great waste of space in my opinion. It's a 3.25" screen, not a 65" plasma. Video bitrate shouldn't be more than 512Kbps in my opinion unless you plan on using the video files for display somewhere other than your storm.

EDIT: I also don't mean to say that he is an ***** or that I am some sort of expert. I have been encoding on a computer since way back when I used to backup my dvd's to divx on a pentium II. I've also gone through dvd to VCD, DVD to SVCD, and multimedia streaming to dozens of in-lab pc's using windows media encoder. Personally I don't spend much time on it anymore, as I simply don't care enough to spend 5 hours looking for a specific tweak to make it work slightly better during fast motion, or slightly smaller by clipping the edges of the video. I figure someone else will do that later. Until then, my settings work fine, and I'm sure the other posters settings work fine as well, just inefficient as I said earlier.

[cdkg]

Thanks for your help guys. Crackberry RULES!

[vro]

c4v3man,
I don't know why you're hating on pastorhudson's settings, but clearly you are.

Just to be clear - those setting are not for a 65" TV - they are for the best quality playback on the BB.

Maybe it's just me, but since I spent the money on a device with a terrific screen, why should I watch crappy video on it? And make no mistake, 192Kbps encoding would give you crappy video quality. HOWEVER, if video quality isn't important to you and you're just looking for the bare minimum, the above settings are fine I guess.

If on the other hand you are looking for good video to go along with your gorgeous screen, you want to use the settings provided by pastorhudson.

Better yet, try them both and see which you prefer. Personally, I was testing 1000Kbps encoding and I didn't like it - but I prefer quality to quantity.

Choose wisely!

-V

[buxleyp]

c4v3man,
I don't know why you're hating on pastorhudson's settings, but clearly you are.

pastorhudson's settings are a good start for people who can't get video encoding working, but once you get things working you can see what works best for yourself.

For example, I prefer h.264 vs mjpeg, which allows you to use a lower bitrate while maintaining high quality. I find a bitrate of ~600 using h.264 to be approximately equivalent to ~1000 using mjpeg. And I did do blind tests with my friends using diff bitrates and diff encoders.

Also, while pastorhudson recommends 24 fps, I use the full fps of my source, which is typically 29.97 (the Storm supports a full 30).

And "best quality for BB" is very subjective. If you truly wanted best quality, you clearly shouldn't use pastorhudson's settings, as you can do much better. Again, I don't believe anyone's hating on his settings (and he did everyone a huge favor for posting a very useful thread), but everyone has a different definition of "best."

[buxleyp]

As an addendum, different programs use different encoders. I found that handbrake's h.264 encoding produced consistently better results than Super.

[cuban_dudeca]

I use handbreak.

Format: mp4
Video Codec: H.264
Framerate: 25
Avg Bitrate: 1248
Output: 480x272

Audio:
Codec: AAC
Stereo
44.1 samplerate
54 bitrate

[BlondeBoyL]

Here is a screencap of the settings I use in handbrake. Take note of 3 very particular things...

1.) USE the MPEG-4 Codec and not H.264.

- There are 2 reasons for this... First, the video your ripping is going to be SD resolution or lower so there is no need for an HD codec like H.264. Second, H.264 takes longer to encode and is more processor intensive (from my experience - I run a dual core 2.2ghz Mac Book Pro with 4 GB of ram). Third you get bigger files with H.264.

2.) Make sure you turn on Deinterlacing
This is advised since you are not using this on a standard NTSC or another interlaced device. You dont have to do this but it never hurts to try to get the sharpest picture possible.

3.) Keep the aspect ratio - Make sure this is checked. Its kinda self explanatory. if its widescreen it stays that way, if its 4:3 it will also keep it that way. 4:3 looks bad when stretched to 16:9 (IMO)

Bonus Info - Use an AAC audio codec at 128k. You can mixdown to sure stereo but I usually leave it on dolby prologic II (Personal Preference)

With the settings I use, a movie thats an 1.5 hrs (90 mins) comes out right around 700MB and looks great on the storm but if you decide to watch it on the computer it still looks good in full screen.

Edit:
One other thing, these settings work on other BB's and the videos look great. I tested a video encoded this way on an 8820 and the playback and audio was great. Also using MPEG4 VS H.264 your videos can run on BB's that cant play H.264

[buxleyp]

Here is a screencap of the settings I use in handbrake. Take note of 3 very particular things...

BlondeBoyL, I agree with your 2nd and 3rd points, but the reason I like 264 over mjpeg is:

1. You can achieve the same quality with a lower bitrate; thus my 264 encodings are significantly smaller than the equivalent quality mjpeg. I find 264 to be equally good on SD and HD material (and most of my library is SD).

2. I agree that 264 takes longer to encode than mjpeg, especially 2-pass. For me, I queue up a few movies and let it run on a fast machine overnight. Doing de-interlacing also adds a bit of time, but I concur that if you're willing to spend the processor cycles, the results can be better.

One additional note is that I've read other BB's are limited to 24fps and can't do 264, but the Storm can play 30fps. If anyone's encoding for multiple devices, then stick with mjpeg and 24fps. If you're encoding for just the Storm, you can safely leave it at full 29.97 (for NTCS that is).

Off to superbowl. Go commercials!

[BlondeBoyL]

BlondeBoyL, I agree with your 2nd and 3rd points, but the reason I like 264 over mjpeg is:

1. You can achieve the same quality with a lower bitrate; thus my 264 encodings are significantly smaller than the equivalent quality mjpeg. I find 264 to be equally good on SD and HD material (and most of my library is SD).

2. I agree that 264 takes longer to encode than mjpeg, especially 2-pass. For me, I queue up a few movies and let it run on a fast machine overnight. Doing de-interlacing also adds a bit of time, but I concur that if you're willing to spend the processor cycles, the results can be better.

One additional note is that I've read other BB's are limited to 24fps and can't do 264, but the Storm can play 30fps. If anyone's encoding for multiple devices, then stick with mjpeg and 24fps. If you're encoding for just the Storm, you can safely leave it at full 29.97 (for NTCS that is).

Off to superbowl. Go commercials!

Nah, other BB's ive tested (The Curve and 8830 and 8820) all run fine at 29.97fps. As far as the codecs to each his own I guess, but for me encoding only takes about 25 - 45 mins (with deinterlacing on) depending on the length of the movie so I will take that over an overnight encode especially when I am loading up movies to travel with.

[vro]

I'm glad I took the time to post as these tips are quite helpful - I'm going to try Handbrake with the suggested settings tonight, thanks!

One issue I had encoding with Quicktime is when using the high quality settings as suggested, my videos to display a "jitter" about every second. It's faint, but it's there. At first I though it had to do with the Key Frame setting, but it happens when I set it manually or leave it on automatic - I have yet to set it to a very high number to see if the jitter takes longer to appear as I had already given up for the day.

Also, I have 3 portable media players with my 8900, Zune & iPhone. Of course, the iPhone plays everything, but interestingly, the Zune & 8900 display the "jitter" on the same videos. On content the 8900 doesn't display the video for (only plays audio, too high encoding I think) the Zune won't play at all. I'm looking for the ideal settings so I can encode once and play on all the devices... Only then will I have achieved my daughters goal of being able to watching Elmo's World on every device in the house - but hopefully not at the same time :-)

-V

**Update**

I don't think the Blackberry Curve 8900 supports h.264. Mpeg4 (ffmpeg) works - but when I encode the audio usually goes out of sync.

[BlondeBoyL]

What encode settings are you using? Are you using the encode settings that I have posted? Ive never had audio go out of sync. If so send me a PM and I will give you my e-mail address. I want you to send me a copy of what you encoded. You can use YouSendIt - Send large files - transfer delivery - FTP Replacement to send large files to me. Also I will encode one of my fav shows which is about 22 mins / an episode and send it over to you and I want you to test it on your bb.

I'm glad I took the time to post as these tips are quite helpful - I'm going to try Handbrake with the suggested settings tonight, thanks!

One issue I had encoding with Quicktime is when using the high quality settings as suggested, my videos to display a "jitter" about every second. It's faint, but it's there. At first I though it had to do with the Key Frame setting, but it happens when I set it manually or leave it on automatic - I have yet to set it to a very high number to see if the jitter takes longer to appear as I had already given up for the day.

Also, I have 3 portable media players with my 8900, Zune & iPhone. Of course, the iPhone plays everything, but interestingly, the Zune & 8900 display the "jitter" on the same videos. On content the 8900 doesn't display the video for (only plays audio, too high encoding I think) the Zune won't play at all. I'm looking for the ideal settings so I can encode once and play on all the devices... Only then will I have achieved my daughters goal of being able to watching Elmo's World on every device in the house - but hopefully not at the same time :-)

-V

**Update**

I don't think the Blackberry Curve 8900 supports h.264. Mpeg4 (ffmpeg) works - but when I encode the audio usually goes out of sync.

[vro]

BlondeBoy,
Thanks for the help - sorry for the delay in replying, life has gotten in the way of my video encoding.

So here's the deal, I think the 8900 is not at all as powerful as the Bold or Storm. I found a BB support doc that says it supports h.264 @ 24fps max 1500kbps - but *recommends* mp4 advanced simple @ 24fps.

You can check BB knowledge-base article KB05482.

That said, ignore what I said before. The "jitter" was a bad encode of my test source file.

Also complicating things is the fact that I'm cropping within Handbrake - whenever I do this the video always ends up corrupt and stop playing after a few seconds. I've been trying all kinds of settings within Handbrake to find something that will work - I made it up to test 12 before I gave up for the day.

I've been focusing on Handbrake because it's so fast and I can crop within it as my source files are HD but my daughter's shows are not.

Does anyone know if it's possible to add a new encoder to Handbrake? I'm starting to think that's the problem. Also, is anyone trying this on a Curve 8900 as again, it seems to be more finicky than the Bold or Storm.

Lastly, I'm on beta firmware .133.

-V

[BlondeBoyL]

BlondeBoy,
Thanks for the help - sorry for the delay in replying, life has gotten in the way of my video encoding.

So here's the deal, I think the 8900 is not at all as powerful as the Bold or Storm. I found a BB support doc that says it supports h.264 @ 24fps max 1500kbps - but *recommends* mp4 advanced simple @ 24fps.

You can check BB knowledge-base article KB05482.

That said, ignore what I said before. The "jitter" was a bad encode of my test source file.

Also complicating things is the fact that I'm cropping within Handbrake - whenever I do this the video always ends up corrupt and stop playing after a few seconds. I've been trying all kinds of settings within Handbrake to find something that will work - I made it up to test 12 before I gave up for the day.

I've been focusing on Handbrake because it's so fast and I can crop within it as my source files are HD but my daughter's shows are not.

Does anyone know if it's possible to add a new encoder to Handbrake? I'm starting to think that's the problem. Also, is anyone trying this on a Curve 8900 as again, it seems to be more finicky than the Bold or Storm.

Lastly, I'm on beta firmware .133.

-V

I dont think you can "add" a new codec to handbrake but I guess anything is possible. By the way I want you to download this video and play it

http://home.comcast.net/~jrfilmmaker...eves-paris.m4v

Its an episode of one of my fav shows that I encoded for my BB using my settings. It plays fine on the 8820 and my storm. I want you to try it on your BB's an let me know the end results. This will be a great test for that phone.

[BlondeBoyL]

VRO,

Did you test with the file I posted?

[vro]

This is my 3rd attempt at a reply as my other posts disappeared into cyberspace (note to self, copy before posting just in case!)...

In summary, your video was out of sync. I tested it on my PC to make sure it wasn't my 8900 and sure enough it was still out of sync. It's very hard to determine audio sync in your video as it's almost all voice over - but if you look carefully in the very beginning and very end, you'll notice it's off. The video playback was mostly smooth, with the occasional screen tear.

I've solved my problem by encoding with VisualHub on my Mac. It's fast, it crops correctly, the audio is in sync and best of all - the video doesn't crash!

I'm going to test a bit more and I'll post my settings when I think I've optimized them.

Thanks for your help.

-V

[XenIneX]

The BlackBerry.com support pages list the maximum as 480x360 at 30fps, with a peak bit rate of 2Mbit in either MPEG4 simple profile level 3, or H.264 baseband profile.
Specifics can be found in knowledge base document KB05482.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[vro]

That's right, but it's not recommended.

Recommended settings are 24fps mpeg4 - which leads me to believe the 8900 is just a little short on horsepower to play 30fps h.264.

-V

The BlackBerry.com support pages list the maximum as 480x360 at 30fps, with a peak bit rate of 2Mbit in either MPEG4 simple profile level 3, or H.264 baseband profile.
Specifics can be found in knowledge base document KB05482.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com