yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Eee Pad Transformer General] jjsoviet:
Well, Tegra 2 is actually old and was just released this generation of devices. The year 2010 was still not viable for people to use 720p HD MKV and MP4 formats, unlike today.

And tried using variable bitrate as well as using MKV container in Handbrake, so far no dice still in terms of some demanding movie scenes. Those stutter and lag by quite a degree, but everything else is smooth. Possibly, this should be fixed with a driver update or a new Honeycomb version.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] Digiguest:
You know....while I appreciate the guide that the OP created for us here....I just use handbrake and click on the HIGH PROFILE preset and have not had ANY problems with any videos on my Transformer....

Just saying.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] levenite:
Has anyone considered trying other codecs, in particular VC-1? The Tegra 2 can supposedly play high-profile VC-1. See http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1124681

The easiest way to test this would be to try to play a WMV9 videos.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] WheresWaldo:
I have mixed feelings about how this tread is turning out. A few pages back I was criticized for not believing the success stories and told there were 9 pages of success and I was the only complainer, now it seem that the ratio has done a 180° turn and unsuccessful playback is outnumbering the success stories.

I am still leery of the people claiming success as there usually is little or no detail about their source material. What I can say is that I am having a better time with animated source material (as expected) as opposed to live action source material. I have tweaked every single setting of the original profiles and have yet to produce what I consider one usable encode for the TF. The bit rate is too low or the bit rate is too high, or the audio plays fine while the video only displays a new frame every other second, I am seeing it all.

The more I play with the audio options the more I think it is just a poor implementation of whatever Android uses to demux the streams so that we can see and hear them. I have played some videos with very low audio bitrates and even those display just as much stuttering as high bitrate audio.

I would like to follow up on levenite's suggestion on trying another video codec, does anyone know if there are any non-commercial VC-1 encoders? From what I can tell MP4 as a container should be able to support MPEG-2 Part 2, MPEG-4 ASP, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, H.263, or VC-1 video formats as well as MPEG-2/4 (HE)-AAC, MPEG-1/2 Layers I, II, III (MP3), AC-3, Apple Lossless, ALS, SLS, Vorbis audio formats.

I have already tried Ogg Vorbis and can tell you it doesn't work, I also tried AAC-HE and it wouldn't play on the TF, maybe given some time tomorrow I should try AC-3 audio to see if it makes any difference.

Now I am off to find a VC-1 encoder.

Small Update: Microsoft has a VC-1 encoder but it doen't appear to be free although there is a 60 day trail version, now I just need to find my copy of Blade Runner on HD-DVD, I know that it is a VC-1 HD video stream!

2nd Update: It appears the free version of Microsoft Expression will only encode VC-1 in a windows media format, will now look at Super.

3rd Update (06/20): Super sucks for transcoding to VC-1! I was unable to get any of the clips to transcode, every one fails at the end of the conversion and it is SLOW. Also tried wmvmuxer and it would not even start any conversions, but I really didn't expect much from it since it is rather old and hasn't been updated in quite a few years. I am to the point of giving up on VC-1 encoding.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] drewgstevens:
In addition to the judder, I'm seeing a lot of macro blocking on my 1st BRD conversion using the 3.1 settings (default player and MoboPlayer). The same file plays back fine on my iPad. I hope there is a solution to 720p issues - the main reason I got this tablet was as a portable 720p playback device...
[Eee Pad Transformer General] junks2010:
Hi guys,

This is a little OT, but I don't know where to ask, so here it is.

I have a bunch of home videos recorded using a mini DVD camcorder. I extracted them to my PC in AVI format. I tried to use Handbrake to converted them to mp4 to save space.

I don't know what I did wrong but when I watch the converted mp4s, there are a lot of tearing around the edges of moving objects in the movies.

I used the Normal profile and High profile settings. Is there any settings that I need to set to eliminate these effects?

Thank you.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] WheresWaldo:
I am not sure how to do this in Handbrake as I am not a fan, but usually when I have a problem encode that displays color banding or macro blocking or tearing I usually just change one parameter and re-encode, and it is usually the Quality slider. It doesn't seem to matter which direction as long as there is some change. Maybe someone more adept with Handbrake can answer this directly.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] WheresWaldo:
I am starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel. I think I have come across a set of x264 encoder parameters that just aren't too bad to watch on the TF. Here is an anime episode in two parts, the total encode is about 343Mb and took just over 20 minutes to demux from BRD and encode @ 720p w/AAC-LC audio.

Clip removed - Part one

Clip removed - Part two

There are still some issues with the playback but it is mostly watchable. You can use something like YAMB to recombine the two parts back into a single MP4. Pay close attention to scenes at about 3:26, 5:02 and 11:20, what is evident is stuttering when panning. It also seems that the stuttering is worce when the scene pans vertically rather than horizontally.

I am particularly interested to see if anyone using the OC kernel has issues in the same spots. I am hoping that with the right parameters and just a bit of OC maybe we don't have to wait for Google/Asus/Nvidia to provide proper support for HD video like everyone else seems to already provide.

Right now I am finishing up an encode of Serenity direct from HD-DVD source to see if the same parameters will work on live action and CGI video. After that I will likely try to dig up an old DVD and encode it using the same parameters except without resizing. I am sure the low bit rate of the DVD source will likely not cause much of a problem for the TF, but you never know.

A side note, the IPS panel used by Asus is too cold with regard to color temp, While watching this episode on the TF and my calibrated Bravia simultaneously it was readily apparent that the TF color lacks saturation and there was a blue cast to the entire screen, we really need source so that one of the great devs can add Voodoo Color support to the TF kernel.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] levenite:
Nice work. If you are using Linux, I can give you some config files for Mediatomb so you can real-time stream your video. The best part is testing the x264 parameters since they can be simply changed in the profile. No waiting for encodes. It appears you have a fast system, but it must be able to encode faster than real time for this to work.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] leonpr:
Waldo ill try those vids tomorrow and get back to with results at 1ghz and then overclocked.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] Nascar Dog:
Interesting, I find my TF IPS screen color temp to be warmer than other devices.

I kinda like it that way.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] Freelancerx:
I consider myself a videophile, and the files i encoded with handbrake look and play great on my Tf (which i've returned and im waiting for an exchange) maybe you guys are just trying too hard for perfection....i use the profile listed here for the high settings and make sure to set the cropping to 0 on every side. plays great on my TF, but i suppose its all a matter of expectations, im not expecting to have a home theater experience on my tablet. if having movies play back as if you were watching them through a dedicated stand alone box is the most important thing for you then perhaps the TF is not the right product for you. count me in on the group that has his files play perfectly fine. sorry you guys are having such trouble with your devices.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] Nascar Dog:
I've been experimenting with RipBot264 version 1.16.5 and I kinda like the the results I am seeing.

I set it to use the video profile called [Base 3.0] iPOD, iPhone, Zune and the audio profile called 2.0 CT AAC-LC 128 kbps

Converted two movies from mkv to mp4 and they look pretty darn good.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] WheresWaldo:
Here is the Ripbot264 profile I am using, it is not perfect and still could use a tweak or two, it does use many of the things listed here and in the Iconia and Xoom forums. Just place the file in your Ripbot264/Profiles directory.

When doing encodes of 24 fps source and sizing down to 720p I usually get about 30-35 fps. TV episodes convert relatively quickly unless I have to use AnyDVD-HD first to rip it. My only linux boxes are 3 xbmc installations and my server running hw raid/MySQL.

Try the profile in this message and tell me what you think, I am using Base 3.1 instead of 3.0 as the bit rate is a bit higher.

Not looking for perfection, just want to be able to watch something without given myself and a nervous tic or migraine headache.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] jjsoviet:
Thanks Waldo. Anyway, can we adjust your custom settings, for example if we want better video quality for movies?
[Eee Pad Transformer General] junks2010:
I tried to set the quality slider to a very high value but I still get the tearing on moving objects. The AVIs play fine without any tearing.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] WheresWaldo:
By all means tweak away, I would just hope if you find something that works that you share it with us so we all benefit. I find the video quality pretty good if I start with good source material, but I am still blaming Google/Asus/Nvidia for poor support processing the audio streams.

I just watched my encode of Serenity (best space western ever made) and right away when the Universal logo appears at the start you can see the judder. I will try to upload a very small clip so you guys can see it.

Also some parameters not in the profiles that I use CQ=20, 2.0 AAC-LC 128 kbps, also remember to go to properties and select the HD-Ready 1280x720 size as well as setting the Denoise to the appropriate setting (Film/Anime). If you must have subtitles you can add them here as built into the picture as selectable ones won't display on the TF.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] WheresWaldo:
Switch to Ripbot264 it works better and faster than Handbrake.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] WheresWaldo:
Here is a clip of the first two minutes of Serenity, you will see all the judder as this clip is just one panning scene after another. I do believe the video quality is sufficient for the small screen on the Transformer. The clip is 60.6 Mb and here is the MediaInfo output:

General

Complete name : D:\Documents\My Dropbox\Public\Serenity_0_120.mp4

Format : MPEG-4

Format profile : Base Media

Codec ID : isom

File size : 60.7 MiB

Duration : 2mn 0s

Overall bit rate : 4 241 Kbps

Encoded date : UTC 2011-06-20 23:38:45

Tagged date : UTC 2011-06-20 23:38:45

Video

ID : 1

Format : AVC

Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec

Format profile : Baseline@L3.1

Format settings, CABAC : No

Format settings, ReFrames : 4 frames

Codec ID : avc1

Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding

Duration : 2mn 0s

Bit rate mode : Variable

Bit rate : 4 110 Kbps

Maximum bit rate : 13.4 Mbps

Width : 1 280 pixels

Height : 720 pixels

Display aspect ratio : 16:9

Frame rate mode : Constant

Frame rate : 23.976 fps

Color space : YUV

Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0

Bit depth : 8 bits

Scan type : Progressive

Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.186

Stream size : 58.8 MiB (97%)

Title : Serenity

Writing library : x264 core 114 r1924 08d04a4

Encoding settings : cabac=0 / ref=4 / deblock=1:-2:-1 / analyse=0x1:0 / me=hex / subme=7 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=0 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=0 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=12 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=0 / weightp=0 / keyint=240 / keyint_min=24 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=40 / rc=crf / mbtree=1 / crf=20.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / vbv_maxrate=10000 / vbv_bufsize=10000 / crf_max=0.0 / nal_hrd=none / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:0.00

Encoded date : UTC 2011-06-20 18:57:08

Tagged date : UTC 2011-06-20 23:38:45

Audio

ID : 2

Format : AAC

Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec

Format profile : LC

Codec ID : 40

Duration : 2mn 0s

Bit rate mode : Variable

Bit rate : 128 Kbps

Maximum bit rate : 135 Kbps

Channel(s) : 2 channels

Channel positions : Front: L R

Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz

Compression mode : Lossy

Stream size : 1.84 MiB (3%)

Language : English

Encoded date : UTC 2011-06-20 18:58:29

Tagged date : UTC 2011-06-20 23:38:45

Menu

00:00:00.000 : Living Weapon

Here is the file link: http://db.tt/KfqIk4h
[Eee Pad Transformer General] GetLaid:
Isn't this copyright infringement?
[Eee Pad Transformer General] WheresWaldo:
read up on Fair Use, after all we are testing here.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] levenite:
It seems you are back to Baseline Profile. Have you seen emote's settings? There is a thread in the xoom forums where he has encoded a high action clip from Avatar and he has found acceptable settings. I think since the decoding is hardware based some parameters are critical, especially things that have a count and force a lot of processing such as reference frames. There will also be some magic maximum bitrate that the chip can handle or too high a quality setting which will just stall the pipe. People have noticed that the TF can play very smoothly without sound. The problem is, with sound the framerate must keep sync with the sound, if it can't frame(s) might be dropped. Now don't forget this is at least partially a hardware pipeline so dropping a frame might involve re-initializing the entire pipeline -- a time consuming process. It should also be apparent that playback, in most cases, is not entirely hardware driven. According to the specs, the Tegra 2 can play baseline 1080p, so at least that much hardware support must be there. How can it play HP video? I would suppose the hardware present is used, but what can't be done in hardware is probably done in software. Notice its not like we extract and present an h264 stream for processing to a hardware only pipeline, because, if that were true, all identically clocked Tegra 2 chips would pretty much play identically, but we know that is not the case since HC 3.01, HC 3.1, the xoom and transformer are all factors in playback. Since software is involved, that is, time critical multiple process software, optimization is critical for good playback. My guess is the slight stuttering will be solved, but the huge stalling we notice is more a hardware limitation for certain levels of video we may want to watch. That does not say selecting certain parameters and limitations might not result in adequate quality playback. Good luck in finding them.:)

Its all speculation, but hey!

Some useful links:

emote's settings:

http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=14165599&postcount=87

x264 settings explained:

https://sites.google.com/site/linuxencoding/x264-ffmpeg-mapping
[Eee Pad Transformer General] WheresWaldo:
OK, so I created a RipBot264 profile that mimics the e.mote CLI settings as closely as possible I am in the process of re-encoding Serenity and I will let everyone know how it turns out and perhaps snip a clip from some panning scenes.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] tackyjan:
Handbrake User Presets File

Thanks buri73 for that nice tutorial! I will be sure and try it out soon!

In the meantime to make things easier on everyone I have created a Handbrake user preset file for both settings (one for 3.1 and one for 3.1 High Profile).

To use this preset, do the following:

1. Download the attachment from this post

2. Save the attachement to C:\Users\<YOUR USERNAME>\AppData\Roaming\HandBrake

3. Using your favorite zip utility extract user_presets.xml.zip

4. Confirm overwrite (backup your file if you have made any prior changes!)

5. Start Handbrake

6. Select the desired profile

Enjoy!

*Assuming Windows 7. Other versions of windows might use an alternative location. Please refer to the Handbrake documentation.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] AlexTheStampede:
I have a video that works perfectly. 720p, h264 AAC audio.... you might want to have a look at it http://dl.dropbox.com/u/420077/Bayonetta_TGSTrailer-HD720.mp4
[Eee Pad Transformer General] buri73:
Thanks for the zip file. It looks like the same presets I posted in the OP. You can just as easily import single settings and not lose your own presets via Handbrake GUI.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] buri73:
For those that are dead set on finding absolute smoothness, I would like to suggest setting your expectations bit lower. Current state of HC3.1 & lack of support from Nvidia, and I highly doubt Asus has any part of this as they are not modifying HC, playback is going to be what it is. It may improve over time with future updates as it has with 3.1, but do not expect a 720p+ with over 4Mbps bitrate and have all the options enabled to be played back smoothly. You will have to compromise quality if you want smooth playback.

Start by setting your average bit rate under 3000Kbps. Try constant bitrate instead of variable. Disable CABAC, Trellis, and set subme to under 5. Limit the number of RefFrame to under 3. Turn off 8x8 and P-Frames. If you have smooth playback at this point, start turning on options and/or raise the bitrate until you are satisfied with your quality. If you can not achieve your max smoothness even with minimum options, you can try lowering the resolution.

As for using other programs, it really is personal preference. Almost all encoders out there seems to be a frontend for x264. It differs on what options it will allow. I doubt it will make a whole lot of difference in encoding time given the same options. I picked Handbrake as it offered good enough encoding option set and was free. If you want/need more advanced encoder with all the x264 options, I suggest Megui.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] tackyjan:
Ah, well I tried. :) I didn't even notice you posted the presets in the OP! :( My bad.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] WheresWaldo:
Buri, I appreciated the input and work you have done on this as well as the work of e.mote and others, I agree that we are looking for a stopgap to provide smoother playback. I don't think anyone is looking for perfection, if we wanted that we would all be carrying around personal BR Players and read the source directly or find something to play 1:1 rips. But as I mentioned before, I want something that doesn't show obvious judder every time the camera pans in any direction. It's like those people that work in offices with fluorescent lighting that complain of headaches every day they are in the office because they are more sensitive to the flickering, that is how I and I am sure others feel if they have to sit through a 2 hour movie on a 3 hour flight and all they see is the juddering. I am not sure now, but I want to believe that is not too much to ask for and try to find. It could be very real that we need to wait for 3.2 or even Ice Cream Sandwich before we see real improvement, if that's true I really hope that the T2 is not abandoned in favor of the next big SOC that comes along.

I finished up the encode using e.mote's settings in RB264 and will test after I get done with my intervals this morning. It did result in a file that was 1Gb smaller that my first encode.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] jjsoviet:
Awaiting for your results, Waldo.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] leonpr:
Waldo I tested the videos you uploaded and ignoring the fact your watching the dubbed FMA (shudders) I can see what you are on about with the stuttering on vertial panning at stock.

It was smooth at 1.6Ghz (forced, not on-demand) but at 1Ghz I did see it.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] WheresWaldo:
My xbmc rip has both the Japanese and English audio and the English subtitles, This was just to make it easier on everyone here and since I don't think the TF supports multiple audio streams. Plus I would have had to burn in the subs, too much work for testing. Now off to do my intervals.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] deadman3000:
I do not have my TF to test any clips right now as it's in the Asus repair shop (blown left speaker). But I will gladly do some testing once it's back. I did have reasonable success using Plex to transcode from my PC on-the-fly. It was not 100% perfectly smooth but very close. Plex server uses ffmpeg to transcode. Does anyone know what ffmpeg transcodes to?
[Eee Pad Transformer General] levenite:
FFmpeg can transcode to many codecs/formats. I don't know what plex uses though, possibly mpeg2?
[Eee Pad Transformer General] jjsoviet:
Okay, got a RipBot version of Tangled (love the movie) and the playback is smooth!!!! I'll tweak some quality settings though so it would look better than the preset provided. overall, OMG this is awesome.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] buri73:
Your posted e.mote settings are much more realistic than your sample video. More inline with what I was suggesting. It should be a pretty good starting point for your goal.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] buri73:
Once you put it through a realtime streamer, comparison becomes moot. Streamer has to lower the quality/resolution of the media to fit(?) within the available wifi/3g bandwidth limitation. Resulting quality will be less than playing 3Mbps 720p directly.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] WheresWaldo:
Unfortunately e.motes settings make for a totally unwatchable experience. What he did was cherry pick a scene with a lot of elements (I don't believe this was intentional) that resulted in a much higher bit rate than flat scenes. What I am seeing is large areas of color banding and marco blocking wherever there are large sections of the screen in a uniform color. Also all shadow detail is gone, might as well have just replaced any dark section with black. It is not even a good starting point. The profile I posted is exactly the command line you would use if you didn't use the --preset parameter.

I wish a mod would sticky this as it is one of the better threads in this section and has a lot of helpful people participating in the discussion.
[Eee Pad Transformer General] jjsoviet:
I'd try your settings out on a bit. BTW, the lower the CQ the better, right?
[Eee Pad Transformer General] WheresWaldo:
Exactly

8 9 10
[Eee Pad Transformer General] buri73:
The posted preset has low quality settings. Resulting quality from that preset would be pretty low. Whether you are satisfied with the quality or not, if you have a smooth playback with that preset, that would be your starting point. Once you have achieved smoothness of your liking, only then start raising the quality to find where the ceiling is. You have a sample of juddering video, you can start from high and go lower in quality or vise versa. You will end up with maximum ceiling either way. I suspect the ceiling will differ from person to person. I was happy with results using the preset I provided. If you weren't satisfied with it, lowering the quality and/or resolution would be your only solution. If you must have 720p resolution, lower the quality, and if quality is more important, compromise the resolution. Of course you can always find a netbook/notebook also. :)

Lower the CQ, higher the bitrate is correct.