[Touch Pro, Fuze General] fatheadpi:
NOTE: USE OF THIS THREAD AND INFO ASSUMES YOU HAVE LEGAL AUTHORITY TO USE / ENCODE ALL SOURCE MATERIALS. I AM A US CITIZEN AND A SOLDIER, AND HENCE FALL UNDER JURISDICTION OF MANY ORGANIZATIONS, TO INCLUDE THE FEDERAL CENSORSHIP CLUB (FCC) AND THE DOUCHEBAGS MOLESTING CONSUMERS ACT. NO QUESTIONS WILL BE FIELDED REGARDING RIPPING, DOWNLOADING, OR PIRATING OF SOURCE MEDIA, REGARDLESS OF THE INQUIRER'S NATIONALITY. - Fathead, P.I.

This thread will be about video encoding, with the end product being the Raphael. My current Device, Radio and ROM are in my sig and updated for reference.

The premise of this guide: Using freely available (NON-WAREZ) CODEC and software, the user will be able to create video with audio playable on a HTC Touch Pro. The video will be of a watchable quality and small in file size.

Some of you may be familiar with my work on SEGA Dreamcast with GypPlay, DC-Divx, DC-VCD standard, and XDP (X-Rips, Inc. Dreampassport, English translation of DP 2 and above)

- Fathead, P.I.

----- START OF THEOREY -----

If you're like me, the first thing you asked yourself after buying your Fuse was "HOLY ****! I can run 4x the storage on this thing that my old Wizard could!" Yes, 16 GB of Micro-SD goodness is freakin' sweet. But how to use it? You can only listen to so much music per week, even with Napster To Go. You can only play so many games. (I'm further reduced due to lack of a usable joy pad for Pocket Nester.) Why not throw some movies on this joker?

----- VIDEO FORMAT -----

The first thing most people want to know is "What resolution and format should I use?" I am a longtime fan of Divx. I have used it to successfully create video content for low end devices, specifically the SEGA Dreamcast. Creating or downsampling content for a mobile phone gives us a considerable edge over bigger-screen counterparts. Before we jump into the configuration of settings and knob-dicking with software, let's figure out just what kind of video we want to produce.

FRAME RATE

Most content you find will come in one of 3 frame rates:

30 FPS (VHS / NTSC Broadcast / DVD / Blu-Ray(?) )

25 FPS (PAL)

23.976 FPS (Actual frame rate used to record cinema and produce much media)

The first thing you need to realize is that many things initially encoded in 30 FPS can be converted back to 23.976 FPS with no loss of fluidity or data. If your source is a webcam, skip the scaling to 23.976 and drop down to frame decimation. If your source is film, you're in luck. The other frames are just dummy frames that waste a little data. Deleting those frames frees up more video data to better express the picture information in the other 23.976 frames. This trick allows you to:

A. Use a lower bitrate (and hence smaller file) for the same picture OR

B. Get a better picture at the current bitrate

To figure out the frame rate, load up your file in V-Dub and go to File - File Information. The Data Rate box in the Video Stream area will tell you current bit rate, while frame size will give you resolution and frame rate. If you have a 23.976 FPS source, continue. If you have a 30 FPS source that you think should be 23.976 FPS (Film, etc) :

1. Load up the file in V-Dub.

2. Go to the Video drop down menu. Select Frame Rate (CTL+R is shortcut)

3. Change the Frame Rate on the source to 23.976 FPS.

If you continue to have audio sync issues with this method, leave the file at 30 FPS and continue.

Now we are going to look at frame decimation. Frame decimation drops every X frame while keeping the audio sync'd. The end result is a file X the frame rate of the source. While this is noticeable on large screens, on the Touch Pro / Diamond Screens (and probably even the HD), it shouldn't be an issue at all. You can play with this option. It is more noticeable on film, but I cannot see a difference at all on animated sources.

I use the decimate by 2 option in VDub. Video -> Frame Rate (CTL+R shortcut) and select Decimate video frame rate by 2. Our output video is now half the frame rate of our source. The end result is we can:

A. Get a better picture with the current video bit rate OR

B. Lower the video bit rate to get the same picture in a smaller size.

I use option B. Another big advantage here is that the device is trying to decode half the frames. A general rule about audio and video playback: The lower the bit rate you ask the device to handle, the less work it has to do to decode and display the video, and less battery power will be used.

RESOLUTION

Most content you will find is around 640 x 480. DVD sources usually come around 720x480. Blu-Ray would be above that, but possibly scaled down. We are going to watch this movie on a 3 inch screen. Guess what that means? If we never found a video about 320x240, or comparable widescreen resolution, It wouldn't matter. At all. Stepping up to 640x480 is just going to quadruple the amount of pixels we are trying to express on a limited budget.

A handy tool I use in V-Dub is the 2:1 reduction filter (high quality). To kick kit on, go to Video -> Filters (CTL+F). Click add, and it should be the first filter you can choose. This cuts your resolution by half. As a rule of thumb, If I've got a source that's around 640x480 (or 16:9 equiv) or higher, I hit it with the 2:1. You'll find oddball sources like 480 x 360, you can give it a shot, but it might not be worth it. Again, lower resolution means less pixels to express both in bit rate and in reproduction (playback).

Pausing here again, tired as hell.