yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Xoom General] Dr.Preston:
And here are the samples I made. One is at 2200 kbps the other is at a constant quality setting of 20. If someone could try them on their Xooms that would be awesome. Maybe I have a defective device.

Sorry to make you use Rapidshare, I couldn't get the attachment uploader to work. It would just hang after uploading the files.

http://rapidshare.com/files/451985226/Toy_Story_samples.zip
[Xoom General] jumpinj:
Hmmm. I started off with the iPod Legacy preset, then modified the picture size. Looking at my advanced settings, I see it has "Reference Frames" set to 1, "Partition Type" set to "All", and the "Psychovisual Rate Distortion" all the way to the left.

Not sure what any of that really does, but you might give it a try.

I might try encoding something with a higher bitrate just to see how it turns out.
[Xoom General] el_bori1:
I'm gonna try it, I'll let you know.
[Xoom General] el_bori1:
It is slightly choppy in the beginning. Here is the .plist file I'm using. I got it from someone but I don't remember. All the videos that I have encode look great.
[Xoom General] Dr.Preston:
Grrr, even using the settings in that plist I'm still getting the slightly choppy playback. It's only noticeable when the camera is moving.
[Xoom General] Earthbrain:
If you still have to convert, why not just convert it to mpeg4 (.mp4) with 3,000 kbits rate? It looks blu-ray quality for me. I used either the program Ultra MKV Converter or Xilisoft Video Converter Ultimate.
[Xoom General] Blades:
I can playback main profile vids just fine.. level 3.1 mp4, aac audio. I can post up a batch file that I made.. it just requires dgnvindex.. I drop a mkv file and it re-encodes in about 14 minutes.. granted, I do have a 3.9 GHz amd hexacore.

The important thing is the cmd line for the 64-bit x264 enc binary I use.. I can post a short test video for those that would like to try it out... robot chicken ep anyone?
[Xoom General] Dr.Preston:
If you could post the script as well as an example video that would be fantastic.

I'm beginning to think maybe my Xoom is defective as the settings I'm using should play smooth on just about anything.
[Xoom General] mystified:
Here is a video I encoded this morning: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=MIX4IUTB

I used these settings in handbrake:

--quality 21 --encoder x264 --x264opts no-8x8dct:bframes=0:no-cabac:cqm=flat:weightp=0 --drc 2.0 --markers --format mp4 --maxWidth 1280

media player classic reports this as having a bitrate of 4000. It runs great on my xoom. There is no lag at all or frame drops using the stock movie player.

I have a few videos that have hit 8000kbps, and they run great too. I'm thinking about trying to get it up to 10k to see if the xoom can handle it or not.
[Xoom General] Dr.Preston:
I played back your video on my xoom. It looks like it's playing smooth, but there aren't very many pans or high motion camera movements in it, which is where I have been seeing most of the choppiness.

I remoted to my machine at home and got handbrake transcoding another video using your settings. Should be done by the time I get home.
[Xoom General] exstatica:
I recently encoded a handfull of movies for my Xoom, one being the new Tron Legacy movie.

I re-encoded a 1080p mkv file

these are the settings I used

Picture Settings:

Anamorphic: strict

Filters:

Decomb - default

Detelecine - default

Target size: 3900 (since the xoom can't handle files larger than 4gb)

Audio tab: remove all but one channel since you don't need multiple streams

Advanced:

Referenced Frames - Default (3)

Maximum B-Frames - 0

CABAC Entropy Coding: unchecked

8x8 transform: unchecked

weighted p-frames: unchecked

option string should be: 8x8dct=0:bframes=0:cabac=0:weightp=0

screenshots are...

http://img.exstatica.net/images/screenutu.png

http://img.exstatica.net/images/screenlsl.png

exported preset

http://www.exstatica.net/HB_Export.plist

If you use the exported hb settings make sure you still modify the picture settings as its not stored in the preset.
[Xoom General] CJNYC:
So I've been messing with this same issue since launch day and I had a revelation two days ago. I got out my iPad and played the same file but using the iPad preset in Handbrake for the encode, just like I have for the last year. The iPad had the same exact, imperfect, slight hitching in the playback of slow camera pans! I realized that because the picture on the XOOM is bigger, and I'm scrutinizing it like crazy with my face up against the screen, I'm noticing it more than I ever had before.

Conclusion: the iPad has almost the same exact video playback characteristics as the XOOM and it's probably not getting any better. I think a lot of it simply has to do with encoders compression capabilities and deficiencies, but I could be wrong.
[Xoom General] Dr.Preston:
Still no better with those exact encoding settings.

My device must be defective.
[Xoom General] xlGmanlx:
Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh you will awake the trolls ;)
[Xoom General] 64bit:
Handbrake preset export

Here is my current handbrake setup for encoding any HD movies for my Xoom.

I have encoded 10 full length movies and they all play fine... including ones with lots of light changes and fast action scenes. I notice no tearing or glitches.

Attached is the .plist preset. just rename it from xoom.plist.txt to xoom.plist and go to handbrake preset menu and import it.
[Xoom General] e.mote:
@OP

As a test, shut down any running service/apps and see if playback improves. If your device is defective, you'd get crashes rather than having things run slower. A slowed-down system is usually a software issue, and the most likely cause is that something is using up system resources.

You can also try dropping the quality setting (equiv to dropping the bitrate). The usual quality range is 19-25. x264 defaults to 23. HB defaults to 20, which is on the high side. After encoding hundreds of videos, I use a default of 21 for most content. Note that this is a floating number, so you can have, say, 20.5 or 21.67, etc.

Alternatively, you can drop the maximum resolution. Suggest a --maxWidth setting of 800 or 960. Baseline encoding is a temporary measure anyway until there is better driver support, so "good enough", rather than best-quality, would be more expedient. Aside from smaller file size, a smaller res also allows substantially faster encoding time.

About your preset: I'd remove the 'me=umh' and leave the encoder to use the default of 'me=hex'. This setting is usually used in so-called "HQ" presets, and is inconsistent with those requiring baseline profiles. Aside from longer encoding time, it incurs higher decoding complexity, and may contribute to your issue. More info about x264's motion-estimation (--me) setting here,

http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#me

This and other "advanced" options don't affect the quality of the video for const-quality encoding, but the bitrate. Since we're using baseline profile already, higher bitrate is a given, and this setting won't measurably change the equation.

In general, per Occam's Razor, suggest you stick with x264's defaults rather than HB's Apple presets. x264 has improved significantly over the years, and many of HB's presets are outdated, aside from that this isn't an Apple device (I'm assuming you have the latest HB version of 0.9.5). The only spec change should be for baseline, which is no-8x8dct:bframes=0:no-cabac:cqm=flat:weightp=0 .

These said, it's probably a system-specific issue you're facing, than an encoding issue.

@CJNYC

>slight hitching in the playback of slow camera pans

This is normal, and is caused by the uneven matching of film's 24 fps framerate to the LCD's 60MHz refresh rate. That's why people buy 120MHz or better HDTVs. (120/24 = even number).

This may also be caused by improper inverse telecining (IVTC). Handbrake's (and others) detection of telecining isn't foolproof, and some 30fps material may get chopped to 24fps anyway, causing "frame jumps" most noticeable during smooth pans. In 99% of the cases though, this is "operator error", i.e. users improperly setting fixed framerate rather than leaving the default of "same as source".
[Xoom General] CJNYC:
Thanks. I guess it's far less noticeable on the iPad due to the smaller image. Do you recommend setting detection of telecining manually in Handbrake?
[Xoom General] e.mote:
HB's auto-IVTC is sufficient for mainstream movies. I'd leave the --detelecine on by default.

It runs into trouble if the material has mixed (variable) frame rates, which occur on some TV-compilation DVDs and certain Asian DVDs, especially anime. Auto-IVTC doesn't work for these, and the practical solution for most is just to deinterlace and live with the 30fps rate.
[Xoom General] e.mote:
BTW, I've been made aware that these tech terms are gobbledygook for regular users, so below is a graphical illustration of inverse-telecine (IVTC) vs de-interlacing. Skip the technical mumbo-jumbo and just view the two pics at the bottom of the article. The left one is simple de-interlace. The right uses IVTC.

http://www.animemusicvideos.org/guides/avtech31/theory-videointerlace.html

The short of it is (for Handbrake) to enable both IVTC and deinterlace by default. HB is smart enough usually to use the right one. If you run into material that looks jumpy, especially in smooth panning scenes, then leave deinterlace on, but turn off IVTC (detelecine).

Edit: Er, correction.. --decomb and --detelecine should be enabled ONLY for DVD transcoding. If you're transcoding from, say, another video file that's already been encoded (i.e. already been deinterlaced or IVTC'ed), then leave them off. Having them on won't affect the quality, but they do slow the encoding process.
[Xoom General] CJNYC:
Thank you for the detailed explanation! The files I'm having the most trouble with are 720p60 x.264 files recorded from a high-def cable box through SageTV.
[Xoom General] Blades:
Heh, why are you guys using Handbrake? I can understand on a Mac.. but really.. its sub par. Especially those with nvidia cards and windows 7.

x264.nl, avisynth, and dgnvdec is all you need. With MeGUI being a great front end if you don't feel like gathering utilities and reading forums. Make sure to get MeGUI x64... 4K bitrate is also a bit much. You can go much lower than that..

How long does it take most of you to convert 720p - 45 mins long?
[Xoom General] fromdetroit7:
Encoding for mobile devices can be a tricky thing involving a lot of trial/error sometimes. There's a reason encoding programs have so many presets loaded on them as one mobile device requires slightly different tweaking than the next. I for one haven't had any issues with 720p on my zoom, it plays all my HD videos encoded for Apple TV at 2000 bitrate and others. Keep trying, it works.
[Xoom General] exstatica:
I run a macbook pro i7. it takes me about 35 minutes to encode a 1080p movie into what I play on my Xoom.
[Xoom General] treyatl2006:
So is Nvidia planning on updating the drivers so we will be able to play high profile h.264 high definition video properly? Did motorola or Nvida ever acknowledge the problem? Its seems like Nvidia should be experts on this issue.
[Xoom General] e.mote:
Hmm, correction again. It looks like I'm wrong about Handbrake. According to this,

http://trac.handbrake.fr/wiki/Telecine

HB apparently will handle mixed framerate correctly. BTW, an approachable guide on what IVTC is about, and why it's needed. As before, you can skip the tech stuff and just view the resultant images to get the gist.

@CJNYC

Post a sample clip.
[Xoom General] Blades:
movie.. as in.. ~120mins? and it takes you 35 minutes.. for a two-pass h264 23.976 (or 24000/1001) 1080p-720p transcode? roughly 83 avg fps.. Here I am thinking my amd was slackin at 150..

I find it strange that nvidia would fail to deliver on something that my itsy-bitsy WDTV-Live player does without a hiccup.. then again.. the wdtv-live gets pretty damn hot.. indicating its probably a little more than power hungry.

anyways. heres an old version of my batch file.. but still the same idea. This is for my G-Tab.. and i am missing the avs script and neroAACenc.exe command to convert ac3 to aac.. but its doable with MeGUI.. I think there also might be a few more tweaks for higher quality missing.

things to change for a Xoom.. bitrate.. and resizing size. On my bigger comp I have the stuff I use for Xoom.

#Run dgindexnv to index whatever AVC/VC1/MPEG2 file was dropped onto the batch file - hence the '%1'. I used to have an '-a' at the end of the command to extract audio, but I find that mkvextract does this quicker.

"C:\Utilities\AV Programs\DGDecodeNV\x64 Binaries\dgindexnv.exe" -i %1 -o "C:\movie.dgi"

#Off the top of my head example of mkvextract.. assumes ac3

mkvextract.exe tracks "%1" 2:%~n1.ac3

#first pass...

x264-x64.exe --profile main --level 3.1 --preset fast --pass 1 --bitrate 2000 --stats "d:\tablet.stats" --thread-input --merange 24 --me hex --subme 7 --no-mixed-refs --no-dct-decimate --no-fast-pskip --sar 1:1 --output NUL "D:\tablet.avs"

#second pass...

x264-x64.exe --profile main --level 3.1 --preset fast --pass 2 --bitrate 2000 --stats "d:\tablet.stats" --thread-input --merange 24 --me hex --subme 7 --no-mixed-refs --no-dct-decimate --no-fast-pskip --sar 1:1 --output "D:\%~n1.mp4" "d:\tablet.avs"

#tablet.avs reference.. 1024/576=1280/720=1920x1080 (in terms of aspect ratio)

LoadPlugin("C:\Utilities\AV Programs\DGDecodeNV\x64 Binaries\DGDecodeNV.dll")

DGSource("C:\movie.dgi", resize_w=1024, resize_h=576)
[Xoom General] CJNYC:
Here are two unaltered short clips from SageTV, the first from a hi-def film clip off HBO and the second from hi-def Speed TV. Thanks!

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/17572993/720p60 HBO.ts

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/17572993/720p60 TV.ts
[Xoom General] Blades:
So you can't get those to play?

http://home.comcast.net/~ibladesi/2800-muxed.mp4

2800kbps, 23.976 fps, HE-AAC stereo 160kbps..

gotta love cable.. such fantastic compression..

and heres the info on your video.. muxing the raw h264 stream with aac audio did not playback on my g-gtab.. I think its the level 4.0 that is the incompatible flag

General

ID : 0 (0x0)

Complete name : Y:\720p60 TV.ts

Format : MPEG-TS

File size : 40.0 MiB

Duration : 53s 668ms

Overall bit rate : 6 244 Kbps

Maximum Overall bit rate : 18.0 Mbps

Video

ID : 4113 (0x1011)

Menu ID : 1 (0x1)

Format : AVC

Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec

Format profile : Main@L4.0

Format settings, CABAC : Yes

Format settings, ReFrames : 4 frames

Format settings, GOP : M=4, N=32

Codec ID : 27

Duration : 53s 804ms

Bit rate mode : Variable

Bit rate : 5 548 Kbps

Maximum bit rate : 20.0 Mbps

Width : 1 280 pixels

Height : 720 pixels

Display aspect ratio : 16:9

Frame rate : 59.940 fps

Color space : YUV

Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0

Bit depth : 8 bits

Scan type : Progressive

Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.100

Stream size : 35.6 MiB (89%)

Color primaries : BT.709-5, BT.1361, IEC 61966-2-4, SMPTE RP177

Transfer characteristics : BT.709-5, BT.1361

Matrix coefficients : BT.709-5, BT.1361, IEC 61966-2-4 709, SMPTE RP177

Audio

ID : 4352 (0x1100)

Menu ID : 1 (0x1)

Format : AC-3

Format/Info : Audio Coding 3

Mode extension : CM (complete main)

Codec ID : 129

Duration : 53s 760ms

Bit rate mode : Constant

Bit rate : 384 Kbps

Channel(s) : 2 channels

Channel positions : Front: L R

Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz

Bit depth : 16 bits

Compression mode : Lossy

Delay relative to video : -50ms

Stream size : 2.46 MiB (6%)
[Xoom General] CJNYC:
The question was regarding the best way to convert those files for playback on the XOOM.
[Xoom General] e.mote:
Looks like Blades beat me to it, his encode is similar to what I came up with below. I use 1-pass CRF 21.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/ebrclg (720p60 HBO)

http://www.sendspace.com/file/2d8u4p (720p60 TV)

Main profile; frame decimated to 23.976 fps; resized to 800 width.

HandBrake (and likely most converters) can't handle the clips. They insist that the clips are variable framerate (VFR). HB refuses to change even when a fixed framerate is explicitly set. x264 has the same C/VFR confusion, but it does comply with a specified fixed framerate. I'm not sure about the cause, but determining the correct framerate can be a problem for the ffmpeg decoder, for some types of format.

I use a script with x264cli and avisynth--fairly geek tools. If you feel up to some commandline fun, I can give further pointers. If Blades has a more user-friendly method, may be he can share.
[Xoom General] Blades:
Yes.. If you use something like dgavcdec (the free, non-gpu accel version of what i use) to demux the audio file (and index the video file) it will automatically append the delay (in ms +/-) to the file name.. You end up with something like this

movie PID 1100 2_0ch 48KHz 384Kbps DELAY -84ms.ac3

In fact, a nice feature of MeGUI is that it reads this file name and automatically enters the delay in for you.

I'm paraphrasing a menu from VirtualDub here - "positive values if the audio is playing too early, negative if it is playing too late"

audio syncing is such a *****.
[Xoom General] e.mote:
@gbenj

You'll have to mention the tools and settings you use. If it's a well-known app, then somebody may chime in. Otherwise, your best bet is to ask the tool's author, or to search for a forum where encoders hang out.

AV desync can be any one of a zillion things. Generally, they boil down to two categories, user error (bad settings), or bad toolset. The act of seeking itself is not the problem.

Anyway, you can fix most desyncs. First, determine if it's a progressive desync (starts fine, gradually gets worse), or a linear desync (off from the start, but doesn't get worse near the end). For linear, you want to "slide" the audio track forward or back by a certain amount. For progressive, you want to "stretch" or "shrink" the audio.

The tool to do this is MKVToolnix's MKVMergeGUI. Drop the video into the app, select the audio track in the 2nd window, and select the "Format specific options" tab below. To "slide" tracks, use Delay. To stretch, use Stretch. For each attempt, click "Start Muxing" button to create a new copy. It's trial-and-error, so you'll have to try a few times.

The above fixes consistent desyncs. Desyncs can also be inconsistent; the audio will run earlier in some spots, later in others. You can't fix these. In either case, the best solution is to fix the cause, rather than after the fact.

@Blades

The AC3/DTS track delay is almost always negligible. Perceptible threshold of AV mismatch is at around 300-500ms. Read what the person said, "it starts fine," and "off by a few seconds" which means it's a progressive desync.
[Xoom General] xguntherc:
You guys have some great info here..

So what resolution are you guys using? I was using HB and sometimes the beginning would have green squared on the video, and audio was always out of sync not at first, but if I fast forwarded.

I now just use DVDFab. I can encode straight from DVD to something custom for my Xoom, or from a file. I'd like to use something that can use my Nvidia GTX 480 to encode if possible
[Xoom General] e.mote:
For DVDs, I retain the original resolution. That means encoding at 720x480 NTSC or 720x576 PAL, and keeping the anamorphic format. On playback, this expands out to 853x480 NTSC or 1024x576 PAL. Encoding at 720x400, like many encoders do, amounts to a 20% resolution loss for NTSC and 30% for PAL. Nowaday, DVD is already considered as a "low resolution" and you don't want to lose any further image quality.

For Bluray, the "best" resolution is whatever you find suitable. For mobile devices, which is what we're concerned with here, it's a compromise between quality and playback compatibility. 1080p rips are large, and tabs/phones have limited storage. You can't play 1080p over wireless. And many devices can't handle 1080p playback at the highest settings.

For these, and the fact that quality differences between 720p & 1080p are fairly minimal, I've standardized on 720p for HD rips.

Re: CUDA encoding - There was great fanfare when Nvidia introduced CUDA. But per the x264 peeps (who, after all, have opinions that actually mattered), the GPU parallelism isn't a good fit for the encoding process, which tends to be mostly serial. CUDA support didn't make it into x264, and all that's available are some poor quality encoders, Badaboom and such like. It's not hard to find them, just search on "CUDA encoder".
[Xoom General] Blades:
Are you sure things that say they are gpu assisted aren't just talking about decoding? CUDA decoding, deinterlacing, and resizing does take a load off the CPU to do the job of encoding. I would never use something like Badaboom.
[Xoom General] e.mote:
Decoding isn't a big deal any more, at least for PCs. Even lowly netbooks can decode 1080p. It's all about encoding, and when it comes to that, the only high-quality, freely available encoder available is x264, which means whatever the x264 devs think, goes.

There were some arguments for CUDA encoders on encoding forums, but general consensus of the videophile cognoscenti was that CUDA encoders are fast, but quality is crap. You can read about it by Googling for "CUDA site:doom9.org" (or doom10.org).

That said, for videophiles, it's always quality first, speed second. For reg Joe who just want a vid to work on his mobile toy, speed is probably more important.
[Xoom General] FlakJakit47:
works great

Thanks. The settings worked perfectly. I converted Inception, The Town, and The Bourne Identity. All of them are 720p MKV files. Played smoothly, and the picture was crisp. I tried a bunch of different settings using Handbrake, but this one was the best. (Its comment number 20 in this thread if his attached settings arent in here. .save them, and just go to presets, import and load them.
[Xoom General] xguntherc:
What do you guys recommend is the best resolution settings for Xoom?

Obviously not all are the same, some are Widescreen n such. But what should I set the encoder to?

edit* just saw last pages post. I'll try a few automatic and see how it goes
[Xoom General] CJNYC:
Code?

I was hoping you guys might be able to help. I used DropFolders to monitor a folder I record TV to. This then automatically converts the SageTV recording and then dumps it into my Dropbox. I'm a huge traveler for business and this lets me download it from anywhere and then I can keep up with what I miss. Here's the problem, I'm not very proficient at coding for Handbrake outside of the GUI. Can someone help translate the attached Handbrake preset into code that would work for DropFolders? Here's what the code for the iPad preset looks like, as an example (got this from someone else).

-e x264 -q 20.0 -r 29.97 --pfr -a 1 -E faac -B 160 -6 dpl2 -R Auto -D 0.0 -f mp4 -4 -X 1280 --loose-anamorphic -m

If anyone can help, I'd greatly appreciate it!
[Samsung Mesmerize] elijahblake:
Fix for MY PROBLEM please READ FULLY!!!!

New Version is working GREAT!!!!! Thanks again Lmartin92 ;) Thanks to JT1134 and thanks to everyone involved :P
[Samsung Mesmerize] 02busa:
Awwwwwwwwwww yeah!!!... Thanks to everyone involved!!!
[Samsung Mesmerize] add144:
Go go gadget Batesville. Thanks again for the goodies!
[Samsung Mesmerize] elijahblake:
Now for some help on getting fixes ;)

all i need fixed is sms and 3g.. I can work with that
[Samsung Mesmerize] hanman:
Excellent job! I'm looking forward to seeing how this progresses.
[Samsung Mesmerize] bdemartino:
Good work man, would you be so kind as to keep the title of this like the rest and add [ROM] and EB11?

I'm also interested in seeing some screenshots :).
[Samsung Mesmerize] lmartin92:
No problem, changed. That's good info right there, makes this as easily searchable as the rest. Thanks.
[Samsung Mesmerize] bdemartino:
No prob, plus this should save you from answering some dumb questions :p. Glad to see the showcase getting some Dev love!
[Samsung Mesmerize] jt1134:
I'll add some sms debug to the framework tonight. Shouldn't be hard to fix.
[Samsung Mesmerize] jt1134:
Actually, if someone could send me a deodexed framework.jar from a stock build, I can decompile it find a fix that way instead of wasting time on debugging :)