Media Encoding (updated!)

[Guest siu99spj]

What video files are playable on SmartPhone?

Windows Media Player actually comes on the smartphone and should be able to play most WMA's and WMV's, unless they have been encoded exclusively with version 9 (Or later) of the windows codecs. Version 7/8 tends to give the best results. Other Windows Media files (ASF, etc.) are generally not recommended and it can be hit or miss whether the file is played.

TCPMP formally known as BetaPlayer is the best for DivX/XviD files. It is available here:

TCPMP Download

*Note: You need an unlocked phone to use this software.

Currently it can play AVI's encoded in DivX or XviD. It will play AVI's in fullscreen mode with no borders (Assuming encoded to fill the screen).

PocketTV Classic is currently freeware and again, needs an unlocked phone to use. It can be obtained here:

Pocket TV Download

For those who don't want to unlock their phone, or would prefer a certificated version, they can buy PocketTV Enterprise Edition from Smartphone.net:

or Handango.com:

http://handango.com/affiliate/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?affiliateId=228&programId=41&affiliateId=228&programId=41&siteId=1&catalog=0&sectionId=0&productType=2&platformId=11&productId=77743

PocketTV can play any standard MPEG-1 video file, but will play best when the MPEG is optimised for your smartphone (Screen sizes match, etc.)

How do I make movies for Windows Media Player?

To encode for Windows Media Player the following guide was created by Q-Rious (Chris Benjaminsen).

Step 1

Start Windows Media Encoder; it should look something like this:

Step 2

Select New Session Wizard from the session menu item, or press Ctrl+W

Step 3

Chose Convert an audio or video file into a Windows Media file and press Next >

Step 4

Chose a file you want to convert and where you want to convert it to and press Next >

Step 5

Select File will stream from a Web server or play directly on a computer and press Next >

Step 6

Now you should have a dialog named New Session Wizard, where you have to select a profile.

Sadly Windows Media Encoder doesn?t have a default setting suitable for the smart phone so we have to create one for us self.

Therefore click on the button Create and Manage Profiles.

Step 7

Now you have a dialog where you can manage your current profiles, we need a new profile so we click the New button.

Step 8

Time to name your new profile, lets be wise and call it something we can remember later. Type in SmartPhone in the Name of profile input field, and hit the Next > button.

Step 9

A New Profile dialog should be visible on your screen now, containing some text about Audience Selection, again we want a new profile, so we click the button New.

Step 10

Call your new Audience setting SmartPhone and write 70k (for 70 kilobyte) in the Maximum bit rate input field and click OK

Step 11

Your new Audience setting should be created and selected as shown, so all we have to do in this step is click Next >

Step 12

This is the hardest step because we have to select a lot of stuff.

Let's go.

Audio

Codec: Windows Media Audio V8

Format: 10kbps, 11kHz, mono (you want 20kbps, 22kHz, mono if there is a lot of music in what your converting)

Video Codec: Windows Media MPEG-4 Video V3

In the Video size select box we chose Custom.. and hurry on to next step.

Step 13

Now we need to type in the video format...

If you have done nothing to your media player write 160 as width and 120 as height.

If you have installed the advanced skin for media player you have a larger screen in your Media Player and therefore want 176 as width and 132 as height.

(Don?t know what the advanced skin is? click here)

When the values are typed in click the OK button. When done click the Next > button.

Step 14

Type in the blow settings for Individual Video Stream Setting

Frame rate: 8

Key frame interval: 2

Image quality: 0 (it?s a slow phone and we want fast motion)

Click the Next > button.

Step 15

What you should have now is a status window containing information about the settings we just made.

Check you did made all the right settings and click Finish

Step 16

Now you are back to the Manage Profiles dialog, click Close

Step 17

Olla you just created your smart phone profile, and if everything is well it should be selected.

Click Finish

If a popup containing a lot of information pups up, just click OK

Step 18

Ok that?s it now all we have to do is click the Start button to create smooth video for your smart phone.

Yes I know that this was quite long, but the good news is next time you convert something you already have made a SmartPhone profile, so you can skip step 6 to 16.

How do I make movies for BetaPlayer?

siu99spj created a DivX conversion guide. There is a zipped copy of the guide, in MHT format available here:

http://bhents.freelinuxhost.com/Movie/Guide.zip (~330KB)

The example video is here:

http://bhents.freelinuxhost.com/Movie/TS2.avi (4.44MB)

For those interested in making a DVD Rip, it might be best contacting siu99spj separately as it goes a little beyond this article.

Back to DivX for the SPV...

For this guide you'll need VirtualDub:

http://www.virtualdub.org

DivX:

http://www.DivX.com

and BetaPlayer:

http://betaplayer.corecodec.org/

Load VirtualDub

It should look something like this. Maybe not identical but similar. And yes, I know my Windows look weird. I like it like this and couldn’t be bothered to change it for you people.

In VirtualDub, click on File and then Open Video File...

In this window choose the file you want to encode. VirtualDub supports a wide variety of formats but not all, (Mainly it has problems with Windows proprietary formats, MPEG2 and files which don't use the Video For Windows control). If your file is unsupported use Google to find something to convert it to a suitable format (Such as using MOV2AVI, converting a Quicktime MOV file to Windows AVI file). The best option is to convert the weird format into a full frame AVI using the Huffyuv codec, but this will eat disk space. However you do it, just make sure you keep as much quality as possible.

For this explanation a 1.32GB (NOTE: This is an uncompressed movie. You will not likely be getting the same compression ratios in your movies) Windows AVI of Toy Story 2 Intro is being converted.

Open the file

As you can see, VirtualDub creates to video panes. One is your input video and the other is your output video.

Now the fun begins. Click on Video, ensure that Full Processing Mode is selected (Click on it if not) and then click on Frame Rate.

Choose ‘Process every third frame (decimate by 3)’, as above. Click on OK. Again click on Video and then click on Filters...

Click on Add... and choose Rotate. Its up to you which way you rotate the film, I just chose 'Right by 90°'. Click on Add... again and choose Resize.

Resize the video until it looks to be in the right aspect (Or not if you want full screen). The maximum width is 176 and the maximum height is 220. I prefer to use multiples of 16 as DivX handles them better, but as long as it is a multiple of 2 at the very least, DivX (5+) will work. I recommend you use the filter mode Bicubic, but again not much difference will occur whatever you use.

You can click on Show Preview to get an idea of what its looking like if you want to ensure you have an OK aspect ratio.

Click on OK.

And then OK again

As you can see, VitualDub has changed the size of the output video.

Click on Video and then Compression...

Highlight DivX and then click on Configure (NOTE: XviD might also work, I haven’t got round to working out the best settings yet. DivX Pro will work in the same way as Non-Pro, it’ll just make a smaller file).

Set the Variable Bit-rate mode to 'Multiple, 1st Pass' and the bitrate to 110kbps or there abouts. This might change depending on what you feel is best for your smartphone. The original SPV (And hence the E100) can play this perfectly well. Higher settings might be applicable for faster phones.

This setting will mean that you will have to encode the file twice. This ensures the best possible reproduction for your Smartphone. If you only want to do the encode once, then choose '1 Pass, Constant Bit Rate' and set the bit rate to about the same. This can also be useful for check aspect ratios and such.

Specify a log file for it to write to (By clicking on Select... and typing in a filename (It Will be created if it doesn’t exist)).

Click on OK twice to get back to the main VirtualDub screen.

Now click on Audio and select Full Processing Mode.

Click on Audio again and choose Compression

Use MPEG Layer-3 at a fairly low bit-rate. I’m using 16KBit/s 16000 HZ Mono, but you might want more or less. Remember the smartphone is going to struggle (Play a slideshow rather than a video) the higher the bitrate. If you don't have an MP3 codec then get the LAME codec from: http://lame.sourceforge.net/.

Again click on OK.

Now click on File and Save as AVI...

Give it a name and click in the box labelled ‘Don’t run this job now; add it to job control so I can run it in batch mode’ and click on OK.

However, if you have a fast PC, don't mind waiting while it does the first pass or you are only doing a single pass, you needn't click in the check box. Just click on OK and wait whilst the file encodes.

If you chose the check box, go back to Video and click on Compression again and Configure.

Set Variable Bitrate Mode to 'Multipass, nth pass'.

DON’T CHANGE ANYTHING ELSE.

Click on the OK’s again until you get back to VirtualDubs main screen and then click on File and Save as AVI... again. Again give it a name (A different name usually helps). Make sure you have checked the 'Don't run this job now...'box again (If you did it the first time) too or else they'll be an error message. Click on OK and then press F4 or click on File and Job control...

Hopefully VirtualDub will just have the two jobs you just set up, with Waiting by them, as above. If there are more, you know what you're doing anyway. If there are less, you've gone wrong somewhere.

To start the encoding click on Start. Depending on your machine and the file your encoding (How long the clip/movie is) this will take a couple of seconds to several hours. On a 1.1GHz Athlon, it encodes at about 10fps. On a P4C 3.0GHz, it encodes at about 50fps.

This made the original 1.32GB file a much smaller 4.44MB. NOTE: This is an unrealistic example from a completely uncompressed video file. You are highly unlikely to EVER get as good compression ratios.

Finally, if you are doing a two pass (or more) then only the final file will be viewable. Intermediate files will give an error message on both your PC and the smartphone. Best way to check is to give the file a check on your PC before transferring it across.

How do I make movies for PocketTV?

More info is available on the PocketTV website for encoding into MPEG-1:

http://pockettv.com/encoding.html

If you have any further questions then contact siu99spj in the forums or by PM.