Video Encoding

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I want to play video files (movies) on my Nokia N800. I have been playing around with Mac the Ripper, iSquint and Handbrake in an effort to find out what's the best compromise between good video quality and file size. I am baffled by the variety of encoding options and settings, and I once again feel like I'm groping around in the dark. if I keep just trying out all options without any basic knowledge, I'm afraid I'll be done on Neverday.

Here's what I "think" I know:

- AVC/H.264 video offers likely the best quality.
- MPEG-4 video is not as good, but may suffice.
- variable bit rate is probably better than a constant quality setting.


I want very good quality at 640x272 output size. I want the video files to be reasonably sized.


What encoding would be most suitable to my needs? What settings are good starting points? By settings I mean:

- Output Settings (MP4, MKV, AVI, OGM)
- Encoder (barrage of options; average bit rate seems to vary a lot depending on the setting)
- Bit Rate (what's a good starting point?)
- 2 pass encoding (I know it's slow, but I don't mind if the result is really superior)

Please help a nOOb with some pointers!
blush.gif


If anyone were to know of a great online tutorial, it would be great!
 
Yup, if your N800 is capable of playing XviD/DivX, then use that - good picture quality and reasonable size. The 2-pass encoding is helpful as it analyzes these scenes and is capable of using significantly higher bit rates in scenes with a lot of movement/action so that the image doesn't start looking blurry/pixellated there.

As for what target bit rate to use - I think you will just have to do some experimenting to find a compromise between quality and file size. Around 1000 kbps should give you pretty good quality if you can live with the file size.
 
Originally Posted By: OVERK1LL
See if you can do an AVI, encoded as XVid with variable bit-rate. Should give you very good results.


HandBrake lets me do that, but the file doesn't play smoothly on the N800.
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
As for what target bitrate to use - I think you will just have to do some experimenting to find a compromise between quality and file size. Around 1000 kbps should give you pretty good quality if you can live with the file size.



1000 kbps seems more than enough. I am trying out various bitrates now.

Any suggestion regarding the audio settings? The default seems to be a sample rate of 64 khz at a bitrate of 160 kbps. I suppose, but don't know for sure, 44.1 khz and 128 kbps are sufficient for CD quality?
 
Yeah, for portable movies, audio at 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz at 128 kbps is usually good enough. It's not exactly CD quality, but most of the audio is voice anyway which doesn't need that high of a bit rate in order to sound clear.
 
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