[XBOX] HOW-TO encode videos in H.264 to be able to achieve playback on the Xbox

[XBOX] HOW-TO encode videos in H.264 to be able to achieve playback on the Xbox - Printable Version

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- Jhcheslik - 2009-01-20

And all of them are in XBOX profile setting??

Lol. Nice.

- sion28 - 2009-01-21

Jhcheslik Wrote:Why would you have input and output paths for AC3 audio identical?

Because that's the default. That's how the fields were auto-populated when I got to that step, and the guide didn't say to change it, so I left it, assuming that was the correct way. In the error message, when it said "Input and output files may not be the same" I thought it meant "might not be the same" rather than "must not be the same" if you get my drift. "May not" can have different meanings.

Anyway, speaking of this... is there any way to not re-encode the audio and just use the original ac3 file? Seems like a waste of processor time to re-encode the audio when what I want is the original ac3 stream anyway. (This is kind of why I thought leaving the file names the same was correct- figured it meant that the audio was going to be untouched.)

Jhcheslik Wrote:That's probably the reason of the error. I tested it myself. Change the output to different name, like Sound.ac3 or whatever.

Thanks, will do.

Jhcheslik Wrote:The reason why it wouldn't work is because when you encode an audio, it'll overwrite the original one at same time... so its like, you don't have any audio to encode at all.

Let me check the Wiki. It probably need some updating.

Yes, please. It also should be credited to the *original* author. Unless JPSiemer has a different alias on other boards, or unless the other author copied JPSiemer's work w/o credit...
www.digital-digest.com MeGUI H.264 Conversion Guide page3

Much (not all) of the guide in the XBMC wiki is cut+pasted from that guide (or vice-versa) save for the XBMC-on-Xbox specific portions (e.g. the command line options). The very nice bitrate table is also unique to the XBMC wiki guide, AFAICT.

- sion28 - 2009-01-21

djenyc Wrote:I did some more testing with lower quality levels, with video clips re-sized for PocketPC (320x240) resolution - can also be useful for people with 14" TVs:

File sizes in KB for 100 seconds video clip (mp4, no sound):
q22 2,650
q24 1,991
q26 1,523
q28 1,175
q30 920
q32 733
q34 594
q36 489
q38 409
q40 343

Subjective observations:
q26 - No visible degradation
q30 - Ok, with some compression artifacts
q40 - Fills the screen with funny boxes and rectangles, but can make out the picture after staring at it for a while. With Nero AAC-HE Q.05 soundtrack, now I can fit a five minute music video on a standard 1.44mb floppy

All samples from Q22 to Q40 can be downloaded here:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/h8hqg7

Can someone please explain what these q# numbers are, and where in the MeGUI process do we adjust them? I have a 50" 720p plasma, so am interested in pretty good quality, but less interested in filesize (though un-touched .iso rips take up too much space...) but I have a pretty slow PC (AMD Athlon XP 3200+ cpu) so would be very interested in one-pass settings that could still yield fairly good quality. Dual pass takes for EVER!

Thanks...

- djenyc - 2009-01-21

sion28 Wrote:Can someone please explain what these q# numbers are, and where in the MeGUI process do we adjust them? I have a 50" 720p plasma, so am interested in pretty good quality, but less interested in filesize (though un-touched .iso rips take up too much space...) but I have a pretty slow PC (AMD Athlon XP 3200+ cpu) so would be very interested in one-pass settings that could still yield fairly good quality. Dual pass takes for EVER!

Thanks...

In MeGUI -> Input Tab, Video Encoding, Encoder settings (must be x264 profile) - click Config to open x264 Configuration Dialog.

in x264 Configuration Dialog on the Main tab - change Mode to Constant Quality and adjust Quality value to what you want.

- djenyc - 2009-01-21

sion28 Wrote:is there any way to not re-encode the audio and just use the original ac3 file? Seems like a waste of processor time to re-encode the audio when what I want is the original ac3 stream anyway.

Yes, click on x button in Audio tab to disable re-encoding audio, then click AutoEncode to bring-up muxer dialog, and select check box "Add aditional content", when click Queue - it will bring up advanced Muxer dialog box where you can add original audio track (or multiple tracks, e.g. director comments, other languages, etc) without reencoding - I've done it and it works fine.

- Jhcheslik - 2009-01-21

djenyc Wrote:Yes, click on x button in Audio tab to disable re-encoding audio, then click AutoEncode to bring-up muxer dialog, and select check box "Add aditional content", when click Queue - it will bring up advanced Muxer dialog box where you can add original audio track (or multiple tracks, e.g. director comments, other languages, etc) without reencoding - I've done it and it works fine.

Yeah, that's exactly what I do too. I only rencode the audio from TV shows. They take up SO MUCH space. I don't rencode the audio from movies tho.

By the way, I have been doing some more experiment on CQ, and I figured out that q22 would give me VERY few skipping.

So I decided to go for q22.5 and it was perfect!!

Like, I have this 1gb 720p of this TV show, 24, S07E05. Which is of course unplayable on xbox, so I rencoded that, and in end I got 352 mb for 41 minutes with 256 bitrate ac3 included!! Way better than scene released Xvid... Big Grin

- gabbott - 2009-01-21

Jhcheslik Wrote:So I decided to go for q22.5 and it was perfect!!

Sounds good, I'm going to try some test encodes at this setting. I've always used CQ when I used to do xvid encodes so glad to have this option.

- gabbott - 2009-01-24

So I've done about 5 encodes with CQ at q22.5 and the results have been great. Plus the file sizes have been much smaller.

- sion28 - 2009-01-27

gabbott Wrote:So I've done about 5 encodes with CQ at q22.5 and the results have been great. Plus the file sizes have been much smaller.

So what does your command line look like for these encodes?

Also, I'm curious, what display are you playing these on, and are you playing them from xbmc on an xbox or a computer?

- gabbott - 2009-01-28

sion28 Wrote:So what does your command line look like for these encodes?

Also, I'm curious, what display are you playing these on, and are you playing them from xbmc on an xbox or a computer?

Playing these all on xboxes. Been playing these on various size sets ranging from a 27" to a 32" HD CRT and they look fine. I could also see what they look like on my 50" 1080P DLP display. Haven't checked them on there yet since these encodes are all for the kids.

I'm not at home now but later tonight I can put what the command line looks like.

- sion28 - 2009-01-28

Is there a How-to somewhere, on how to cut out a few minutes from a DVD rip so that I don't have to wait 7 hours to test different settings in MeGUI?

Thanks...

- gabbott - 2009-01-28

sion28 Wrote:Is there a How-to somewhere, on how to cut out a few minutes from a DVD rip so that I don't have to wait 7 hours to test different settings in MeGUI?

Thanks...

There is a freeware prog called mpeg2cut. I havent actually used it but it has decent reviews over at videohelp.com. You could give it a try:

http://www.videohelp.com/tools/Mpg2Cut2

- fuggin - 2009-01-28

sion28 Wrote:Is there a How-to somewhere, on how to cut out a few minutes from a DVD rip so that I don't have to wait 7 hours to test different settings in MeGUI?

This is easy to do in MeGUI. Assuming you've ripped the DVD and created the d2v file and AviSynth script.
1. From the MeGUI tools menu select AVS Cutter. Select your avs file.
2. Select approx. 2000 frame range. Click: Add.
3. Click: Do all and close. This adds a trim section to your avs and creates a cut file.
4. Load the avs into the MeGUI Video encoding section. Load the audio into the MeGUI Audio section.
5. In the Audio - Cuts section, browse for the created cut file (.clt extension)
6. Now you can AutoEncode with no target size and you'll have a small clip in around 5 mins.
To revert your avs just remove the trim section which is usually the last three lines.

- antispimmer - 2009-01-29

Is MeGUI capable of re-encoding a H.264 video with a variable frame rate to one with the settings as described on the wiki for playback on the Xbox? I've been trying to do this for an anime I follow, but I keep running into issues with my audio not syncing because of the video playing back at an improper constant frame rate.

- JPSiemer - 2009-02-02

All MeGUI-specific questions would be better suited on the official MeGUI Thread. We'll do the best we can here, but sometimes it's better to speak directly with the devs of the program.

Also, if you believe that the Wiki is in error or outdated, then let me know what I should be changing and I'll take care of it. Or if you have a pretty good relationship with people on these boards then you might be able to request "Ninja status" and you can update the Wiki yourselves.