[ultrabrutal]

If you were thinking that HD Movies on the Xbox is impossible - you thought wrong. I made this post to make the advantage over DVD clear for interested people.

Here is a comparison of a few frames from I Robot encode I did.

- Top image is the NTSC DVD at 720x480, resized to 1920x816.
- Middle image is TS 1920x1080p NTSC reencoded as XviD at 1280x544 and resized to 1920x816.
- Bottom image is the TS used for 4XBMC* encode (middle image) at original size.

(Another comparison could be made at DVD resized to 1280x816 and compare to unaltered image from 4XBMC* XviD)



Faces, fire and water are usually complex to encode.

Original size (3.7 mb): I.Robot.png



Look at the detail here. The DVD is very blurred but the 4XBMC encode shows great detail.

Original size (5.4 mb): I.Robot2.png

As you can see the level of detail is much higher in the 4XBMC* XviD encode than the DVD - much closer to the original. This is very much visible running XBMC at 720p!

DVD Specs:
4.37 gb
720x480
AC3 5.1
MPEG2

4XBMC Specs:
4 gb (less than fatx limit!)
1280x720(544)
AC3 5.1
XviD

TS Specs:
13.7 gb
1920x1080
AC3 5.1
MPEG2


So if anyone is interrested I was thinking about doing a basic guide on how to do these 4XBMC XviD encodes from your recorded/downloaded Transport Streams.

* 4XBMC XviD is basicly some changes done to the XviD encode to allow HD content to be played back on the Xbox with no frame drops and stunning image quality. The changes to XviD codec was done by plugh, so credit where due! You can read more in this forum thread if you're interested: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=22216 (gotten quite long I know)

[johnnygal]

Yes, VERY interested.
I have been following your thread working with plugh and saw that most of it was going over my head. I was really hoping you would produce a guide when you had finalised your tests.
I would love to see it. Whilst HD broadcasts are limited at the moment in the UK, I have a couple of TS films I can encode.
Cheers.

[kricker]

HECK YEAH! Nice. I have also been following the thread...just waiting.....I knew it could be done...I just knew it!

[ashlar]

Definitely interested, even though... for 1.78:1 material, as opposed to 2.35:1, how would your encode handle the real 1280x720 resolution? Clearly going to 1280x544 reduces pixels to be decompressed...

[ultrabrutal]

Well this is for Transport Stream movies and not TV shows at full 1280x720. Movies at 2.35:1 is what can be handled now. Perhaps full 16:9 later on?

[plugh]

As far as I am aware, there are no 16:9 films. The majority of films are framed for either 1.37:1, 1.85:1, or 2.35:1 presentation. ref -> http://www.widescreen.org/aspect_ratios.shtml

Unfortunately, many HDTV movie presentations cut off the sides of widescreen movies in order to fill the 16:9 frame, rather than properly letterboxing them.

1.85:1 movies (1280x688@24fps) ARE going to be the hardest as they have the most pixels (macroblocks/second). However, the issue isn't so much "is it possible", but "is it possible at high quality", which is a subjective question.

[klaus1013]

I'd also be very interested in doing this sort of conversion

Klaus

[ultrabrutal]

Did I forget to post the link to the guide? duh!

xbmc wiki

[rernst]

Did I forget to post the link to the guide? duh!

xbmc wiki

Should I mention 'Handbrake'? This is the encoder I use which is x264 based (AVC). It is the most convenient tool to use for this sort of thing and has an extensive set of options to play with. Just a suggestion. I have used it for years and it has active development under Windows, Linux and even Mac.

So far, it beats everything hands down in quality. One of the niceties is that it converts hybrid video (Babylon 5 etc.) as true VFR into mkv container, the only tool on the market, commercial or GPL, that I know that can do this. XBMC via mplayer plays this material just fine.

Mencoder itself cannot do this (albeit x264 based itself).

[rashid420]

If you were thinking that HD Movies on the Xbox is impossible - you thought wrong. I made this post to make the advantage over DVD clear for interested people.

Here is a comparison of a few frames from I Robot encode I did.

- Top image is the NTSC DVD at 720x480, resized to 1920x816.
- Middle image is TS 1920x1080p NTSC reencoded as XviD at 1280x544 and resized to 1920x816.
- Bottom image is the TS used for 4XBMC* encode (middle image) at original size.

What is the "Source" of the conversion? What is TS? Some HD format you rip from Blueray? Or content your record over Dish HD or something?

[kizer]

Heck I've been using Hand Brake and its pretty cool. Just knowing what settings give you the best quality at a reasonable size is kinda confusing. I'd love to see it all in plain simple english if you would be so kind.