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

Oh, and by the way, MediaInfo is also avail for linux...

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles...e_id=90341

Been testing some new settings... Haven't changed a whole lot, but I mianly adjusted the bitrate settings. I'm not 100% sure if these are more efficient than the previous ones, but I ran into a couple of skippy encodes with the previous ones, and I think that it is fixed now. Hopefully I didn't break others in the process! We'll call this the xBox264 v2 profile from now on -- let me know what you guys think...

--pass 2 --bitrate XXXX --stats ".stats" --keyint 240 --min-keyint 24 --ref 5 --mixed-refs --no-fast-pskip --bframes 5 --b-pyramid --b-rdo --bime --weightb --direct auto --nf --subme 7 --partitions all --8x8dct --qpmin 18 --vbv-bufsize 1000 --vbv-maxrate 5000 --ratetol 4.0 --me umh --threads auto --thread-input --cqmfile "C:\CQM\EQM_AVC_HR.cfg" --progress --no-psnr --no-ssim --output "output" "input"

Film (23.97 FPS) : --keyint 240 --min-keyint 24
PAL (25 FPS) : --keyint 250 --min-keyint 25
NTSC (29.97 FPS) : --keyint 300 --min-keyint 30

720x256 - (1781) | 704x256 - (1822) | 688x256 - (1864)
720x272 - (1676) | 704x272 - (1715) | 688x272 - (1754)
720x288 - (1583) | 704x288 - (1619) | 688x288 - (1657)
720x304 - (1500) | 704x304 - (1534) | 688x304 - (1570)
720x320 - (1425) | 704x320 - (1457) | 688x320 - (1491)
720x336 - (1357) | 704x336 - (1388) | 688x336 - (1420)
720x352 - (1295) | 704x352 - (1325) | 688x352 - (1356)
720x368 - (1239) | 704x368 - (1267) | 688x368 - (1297)
720x384 - (1188) | 704x384 - (1214) | 688x384 - (1243)
720x400 - (1140) | 704x400 - (1166) | 688x400 - (1193)
720x416 - /1096/ | 704x416 - /1121/ | 688x416 - (1147)
-------------------------------------------------------
672x256 - (1908) | 656x256 - (1955) | 640x256 - (2004)
672x272 - (1796) | 656x272 - (1840) | 640x272 - (1886)
672x288 - (1696) | 656x288 - (1738) | 640x288 - (1781)
672x304 - (1607) | 656x304 - (1646) | 640x304 - (1688)
672x320 - (1527) | 656x320 - (1564) | 640x320 - (1603)
672x336 - (1454) | 656x336 - (1490) | 640x336 - (1527)
672x352 - (1388) | 656x352 - (1422) | 640x352 - (1457)
672x368 - (1328) | 656x368 - (1360) | 640x368 - (1394)
672x384 - (1272) | 656x384 - (1303) | 640x384 - (1336)
672x400 - (1221) | 656x400 - (1251) | 640x400 - (1283)
672x416 - (1174) | 656x416 - (1203) | 640x416 - (1233)
672x432 - /1131/ | 656x432 - (1159) | 640x432 - (1188)
672x448 - /1091/ | 656x448 - /1117/ | 640x448 - (1145)

This is encoded using MeGUI, with the newest unofficially modified version of x264 (http://www.mediafire.com/?gknvsmldmy0).

My Xbox is running the latest XBMC SVN. I'm running 720P for the skin resolution, and 720P for the video resolution. I have not changed my render method from the default "Pixel Shader" to the suggested "Hardware Overlays" -- in fact, chaning this setting actually drops *more* frames. I have turned off the "Xbox Autodetection" & "Remote Events" (Not sure what this is for, but I'm sure I don't need it.) And finally, I turned off both "Flicker" and "Soften" filters.

Have fun and happy ripping...

Damn, I knew I was forgetting something! With the suggested bitrates above, the bitrates surrounded by "/" instead of "(" probably won't work well with CABAC turned on, so turn it off for these particular resolutions.

And remember, these are MAXIMUM bitrates, so I suggest staying under these values!

Stay up-to-date with the newest beta x264 releases...

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=130364

Always goto the last page in the thread for the latest releases.

MediaInfo worked out great. I was able to read the x264 options for my mp4 that I needed. It looks like I used the default options with the x264b30 codec.

Here is the command line.

/HandBrakeCLI -f mp4 -e x264b30 -q .646 -E faac -6 6ch -B 160 -U -F -N eng

This is not going to give you the highest quality encoding. There was some slight blocking on skin tones, but the overall picture quality is very good. RW/FF work as expected, that is, instantly and without the picture breaking up. The audio stays in sync and dynamic range was excellent. Encoding speed is very fast too. I am getting 50-60fps on my Core2Duo 6600.

For me, the slight drop in quality is worth the trade off of having RW/FF work, no dropped frames, and consistent quality even on the toughest scenes.

I have been testing all Handbrake (0.92) settings myself, and the ONLY option that stopped the stuttering (at decent other settings) is -nf

Even when I disabled deblocking in Handbrake UI, it was STILL doing inloop deblocking.
The only way to get around it is to specify the extra parameter in x264 opts as
-nf

BTW, with reference to my message above, these are the options I use in handbrake H264 advanced options window:

level=30:bframes=3:ref=3:vbv-maxrate=5000:vbv-bufsize=1500:me=umh:subq=5:analyse=all:direct=auto:cabac=0:nf

They seem to work fine in xbmc.

kparuchuri, I also use the --nf setting... it seems to be that if you don't use trellis in MeGUI it adds the --nf setting for you, and I don't use Trellis because it causes major stuttering. i never directly associated this setting with no stuttering, but it makes sense now!

Also, why don't you turn CABAC on? You get a 15% increase in quality at the same bitrate... just make sure you stay under my suggested bitrates and you'll be fine!

geosmack, I tried using my settings again with the new SVN snapshot of Handbrake and I don't seem to be having any issues. Encodes come out great! so i'm not sure why you would opt for lower quality in this hi-def world, but that's your own preference. you could probably even go for a mix between my settings and the defaults, trading off a setting or two for a faster encode time. the options that are slowing down your encodes are CABAC=1, subq/subme=7, me=umh -- changing these setting will give you faster encodes at the cost of overall quality. But again, not using CABAC immediately drops the quality 15% less!

I guess I am just trying to squeeze out every drop of quality because I run XBMC on a 42 inch and a 50 inch HDTV, so lower quality looks 10x worse at those sizes.

I'm sorry I was wrong, if you check off the "Deblocking" option in MeGUI it adds "--nf" to the commandline. Obviously this is a good thing, because Deblocking makes the Xbox stutter like a crazy bitch.

By the way, there is a little app out there called RipBot264, and it really is a great little program... It does some awesome encoding, it is easy to use, and it literally takes any file I throw at it (unlike MeGUI or Handbrake)... It is just lacking a couple functions that would make it the best and most user friendly app for encoding with the xBox264 profile. If anyone is interested in this program, check out the official thread...

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=127611

As you can see, I have been on there trying to see if we can get the author to add a couple of the options that us XBMC'ers need! Mainly: The ability to turn off the "Turbo 1st Pass", and automatically adding "--nf" to the commandline when "Deblocking" is turned off. Really, if we can just get the Deblocking issue solved, this program would be 100% Xbox-compatible. So again, if interested, check out the thread and maybe shoot a message in the thread over there and let him know that you guys are interested in seeing this happen as well...