Video help

Dman001

Can anyone please help me find a Mpeg4 to WMV converter (free) or tell me how to stream iPod Mpeg4 videos to the 360. Thanks

Gran Hermano

Download
http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html
It's not only free but possibly one of the best converters out there.
If the source video is optimized for the Ipod screen it's most likely
a low resolution, you may be better off using higher res source
material or re-ripping from DVD.

8T8

There is no need to convert to WMV the latest dash update adds H.264 & MPEG-4 SP support.

However as Gran Hermano points out the iPod only supports the most simple implementation of H.264 and is intended for low resolution displays or standard definition TV's.

When you play those files back on the Xbox 360 it will display them but in all likely hood they will look very poor if on a HDTV, you can use the stretch option in the video display dash to make it full screen but that will only magnify the poor quality.

To stream from PC install CCCP & WMP MP4 Tag that will make MP4 files show in WMP share media feature & hence on the Xbox 360.

lafors

8T8 wrote:

There is no need to convert to WMV the latest dash update adds H.264 & MPEG-4 SP support.

However as Gran Hermano points out the iPod only supports the most simple implementation of H.264 and is intended for low resolution displays or standard definition TV's.

When you play those files back on the Xbox 360 it will display them but in all likely hood they will look very poor if on a HDTV, you can use the stretch option in the video display dash to make it full screen but that will only magnify the poor quality.

To stream from PC install CCCP & WMP MP4 Tag that will make MP4 files show in WMP share media feature & hence on the Xbox 360.

8T8 you seem to know a heck of a lot about steaming
I've a few questions for you, seeing as I don't know much about it.

At the mo I use TVersity to steam video to my 360.
Most of my files are .avi (tv shows mainly).

Question 1, the two new codec's that we can use on the 360, how big would those files be compared to the same content in .avi?

Question 2, which would be better quality?

Question 3, how do I go about converting to these formats? How long would it take to convert a:
-standard dvd to each format
-an hour long tv ep (say originally from a .avi)
...would their be quality loss?

Question 4, do they need have any protection yokey on them? (I hope you understand that one)

Question 5, Are any of these formats the 360 can handle, HD quality?


Hope the questions are too stupid.....and sorry to the OP for hijacking you thread

Gran Hermano

lafors wrote:

8T8 you seem to know a heck of a lot about steaming

Take it you meant streaming !
(sorry couldnt resist )

lafors

Gran Hermano wrote:

Take it you meant streaming !
(sorry couldnt resist )

Nearly got away with it

8T8

lafors wrote:

Question 1, the two new codec's that we can use on the 360, how big would those files be compared to the same content in .avi?

AVI is a container not a codec, XviD/DivX are implementations of the MPEG-4 ASP standard, the Xbox 360 only adds support for MPEG-4 SP which is the simpler earlier version of this format as such it cannot play files encoded by those formats.

Secondly the AVI container is an unofficial container for XviD it is supposed to use the MP4 container but due to the wide spread support of AVI in Windows it was hacked in. The Xbox 360 most likely will never support MPEG-4 SP or ASP (if it ever got that) in AVI containers only MP4.

With that info out of the way as for the difference in file size is none because AVI is just a container. What you where referring to were the codecs MPEG-4 SP which is really not as good as ASP so image quality would be poorer assuming everything was the same. The other codec H.264 is a whole other ball game.

lafors wrote:

Question 2, which would be better quality?

MPEG-4 AVC otherwise know as H.264 destroys XviD/DivX at low bit-rates (file sizes) and is a very efficient codec for retaining detail, it is without question the best video codec available.

lafors wrote:

Question 3, how do I go about converting to these formats? How long would it take to convert a:
-standard dvd to each format
-an hour long tv ep (say originally from a .avi)
...would their be quality loss?

As H.264 is such a powerful codec it is much more demanding in it's encoding time a good computer with a fast CPU is recommended.

The time factor is dependant on the CPU, length of material and resolution & the profile you use. The H.264 format has profiles in it that allow devices which cannot handle the full power of H.264 to use some of the specification (e.g iPod), these are called baseline the simplest one, main profile and High profile the max. The Xbox 360 supports all the way up to the high profile & then some which means more features enabled which retain more detail but takes longer to encode.

A standard DVD using the HighProfile in AutoMKV may take about 5-6 hours on a good computer with a dual core CPU.

An existing XviD in AVI should take significantly less time but its hard to say as it depends on the source material.

For quality loss with H.264 very little with HighProfile setting or greater of course the bit-rate comes into play the bigger the file size the more bit-rate the better quality the encode will be. Though for material already encoded with XviD for instance there is a point of diminishing returns.

In AutoMKV there is also the HighProfile HQ-Slow, Slower, Insane profile these preserve a crazy amount of detail but will punish your computer they also enable the built in deblocking feature of H.264 which means they are very high quality.

I tend use use about 1.5 to 2GB file size per DVD movie with HQ-Slow but do experiment with low file sizes as I do former because I'm an image quality nazi.

lafors wrote:

Question 4, do they need have any protection yokey on them? (I hope you understand that one)

No it supports the industry standards no DRM is applied.

lafors wrote:

Question 5, Are any of these formats the 360 can handle, HD quality?

Yes the H.264 can do HD encodes, VC-1 another HD codec is supported also but that must be encoded into WMV and tools aren't as easy to use as H.264 encoders. In order to encode at HD resolutions with H.264 on Xbox 360 you need a custom profile as a setting must be tweaked, I have such a profile that is compatible with AutoMKV/MeGUI. {My web space is offline at the moment will upload later so check back}

To encode video into H.264 format I recommend AutoMKV I went over some of the points to set it up to encode in the other thread which you can read here. If you need are more help or are stuck just ask.

kaisersose77

8T8 what time would it take roughly for a core 2 duo e6300 to convert a dvd/1080p ts stream to h264?

8T8

Honestly don't know it's one of those things to just try it and see, to encode HD and leave at original resolution set width resolution to "original" in AutoMKV.

Place this Xbox 360 HD profile in the AutoMKV\Profiles\x264\ directory and select the X360 HD profile in AutoMKV it is based of the stock High Profile.

lafors

Thanks you a legend, explained a whole bucket load
Found your reply to the other thread earlier.
Just trying it out atm, I converting an avi (xvid) to mp4, on my laptop.
I'm working in intel on nightshift and the best cpu i can get to use is an old centrino

So from what I gather, if I have HD content (say one of my hddvd's), I could convert it to mp4 or wmv (keeping the HD quality) and play it on my 360 from a connected external harddisk?

8T8

Yes that is possible but a few caveats;

* Encoding HD-DVD to H.264/MP4 will require powerful computer or it will take a very long time.

* Max file size of MP4 allowed by Xbox 360 is 4GB

* Tools to demux video and audio from EVO (HD-DVD version of VOB's) are still in an early state, command line apps & such.

* As far as I know AutoMKV does not yet support HD-DVD's when the tools mature it will be a lot easier but for now you would have to do it manually outside of a GUI to convert into H.264/MP4