x264-MP4 that is playable in Quicktime 7, completely via CLI!

[Zak Kingston]

Hi there,

In many threads of this forum I've read about creating mp4-files with x264 that are playable in Quicktime 7. Some guys seem to have found a solution already, but I've never seen a complete "workflow". So, I'd like to publish mine. It works entirely via Windows command-line. Basic video is a dv-avi.

What is needed:

-x264.exe (I've used the latest build 270)
-faac.exe for the sound (version 1.24.1)
-avi2wavcmd.exe (to create an intermediate wav-file)
-mp4creator.exe (to mux, version 1.2.8)
-avisynth (for x264 input)

What to do:

1. Prepare an avs-file as our input with the following code:

avisource("c:\INPUTFILE.avi")
ConvertToYV12()

2. Create a batch file with these parameters:

avi2wavcmd c:\INPUTFILE.avi c:\sound_temp.wav

faac -q 75 -c 32000 --mpeg-vers 4 -o c:\sound_done.aac c:\sound_temp.wav

x264.exe -q 30 --bitrate 650 -I 250 -i 25 --bframes 0 --no-b-adapt -r 5 -w --analyse all --subme 6 --no-psnr --progress --fps 25 -o "c:\raw.264" "c:\INPUTSCRIPT.avs" 720x576

mp4creator -c c:\raw.264 -rate=25 c:\h264.mp4
mp4creator -c c:\sound_done.aac -aac-profile=4 -hint -interleave c:\h264.mp4
mp4creator -optimize c:\h264.mp4
mp4creator -list c:\h264.mp4

That's it. Unfortunately due to the lack of money I couldn't test it on a Mac - maybe you can?

Bugs:

- Hinting doesn't work yet (If I do so, mp4creator produces a huge and worthless file)
- I can't mux with mp4box, if I try it always says "h264-file is truncated"

I hope you have some suggestions for me!

[DeeGee]

Hmm... I myself would do things little bit different, but basically I need AAC-audio (non HE), and H.264 with no b-frames, no psnr, no 8x8dct and no adaptive b-frame desicion?

[edit] And what's with the raw outputs? At least x264 can output nice .mp4 which should work with mp4box just fine (although raw h.264 should too).

[Sirber]

Could you explain more what avi2wavcmd does?

[DeeGee]

Seems like program to extract the audio. I'd myself use mplayer as i have it already installed with "mplayer -ao pcm -vo null input.avi".

[SeeMoreDigital]

Urgh....

If you're interested, I've just finished creating a whole (preliminary) web site full of TV commercials for use with QuickTime7 player. All have been generated in X264 (no B-VOP etc, etc) with AAC-HE audio. They've even be re-muxed from .MP4 to .MOV, so they can stream better for people with 512Kbps ISP connections or higher...

Here, please, see what you think: -

http://www.stuartgraham.homechoice.co.uk/


Cheers

[madoka]

This is what I use:

x264 -r 5 -A p8x8,b8x8,i4x4 -w --me umh -m 6

B-frames will work only if the clip is short (~2000 frames or so). I'm guessing that's a bug. Also, for some reason the mp4 output from x264 won't play unless I re-mux it with mp4box.

For AAC audio, I just use iTunes. QT7 doesn't seem to support mp3-in-mp4. Moreover, it'll bork if there are any unsupported streams in the mp4 (for example, TTXT), instead of just ignoring them.

Maybe the Mac version is more capable and less buggy...

[Sharktooth]

I wonder why ppl still use QT...

[SeeMoreDigital]

Originally Posted by Sharktooth

I wonder why ppl still use QT...

For me, the choice is simple... The QuickTime player looks very slick and uncluttered when incorporated into web pages, the .MOV is very stream flexible, it's Win and Mac OS compatible, and it works very well indeed


Cheers

[Sharktooth]

... and it's proprietary ...

[SeeMoreDigital]

Originally Posted by Sharktooth

... and it's proprietary ...

If somebody else can create a web page compatible player that looks and works as well as QT7, I'll give it a try with pleasure


Cheers

[nm]

Originally Posted by SeeMoreDigital

If somebody else can create a web page compatible player that looks and works as well as QT7, I'll give it a try with pleasure

Since QT7 is not available on Linux, people have already come up with something better:
http://mplayerplug-in.sourceforge.net/

Mplayer works quite well on Windows and Mac OS X, so I'd imagine the piece of code
required to make a browser plugin for IE and Safari would not be a huge deal.
Of course, since mplayer lacks corporate support and MPEG4 licences, it would
not catch on among the ordinary people, but at least the tinkerers would have
decent video playback in their browsers.

[Sharktooth]

Originally Posted by SeeMoreDigital

If somebody else can create a web page compatible player that looks and works as well as QT7, I'll give it a try with pleasure


Cheers

VLC or Mplayer web plugin.

[SeeMoreDigital]

Originally Posted by Sharktooth

VLC or Mplayer web plugin.

Do you know whether the VLC or Mplayer plug-ins display the video player in the same way as QuickTime ie: within the web page. Or do they launch a separate player?


Cheers

[nm]

Oh, I forgot the news about the Google Video Viewer (http://video.google.com/) based on VLC. It is designed to only work with the Google Video service, but Jon Johansen already hacked the player to work generally.
See http://www.pcworld.com/resource/arti...RSS,RSS,00.asp and Jon's page: http://www.nanocrew.net/?p=114 for more detail.

And yes, it displays the video within the browser window. I don't know about fullscreen capabilities though. At least the mplayer plug-in allows one to zoom the video to full screen which I think is great (although personally I prefer command line to browser plugins

[Zak Kingston]

well, well...just want to reply...

Originally Posted by SeeMoreDigital

Urgh....

Is it so bad Your examples work quite well on my side.

But I'd like to know if you're able to produce an aac HE via command-line...and were you able to hint the files? And how did you put it into a .mov-container? So many questions

-avi2wav2cmd is indeed a tool that just extracts an uncompressed wav-file out of an avi. This step wouldn't be necessary if I'd know how to create an aac directly of an avi-sound...you know a solution?

- the x264 parameter -A p8x8,b8x8,i4x4 doesn't work on my side...it does well on Mac, but on PC the video is stuttering...same with using b-frames...but quality is still great, in my opinion

- I tried exporting an mp4 from x264 and mux it with mp4box...it worked, but the file is not playable in qt7, not even in vlc...

[Doom9]

But I'd like to know if you're able to produce an aac HE via command-line.

how about BeSweet using the Nero DLLs?

if I'd know how to create an aac directly of an avi-sound

how about besweet again?

[Zak Kingston]

No success with encoding via BeSweet...the aac-file was playable in Winamp, but not with QT...

And I wanted to avoid proprietary software like nero.

For straight avi-aac-converting in BeSweet I tried the VOBInput.dll, but it also didn't work...BeSweet just says that it cannot load the input file...but it should work with avi's shouldn't it?

But thanks anyway!

[bond]

it makes no sense to use he-aac when you aim at playing the file in qt, as qt cant decode the sbr part -> crappy quality

[Doom9]

And I wanted to avoid proprietary software like nero.

Uh, and QT is open source or what? In many ways QT is a lot worse than what Nero offers.

[Zak Kingston]

Well, it's for the production part...if the published file is done using open source-soft, I'm satisfied. The player is the problem of the user. But the only spreaded player right now is Quicktime 7, and it will be even more in the future. So I have to take care to do the right settings that the file is playable in Quicktime.

I'd be glad, too, if one day everybody has VLC as the default player. But I'm afraid that won't happen so soon.

Sorry, I didn't know that QT isn't able to decode AAC HE.

Cheers!