x264 and Sony PSP?

[Clown shoes]

LOL. Let there be light. ;)

[conkeroo]

Ghim, can i pick your brains mate?
I did what you said about using the default PD-PSP profile and then changing the three settings, ie the restriction level to 2.1, b-frames set to 1 and ref frames set to 1.
Except when the video is encoded, the bitrate is too high. Roughly about 1300kbps. Ive changed the bitrate to 384 and the vbv max bitrate to 768 but still its too high. Did you have any problems with this?
Id appreciate your help cos im close to pulling my hair out!! :angry:

[Ghim]

I've never had such a problem.

For the VBV Max Bitrate, I'm using the default setting of the PD-PSP profile (4000) and for the bitrate I'm using 500kbps.

After encoding, I get exactly what I asked for (500kbps).

How do you start your encoding ?
Do you use the "AutoEncode" button ? If that's the case, make sure you set the "Size and Bitrate" setting to "No Target Size".

[conkeroo]

Any chance you could post that profile Ghim?
Ive tried that and still getting to high a bitrate. Ive changed the bitrate to 768 which is what i want and the strange thing is the video will play if i put it in the VIDEO folder but i dont want so high a bitrate. It still exports the video at about 50meg for a three minute clip!! What the heck am i doing wrong?!!

[Ghim]

Here is the video profile I am using:
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/misambart/PD-PSP.xml

[conkeroo]

Thanks Ghim.
I tried that profile and it worked fine. Cheers.
I placed the video in the old folder and it wouldnt work but when i placed it in the video folder it was fine. Fickle piece of hardware altogether!!
Why Sony cant make it straight forward, I dont know.:sly:
Anyway though, thanks again.

[Golgot13]

PSP accept video with multiple audio and subtitle tracks,
but it is not possible to change the audio track and to have access
at subtilte.

PSP can read AMR, AAC LC and AAC HE audio (on MP4 or 3GP container)

Lot of options of H264 are accepted:
Weighed Prediction, Half Pixel, Chroma ME, Quarter Pixel, Partitions.

GOP up to 30 frames (I don't test more)
25fps and 29.97fps are accepted (not 23.976 ???)
CBR, ABR and VBR (1 or 2 pass) are accepted up to 4000kbps



Golgot13

[deets]

yeah the psp video can now handle HE AAC...

not that i really know if thats a good thing :P

[conkeroo]

Is the ghosting you get on the video just part and parcel of encoding with x264 because it seems to be quite bad on any of the vids ive done.
Is it just the psp?

[Sudds]

Copy and paste this into your script Conkeroo
.............................................................

Tweak(sat=1.7, bright=17, cont=1.1)

.............................................................

[Golgot13]

PSP don't play AVC video files without audio track.
It do not use the SAR information (in MP4 header or in H264 header)
:( :( :( (not possible to make good video play in full screen with 1MB/min )

It accept lot of resolution up to 320x240 (160x240, 320x120, 160x120,... accepted)


Golgot13

[AnimeTheme]

It accept lot of resolution up to 320x240 (160x240, 320x120, 160x120,... accepted)

Basically, as long as the resolution uses less than 320x240 pixels (eg. 368x208 16:9), PSP can still play it.

[Golgot13]

Basically, as long as the resolution uses less than 320x240 pixels (eg. 368x208 16:9), PSP can still play it.

Yes, you are right. I make some test and I understand
that there is not a locked resolution size but there is a lock
in the number of pixel.

74000 ( ~ ) is the maximum for PSP, so PSP can play:
380x194, 390x189, 400x185, 450x162,....


Golgot13

[Golgot13]

PSP don't accept:
CAVL (only CABC)
No more than 1 B frame (with no more than 1 reference)
No Interlaced mode
No MBAFF
No PAFF
No more than one Slice


Golgot13

[CruNcher]

74000 ( ~ ) is the maximum for PSP, so PSP can play:
380x194, 390x189, 400x185, 450x162,....

Thats not correct you have to say it's Restricted by Sony for normal users to this pixel count the PSP is technicaly capable of playing full Res DVD 355200 pixel (UMD Film Mode) with upto 1.5 mbit and thx to all the PSP hackers we are able to use 130560 (full display res aka Game Video Mode) Pixel of that now :)

[Golgot13]

Yes CruNcher, I talk only of PSP with 2.8 firmware.
I can not put a hacked firmware because it is not possible
to have LocationFree software (see TV on PSP in realtime with
remote control)..... :D

Golgot13

[CruNcher]

i have the Location Free Player on my 2.71 firmware aside of my 1.5 firmware, but it would be problematic for you to downgrade from 2.80 now to 1.50 you would need the Modchip for that. It would be possible to stream in realtime useing your pc with VLC and remote with Girder now that VLC supports ASP/H.264 streaming in .mp4 flawlessly, even more realiable ;)

[Golgot13]

i have the Location Free Player on my 2.71 firmware aside of my 1.5 firmware

Yes, but I had lot of problem with remote control (specific DVB receiver
and Divx player in Hard Disc= nice to make channel stream ;) )

but it would be problematic for you to downgrade from 2.80 now to 1.50 you would need the Modchip for that.

Can you give more information about this in PM

It would be possible to stream in realtime useing your pc with VLC and remote with Girder now that VLC supports ASP/H.264 streaming in .mp4 flawlessly, even more realiable ;)

Yes, but you need to have a PC online every time ...
I use the protocol X10 to put on my LocationFree Box (with web connection
I have a "Web-X10" buy in USA= I can put on or off 16 hardware :D ).

Do you know how we can catch the video stream from LocationFree Box???
The quality of video is nice (and there is now LCD TV with LocationFree
inside : LF X1, LF X5, LF X11,...).


Golgot13

[lchiu7]

I only purchased a PSP recently, primarily to play videos. I am not a gamer. Firmeware is 2.0.

Searching around the first choice to convert videos I found was PSPVideo9. It's pretty much plug and play and getting TV shows or DVD's onto the PSP was pretty easy. I am encoding in AVC format.

But I am finding that the shows I encode (versus the one UMD I have) have annoying red blotches occuring in dark areas (like in the open mouth of somebody) plus some smearing. I think the smearing is a hardware limitation but the red blotches are probably not.


I have gone through this entire thread and while I understand most of it, I am wondering does the use of X264 plus various audio encoding techniques (which are of course not relevant to the video problem) create an improved picture? Can you get rid of those red blotches?

Sorry if these questions seem simple but I just could not find an answer reading the thread.

As as aside I tried to use belite to encode audio and it failed looking for a coupole of aac DLL's which I cannot find. I presume they are the Nero AAC pack which you have to purchase? I did find an AAC plugin for Adobe Audition (which I do have) and while that's not a CLI solution, at least I can take the extracted wav file from the video and encode that in PSP compliant AAC format (I hope!)

Thanks for any assistance

[deets]

yep sadly you will suffer ghosting in dark areas. sudds earlier suggested adding this to your avisynth script :)

Copy and paste this into your script Conkeroo
.............................................................

Tweak(sat=1.7, bright=17, cont=1.1)

.............................................................

use megui with the free nero aac command line encoder and this will make your audio very simple, you just use the same avisynth script for both now :)

[lchiu7]

yep sadly you will suffer ghosting in dark areas. sudds earlier suggested adding this to your avisynth script :)



use megui with the free nero aac command line encoder and this will make your audio very simple, you just use the same avisynth script for both now :)

Thanks. Tried megui but it wanted .net 2.0 and this machine is a bit flaky so don't want to do that.

But managed to encode the audio using faac. And checked in Adobe Audition and it has the following properties

Filename: big.aac
File Type: 48000Hz, 16-bit, Stereo
Uncompressed Size: 43.69 MB (45,821,952 bytes)
File Format: MPEG4-AAC
MPEG4 - 72752 bps ADTS AAC LC (Low Complexity)
Size on Disk: 2.07 MB (2,175,981.00 bytes)
Last Written (local): 8/19/2006 01:37:45.921
Length: 3:58.656 11,455,488 samples

This looks right to me for PSP audio.

But I have another problem. After running x264 and then the mp4box and atomchanger (which looks like they work okay) I get an unplayable mp4 file

This is the log I get

encoded 7153 frames, 27.33 fps, 256.83 kb/s

C:\Program Files\x264>start /belownormal /b /w MP4Box.exe -fps 29.97 -add big.264 output.mp4
Adjusting AVC SizeLength to 16 bits
AVC-H264 import - frame size 320 x 240 at 29.970 FPS
Import results: 7153 samples - Slices: 70 I 7083 P 0 B - 1 SEI - 70 IDR
Saving to output.mp4: 0.500 secs Interleaving

C:\Program Files\x264>start /belownormal /b /w MP4Box.exe -fps 29.97 -add big.aac output.mp4
AAC import - sample rate 48000 - MPEG-2 audio - 2 channels
Saving output.mp4: 0.500 secs Interleaving

C:\Program Files\x264>start /belownormal /b /w ATOMChanger.exe output.mp4 MAQ00264.MP4 AtomAVC.ini

ATOMChanger for PSP Video 9
By MobileHackerz and Sajeeth Cherian
http://www.pspvideo9.com
PSP MPEG-4 AVC
VideoTrack : 1 320 x 240 29.97fps 1bps
AudioTrack : 2 48000Hz 2ch 70304bps

What I don't understand is the message that notes the VideoTrack is 1bps even though it was coded for 256kbs

The video won't even play on the PC with Quicktime.

Any ideas?

Thanks

[lchiu7]

Thanks. Tried megui but it wanted .net 2.0 and this machine is a bit flaky so don't want to do that.

But managed to encode the audio using faac. And checked in Adobe Audition and it has the following properties

Filename: big.aac
File Type: 48000Hz, 16-bit, Stereo
Uncompressed Size: 43.69 MB (45,821,952 bytes)
File Format: MPEG4-AAC
MPEG4 - 72752 bps ADTS AAC LC (Low Complexity)
Size on Disk: 2.07 MB (2,175,981.00 bytes)
Last Written (local): 8/19/2006 01:37:45.921
Length: 3:58.656 11,455,488 samples

This looks right to me for PSP audio.

But I have another problem. After running x264 and then the mp4box and atomchanger (which looks like they work okay) I get an unplayable mp4 file

This is the log I get

encoded 7153 frames, 27.33 fps, 256.83 kb/s

C:\Program Files\x264>start /belownormal /b /w MP4Box.exe -fps 29.97 -add big.264 output.mp4
Adjusting AVC SizeLength to 16 bits
AVC-H264 import - frame size 320 x 240 at 29.970 FPS
Import results: 7153 samples - Slices: 70 I 7083 P 0 B - 1 SEI - 70 IDR
Saving to output.mp4: 0.500 secs Interleaving

C:\Program Files\x264>start /belownormal /b /w MP4Box.exe -fps 29.97 -add big.aac output.mp4
AAC import - sample rate 48000 - MPEG-2 audio - 2 channels
Saving output.mp4: 0.500 secs Interleaving

C:\Program Files\x264>start /belownormal /b /w ATOMChanger.exe output.mp4 MAQ00264.MP4 AtomAVC.ini

ATOMChanger for PSP Video 9
By MobileHackerz and Sajeeth Cherian
http://www.pspvideo9.com
PSP MPEG-4 AVC
VideoTrack : 1 320 x 240 29.97fps 1bps
AudioTrack : 2 48000Hz 2ch 70304bps

What I don't understand is the message that notes the VideoTrack is 1bps even though it was coded for 256kbs

The video won't even play on the PC with Quicktime.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Well nobody replied but I managed to solve the problem myself :)

As usual it was the audio which was the problem. I had tried faac, belight and even neraacenc but for some reason could not generate a compatible audio file. In the end used the plugin for Adobe Audition and created an aac file that was compatible and when muxed with the video created with x264 made playable mp4 files. The additional avisynth filter also has removed the red splotches which is godsend. The additional effort over using PSPVideo9 is worth the removal of those things which were quite distracting.

Having to use Audition means it can't all be done in batch but at least it works

If somebody can provide a command line sequence for neroaacenc that works or even faac I would be grateful

[lchiu7]

Making good progress on using x264 and mp4box to create video for the PSP. Have gotten to the point where I can convert divx and DVD fine. And thanks to a hint from Deeks, have reduced the red splotch problem.

In an earlier post somebody talked about the problem where there are sticky frames - 2 frames skipped just before an I-frame. I think I see this manifest itself as jumpy video every now and then. Interestingly it occurs both on converted PAL DVD and NTSC divx.

Reading through this thread it seems the only way to fix this is to upgrade to 2.8 firmware which allows different framerates to be played? Is this correct? I am on 2.0 but would happily upgrade to 2.8 if that fixed the problem.

Thanks

Larry

[conkeroo]

Hows things Ichiu7.
Just going back to what you were saying about the ghosting.
I had the same problem too but apparently, according to sony, the ghosting will occurr when the psp just starts up and you have to give the components a chance to heat up in order for the video to play ok.
I tried this and it does work. I let the video play for about 45 minutes and it seemed fine.
Anyway just to let you know in case you continue to pull your hair out trying to figure it out, like me!! :D

[lchiu7]

Hows things Ichiu7.
Just going back to what you were saying about the ghosting.
I had the same problem too but apparently, according to sony, the ghosting will occurr when the psp just starts up and you have to give the components a chance to heat up in order for the video to play ok.
I tried this and it does work. I let the video play for about 45 minutes and it seemed fine.
Anyway just to let you know in case you continue to pull your hair out trying to figure it out, like me!! :D

Hi

The ghosting is pretty minimal now and I really happy with applying the avisynth filter that the red blotches are also gone.

When I get the chance I plan to upgrade to firmware 2.8 and see if that can get rid of the sticky frame problem

[deets]

2.8 is a must if your a big video user, it makes it so much easier!

no atomchanger, no specific file or folder name 25fps suppport and a few others!

[Clown shoes]

Just so you know Ichiu7, the sticky frame problem was fixed in versions above 2.5 I think. It is definatley fixed though.

@Conkeroo

really interesting news that, about the ghosting. I will have to go and test it out.

[lchiu7]

2.8 is a must if your a big video user, it makes it so much easier!

no atomchanger, no specific file or folder name 25fps suppport and a few others!

Before I take that step (I have downloaded the firmware) will it screw up all the movies I have encoded so far?

Also to take advantage of the change can I just remove -fps 29.97 from the mp4box command line?

Thanks

[Ghim]

It is possible that some of the videos you have encoded so far won't work in the new "VIDEO" folder.
However, those videos should still work in the old folder.

[cast42]

Before I take that step (I have downloaded the firmware) will it screw up all the movies I have encoded so far?

Also to take advantage of the change can I just remove -fps 29.97 from the mp4box command line?

Thanks
No, all x264 movies that worked for firmware 2.6 also work under 2.8.

[lchiu7]

No, all x264 movies that worked for firmware 2.6 also work under 2.8.

What about movies encoded for 2.0?

I had a shot at encoding a movie at 23.98. Source is NTSC xvid. Changed the mp4box command to -fps 23.98 and removed the ChangeFPS(29.97) in the avisynth script. Movie encoded okay and plays fine in QT which shows the rate as being 23.98. Of course, can't check if it will play in the PSP until I upgrade the firmware :)

Larry

[AnimeTheme]

What about movies encoded for 2.0?

Anything that plays on 2.0 will surely play on 2.8 as well, as long as you put the movies in the old folder structure.

If you want to put them in the new "VIDEO" folder, you may need some simple header changes.

[cast42]

With PSP fimrware 2.8 I can nicely play standard .mp4 files encoded with megui (25fps video and 44KHz audio LC-AAC). So indeed no need anymore for ATOMchanger. Does anybody now how to make a thumbnail for mp4 video in the VIDEO directory on the PSP ?

Thx

[Sudds]

Try this mate: http://blindraven.net/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=26&topic=5.0

[cast42]

Try this mate: http://blindraven.net/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=26&topic=5.0
Thx, but that works for videos in the MPROOT/ directories. I have another problem. I put standard .mp4 files in the root [VIDEO] directory (new possibility of firmware 2.8). The megui encoded video work fine but I'm searching for the trick to tell the PSP there's a thumnail associated with VIDEO/video.mp4. I tried with a 160x120 jpeg file (e.g. VIDEO/video.jpg) with the same name as the .mp4 but no succes.

If I run atomchanger on the standard .mp4, I can have thumnails but some bug makes that the video stops a few seconds before the end while audio continues (for long videos and when no fast forward/backward is performed, just playback) :( . The standard .mp4 in [VIDEO] works fine.

[lchiu7]

Still on firmware 2.0 since I want to make sure all is well before upgrading. Can't use megui since this requires .net 2.0 and the machine is a bit flaky for that.

Anyway have been successfully converting files fine using x264 and Adobe Audition with aac plugin.

Decided to get belight a whirl since it looked less of a hassle. So the process is

1. encode video with x264
2. create wav file from original video
3. encode wav file in MP4 file (AAC on the container) using belight and Nero Digital
4. Mux the files together with mp4box

The resulting mp4 file plays fine using QT. But to get it to a compatible PSP format I have to run atomchanger.

This works well for files created in my usual process, but once the MP4 created from mp4box is processed by atomchanger, the resulting file loses audio after about 1 minute (both on QT and in the PSP) and eventually the PSP notes the file is invalid.

This is all that's in my atomavc.ini file

[Config]
Title=PSP MPEG-4 AVC
MQV=2
CODEC=2

[DeleteAtom]
Item0=ftyp
Item1=free

[InsertAtom]
Item0=ftypMSNV%01%00%07%86MSNVmp42isom
Item1=/moov/trak/edts%00%00%00%1Celst%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%01%00%7E%31%B6%00%00%00%00%00%01%00%00

Any idea what might be going wrong?

Thanks

Larry

[deets]

you using the recompiled atomchanger from my site?

why not just make your life so much easier and upgrade to 2.80 :) i personally would strongly reccomend it if your going to be using video, AAC HE+ps is ideal for the PSP when file size is so important. and somehow get net 2.0 working, megui is the PSP owners best friend :P

[Sudds]

I wouldnt upgrade, i would downgrade, currently i,am playing 480x272 AVC movies on my 1.50, (which i downgraded from 2.60) and i can tell you this, you,ll not get better on 2.80, infact you,ll not get better until Sony takes the res restrictions off its player.

[cast42]

I used Atomchanger from http://www.bontragerphotography.com/psp/ for processing 25fps video and 44KHz audio encoding. A small video of five minutes plays fine (if number of ref frames = 1 and number of B-frames = 1) under firmware 2.8. The strange thing I encountered is with longer sequences (15 and 25 minutes). The video freezes just before the end while the audio continues. I also tried with PSPvideo9 Atomchanger and the same bug (??) happened. Remark that when during playback, the movie is fast forwarded, backwinded or paused, the movie plays correctly until the end. As a result, I now put the megui standard mp4 file in the VIDEO directory where they play fine. Therefore I suspect some bug is triggered in playback on PSP with firmware 2.8 is current Atomchanger if used. I will try 48KHz instead of 44KHz aac-lc, maybe that will circumvent the bug?

[lchiu7]

you using the recompiled atomchanger from my site?

why not just make your life so much easier and upgrade to 2.80 :) i personally would strongly reccomend it if your going to be using video, AAC HE+ps is ideal for the PSP when file size is so important. and somehow get net 2.0 working, megui is the PSP owners best friend :P

I am using the unrestricted atomchanger. Can't work out why the process of applying atomchanger breaks the audio since the file after muxing is fine. I should upgrade to 2.8 at some time. I just want to find out why this process is not working.

As for .net 2.0 - well might have to bite that bullet also :(

[lchiu7]

I wouldnt upgrade, i would downgrade, currently i,am playing 480x272 AVC movies on my 1.50, (which i downgraded from 2.60) and i can tell you this, you,ll not get better on 2.80, infact you,ll not get better until Sony takes the res restrictions off its player.

How do play 480x272 movies? Sounds like you have to use a different player? I am reasonably happy with PQ on the PSP. It's not my main video platform or course - just for when I am in the mall waiting for the wife or waiting for the kids during their various lessons :) Also for when I travel on planes (assuming these days I could take it on the plane!)

But would like the sticky frame problem fixed which I understand was fixed in 2.5?

[cast42]

I used Atomchanger from http://www.bontragerphotography.com/psp/ ...I will try 48KHz instead of 44KHz aac-lc, maybe that will circumvent the bug?
I muxed in 48KHz mono audio (aac-lc at 64 Kbps) to the 25fps video.
Running ATOMChanger:
C:\psp2\PSP_48>start /belownormal /b /w ATOMChanger.exe "Welkom.mp4" c:\psp2\PSP_48\MAQ00431.MP4 AtomAVC.ini
ATOMChanger for 3GP_Converter Version 0.21
http://www.nurs.or.jp/~calcium/
Modified by qyqgpower
PSP/AVC:FPS Depends on Input File
VideoTrack : 1 368 x 208 25,00fps 1bps
AudioTrack : 2 48000Hz 1ch 64120bps
Unfortunately the video still freezes before the end of the audio on PSP with firmware 2.8 (lower firmware has no support for 25fps)!

[Sudds]

How do play 480x272 movies? Sounds like you have to use a different player?

Thats right mate, its a third party player for a 1.50 PSP called PMPMOD AVC http://jonny.leffe.dnsalias.com/pmp_mod_avc/index.htm
The native player on the PSP has restrictions on the resolution, no more than 76000 pixels (around that), now with PMPMOD AVC you can play 480x272 res movies which works out at 130560 pixels and looks super sharp.
I did use MeGUI but when i downgraded it was of no use, as you need a modified version of X264 to encode which is also available from the same site.
So which would you rather? 76000 or 130560...not much of a contest is it? :)

[lchiu7]

I am using the unrestricted atomchanger. Can't work out why the process of applying atomchanger breaks the audio since the file after muxing is fine. I should upgrade to 2.8 at some time. I just want to find out why this process is not working.

As for .net 2.0 - well might have to bite that bullet also :(
Well solved the problem sort of. Encoded the mp4 file using neroaacenc instead of belight and the Nero DLL's and the audio is fine on the PSP. The only annoying factor is, the wav file that neroaacenc needs to be processed has to be completely uncompressed - it won't read a wav file with MP3 or other internal formats. So that's another step in the process.

2.8 is looking more attractive :)

[Sudds]

2.8 is looking more attractive :)

Are you mad??:scared:
Dude, try PMPMOD AVC first, if you dont like it then upgrade to 2.80.

[CruNcher]

Nothing goes over Irshell 2.0 with integrated PMP Mod and PMP Mod AVC :P
http://www.phpbber.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=512

[lchiu7]

Are you mad??:scared:
Dude, try PMPMOD AVC first, if you dont like it then upgrade to 2.80.

From what I have read downgrading from 2.0 to 1.5 if not done properly can render your PSP a brick (is that the term?). I guess I don't quite have the nerve to do that quite yet :(

[Sudds]

Upgrade to 2.50 or 2.60 mate, then downgrade, its safe ave done about 20 PSP,s so far and not a brick so far. http://blindraven.net/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=49&func=download&id=7&chk=7effdc7e0183fac1aad39cbd44e1456c
Dont worry bout what it says before you download, its just an excluder.

[conkeroo]

Looks like a usable exploit has been found for ALL firmwares, inc. 2.80, to run homebrew software.
Theres still work to be done but this could mean in the near future that the full res. media player will be available to all (inc. me (2.80 firm.)).
Sweet is all i can say!! :D

[Sudds]

Yeah its excellent news! You cant stop them Sony! :D :D