H.264 profile for new 5.5G Ipod?

[Kurtnoise]

Honestly, I really don't know...Does anybody have already made some tests with this -ipod switch ? If yes, is it ok ?

[_leech_]

can someone(NWDaniels91, Student Driver :P) post their final setting that works well on iPod?

Yea, a final, confirmed working command line would be nice :)

[check]

as far as I can tell (not owning an ipod and all :P), you just need to add the -ipod switch to a normal commandline. I wouldn't suppose you had done any testing yourselves, have you?

[celtic_druid]

You don't need to add -ipod if your output is *.m4v.

I do have an iPod, just that 1) it lives in my car and 2) it is only an iPod photo.

[Nic]

@kurtnoise:
http://nic.dnsalias.com
Download the Zip for NicMP4Box and look in the readme for a link to the source.

-Nic

[HowlerX]

Honestly, I really don't know...Does anybody have already made some tests with this -ipod switch ? If yes, is it ok ?

I'd be willing to test this new MP4Box. I still have some 640x352 mp4 movies on my hard drive that I can mux and test within iTunes and my 30gig video ipod. I've already tested them with Nic's MP4Box and they played fine.

Kurtnoise, I downloaded the latest MP4Box in the link in your sig and it doesn't seem to support this "-ipod" switch.

-H

[Kurtnoise]

Yes, my build doesn't include this new stuff...Use the new one from Celtic_Druid (http://ffdshow.faireal.net/mirror/gpac/dev/) or wait a couple of hours. :)

@Nic: thanks...;)

[HowlerX]

Hi. Just thought you guys might want to know. Tried the latest MP4Box from Celtic_Druid's site and Kurtnoise's latest (MP4Box-0.4.3_20061018.zip) and both do not work on my iPod. I used the -ipod switch for both builds and while the file plays with Quicktime and iTunes, the file won't download to the iPod.

Muxing the video with Nic's MP4Box does work though. The file is a 512x288 AVC1;x264 video/128kbps AAC .mp4 and it plays and looks good on the video iPod when muxed with NicMP4Box.

-H

[Synergy37]

This is really starting to piss me off. I did everything the posts said and used the NIC mp4box for MeGUI, but everytime I go to update my iPod it says it won't update because it's a bad bit rate. Can someone please post a file that is there profile so I can just add it to my program and use it? Thanks.

[memberako]

i just wanna know the length of videos you guys are testing. i tried converting using nic's command line and muxing it with nicmp4box. a 40 second clip was recognized by itunes and transferred to my ipod without a problem but a 1 hour movie can't be recognized by itunes.

what is the length of the videos you guys are testing? i think that the length has something to do with it.

[Synergy37]

Yea the Cornell movie that someone posted worked fine and was like a minute, then my 5 minute clip didn't work.

[Mug Funky]

"C:\Program Files\x264\x264.exe" --pass 1 --stats "%~dpn1_stats.log" --bitrate %rate% --level 30 --thread-input
--keyint 50 --ref 1 --no-cabac --qpmin=4 --bframes 0 --direct auto --subme 6 --analyse p8x8,i4x4,p4x4 --me umh
--progress --output "%~dpn1_x264.264" "%~dpn1.formp4.avs"
"C:\Program Files\x264\x264.exe" --pass 2 --stats "%~dpn1_stats.log" --bitrate %rate% --level 30 --thread-input
--keyint 50 --ref 1 --no-cabac --qpmin=4 --bframes 0 --direct auto --subme 6 --analyse p8x8,i4x4,p4x4 --me umh
--progress --output "%~dpn1_x264.264" "%~dpn1.formp4.avs"
"C:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\avs2wav.exe" "%~dpn1.formp4.avs" - | "C:\Program Files\x264\neroAacEnc_sse2.exe"
-br %arate%000 -lc -if - -of "%~dpn1_audio.m4a"
nicMP4Box.exe -fps 25 -par 01=1:1 -add "%~dpn1_x264.264" -add "%~dpn1_audio.m4a" "%~dpn1.mp4"


worked for me.
bitrate must be less than 768 kbps i believe.

however, i only tested a 2.5 min clip. who knows what a longer one will be like (i'll be testing that pretty soon).

obviously get rid of the linebreaks...

i know in the past i've had trouble with quicktime recognising stuff over a certain length/filesize

[Synergy37]

How would i use those settings that you used?

[Adub]

directly paste them into the commandline portion of megui, with the correct mp4box selected. or you can decode the commandline and enter in the options your self. Or hell, use a command line. That seems to work quite nicely.

[Sharktooth]

@Synergy37: I suspect you may be using the iPod 5.5G profile for a non 5.5G ipod...

[memberako]

@nic: what was the length of the movies that you tested. i can't seem to make an 40 min episode work on my ipod. but when i tried a 40 sec clip, it worked.

[Nic]

@memberako: I did full length films. (Star Wars triliogy, etc).

May be a problem with your settings, bitrate, etc.

-Nic

[Synergy37]

@Sharktooth

I have a 5G iPod updated to a 1.2 firmware. The Cornell video someone else encoded worked fine for me, but anything I try fails.

[Adub]

you are using the correct bitrate, yes? Check your audio bitrate as well. The easiest way to be sure is to compare your settings with those on the MeGUI ipod wiki. The link is in my sig.

[temporance]

So does the iPod support deblocking at 640x480? Or is it only CABAC that is off limits?

[NWDaniels91]

So does the iPod support deblocking at 640x480? Or is it only CABAC that is off limits?

Deblocking works fine at 640x480. CABAC is not supported.

[Adub]

well according to Sharktooth's new profile, ipod 5.5 gen, it doesn't support deblocking. But for the old 5th gen, his profile says it does support deblocking.

Sharktooth, do you want to elaborate a little here? There is a little confusion.

@Temporance,
Good question.

Never mind, NW daniels cleared this up. Although, it also means that the 5.5 profile can be updated. Or maybe that is what Sharktooth can do when there will be two profiles released for 5.5 gen. One for battery and one for quality.

[memberako]

@memberako: I did full length films. (Star Wars triliogy, etc).

May be a problem with your settings, bitrate, etc.

-Nic

i followed every command written in your nicmp4box readme file. i just don't know what i did wrong. here are the commands i used:

x264 --no-cabac --level 30 --progress -B 500 --sar 1:1 -o video.mp4 video.avs
neroAacEnc.exe -br 80000 -if audio.wav -of audio.mp4
NicMP4Box -add audio.mp4 -add video.mp4 Muxed.mp4

[simonhowson]

i followed every command written in your nicmp4box readme file. i just don't know what i did wrong. here are the commands i used:

x264 --no-cabac --level 30 --progress -B 500 --sar 1:1 -o video.mp4 video.avs
neroAacEnc.exe -br 80000 -if audio.wav -of audio.mp4
NicMP4Box -add audio.mp4 -add video.mp4 Muxed.mp4

I am no expert on command lines, but you may try adding "--vbv-maxrate 1500" so that the bitrate doesn't exceed 1500 Kbps.

The command line I use is:

C:\Program Files\megui\tools\x264\x264.exe --pass 2 --bitrate 1000 --stats ".stats" --level 3 --no-cabac --subme 6 --analyse none --qpmin 16 --vbv-maxrate 1500 --me umh --merange 12 --threads 2 --thread-input --progress --no-psnr

Change "--threads 2" to "--threads 1" if you don't have a dual core machine.

[memberako]

do i really need to do a 2 pass? is there a big difference with 1 pass?

is just me or is it really impossible to convert using 23.98 fps? i tried 25 fps and it worked.

[Sharktooth]

--threads should be ALWAYS 1 when encoding for iPods or other devices, since most likely those devices dont support slices.

[bond]

--threads should be ALWAYS 1 when encoding for iPods or other devices, since most likely those devices dont support slices.hm, quicktime's normal encodes use 5 slices. maybe it does the same for ipod encodes?

[Sharktooth]

dunno, but once you get it working then you can try experimenting with slices and other options...

[simonhowson]

dunno, but once you get it working then you can try experimenting with slices and other options...

I've had no problems using threads 2, and deblocking on with my 80 GB iPod video.

[HowlerX]

Deblocking works fine at 640x480. CABAC is not supported.

A couple of things thing I've noticed when encoding to 640x480 using h.264 codec. You might want to leave deblocking at default setting (0,0) or turning off deblocking altogether. Seems the iPod video chip is being pushed to its limits when decoding 640x480 pixels and the movie will skip and drop frames all over the place. Deblocking appears to be the most CPU intensive task when decoding and turning it off solved the skipping problems.

This really applies to 640x480 content. I've encoded to 640x272, 640x352 with deblocking at (-1,-1) and have had no problems. Which makes sense.

Just a few things I've noticed. Hope it helps.

[Hyper Shinchan]

hm, quicktime's normal encodes use 5 slices. maybe it does the same for ipod encodes?

5? It seems 2 slices to me (and I thought that this could be one reason of the slowness of QuickTime 7 on my PIII).

[Student Driver]

So, any word from the Nero folks on getting Recode updated with the new iPod profiles?

[ssj2_goha]

Does anyone know how to add chapters to the iPod video files? i have tried using the -chap command in nicmp4box but iTunes and the iPod don't reconize it.

[Pookie]

http://forum.doom9.org/archive/index.php/t-115864.html

[erspicu]

this is my way for your ref.



start /belownormal /b /w "" "tool\x264_new.exe" --no-cabac --level 30 --progress --me umh -m 7 -A all --crf 23 --sar 1:1 -o "temp\temp_video.264" "temp\temp_avs_AvsNumberLoad.avs"
start /belownormal /b /w "" "tool\extractwave.exe" "temp\temp_avs_AvsNumberLoad.avs" "temp\out.wav"
start /belownormal /b /w "" "tool\ffmpeg.exe" -y -i "temp\out.wav" -bitexact -vn -acodec aac -ac 2 -ar 44100 -ab 64 "temp\temp_audio.mp4"
"tool\NicMP4Box.exe" -fps 24 -add "temp\temp_video.264" -add "temp\temp_audio.mp4" "DoneFile\MainFileLoad.mp4"

[Jastr]

If i have a file playing fine when transfering it directly to the ipod not using itunes but itunes refuses it could i use nicmp4box to do something to the file so that it could be playable?

[NWDaniels91]

If i have a file playing fine when transfering it directly to the ipod not using itunes but itunes refuses it could i use nicmp4box to do something to the file so that it could be playable?

Yes, I've done exactly that with files encoded with Nero Recode. I used NicMP4Box with YAMB (Yet Another MP4Box UI) to extract both the audio and video streams from the MP4 file, then re-mux them together. It plays flawlessly on the iPod.

If you don't have it already, click here for the preview of YAMB 2.0 (http://kurtnoise.free.fr/index.php?dir=Yamb/&file=Yamb-2.0-Preview.zip) or here for the stable YAMB 1.6 (http://yamb.unite-video.com/Yamb-1.6.zip). (Don't forget to replace the MP4Box included with YAMB with NicMP4Box.)

[migrena]

you dont need yamb and remuxing, just use:

NicMP4Box -add NotWorking.mp4 Working.mp4

(its in readme)

[shanman99]

I have been using Sharktooth's 5.5 profile and NicMP4Box without problem, but all of a sudden have started getting this warning:

"Your AviSynth clip is is the wrong colorspace, 1610612740.
The colorspace should by YV12. Do you want me to add ConvertToYV12() to the end of your script?"

This is one some files that I had previously worked with without problems. If I do add the line the script, the resulting file won't trasnfer through iTunes.

Any suggestions?

[migrena]

i dont see why this shoud result in such effect but... what is your source?

[pinkie_1]

@ Shanman99 :

Confirmed.

To reproduce :
- use ffdshow (+ haali's renderer)
- set output colorspace to yuy2
- create an avs in megui, using directshowsource()

Workaround :
Pretty obvious. Adjust output colorspace in ffdshow accordingly...

[shanman99]

@pinkie_1

Thanks! I was pulling my hair out over this. Not sure how the colorspace settings got changed, but once I made the change with the ffdshow settings it now works again. I had not realized that there was a setting for it in ffdshow.

Thanks again.

[migrena]

maybe you are using cccp or your compilation of ffdshow have yv12 output disabled by default - this is for compatibility reasons, not all graphics cards supports correctly yv12

[shanman99]

hmm, I am still have problems making iTunes compatible video. I am using CCCP and changing the settings in ffdshow stops the colorspace error message, but I still haven't been able to get the compatible video. I had no problem in the past, but ever since the first time I got the error message, I have not been able to make compatible video. I am not sure what I changed to cause this chain of events, but I will keep trying to figure it out.

Thanks for the help, any further suggestions would be appreciated.

[shanman99]

I am still trying to get to the bottom of my problem. If the source is DVD, then I have no problem with the resulting file and it is accepted both into iTunes and if muxed with Nicmp4box transferable to the iPod. However, if the source is an xvid .avi that I had previously created with AutoGK, I run into problems. I have CCCP installed, but disabled for xvid and have xvid installed but enabled for only xvid (I have also tried it with the xvid decoder disabled and ffdshow enabled for xvid). If I don't touch any settings then I get the "Your AviSynth clip is is the wrong colorspace, 1610612740.The colorspace should by YV12. Do you want me to add ConvertToYV12() to the end of your script?" message.

If I don't accept this addition, I get the following error in the log:

avis [error]: unsupported input format (YUY2)
x264 [error]: could not open input file 'C:\videoclip.avs'

If I do add the ConvertToYV12() then the resulting file can't be added to iTunes.

I have tried not adding this, but enabling YV12 in the Planar YUV output of ffdshow and also forcing YV12 in the Output tab of xvid decoder. Neither will let me import the resulting file into itunes. I have muxed with Nicmp4box and still no luck.

The most frustrating thing is that it was working for me a week ago, even when I couldn't get the file onto the ipod, it still at least would import into itunes. I am not sure what has changed.

I am able to get the resulting files however on to the ipod with floola and they will play.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

[migrena]

all widely used codecs operate in yv12 colorspace, so your script have to output yv12 or you will get message of unsupported colorspace

i have come into this issue when i was using alparysoft lossles codec as input in megui, itunes would reject encoded files for no particular reason, i have not found solution other than using ffyuv instead of alparysoft, im still curious why itunes react like that

[SimonSez07]

i am trying to get my avi movies converted to avc onto my new ipod 5.5g. i have read all the threads and i am using nics modified mp4box but itunes still wont put the files onto my ipod. the error is:

"movie" was not copied to the ipod because it cannot be played on this ipod

the script i am using to convert the files is:
@ECHO OFF
set sourcefile=c:\movie.avs
set audiofile=c:\audio.mp4
set videofile=c:\video.mp4
set destinfile=c:\movie.mp4
c:\bin\av\x264.exe --crf 22 --no-cabac --subme 6 --analyse p8x8,b8x8 --qpmin 16 --vbv-maxrate 768 --me umh --merange 12 --threads auto --thread-input --progress --no-psnr --no-ssim --output "%videofile%" "%sourcefile%"
c:\bin\av\bepipe.exe --script "import(^%sourcefile%^)" - | c:\bin\av\neroAacEnc.exe -q 0.2 -lc -if - -of "%audiofile%"
c:\bin\av\NicMP4Box.exe -add "%audiofile%" -add "%videofile%" "%destinfile%"

please let me know if i am doing something wrong.

EDIT: Apparantly, adding --level 30 --sar 1:1 seems to make itunes happy (thanks to erspicu's post (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=925986#post925986))

[migrena]

seriously you have read all related threads and didnt use "--level 30"? what about "--no-cabac", its not needed anymore?
you dont need that "--sar 1:1"

im using this slightly modified Sharktooth's profile:
1st pass:
--quiet --pass 1 --bitrate 1200 --stats video.stats --level 30 --no-cabac --subme 1 --analyse none --qpmin 16 --vbv-maxrate 1500 --me dia --merange 12 --thread-input --progress --no-psnr --output NUL input.avs

2nd pass:
--quiet --pass 2 --bitrate 1200 --stats video.stats --level 30 --no-cabac --subme 6 --analyse none --qpmin 16 --vbv-maxrate 1500 --me umh --merange 12 --thread-input --progress --no-psnr --mixed-refs --ref 2 --output output.mp4 input.avs

[B. W.]

I am still trying to get to the bottom of my problem.
I'm having the same problem.

[memberako]

@shanman99 and B. W.

try adding the command nicefps() at the end of the script when converting xvid or divx files. it worked for me. let me know if it helps.

you'll need this plugin:
http://fileho.com/download/492945569467/NiceFPS.dll.html