Best Video Transcoding Settings For Pandora

[sinoth]

Using Handbrake I just ripped a DVD and dumped it to a MKV container using H.264 for video (at 60% constant quality) and AC3 passthrough for audio. I left the size alone, so the output resolution is 720x480. Everything else is default. I tried playing this on my Pandora using MPlayer and it couldn't decode fast enough (even at 750Mhz overclock). So my question is: what are the best transcoding codecs/settings for video on the Pandora? Also, is there any other program I should use than MPlayer that may be faster?

 

[GizmoTheGreen]

well, since we dont have acceleration yet.
h.264 is a bad choice.

choose native resltuion, so you wont have to downsize while playing back, and use some more cpu friendly format, divx or similar.

 

[Prometheus]

In HandBrake, I've been ripping to M4V, with ffmpeg-encoded MPEG4 video, and faac-encoded AAC audio - single-pass. I was setting target sizes for my rips, but your mileage may vary.

 

[cbox]

h.264 is very cpu intensive, there's a reason it's taken awhile to be supported on standalone players and such. Only recently were the cpus in standalone devices robust enough to process it.

 

[sinoth]

Thanks all, I had no idea h.264 was that intensive. Switched to ffmpeg-encoded MPEG4 and it works beautifully. This screen is so good T_T

 

[hedwards]

Eventually there'll be support for accelerated Theora, if I'm understanding things correctly. Or was it that other standard that Google's been pushing, I can't recall off hand.

 

[juniorm33]

And dsp accelerated h264 via gstreamer

 

[mindlord]

I can't find the quote, but one of the Core Team said that DSP accelerated video is working is a more current kernel. Zaxxon is using a slightly older kernel that doesn't yet support it. They decided to use the older kernel because they've used it longest and are most familiar with it's nuances. They didn't want to dump what could've been a buggy or unstable kernel on the early adopters. So, it looks like the next major release for the Pandora will better support video.

 

[hdonk]

After going to the TI website, here's a list of codecs they provide binary blobs for the DSP:

Audio:
- MP3 Decoder - MPEG1 Layer1 Layer 2 and Layer 3
- AAC-LD Decoder
- WMA9 Decoder
- AAC-LC Encoder
- AAC-HE Encoder
- AAC-LD Encoder
- WMA8 Encoder

Video:
- MPEG4 SP@L5 Max:WVGA/D1 Decoder
- MPEG4 SP@L5 Max:WVGA/D1 Encoder
- MPEG2 MP@ML Max:WVGA/D1 Decoder
- JPEG Decoder
- JPEG Encoder

Speech:
- G.711
- G.722
- G.722.1
- G.722.2
- G.726

So take your pick of any of the above, and it *should* be supported when the Pandora kernel supports the DSP properly.