Video Encoding

[Shaun]

Since I'm receiving my Pandora on Tuesday I'd like to know how you encode your videos. Is there a point in putting DVD-res video on the Pandora? The clarity is very nice, but with a screen of that size would a smaller resolution video not be almost the same? What is the most used and best performance video player? I watch a lot of anime so MKV support would be nice. I've seen VLC is available but I've had doubts about whether it's as fast as other media players. Do most of you use DivX/XviD or other codecs? I wonder if I could fit 24 seasons 1-8 on my Pandora with 32GB at a decent res. It's approximately 128 hours.

I'm curious to know so I could perhaps encode some videos ready for when my Pandora arrives. Thanks guys.

 

[WizardStan]

480p DivX/XviD is quite snappy on the Pandora. A little bit of trickery and overclocking, and I was able to get similar results with 480p h264. I don't think the overclocking required is worth the space saved, so if you have the option, stick with xvid. Due to a... feature... of the xv video out stream (the part of mplayer that actually puts videos to the screen) you can't play videos that are larger than 800x480, and even that can cause problems in a window. Doing a 1/2 size rip (say 360x240) would cut your filesize about 1/4, make it easier to decode, and probably wouldn't be especially noticeable. It's not necessary, of course: if you've already got DVD quality rips, there's no reason not to use them.

 

[MarkoeZ]

I watched more than a season of Heroes on my Pandora, in bed, on the couch, anywhere. Headphones on and pandora on belly, or top of sofa, whatever. Works perfect.

On video encoding, most stuff i watch is in DivX, and that works fine. But the display is so clear, you see the quality of the compression, even with the small size of the screen. So it all comes down to what's "acceptable" to you, and that varies quite a lot

Just my thoughts,
Cheers!

MarkoeZ

Edit: p.s. I always just leave it in the format i got it, the pandora plays just about anything and i dont mind swapping

 

[Shaun]

Thanks for the tips. I think I'll give XviD a try at first then. I assume most media players can stretch the video so 4:3 fills the 800x480 screen?

 

[Asmo]

Stretching? Sacrilege!

 

[Shaun]

It's not always such a terrible thing. The standard DVD resolution is 720x480. Stretching that would create something like a 10% width increase. Hardly noticeable. I just hate having borders, that's all.

 

[Asmo]

It's not always such a terrible thing. The standard DVD resolution is 720x480. Stretching that would create something like a 10% width increase. Hardly noticeable. I just hate having borders, that's all.

If you're encoding specifically for use on the Pandora you could avoid making everybody look like they ate all the cakes by just cropping the top and bottom of any 4:3 material a bit.

 

[pder]

It's not always such a terrible thing. The standard DVD resolution is 720x480. Stretching that would create something like a 10% width increase. Hardly noticeable. I just hate having borders, that's all.

The pandora screen has an aspect ratio of 5:3 or 1.6666. If you displayed 4:3 content stretched to fullscreen thats actually a 25% width increase, or about 40 to 50 lbs per actor/actress.

 

[Shaun]

It's not always such a terrible thing. The standard DVD resolution is 720x480. Stretching that would create something like a 10% width increase. Hardly noticeable. I just hate having borders, that's all.

The pandora screen has an aspect ratio of 5:3 or 1.6666. If you displayed 4:3 content stretched to fullscreen thats actually a 25% width increase, or about 40 to 50 lbs per actor/actress.

640x480 is 4:3, not 720x480, which is a standard DVD resolution. The width of DVD would therefore be 4.5:3 or 9:6, and thus a 12.5% width increase. That is, if my basic arithmetic skills at gone 1.00AM aren't playing up on me. So it really depends on your source content.

 

[Reyhn]

I used to watch 704*396 XVID MPEG4 videos on my pandora at stock speed (500MHz) without trouble.
It looks very good in full screen.

 

[Asmo]

640x480 is 4:3, not 720x480, which is a standard DVD resolution. The width of DVD would therefore be 4.5:3 or 9:6, and thus a 12.5% width increase. That is, if my basic arithmetic skills at gone 1.00AM aren't playing up on me. So it really depends on your source content.

The pixel resolution is not a reliable indicator of aspect ratio - on DVD material for example, widescreen material (of various aspect ratios) is normally anamorphic (squashed horizontally) - 4:3 material can occupy exactly the same resolution.

 

[Shaun]

But that would be on a 4:3 display, right? Like a lot of televisions. On a Pandora on the other hand, that's different. I realise I'm probably wrong though, so you win. I'll see if I can stretch... probably can with VLC. If it looks ugly I won't bother, but I'd like the feature.

 

[Asmo]

But that would be on a 4:3 display, right? Like a lot of televisions.

I was referring to the encoded resolution - 4:3 non-anamorphic is encoded at the same resolution. What it ends up at on the output device is a whole other world of pedantry. For example, not all LCD screens use square pixels....

 

[Pleng]

But that would be on a 4:3 display, right? Like a lot of televisions. On a Pandora on the other hand, that's different. I realise I'm probably wrong though, so you win. I'll see if I can stretch... probably can with VLC. If it looks ugly I won't bother, but I'd like the feature.

You can stretch with the Gnome-Mplayer which comes as standard with the community codec pack.