[SokinSan]

Thanks for posting this, and apologies for not looking for this method myself using the search function (should've known it was already dealt with). SokinSan, your method works too, of course, but doesn't make dvdplayer the default, so it's a bit cumbersome.

I created the file and placed it in the UserData folder on my E drive, but no luck. XBMC still shows as defaulting to Mplayer.

Also, when I used dvdplayer, I noticed it was dropping frames like crazy when searching through the video, which seems odd.

I tried rebooting 8 times and refreshed the skin (Mediastream) several times. My Xbox is set to boot directly to XBMC, if that matters. Any suggestions?

I would not set the DVDplayer as a default player myself, because of the fact that some file types are better to play with Mplayer.

That's why i always switch between players using the black button, it just makes the thing a lot easier. Now don't ask me why some files play better on DVDplayer instead of Mplayer or the other way around, but i think it has to do with codecs and the architechture of the software or something.

You will always have slight or heavy frame dropping whilst searching through a HD movie, because of the high bitrate and the processing power (or lack of i mean) in the XBOX.

I would just avoid rewinding or fast forwarding through a movie, and watch the whole thing with a bag of chips in one hand and a nice cold 7up in the other...... LOL

Also try and use the latest build of XBMC.........

Did the encode look good or bad in your opinion?

[PrimusZa1]

OK question of the day..What was the main difference of 2 pass (aka VBR) and CBR 1 pass constant...Was it suppose to just give you a nice looking smaller file? The key point being smaller file compare to a nice looking constant 1 pass or is there a quality difference. I can encode 2 pass 960 X (16 mod) (1080p source) at 4000 mb with NO frame drops what so ever. Where as I can do the same thing with CBR at 4500 mb and both play drop free in Mplayer with-in MKV container (xvid video/ AC3/DTS audio). Is that .5 mb doing anything for the quality?

[SokinSan]

OK question of the day..What was the main difference of 2 pass (aka VBR) and CBR 1 pass constant...Was it suppose to just give you a nice looking smaller file? The key point being smaller file compare to a nice looking constant 1 pass or is there a quality difference. I can encode 2 pass 960 X (16 mod) (1080p source) at 4000 mb with NO frame drops what so ever. Where as I can do the same thing with CBR at 4500 mb and both play drop free in Mplayer with-in MKV container (xvid video/ AC3/DTS audio). Is that .5 mb doing anything for the quality?

Maybe because of the ratio change you apply with that 960 x mod? That is a lower resolution right? I mean HD is supposed to be 1280 X, or am i mistaken?

The two pass encodes i did with the normal ratio settings 1280 x ..... just did not work for me, and especially not at such a high bit rate.

I really don't know dude, i am just posting what works best for me......

[PrimusZa1]

The resolution I was talking about was this:

1280 x 720 = 16:9 or 1.85 use 4000mb 2 pass and 960 X adjusted ratio (16 mod) You have to do the 960 X (16 Mod) for 16:9 (i.e 1920X1080 or 1280X720) or it will drop frames all over the place.

I'm up to 90 or so HD encodes (mkv container) and was just trying to remember what was the big difference between 2 pass and 1 pass encoding other then size. I can go to 4500 MB with CBR and no drop rates compared with 4000 mb VBR with no drop rates.

[ryecatcher]

I would not set the DVDplayer as a default player myself, because of the fact that some file types are better to play with Mplayer.

That's why i always switch between players using the black button, it just makes the thing a lot easier. Now don't ask me why some files play better on DVDplayer instead of Mplayer or the other way around, but i think it has to do with codecs and the architechture of the software or something.

You will always have slight or heavy frame dropping whilst searching through a HD movie, because of the high bitrate and the processing power (or lack of i mean) in the XBOX.

I would just avoid rewinding or fast forwarding through a movie, and watch the whole thing with a bag of chips in one hand and a nice cold 7up in the other...... LOL

Also try and use the latest build of XBMC.........

Did the encode look good or bad in your opinion?

Now that I've had a chance to play around with dvdplayer a bit more, I'm inclined to agree with you; Mplayer is still better for some files.

I am currently encoding a 1080P rip of Transformers, but it's slow going on my relatively modest, older desktop. It will wind up taking around 14 hours. Earlier, I encoded a 720P rip of Star Wars (resolution is 1280X544, 25 fps) and it came out very nice, except the source was from a SkyTV HD broadcast, so it was never the best source to begin with. Nonetheless, it looks great on my TV and only had minor frame dropping using Mplayer (none in dvdplayer)

[potshot]

Hi. I'm totally new to this encoding stuff. It's all japanese to me! I'd like to thank everyone for posting some useful information. I only have a couple of questions. As far as quality goes, is it Slappers or SokinSan's settings that are better?

Also, I got this movie as an MP4 (4gb in size)... sadly, I tried to play it from disc in xbmc and it got about half a second in and then froze. Is it just too much for the poor hardware? Is it just the video bitrate that is choking it? What settings can I use in xvid4psp that will change it just enough to let xbmc play it, while maintaining the highest quality?

Codec..........: H.264
Resolution.....: 1920 x 1080
Bitrate........: 4Mbps
Framerate......: 24fps
Audio..........: AAC 2CH Surround
Subtitles......: None
Extension......: MP4

I appreciate any help

[350Zed]

I fund SokinSan's procedure to be easiest to follow--having little time to waste becoming a video codec expert myself--and the results have been very impressive.

I've converted a couple 720p x264 mkv's to 720p XviD and the resulting files play very well on my Xbox-XBMC (although I have to play them off the HDD, as they won't stream over my wireless-N bridged setup for some reason).

Kudos to SokinSan!!!

PS - I haven't tried any 1080p files yet, but don't really have anything to convert on file at the moment.

[ryecatcher]

My Transformers encode was a failure. For some reason, xvid4psp seemed to freeze up during the muxing. The program was responsive, but didn't seem to be making any progress on the encode. Due to other reasons, I had to restart the machine, and the file I wound up with was a finished, working avi file that was only slightly smaller than the original (almost 10 gigs). Nonetheless, XBMC choked on it big time, and dvdplayer could not play the file at all (instant freeze).

This could be due to a bad encode, but everything checks out with the original and encoded files (this was an x264 HD-DVD rip). I used the exact settings given by SokinSan, which I had success with on a previous 720P rip.

Any ideas as to why this encode failed? Others here seem to have had no issues with 1080P conversions.

[PrimusZa1]

ryecatcher... I use MEgui for my encodes...did a reencode of Transformers 1080p about 2 weeks ago.. came out real nice with no drops in Mplayer. use 4500mb CBR Xvid keep the digital audio and if you want place it in a MKV wrapper when you do it.

I just tested a dual encode of Mission impossible II one encode with 2 pass Xvid 4000mb DTS and AC3 wrapped in MKV and 1 pass CBR 4500mb DTS and AC3 wrapped in MKV. Source was 1080P HD-DVD rip. Both were resized to 1280 X 528 (16 mod) The 2 pass encode dropped about 21 frame at one location in the film the same place with CBR and a higher bitrate stayed less CPU intensive and no frame drops with Mplayer.. So I think the 2 pass might be too much for the XBOX. SO this would be my revision of the table:

1280 x 720 = 16:9 or 1.85 use CBR 4500MB and 960 X adjusted ratio (16 mod)
1280 x 544 = 2.35:1 use CBR 4500MB keep ratio
1280 x 528 = 2.42:1 use CBR 4500MB keep ratio

[sion28]

I have two 720p blu-ray rips that I'm trying to re-encode, but every time I try to open a file within XviD4PSP, it just hangs, with the little progress window saying "caching..."

Any ideas?

[sion28]

ryecatcher... I use MEgui for my encodes...did a reencode of Transformers 1080p about 2 weeks ago.. came out real nice with no drops in Mplayer. use 4500mb CBR Xvid keep the digital audio and if you want place it in a MKV wrapper when you do it.

I just tested a dual encode of Mission impossible II one encode with 2 pass Xvid 4000mb DTS and AC3 wrapped in MKV and 1 pass CBR 4500mb DTS and AC3 wrapped in MKV. Source was 1080P HD-DVD rip. Both were resized to 720 X 528 (16 mod) The 2 pass encode dropped about 21 frame at one location in the film the same place with CBR and a higher bitrate stayed less CPU intensive and no frame drops with Mplayer.. So I think the 2 pass might be too much for the XBOX. SO this would be my revision of the table:

1280 x 720 = 16:9 or 1.85 use CBR 4500MB and 960 X adjusted ratio (16 mod)
1280 x 544 = 2.35:1 use CBR 4500MB keep ratio
1280 x 528 = 2.42:1 use CBR 4500MB keep ratio

Any chance you would be willing to post a presets export file for the settings you've used in MEGui?

:-)

[PrimusZa1]

Any chance you would be willing to post a presets export file for the settings you've used in MEGui?

:-)

Sure here is the xvid preset for the video use it for:

1280 x 720 = 16:9 or 1.85 use CBR 4500MB and 960 X adjusted ratio (16 mod)
1280 x 544 = 2.35:1 use CBR 4500MB keep ratio
1280 x 528 = 2.42:1 use CBR 4500MB keep ratio

http://www.mediafire.com/?xyjzdmizd1h

[sion28]

Thanks for posting your settings!!

Sure here is the xvid preset for the video use it for:

1280 x 720 = 16:9 or 1.85 use CBR 4500MB and 960 X adjusted ratio (16 mod)
1280 x 544 = 2.35:1 use CBR 4500MB keep ratio
1280 x 528 = 2.42:1 use CBR 4500MB keep ratio

I'm not sure what the above three lines are for. I'm guessing but does this mean for 1280x720 res videos, I should resize to something like either 960x544 or 960x528? Why do I have to reduce from 1280x720 to 960x(mod16)? Is this because a full 1280x720 res video is just too much for the xbox?

Also, what do you mean by "keep ratio"?

I have a 1280x528 video, and when in MEGui AVS creator I click, "suggest resolution (mod16)" in the resize line, it switches the resolution to 1264x528... why would it do that? 1280 is a mod16 number...?

Thanks!

[MBT1]

Wow. Just tried this on my aging iMac (2 GHz Core Duo, 2gb RAM, virtual XP machine on VMWare Fusion) with the latest 720p trailer for Star Trek. Encode took about 9 minutes (so about three times running length), ended up with a file half the size of the original QuickTime .mov. Fired up the resulting 1280 x 544 AVI on my original Xbox (running some ancient build of T3CH) and it played flawlessly.

Now I need to download HD rips of every...single...movie in my collection

[willers.nail]

I cant seem to download that file any chance you could put it back up again