[roadster]

What amount of picture degradation are you experiencing from the original? Is the picture anywhere near HD quality?

[jarod71]

What amount of picture degradation are you experiencing from the original? Is the picture anywhere near HD quality?

It is HD Quality. It is 720p, it has much more detail than a dvd. It loses a little detail form the encoded original that I downloaded from the web. But it looks amazing. the fact that original xbox can play it is a plus. Let's put it this way, the moment I saw my first 720p xvid encode play on xbox xbmc with no frame drops, I stopped messing with sd divx/xvid, dvd iso etc. I built a freenas server 2tb and now only plan to put 720p xvid on it lol. I will keep my xbox for a long time with these encodes.

[Eiji]

What amount of picture degradation are you experiencing from the original? Is the picture anywhere near HD quality?

It is near HD quality. The main area of degredation is with complex colour shades or scenes which are dark with a few colour shades. You can see some pixelation in them but overall, 720p Xvids on the Xbox are FAR BETTER than SD Xvids.

[SokinSan]

It is near HD quality. The main area of degredation is with complex colour shades or scenes which are dark with a few colour shades. You can see some pixelation in them but overall, 720p Xvids on the Xbox are FAR BETTER than SD Xvids.

With a magnifying glass and infrared goggles?

[Eiji]

With a magnifying glass and infrared goggles?

No. I can see such imperfections on my 50" and 37" Plasmas.

If you want a classic example, just try Blade Runner encoded for Xbox...

[jarod71]

No. I can see such imperfections on my 50" and 37" Plasmas.

If you want a classic example, just try Blade Runner encoded for Xbox...

Blade Runner is an extream example, however, I just did a 4.35gb encode of it that looked pretty amazing. it is a very hard move to encode though, I will give you that.

[ryecatcher]

I really appreciate having this app brought to my attention. It will breathe new life into my trusty ol' Xbox with XBMC.

However, when it comes to getting the best quality settings possible, I'm still finding myself a bit confused by the interface and encoder settings. Is anyone willing to do a more detailed breakdown about how to set up xvid4psp to achieve maximum results? It would really help those like me who are relatively new to video and audio encoding.

Thanks again.

[roadster]

I really appreciate having this app brought to my attention. It will breathe new life into my trusty ol' Xbox with XBMC.

However, when it comes to getting the best quality settings possible, I'm still finding myself a bit confused by the interface and encoder settings. Is anyone willing to do a more detailed breakdown about how to set up xvid4psp to achieve maximum results? It would really help those like me who are relatively new to video and audio encoding.

Thanks again.

Can I second that?
I have an HD Ready TV, Xbox connected with an HD cable and I've just downloaded a film clip 1080p with DTS Sound.

I have xvid4psp 5, the latest version and am struggling to get the sort of quality expected.

[SokinSan]

Can I second that?
I have an HD Ready TV, Xbox connected with an HD cable and I've just downloaded a film clip 1080p with DTS Sound.

I have xvid4psp 5, the latest version and am struggling to get the sort of quality expected.

Just wanted to share my settings:

1. Click on the "E" button next to format and change to AVI, next enter the "Video encoding settings" by clicking on the "E" button next to where it says "Video encoding"

2.Click on the profile tab below and choose XVID HQ EXTREME

3. Click on the motion tab and deselect:

*Quarter pixel search
*Global motion compensation
*Chroma motion estimation

4. Then click on the B-frames tab and uncheck the following:

*Closed GOP
*Packed Bitstream
*VHQ for B-frames

5. Leave everything else as it is, and save profile by clicking on the plus button in the lower right corner next to where it says profile, give your profile a new name like "XBMC HD" or something.

6. Enter the audio settings and choose the profile "AC3 384k" or another lower bitrate/codec whatever floats your boat actually.....

7. Click on the encode button to start encoding.

8. couple of hours later "2.5 or 3 on my dual core, but it depends on the filesize and your system" your encode will be ready for enjoyment.

TIPS:

If you are downloading rips of the net, look for M-HD's those are mini-HD encodes that have a smaller filesize (usually 1.48 GB).

Those are faster to encode and have "HD" quality.

*You could always go for more quality by using a good source like a Blu Ray disc or something.

Also us DVDplayer instead of Mplayer for playback, this is critical on certain models of them trusty ol' Xbox machines.

Hope this helps

[roadster]

Thanks for that, I am just in the process of giving it a try. I did re-encode the sample I have but the result was not brilliant.....perhaps its the quality of the source file. Anyway, just started crunching the main file which is 12.4 gig in size so may be a while

[ryecatcher]

Awesome. Thanks, SokinSan.

Now one more annoying question that someone might be able to clear up for me. I have the latest build of XBMC. I always just assumed that XBMC defaults to dvdplayer as the media player. Am I incorrect? Do I need to go into my settings and change this? I'm not even sure how to detect which player I'm using. The encodes I've tried so far have dropped frames, and this might be due to the media player.

[SokinSan]

Thanks for that, I am just in the process of giving it a try. I did re-encode the sample I have but the result was not brilliant.....perhaps its the quality of the source file. Anyway, just started crunching the main file which is 12.4 gig in size so may be a while

The source is really important actually, and samples are often lower quality in comparison to a full movie. Give it a try by downloading a small quicktime HD file or search a small sample on the net.

I downloaded some HD trailers from the Apple site, encoded them and they looked awesome.

[SokinSan]

Awesome. Thanks, SokinSan.

Now one more annoying question that someone might be able to clear up for me. I have the latest build of XBMC. I always just assumed that XBMC defaults to dvdplayer as the media player. Am I incorrect? Do I need to go into my settings and change this? I'm not even sure how to detect which player I'm using. The encodes I've tried so far have dropped frames, and this might be due to the media player.

Just stand on the selected file and press the black button, then select "play using" and select DVDplayer.

That should do the trick

[vettenstein]

To make dvdplayer your XBMC default.

Copy/Paste this into notepad then save as advancedsettings.xml

Then put the advancedsettings.xml in the root of your UserData folder.

Code:

<advancedsettings>
<video>
<defaultplayer>dvdplayer</defaultplayer>
</video>
</advancedsettings>

[ryecatcher]

To make dvdplayer your XBMC default.

Copy/Paste this into notepad then save as advancedsettings.xml

Then put the advancedsettings.xml in the root of your UserData folder.

Code:

<advancedsettings>
<video>
<defaultplayer>dvdplayer</defaultplayer>
</video>
</advancedsettings>

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?