[MEncoder-users] level_idc, PS3 DivX implementation and re-encoding

[James Hastings-Trew]

Alex Bennee wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Reading the mailing list[1] I notice a number of people have pointed out
> problems getting DivX stuff to play on the PS3. The consensus seems to
> be that the PS3 cannot play stuff encoded at the default level_idc
> value. I have a number of files I encoded before I used my current
> encode profile [2] which therefor don't play on my PS3. From my
> cursory reading of the spec [3] it seems that level_idc specifies a
> maximum limit for various encoder operations.
>
> Is there any way to check if an encoded file actually exceeded these
> limits in it's encoding? If the limits do not exceed that of a lower
> level_idc value should it be possible to tweak the file without
> re-encoding?
>
> Failing that is it possible to re-encode by only re-coding the blocks
> that exceed the lower level_idc limit? Or is a normal re-encode the
> only solution (with the attendant losses)?
>
> I've tried to find the header described in [4] just to try hacking the
> level_idc in the header to a lower level and seeing how the PS3 copes
> with it. However I don't seem to be able to find the referenced
> sequence of bytes. This may be because my file is in an AVI container
> instead of a .h264 one?
>
>
> [1]
> http://lists.mplayerhq.hu/pipermail/mencoder-users/2008-September/009431.html
> [2] -x264encopts
> subq=6:bframes=3:partitions=p8x8,b8x8,i4x4:weight_b:threads=auto:nopsnr:nossim:frameref=3:mixed_refs:level_idc=41:direct_pred=auto:trellis=1
> [3] ITU-R H.264 Annex A.3
> [4] http://lists.mplayerhq.hu/pipermail/mencoder-users/2008-September/009468.html
>   
I'm unclear what you are asking. You start out mentioning divx, then 
talk about h.264 encoding. Two completely different things.

For PS3, the file should be an mp4 container with AAC audio and h.264 
video at high profile level 4. ( 
http://manuals.playstation.net/document/en/ps3/current/video/filetypes.html 
) From what I remember, the default level mencoder uses is 5.