[MEncoder-users] newbie question to convert video and make them enabled on ps3

[James Hastings-Trew]

Mathias wrote:
> Hello everybody,
>
> I'm desespareted to find a way to convert my movies and make them enable
>  on the playstation 3 player.
>
> My problem is the following one: I play my movies to my ps3 from a uPnP
> server.
> But I need to add some subtitles and my uPnP server doesn't had them on
> the fly; so I would like to convert them back in a ps3 supported format
> and include subtitles.
>
> So I have understand that playstation 3 doesn't accept all movies
> encoding, but only the following one:
> http://manuals.playstation.net/document/en/ps3/current/video/filetypes.html
>
> I've look for many way and search google for many hours to found a valid
> solution for that (avidemux, mencoder, ffmpeg, etc, etc) but mencoder
> for me is fine because it can be called from command line.
> But anyway, I can't play my movies on my ps3: each time I have
> "incompatibles datas" or "datas corrupted" messages when I try to
> loading a movie reencoded with all theses methods.
>
>
> I've tried this solution too
> http://lists.mplayerhq.hu/pipermail/mencoder-users/2009-February/009899.html
> by adding a profile in my ~/.mplayer/mencoder.conf file:
>
> subfont-autoscale=3
> subpos=96
> utf8=no
> subfont-osd-scale=6
> subfont-text-scale=3
> #xvidencopts=bitrate=1200:pass=1
> #lavcopts=vcodec=mpeg4:vbitrate=1200
> o=output.avi
>
> [for-ps3]
> profile-desc="conversion videos pour ps3"
> ovc=x264=1
> oac=lavc=1
> global_header=1
> #ffourcc=mpeg4
> x264encopts=subq=6:pass=1:bitrate=1200:bframes=3:partitions=p8x8,b8x8,i4x4:weight_b:threads=auto:nopsnr:nossim:frameref=3:mixed_refs:bime:brdo:level_idc=41:
>
>
> I made my movies with the following command line:
>
> mencoder -profile for-ps3 -sub "Lost S5E7.srt" -o "Lost S5E7.avi" "Lost
> S5E7VO.avi"
>
> My file is well generated and can be read on my ubuntu 8.10, but not
> available from my uPnP server:
>
> MEncoder 2:1.0~rc2-0ubuntu17 (C) 2000-2007 MPlayer Team
> CPU: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 6000+ (Family: 15, Model:
> 107, Stepping: 2)
> CPUflags: Type: 15 MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 1 3DNow2: 1 SSE: 1 SSE2: 1
> Compiled with runtime CPU detection.
> Warning unknown option global_header at line 21
> success: format: 0  data: 0x0 - 0x15f0f342
> AVI file format detected.
> [aviheader] Video stream found, -vid 0
> [aviheader] Audio stream found, -aid 1
> VIDEO:  [XVID]  624x352  24bpp  23.976 fps  955.9 kbps (116.7 kbyte/s)
> [V] filefmt:3  fourcc:0x44495658  size:624x352  fps:23.98  ftime:=0.0417
> ==========================================================================
> Opening audio decoder: [mp3lib] MPEG layer-2, layer-3
> AUDIO: 48000 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 128.0 kbit/8.33% (ratio: 16000->192000)
> Selected audio codec: [mp3] afm: mp3lib (mp3lib MPEG layer-2, layer-3)
> ==========================================================================
> SUB: Detected subtitle file format: subviewer
> SUB: Read 456 subtitles.
> Opening video filter: [expand osd=1]
> Expand: -1 x -1, -1 ; -1, osd: 1, aspect: 0.000000, round: 1
> ==========================================================================
> Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family
> Selected video codec: [ffodivx] vfm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg MPEG-4)
> ==========================================================================
> VDec: vo config request - 624 x 352 (preferred colorspace: Planar YV12)
> VDec: using Planar I420 as output csp (no 1)
> Movie-Aspect is 1.77:1 - prescaling to correct movie aspect.
> x264 [info]: using SAR=1/1
> x264 [info]: using cpu capabilities: MMX MMXEXT SSE SSE2 SSE3 3DNow!
> Pos:   0.0s      1f ( 0%)  0.00fps Trem:   0min   0mb  A-V:0.000 [0:0]
> 1 duplicate frame(s)!
> Writing header...
> ODML: vprp aspect is 16384:9242.
> Setting audio delay to 0.048s.
> Writing header...
> ODML: vprp aspect is 16384:9242.
> Setting audio delay to 0.048s.
> Writing header...6f ( 0%)  0.00fps Trem:   0min   0mb  A-V:0.019 [0:0]
> ODML: vprp aspect is 16384:9242.
> Setting audio delay to 0.048s.
> Pos:2702.5s  64800f (100%) 32.77fps Trem:   0min 451mb  A-V:0.038 [1182:224]
> Flushing video frames.
> Writing index...
> Writing header...
> ODML: vprp aspect is 16384:9242.
> Setting audio delay to 0.048s.
>
> Video stream: 1182.417 kbit/s  (147802 B/s)  size: 399464757 bytes
> 2702.700 secs  64800 frames
>
> Audio stream:  224.000 kbit/s  (28000 B/s)  size: 75675936 bytes
> 2702.712 secs
> x264 [info]: slice I:638   Avg QP:14.52  size: 24780
> x264 [info]: slice P:23624 Avg QP:15.72  size: 11055
> x264 [info]: slice B:40537 Avg QP:17.07  size:  3022
> x264 [info]: mb I  I16..4: 35.4%  0.0% 64.6%
> x264 [info]: mb P  I16..4: 10.5%  0.0% 12.6%  P16..4: 38.9% 22.7%  9.6%
>  0.0%  0.0%    skip: 5.7%
> x264 [info]: mb B  I16..4:  0.7%  0.0%  0.8%  B16..8: 36.5%  3.2%  5.5%
>  direct: 8.6%  skip:44.6%
> x264 [info]: final ratefactor: 15.51
> x264 [info]: direct mvs  spatial:99.2%  temporal:0.8%
> x264 [info]: ref P  85.2%  9.8%  5.0%
> x264 [info]: ref B  93.7%  6.3%
> x264 [info]: kb/s:1182.4
>
> Could you confirm me that I'm right with the following cases:
>
> - ps3 allow H.264/MPEG-4 AVC High Profile （AAC LC）. When I try to
> encode it with ovc=x264 et oac=lavc I'm right? (I'm newbie with video
> processing)
>
> - is it the better way, the more compatible way with theses codecs?
>
> - does movie this can have a influence in my problems?
>
> - if I run mencoder -profile for-ps3 -sub "Lost S5E7.srt" -o "Lost
> S5E7.mp4" "Lost S5E7VO.avi" will make the same result? (container is not
>  store in extension?)
>
> - I have read many feedback of people which have the same problem than
> mine, but their solutions doesn't help me. I suppose that source movie
> cannot be responsible because it'll be reencoded from uncompressed movie?
> Sometimes, it's works for them. not me. Does subtitle can be responsible
> of that?
>
> - Does anyone of you have a complete profile to help me to convert my
> file? I've tried global_header, output codecs, bitrate, level_idc,
> parameters but none help me. What is your feedback?
>
> Best regards,
>
> Mat
>
> PS: please accept my apologies for my english
>   
You are not the only one frustrated by the PS3's picky behavior towards 
encoded movies. I have found better luck simply using mpeg4 video and 
mp3 audio in an .avi container - i.e. a "standard" divx style .avi file. 
These seem to be the most compatible. If you try this, be sure to use 
the -noodml and -ffourcc DIVX options.

The potential problems I see with your particular encode is that you 
used an AVI container for x264 encoded video, which is, in my opinion, 
outside the exacting specs that the PS3 has.

Try the following things: give the movie a shorter filename with no spaces.
Try copying the movie to the PS3 hard drive into a folder with a short 
name, and play it from there - sometimes this is enough to avoid the 
"corrupted data" issue.
Try encoding the video and audio and muxing them into an .mp4 container 
with mp4box.
Try to use a GUI style converter - I've had pretty good results from 
MediaCoder (it runs under WINE on Linux). It does not have a specific 
ps3 output option, but if you look through their forums there are lots 
of "recipes" for this.