[MEncoder-users] Encoded file doesn't sync with iPhone [SOLVED]

[Laine Lee]

On 3/16/10 12:02 PM, "Grozdan" <neutrino8 at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Tue, Mar 16, 2010 at 5:57 PM, Kasper Bonne <kbonne at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 2010/3/16 Jörgen Isaksson <jogga at me.com>:
>>> I'm not sure of anything regarding this. I'm just saying that it's finally
>>> syncing with the iPhone. I will have to dig deeper into all those options
>>> now that I have something to work with. It seems like the last two
>>> parameters did the trick?
>>> 
>>> But thx for all the help and friendly replies from all list members.
>> 
>> Thanks for sharing this information. I have been wanting to encode for
>> the iPhone myself.
>> 
>> If you fine tune the options, e.g., to yield a better quality, please
>> don't hesitate to post it. I for one would find it very useful.
> 
> You want better quality? How about this? :)
> 
> frameref=1:nomixed_refs:bframes=0:b_adapt=0:b_pyramid=none:noweight_b:weightp=
> 0:direct_pred=none:aq_mode=1:me=umh:subq=8:mbtree:psy_rd=0.8,0.0:chroma_me:tre
> llis=0:nocabac:deblock:no8x8dct:partitions=p8x8,i4x4:nofast_pskip:dct_decimate
> :level_idc=30:threads=auto::vbv_maxrate=1500:vbv_bufsize=1000
> 

There's a pair of adjacent colons in that option string (after
"threads=auto"), is there a chance something was omitted? Anyway, I removed
one of them and encoded with those options. I have yesterday's build of x264
and a new build of MEncoder (SVN-r30912-4.2.1), and although mplayer played
the output, QuickTime playback stayed black for the entire duration, and
iTunes wouldn't transfer the output to my iPod Touch, which has the same
video specs as the recent iPhone, I think.

I added "global_header" to the above, and then the output played correctly
in QuickTime and was successfully transferred to the iPod Touch using
iTunes.

I think using the largest video dimensions and the highest bit rate that are
compatible with your iPhone will probably be the simplest changes you can
make that will have the greatest impact. But a lot depends on your source,
and you aren't likely to be able to make fine adjustments unless you
playback on a screen larger than that of the iPhone.

I can encode iPod/iPhone compatible versions of most common movie files with
great success using the filter and option combinations that have already
been offered in this thread. One interesting exception is the source
recordings I get from my Hauppauge HD-PVR. They're always interlaced 60 fps
h.264. But they are also apparently telecined. Whatever method I use to
transcode them, the output never looks quite right unless I perform some
sort of pullup operation.

So to make a long story short, I found that I could take the command line
provided by Jorgen and add -fps 60000/1001, -ofps 24000/1001, and -noskip to
the options, then add
tfields=0,tinterlace=2,filmdint=io=30:24/fast=0,softskip to the front of the
filter chain, then apply that conversion to the native format h.264 video
that I'm able to export from my HD-PVR recording tool (EyeTV) to get the
results I want, of which a top priority is not to encounter the
disappointing stutters that occur 6 times a second whenever one converts 24
fps to 30.

Laine Lee