Ideal Video Format?

[KOUSAKA-SAN]

I found the same thing. Mpeg4 (FF-Mpeg) works every time for me. The only H264 movies that work on my Droid are the ones I converted in Super(c).

 

[JTAC]

Go with DVD Catalyst 3, stellar results.

 

[serum153]

I just downloaded DVD catalyst 3 and have made about 3 movies using JTacs settings. It is extremely extremely easy to use and it looks and sounds amazing. It is also a lot faster than the other programs I was using...movies in about 45 minutes or so. I tried most of the free programs and can honestly say that nothing was close in my opinion. I was a little nervous about it as I thought JTac may have been hyping it up and the creator was just marketing on this site. Boy was I way off as this product is great.

Does anyone know how to have the movies appear on the droid with details as opposed to going into every move and selecting details. I hate not knowing what movie is what, but then again I have only had the droid for 3 days.

 

[dvdcatalyst]

I just downloaded DVD catalyst 3 and have made about 3 movies using JTacs settings. It is extremely extremely easy to use and it looks and sounds amazing. It is also a lot faster than the other programs I was using...movies in about 45 minutes or so. I tried most of the free programs and can honestly say that nothing was close in my opinion. I was a little nervous about it as I thought JTac may have been hyping it up and the creator was just marketing on this site. Boy was I way off as this product is great.

Thank you for using DVD Catalyst

Does anyone know how to have the movies appear on the droid with details as opposed to going into every move and selecting details. I hate not knowing what movie is what, but then again I have only had the droid for 3 days.

The build-in media gallery doesnt show much info. Try one of the other video player applications from the Marketplace. JTAC wrote a few posts with different apps in some other topics.

 

[JTAC]

The default gallery doesn't display the title or information you are looking for. I would suggest "Video Player" (just a program that piggy's off the main gallery, but says title and file size), "Cinema" (new player, gives all info I believe), and then there is "Act 1" (this should be the default player...has brightness, information, titles, zoom in/out, file size, etc.). All of these can be found in the Market, but the only one that costs money is "Act 1"....believe it was $1.49; get it...you will like it!

 

[l3reak]

The people asking why they can't increase the video resolution size on Handbrake: it doesn't seem to upscale, in other words it won't let you select a resolution higher than what the video is to begin with. That was my problem on the last video I was converting. Check the video's properties.

 

[PhontomF]

I found by changing the video codec from h.264 to mpeg-4 that the video started working on the droid.

That really sucks because the quality of the MPEG-4 codec isn't nearly as good as H264

 

[frankrigor]

movies on the Droid

Can someone walk me through what I need to do to view movies on my Droid. I downloaded the Motorola Media Link onto my PC. I have Star Trek digital copy (came with the blu-ray) and downloaded it onto my PC. I put both the iTunes (mp4?) and the .wmv versions on. When I try to access the Media Link on movies, my PC just sits there. I then tried to drag and drop from the video folder on my PC, but got a message saying it wouldn't work because it was a .drm file (or something like that).
Any suggestions?

 

[valnar]

H.264 + HandBrake works fine on the Droid. Anyone having problems with that might need to tweak some other settings.

See my post here: http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-audio-video/396-ideal-video-format-11.html#post27523

 

[dvdcatalyst]

Can someone walk me through what I need to do to view movies on my Droid. I downloaded the Motorola Media Link onto my PC. I have Star Trek digital copy (came with the blu-ray) and downloaded it onto my PC. I put both the iTunes (mp4?) and the .wmv versions on. When I try to access the Media Link on movies, my PC just sits there. I then tried to drag and drop from the video folder on my PC, but got a message saying it wouldn't work because it was a .drm file (or something like that).
Any suggestions?

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/dr...come-digital-copy.html?highlight=digital+copy

 

[hazydave]

for some reason i cant raise the video size in handbrake higher than width:512 can someone help me out with this....because someone has posted that i best resolution for the droid is like 848x480 or something....assistance please

I did mention this, some time ago. Most DCT-based encoders (MPEG-2, MPEG-4/SP, MPEG-4/AVC, JPEG, etc) break things into 16x16 blocks, called macrocells. As a result, the encoders really like your video resolutions to be in multiples of 16. Many encoders accept other values, but round up or down anyway.

I have had no trouble with either AVC or plain MPEG-4 on the DROID. But, like the iPhone, you have to watch out you're not using one of the more complex variations of AVC... there are different profiles. You want "Base" profile.. how easy it is to determine which profile you're using depends on the encoder. I've been using the encoders that come with Sony Vegas, rather than a freeware encoder, so I can't state for certain how to get the results with Handbrake or any of these others. Only that it's quite possible to get 848x480 video in AVC on the DROID that plays perfectly well in the "Gallery" player.

Also, it's not the case that AVC is "better" than MPEG-4... only that's potentially better at the same bitrate. This is actually termed "higher coding efficiency", since it's only a general rule that it'll look better, not a law or anything. AVC is more complex than MPEG-4 Simple or Advanced Simple profile, so there's more onus on the encoder for proper quality.. and these things have been improving regularly. MPEG-4 is more mature, so more likely to be pretty consistent from encoder to encoder.

 

[frankrigor]

What is H.264? Is that part of Handbrake?
What do I download on my PC and what do I download onto my Droid?
Sorry to sound so stupid, but I am deathly afraid of irreversibly screwing the whole thing up.

 

[frankrigor]

do I download the GUI or the CLI version (I have Windows XP)

 

[KOUSAKA-SAN]

do I download the GUI or the CLI version (I have Windows XP)

That depends on whether you want the Graphics User Interface (nice window with pick boxes) or the Command Line Interface (Where you write a line of instruction code on a command line)
I think you would want the GUI version.

 

[dvdcatalyst]

Hi Frank,

Rather than just looking at the last couple of posts of a thread on these forums, I suggest, especially since you are new to this, to read them from the beginning. Your question, as well as ones that will arise when you get further into the conversion process that you have not ran into yet, have already been asked and answered

In addition, when you stumble upon a post that contains information you do not understand, just ignore it. It might help later, but your first target is to get a movie that you can watch on your Droid. Once you have accomplished that, read it again, and you might understand.

Anyway, I have a few forum threads for you that I recommend to look through, basically skim through them like you would when you use a search engine, just pick out the information you think you need. Remember, start at the first post of the thread to actually be able to follow along with what is being brought up.

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-audio-video/2168-what-movies-your-droid.html

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-audio-video/10798-what-you-using-convert-video.html

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-audio-video/10921-handbrake-help-needed.html

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-audio-video/8428-movies-droid.html

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-audio-video/8704-best-dvd-ripper.html

What is H.264? Is that part of Handbrake?
What do I download on my PC and what do I download onto my Droid?
Sorry to sound so stupid, but I am deathly afraid of irreversibly screwing the whole thing up.

To answer your questions.

H264 is a video format, just like DIVX or XVID. Video formats (or codecs) are for video like MP3 is for audio. It's just a method that is used to make it smaller.

Handbrake has H264, and uses it for it's iPod, iPhone and AppleTV profiles.

You do not have to download anything on your Droid, except the video file that Handbrake creates for you. This file should play properly using the Media Gallery application on your Droid. There are other video players that provide additional features. Those are mentioned in the threads I linked to above.

A different video player is also the answer to a question you are going to ask the first time you have 2 or more video files on your Droid. Media Gallery does not show you which movie is which. Only a small picture, no name, so the answer to that question is to install a different video player

Just to get you started, just download the GUI version of Handbrake, and select the iPhone profile, leave everything else as is, and convert what you want to convert. Once done, transfer it to your Droid. Here is a guide for music, which basically works the same for video:

How to Transfer music files - Motorola Droid (A855) - My Verizon Users

Once you managed to get a working video on your Droid, you can play with the settings mentioned in the other threads I linked to to get better quality or more full-screen video.

Don't be afraid to screw things up. If the video file you created is bad, the Droid will just not play it.

Good Luck