What Format Should I Convert Files To?

[juergen]

While I can see many discussions relating to converting to specific file formats, I'm wondering what my target format should be?

I have files that originated from my DP-Litei and are in TS format or have been edited and saved in MPG format - both stored on a PC.

My goals are:
- To allow viewing on the BW (transferring to it if required)
- To reduce the size of the files
- Maintain a good level of video quality
- Use a format that the Beyonwiz won't have trouble processing and stutter or pause
- Are able to be viewed on a PC if desired

MPG and TS work fine, but are a little big. Is MKV the answer? (Oops - I shouldn't bias the answers!)

Thanks,
Juergen

[IanSav]

Hi Juergen,

Is MKV the answer?

No. MKV files are unpacked and processed by the firmware and are not fully accelerated by the hardware. This could result in poor performance.

You also need to consider the encoding or compression of your recordings and not the container. For example a H.264 compressed TS file should be much smaller, for the same resolution, than a MPEG2 compressed TS file. The TS file is a container that doesn't specify its contents.

Regards,
Ian.

[raymondjpg]

My goals are:
- To allow viewing on the BW (transferring to it if required)
- To reduce the size of the files
- Maintain a good level of video quality
- Use a format that the Beyonwiz won't have trouble processing and stutter or pause
- Are able to be viewed on a PC if desired

To have any significant effect on size of files you will need to recompress. You could use XviD or H264/x264 codecs, all of which are free, the general consensus being that H264/x264 gives better results than XviD *at the same bitrate*. Having said that I find my older XviD encoded files very pleasing to the eye in many cases, although I prefer x264 because of better detail.

When recompressing you can reduce resolution by resizing which will significantly reduce time taken to process a file. Resizing, however, has potential to introduce video artifacts, although the resizing algorithms are pretty good. Not resizing has no material effect on file size but will significantly increase time to recompress. You need plenty of PC grunt, and/or patience to recompress without resizing.

The AVI container works well in the BW, but is limited to a video and audio stream. This is sufficient for most people, but if ever the TV stations get around to broadcasting surround sound as opposed to stereo, I have found that my P2 can have some difficulty with playing 5.1ch AC3 sound on skipping and jumping through larger AVI files. Remuxing the AVI into a MKV container fixes this.

If you want to incorporate a subtitle/teletext stream into your file, the TS M2TS and MKV containers will accommodate this, but (so far) TS and M2TS files will not resume play from where stopped. I'd hope that this might be fixed in a future firmware revision.

Is MKV the answer?

On balance, I'd agree that the MKV container is currently a good compromise for recompressed video through the BW file player.

[netmask]

If you want to incorporate a subtitle/teletext stream into your file, the TS M2TS and MKV containers will accommodate this, but (so far) TS and M2TS files will not resume play from where stopped. I'd hope that this might be fixed in a future firmware revision.

A word of warning the BW will not show subs embedded within a MKV file but you can have a separate SRT file to accompany the MKV file. MKV files that have anything other than one audio and video can cause problems for the BW. I wouldn't recommend MKV format for the BW at this stage or until a firmware update can address this problem.

If I make a AVI file for the BW (generally I make MKV's now for the Popcorn) I use AviNet with the following settings
Width 720
Smooth/Sharper about 80%
XVID (make sure you have the latest XVID codec)
Convert to size 1493MB
Audio to MP3 192K
or
Keep original AC3