Converting AVC Profile

[gjws]

Hi everyone,

I hope the topic heading makes sense, I'm VERY new to video encoding!


I have a number of video files that I am trying to play on my Panasonic Smart TV. Most of the videos play just fine, but I have a few that do some really weird stuff. When I play these problem files the audio appears to be fine, but the picture appears to jump randomly forward very quickly, just showing individual frames for a few seconds before jumping to another still frame.


I've done a lot of reading, which has led me to download mediainfo and take a closer look at the encoding methods used in the videos. All the videos that WORK have the following details:


Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : Main@L3.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 4 frames
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 11mn 10s
Bit rate : 1 360 Kbps
Width : 1 280 pixels
Height : 718 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Variable
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Minimum frame rate : 29.412 fps
Maximum frame rate : 30.303 fps



All the videos that DO NOT WORK have these details:


Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L5.0
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 11 frames
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 11mn 27s
Bit rate : 917 Kbps
Width : 1 280 pixels
Height : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Variable
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Minimum frame rate : 23.810 fps
Maximum frame rate : 24.390 fps



The main differences I can see are the format profile and the REFrames, although I don't really understand what those mean! Could anyone suggest if these differences are likely to be the problem? If so, could anyone also suggest the simplest way to re encode the videos so they have the same encoding parameters as the working videos?


I have tried re encoding using handbrake, setting it for Apple TV 2 output and this resulted in the videos crashing altogether at around the half way point. I'm at a loss as to what I should try next for any advice at all would be greatly appreciated.




Thank you!

[hello_hello]

Generally, High Profile, Level 4.1 is the highest level supported by hardware players. Chances are that's what your TV supports but it'd be worth looking at the manual. ReFrames would normally be limited by the profile/level used, so while normally it's not something you'd need to think about.

You could try the H264 Level Editor. It'll change the profile/level written to the video file. Depending on how the video was encoded and how the TV checks the video before playing, you might get away with that. If not, you'll need to re-encode it. The most recommended "ease of use" program would be HandBrake/Vidcoder but there's lots to choose from. I use MeGUI myself but it has more of a learning curve.

For the record, HandBrake's High Profile preset uses High Profile, Level 4.1 by default. It also uses the default x264 encoder settings. I've no idea what the AppleTV presets do.

[johns0]

Run the video with High@L5.0 through tsmuxer and change the level to 4.1 for the video and save as ts or m2ts,you can also use mkvmerge to save it as mkv after,no encoding is involved so you retain the same video quality,just a bunch of muxing.

[gjws]

Thanks guys for your posts. I've tried re-encoding with handbrake and it is better, but now the videos freeze at the half way mark.

I then tried using tsmuxer, but it crashes every time I try to load one of the videos!


I'm just not meant to get this working