How to encode Videos for Nokia 5800/5230 (Symbian 60 5th) ?

[ahollmann]

Witch parameters I have to set ffmpegX to encode movies for Nokia 5800 and 5230 with Symbian S60 5th?

Nokia gives the following information:

Video playback file formats: MPEG4-SP playback 30fps VGA, MPEG4-AVC playback 30fps QVGA, WMV9 playback 30fps QVGA, MPEG4-SP playback 30 fps nHD

-SP means "Simple Profile"?
How does ffmpegX create this?

The screen has 640x360 - the nearest resolution should be 640x352, right?

*Must* I give the video 30 fps or does 25 fps work also (in Germany we have PAL with 25 fps)

Regards, ahollmann

[SatStorm]

I do those kinds of conversions years now with the Super encoder. There are many other alternatives of course and probably better ones.

It doesn't really matter the framesize of your encode AFAIK. I personally use Η264, 320x240@25fps with an average bitrate of 322kb/s and it looks ok on my NokiaN82 (which use an older symbian verson). Even when I plug my phone on TV (it has TV out) it looks OK (like a VHS tape)

[ahollmann]

I do those kinds of conversions years now with the Super encoder. There are many other alternatives of course and probably better ones.

It doesn't really matter the framesize of your encode AFAIK. I personally use Η264, 320x240@25fps with an average bitrate of 322kb/s and it looks ok on my NokiaN82 (which use an older symbian verson). Even when I plug my phone on TV (it has TV out) it looks OK (like a VHS tape)

My Nokia 5230 has a 16:9 Display with 640x360 pixels - so of course a 320x240 movie won't satisfy me...
h.264 is clear - but which container? AVI, MP4, MOV or what else?

EDIT:
I filmed a short movie with the Nokia 5230 and copied it on my Mac to see its parameters:
Container: .mp4
Encoder: MPEG4
Resolution: 640x352
(yeah - its 16:9, Nokia told wrong on its own website: http://www.forum.nokia.com/devices/5230/)
Audio: AAC 48.000 Hz stereo)

So I encoded a PAL MPEG2 source file with following parameters with ffmpegX:

Video Codec: MPEG4[.MP4] (ffmpeg)
Birate: 1265 kbit/s
Resolution: 640x352
Framerate: PAL (25)

Audio Codec: AAC
Birate: 96 kbit/s
Rate 48000 Hz
Stereo

The resulting movie works fine on Nokia 5230 in fullscreen mode and is displayed in 16:9
But on my Mac the video is compressed to 4:3 instead of 16:9 and Quicktime Players Info tells me that the actual size is 469x352 - but above at "format" the resolution is correctly 640x352.

So why is my video displayed in 4:3 on the Mac (with QT Player, VLC and MPLAYER) and displayed correctly in 16:9 on my Nokia 5230?

Any ideas?

[Case]

Why is my video displayed in 4:3 on the Mac (with QT Player, VLC and MPLAYER) and displayed correctly in 16:9 on my Nokia 5230?

MP4 files can have a setting for the PAR (pixel aspect ratio), which allows for stretched playback (or compressed storage, depending on your point of view).
If this PAR parameter isn't set, then computer playback of the MP4 file can default to 4:3 display sometimes.

By setting the PAR to 1:1, it should by default play on computers with your value of 640x352, video pixels same as monitor pixels.

I did make a small AppleScript app a while ago to perform just this task, based on the mp4box binary in the application package of ffmpegX. See this thread to download it.

[ahollmann]

By setting the PAR to 1:1, it should by default play on computers with your value of 640x352, video pixels same as monitor pixels.

Why do not set the PAR to 16:9 in my case? Wouldn't be this the better way?

[Case]

Why do not set the PAR to 16:9 in my case? Wouldn't be this the better way?

The display aspect ratio (DAR) is quite different from the pixel aspect ratio (PAR). The first says what the whole movie frame looks like, the second describes what an individual pixel should be viewed as. I don't think there's an MP4 setting for DAR, but there is for PAR.

[ahollmann]

Why do not set the PAR to 16:9 in my case? Wouldn't be this the better way?

The display aspect ratio (DAR) is quite different from the pixel aspect ratio (PAR). The first says what the whole movie frame looks like, the second describes what an individual pixel should be viewed as. I don't think there's an MP4 setting for DAR, but there is for PAR.

Hm.
So I downloaded the Applesript, started it an chosed my file - but nothing changed. The aspect ratio at playback is still 4:3. What did I wrong?

[Case]

So I downloaded the Applesript, started it an chosed my file - but nothing changed. The aspect ratio at playback is still 4:3. What did I wrong?

Did you get any error message?
The Applescript leaves the original/input file untouched, but saves a copy "output.mp4" with the change. Did you play the output file?

[ahollmann]

So I downloaded the Applesript, started it an chosed my file - but nothing changed. The aspect ratio at playback is still 4:3. What did I wrong?

Did you get any error message?
The Applescript leaves the original/input file untouched, but saves a copy "output.mp4" with the change. Did you play the output file?

Bingo!
I didn't see the output-file. This is alright

But: the output files size is exactly twice as big as the original file
Original = 4,2 MB, Output: 8,4 MB.

How can this be fixed?
...

EDIT: Problem solved!
Every time I convert a clip, its size is added to the size of the output file. I just have to delete it before convertig a new file, the the file size is exactly the same