xBox 360 Video Format Help/Suggestions

[pauldays]

Hello, I'm Paul, first time poster, long time reader.

So I have finally put together my little piece of heaven: my decent media system, and I have come to the point where I have to encode all my videos. I am actually writing here to re-assure that my choice is the right or perhaps best one.

- I have a nice collection of music videos which I rip off my network drive to my xbox. Most of these videos are in 1280x720, with some lower some higher. In the instance that the resolution is lower, lets say 1008 x 576, should i encode to 1280x720 or down to 720x480? from my graphic design days, i kinda remember that upscales can lead to pixelation.

- I understand that h.264 is the best way to go, BUT it takes forever for me to convert, and the xbox is just not playing it. Plus, i'm not sure if my rooms' divx player will play, perhaps it will. I've used Handbrake to convert the videos using the Xbox preset, and no luck.

My current route:

- I am using a great program called iSkysoft Converter, and eventhough it has all formats, it lacks the xbox preset. For a base run, I did a standard video conversion of a file to .avi and it was not THAT bad, pixelated a bit...so I went ahead and put the Handbrake values in this converted and ajusted the settings to this: 1280x720, 2000 bitrate, and 128 mp3 audio. And it looks good in this .avi container. Why .avi? I have all my series and divx movies in .avi anyways.

Unless someone has a link to a fast h.264 method that works, ill try it out, i wanna get this sorted before i convert tons of video. Lastly should I always encode at 1280x720? if the source file is less (about 1008x576) and upscaled it, it looks ok, if it's less should i go down to 720x480? I ask cause don't LCD TVs "auto scale"?

Thanks in advance,

Paul

[MJA]

check XMedia Recode .they have under profile xbox 360

[mh2360]

If your videos are in DivX avi format, why not leave them like that? The 360 can handle DivX files OK.

[yoda313]

I have a nice collection of music videos which I rip off my network drive to my xbox.

How do you mean? What is the original format? Are you "streaming" these and not actually copying the file or are you copying the file to be played back physically on the xbox itself?

I have all my series and divx movies in .avi anyways.

The xbox 360 can play divx straight up. Have you tried burning them to a disc or copying to a fat32 usb drive and playing them as is? ---- however the 360 does have divx limitations like most non-wdtv style hardware players - ie settop players.

Unless someone has a link to a fast h.264 method that works, ill try it out, i wanna get this sorted before i convert tons of video.

Have you tried streaming the videos directly to your xbox 360? If you are connected via lan this is probably your best solution. No conversion is needed. Use a program like tversity, playon, or ps3mediaserver (yes it will work on a 360 despite its name) and it will transcode the file on the fly so the xbox will play it. - if you're not familiar with the term streaming think of it as watching tv instead of watching a dvd or video tape - you don't have the full program at your machine you are receiving it as it plays - whereas a physical disc or tape has the full program at your destination already - with the exception of streaming has the ability to fast forward or reverse unlike watching live tv - but seeking is finicky at times while streaming.

Wireless streaming is not recommended. Unless you have a wireless N router and the N adpater for the 360 that is. But even N speeds are not immune to potential buffering issues that could lead to pauses or video breakup.

Lastly should I always encode at 1280x720? if the source file is less (about 1008x576) and upscaled it, it looks ok, if it's less should i go down to 720x480?

I would not manually upscale to 720 if they are below that. I think that estimate seems off for some reason - maybe 1080x576? Anyway the 576 would suggest those particular files are from pal countries - 720x576 is pal dvd resolution.

Downscaling would be better than upscaling in that case since its closer to sd than hd.

-------------------

But that leads me back to streaming. You wouldn't have to convert the videos at all with the streaming programs on your computer. The xbox 360 will see them in the server list and you can play them as if they were local - of course they have to buffer briefly and then they will play.

[pauldays]

Wow, thanks all for the fast responses. Let me see how to answer all

- Yes, the video files are in my Network drive, so Yes, I'm streaming, and No, I have no buffering issues. MyBookWorld runs TwonkyMedia Server.

- Video formats are in all sorts, and I have finally decided to stick with AVI, just because it seems to be fast and versatile. I just peeked at xMedia Recode, and its Windows, eventhough I have a pc too, i use it for music production (keyboardist )

- Regarding the Resolutions, I will go ahead then and DOWNSCALE the ones which are less than 1280x720 to 720x480, right?

So far the 1280x720, 2000 bitrate seems to be fine, though the standard slidebar jumps from 1500 to 2500, i manually put 2000, as per Handbrake's profile, should I leave it at 2000, or up it to 2500.

In the end, indirectly you all answered my questions, if I should stick to avi/divx......its just soooo many people swear by h.264....i'm not a professional video editor, just an average joe who watches TV

[yoda313]

its just soooo many people swear by h.264....i'm not a professional video editor, just an average joe who watches TV

Well if it ain't broke don't fix it. As long as you have a device that plays it back there is no real need to change.

However h264 gives the benefit of smaller file sizes while retaining great quality assuming the original quality was good to start.

I'm not sure what profile settings you need for the 360 for h264.

However many programs have presets - like format factory or xvid4psp. Both are free and very versatile. You could test outputs to h264 and see what you might like if you decide to change.

Edit - by the way are your sources in hd to begin with? Otherwise you should not be converting dvd sources to 1280x720. You don't get a benefit by doing that. The tv and/or the player does the upconverting. Manually upconverting a sd resolution isn't necessary nor a good idea.

if they are hd sources to begin with then yes 1280x720 is ideal and suitable to preserve hd.

[pauldays]

The Sources are anything from avi,mkv,mp4,vob's anything. Most are 1280x720, some aren't, that's my final question, if they are lower, then downscale? I'll keep using .avi's, all I use is working seamlessly. Gonna test one more h.264 app.

So should i keep Handbrake's recc'd xbox bitrate (2000), or do the 2500 as "better" quality in iSkysoft Converter?

the difference is like 10mb, i haven't noticed any difference, if it's worth it, i dont mind. Then again, Handbrake knows more than me.

[pauldays]

No luck on the other h.264, and all site that have xBox profiles for conversion use the settings I have now. I promise if in my fre time i find a way to do h.264, for anyone searching these forums, I will update this thread....same goes, if anyone with a Mac has done it, please hit me up on it.

paul

[yoda313]

You mentioned you have a pc. I'd try out format factory or ripbot264 for h264 encoding.

If you don't personally notice any difference between those two settings use the smaller output at 2000 than to save space. No need to waste space and extra processing time if you don't perceive any difference.

Regarding conversions you won't need to convert your already compressed files as long as you stream them to your xbox. I'm not sure what programs are designed to stream and transcode on the mac. But if you use your pc use one of the programs I mentioned and you will be able to play your already compressed files - ps3mediaserver, tversity or playon.

Hope this helps.

[pauldays]

Ok, one last question, just so i have NO doubts.....when i encode the files to avi, should i select "keep original framerate" or do the preset "30"?

[pauldays]

H.264 Success using Xilisoft video converter. problem is.....there are horizontal lines on the video......Thoughts?

[mh2360]

Are you encoding H.264 in an AVI container? If so the Xbox 360 won't even try to play it. It must be in a MP4 container with 2 channel AAC-LC audio.

[pauldays]

You lost me...h.264 in an avi container, maybe this is what i need. What formats are avi containers? cause i though avi's were....containers,

[thezanny]

Avi's are containers.
But no Xbox compatible I guess.
Hello VideoHelp, this is my first time helping someone. I guess that my saying is Right

[pauldays]

FINAL SOLUTION/CONCLUSION: There must be something that has to do with Macs. I installed FormatFactory as Yoda suggested, just so I can do a comparison; my Dell 1200, old but reliable laptop (which I use for Synthesizer programming), converted the mkv, mp4 and vob's to avi using the HD 120x720 preset... Great quality, low file size. Again, I ran about 5 conversion programs on the Macbook, which has a near empty HDD, 4 GB RAM and the latest 10.6.6. So PC you win.