Avidemux 2.6 Problem converting and rotating quicktime and mp4 to x264_mp4

[moses6533]

I can take a .mov and use the xvid codec and mp4 container and the rotate filter works, but the compression doesn't seem to be as good as the x264 resulting in a larger file.

I can also use the x264 codec and rotate filter and output to an AVI and that works too.

I am trying to convert all my various home videos (wmv, avi, vob, mov, mp4) from over the years and different devices to one format and i would prefer mp4 since it seems to be the most modern and universal, i would also like to rotate them 90 degrees for the ones from iPhone and Android so that i can view them in the correct orientation on the PC and when I stream them to my TV.

The thing is want to keep them as near to the original in size and quality which would be H264/x264, but when i use the rotate filter and output to mp4 there is no video, just audio. It works without the rotate filter though.

Any thoughts?

[Baldrick]

Very strange that it works with xvid but not x264.

Are you using latest avidemux 2.6? Maybe try avidemux 2.5 and see how it works.

[moses6533]

tried other version with the same result, tried 64bit and 2.5 but no joy.

I even tried x264.avi with rotate, which works, then converted that avi back to x264.mp4, and the result was still no video.
And as i mention xvid.mp4 with rotate works also, but with resulted in larger files.o

the 180 degree filter even works, it seems to be the combination of the x264 and mp4 and 720x1280 (portrait orientation), no matter how many ways i try to convert it, that combination always results in audio only.

I guess i could settle for either larger mp4s using xvid, or AVIs using x264, just wish i could get x264.mp4 rotated, to have a unified library using what i consider to be the a good codec and most universal and modern container.

[moses6533]

I don't understand why there isn't a simpler way to orient the videos on the fly for PCs, etc.

Seems to me if a phone can simply orient it then the PC should just be able to as well.

Reason being is that after rotating to the correct viewing orientation for PC viewing, if you then load those rotated version back to a smartphone then they are constantly in the wrong orientation.

Meaning you pretty much need originals to load back to the phone and rotated duplicates to view on the PC or stream to the TV.

[moses6533]

I guess the true solution is to never shoot portrait orientation video, stick with landscape on there is no problem. LOL.

[poisondeathray]

I don't understand why there isn't a simpler way to orient the videos on the fly for PCs, etc.

on the fly ? you can rotate it on the fly (during playback) with a video player, most have a rotate filter e.g kmplayer, smplayer

to make it permanent you have to re-encode . It's probably just avidemux being buggy. You can do it for sure with avisynth + x264 . Probably you can do it with ffmpeg (or some gui for it)

[Baldrick]

I just tried rotate and convert to h264 in a mp4 with avidemux 2.6. No problems.

Are you converting from 720x1280 to 1280x720?


But you can make the xvid smaller. Click on configure under Video output, increase the quantizer value or select two pass-video size under encoding mode and set your output file size directly.

[moses6533]

Just tried convert a portrait oriented wmv to x264.mp4 using Handbrake and again the result was no video, audio only. So I guess it's not a problem with AVIdemux, but as i said a problem with x264 plus mp4 plus portrait orientation.

Used the FFmpeg codec and it worked fine, set it to end up with roughly the same size file and video quality was minimally degraded, but I imagine some devices might not support the FFmpeg codec.

[moses6533]

I just tried rotate and convert to h264 in a mp4 with avidemux 2.6. No problems.

Are you converting from 720x1280 to 1280x720?


But you can make the xvid smaller. Click on configure under Video output, increase the quantizer value or select two pass-video size under encoding mode and set your output file size directly.

Yes 720x1280 to 1280x720.

For me it doesn't seem to matter what the source is; wmv, mov, mp4. But that combination of x264 and mp4 and 720x1280 is resulting in no video whether i use Handbrake or AVIdemux. Though i have no problems with virtually any other combo; x264/avi, xvid/mp4, ffmpeg/mp4.

Won't an xvid forced to the same size x264 result in a lesser quality, i was under the impression that x264 has slightly better compression?
And how about compatibility? i think most phones will support x264, but I don't know about xvid.

......I am thinking I will keep the originals on a backup hard drive, but maybe make rotated copies to keep on the PC for viewing/streaming, so I guess xvid/mp4 would be fine. I am sure with the right settings any quality lost will be hardly noticed.

[moses6533]

I guess my first step is to get everything into one format regardless of orientation.
I don't like having my home videos in 4 different formats.
Though I did need to make some into AVIs to use VirtualDubs Deshaker for some videos from a concert.

Plus I am done with Apple, i no longer have any Apple devices, so I definitely want to at convert all the MOVs(93 videos) to MP4s which isn't a problem if i just batch convert with Handbrake. I was just hoping to kill 2 birds with 1 stone and rotate them at the same time and also avoid double encoding them to minimize any degradation.

[moses6533]

Well, I'll be damned, I just opened the resulting x264/mp4 in Quicktime instead of WMP and it played just fine, it even played in Windows Live Gallery. And though i couldn't stream it direct, I could stream it through Mencoder. However my other laptop wouldn't play it in WMP either, well it wouldn't even play the audio either, so probably a codec problem on the laptop.

Still baffles me how my PC can play virtually anything through WMP except that combo when it's rotated, but plays that combo fine unrotated, and can even play it in WLG. Oddly though, WLG will not thumbnail preview the portrait oriented mp4s either, but thumbnails the landscape ones just fine. And previews portrait oriented WMVs fine too, but it would make sense that WLG would be fully compatible with WMVs.

[moses6533]

I don't understand why there isn't a simpler way to orient the videos on the fly for PCs, etc.

on the fly ? you can rotate it on the fly (during playback) with a video player, most have a rotate filter e.g kmplayer, smplayer

to make it permanent you have to re-encode . It's probably just avidemux being buggy. You can do it for sure with avisynth + x264 . Probably you can do it with ffmpeg (or some gui for it)

Well, really I would want to be able to rotate them will streaming them to my PS3.
If I could figure out how to do that I would even bother rotating them permanently.
Though i would still convert them to a single codec/format to get rid of the mess of formats in my library.

Yeah ffmpeg codec worked in Handbrake, and actually after trying the video in Quicktime, it apparently is working fine with x264/mp4, just not in WMP or WLG thumbnails or untranscoded streaming.

I will have to ponder on this a little more and decide what the best approach is going to be.
Probably start by converting everything to x264.mp4 once, and then making separate rotated copies.
That way each one has only been converted once (both rotated and unrotated).

LOL, I have probably spent more time trying to figure out the best method, rather than just queuing up the batch and doing it that way in the first place. Problem was I thought the x264/mp4s were broken, but it seems it's WMP that is having the issue playing those particular files. Still weird to me that it plays them unrotated but not rotated, and plays any other rotated video (ie. xvid/mp4, ffmpeg/mp4, x264/avi) just not the rotated x264/mp4.

[moses6533]

Ha, if I resize the videos to the next lower (480x854) everything works great. frame rate tags appear in windows explorer, the thumbnails, the play in WMP fine....strange.