MP4 files: Changing AVC Reference Frames without re encoding

[shaema]

My Sony blue ray player [BDP-S380] can not play this MP4 file:

MediaInfo:

General
Complete name : C:\Users\user1\hd_001.mp4
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media
Codec ID : isom
File size : 886 MiB
Duration : 25mn 1s
Overall bit rate : 4 951 Kbps
Writing application : Lavf54.25.105
Comment : FlixEngineLinux_8.0.14.0 (www.on2.com)

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L5.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 16 frames
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 25mn 0s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 4 868 Kbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.078
Stream size : 873 MiB (98%)
Writing library : x264 core 128 r2216 198a7ea
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=16 / deblock=1:-1:-1 / analyse=0x3:0x133 / me=umh / subme=10 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.15 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=24 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-3 / threads=12 / lookahead_threads=2 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=8 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=25 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=60 / rc=abr / mbtree=1 / bitrate=4868 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Tagged date : UTC 2012-10-07 09:22:37

Audio
ID : 2
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile : LC
Codec ID : 40
Duration : 25mn 1s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 68.9 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 12.3 MiB (1%)
Tagged date : UTC 2012-10-07 09:22:37

It plays other MP4 files [AVC high@4.0] [CABAC / 2 Reference Frames] without any problem.

All these files play perfect on my PC.

For me it seemed the only difference is the number of Reference Frames, so it appeared that my player (a few years old) can not deal with a high frame number.

I managed to change AVC level from 5.1 to 4.0 using TSMUXER, my player loaded and played the resulting file but it was full with blocks and discolored so it was useless.

So now I need to change the Ref Frames from 16 to a lower number. I have googled for a solution but no luck.

I would appreciate any advice and comments

Thanks all

[poisondeathray]

Not possible

[shaema]

Thanks poisondeathray for your reply.

Looking through Google, I tried this script:

ffmpeg -i old.mp4 -c:v libx264 -profile:v baseline new.mp4

The input file was about 188 MB. It took about 6 minutes to produce the new file ( on a core i7), so I assumed some re encoding had been done. The output file was 335 MB, but it did work in my player with almost the same quality.

Now I have to deal with about 200 MP4 files, each with an average of around 1 GB.

So what are my best options to achieve that? a part from buying a brand new player which would accept 16 Ref Frames.

Is it possible to improve on this ffmpeg option or some other program to make faster?

Thanks again.

[aedipuss]

try something that can queue files for encoding. maybe vidcoder. make preset that works and doesn't increase the size much.