OT: Loop video

royfphoto wrote on 12/17/2015, 10:49 AM
I realize that a DVD can easily be created to loop, but is it possible to create such a file for playback on a computer. I am creating a 5 minute tradeshow reel that they would like to loop but want it to play from a computer not DVD player. Any advice on media creation or a player (inside of the computer not separate)?

Comments

OldSmoke wrote on 12/17/2015, 10:56 AM
Even the basic Windows Media Player has a Loop/Repeat function, I am sure other software players have it too.

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royfphoto wrote on 12/17/2015, 10:59 AM
yep, found that, best way you think?
altarvic wrote on 12/17/2015, 11:04 AM
The only way
videoITguy wrote on 12/17/2015, 5:29 PM
Virtually any video media player worth something has the loop feature. Some work more efficiently than others. QuickTime player is an example for media, and on-line plugin. If it is simple .avi with basic codec, even the players of twenty years ago loop.

Another very good simple loop Media machine can be made with animated gif rotation.
royfphoto wrote on 12/18/2015, 6:30 AM
Forgive my ignorance in this department, my work is usually delivering for broadcast 1080_30p_ MFX 50. The client said the video I create will be played thru a computer onto a Big TV via HDMI.
I imagine it will be a wimpy laptop and don't know if it will be PC or Apple.
So I suppose some variant of MP4 is the right choice, so which one? Not to choke a wimpy laptop and still look nice on the screen.
I know this should be tested but the client just wants a usb thumb drive that will work on anything to mail to different locations.
I have read that Netflix is actually lowering resolution in some cases to provide smoother streaming. http://www.redsharknews.com/technology/item/3118-netflix-lowers-resolution-to-improve-quality
Most of the valuable advice here (which I heed) is devoted to wringing out the best quality ( my working space for broadcast work is often UHD 4.4.4) but I am here seeking suggestions for wimpy computer play back into a Television without stutter.
Chienworks wrote on 12/18/2015, 8:50 AM
If it's got HDMI then it's relatively newer, and even the wimpiest of newer laptops are mental giants compared to the high-end models of a few years ago. If you get a chance for a test run you should encode a short clip in several codecs, formats/resolutions and bitrates for them to try out, at least at their home location. It would be nice if the client could tell you what sort of playback platform will be used, at least which OS and version. Most MP4 playback does require QuickTime to be installed so that may be a consideration. If your video files are small enough and the drive big enough, include a few different formats of the full video so that the clients have some choice in case one of them doesn't work on their computer.

About the most universal playback format is MPEG1. Pretty much every player has been able to handle this flawlessly for 20 years. It's decoding overhead is very low so even lower-end CPUs handle it well. At higher bitrates it can look as good as any modern codec. Vegas' built in templates are all SD or lower and quite limited, but that doesn't stop you from making your HD templates. However, one thing to consider is that if it is played from the USB drive, USB1 is limited to about 11Mbps and good HD MPEG1 probably requires at least 25Mbps. If you use >10Mbps bitrate make sure the clients know to either be sure they use a USB2 port, or to copy the file to the laptop's hard drive instead of playing it from the USB drive. Probably most HDMI-capable laptops have only USB2/3 ports, but it should still be considered.

And as far as looping, there isn't anything you can do when preparing your video to make this happen. It will be up to the individual client users receiving the USB drives to enable the looping function in whatever player they are using.

I suppose one alternative might be to deliver a fully integrated local website on the USB drive using something like JPlayer and HTML5. You could then include a high quality MP4 file, the JPlayer plugin, an HTML file that launches JPlayer and loads the video, and pre-sets the looping control and full-screen mode. Include an autostart file so that when the USB drive is inserted *most* computers that haven't disabled autostart will simply load the web page and start playing the video. As long as the laptop has some less-than-5-year-old browser installed this method should be pretty foolproof. If the particular laptop isn't capable of this then put a README.TXT file on the drive that says "double-click the .mp4 file to play the video".
musicvid10 wrote on 12/18/2015, 9:38 AM
Looping is a player function, not something you do first to the video.
The DVD/BD structure allows this, but not file formats like mp4.
That said, there are a few things you can do to mp4 to minimize loop-point skips, depending on the player of course.
But of course, turning b-frames off altogether is impractical with very large source files for output size reasons.

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john_dennis wrote on 12/18/2015, 1:01 PM
"[I]The client said the video I create will be played thru a computer onto a Big TV via HDMI.[/I]

Here is an example of a relatively high bit rate file that ran from a corporate laptop to a panel in a trade show. Windows Media player looped it and played it with no problem on a current corporate-issued laptop. It was encoded with the Sony AVC/MVC Blu-ray 1920x1080-24p 16 mbps video stream render template customized to 21.9 mbps. I used the Dolby Digital AC3 Pro Stereo DVD render template for audio and muxed the two streams together with tsMuxer. The same file also played from a USB flash drive plugged into a 32" TV for a lobby display.

General
ID : 1 (0x1)
Complete name : F:\EDC Tour\Rendered Output\EDC Tour 3 Blu-ray 22 mbps-AC3.m2ts
Format : BDAV
Format/Info : Blu-ray Video
File size : 2.06 GiB
Duration : 13mn 56s
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 21.1 Mbps
Maximum Overall bit rate : 35.5 Mbps

Video
ID : 4113 (0x1011)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 2 frames
Format settings, GOP : M=2, N=12
Codec ID : 27
Duration : 13mn 56s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 20.1 Mbps
Maximum bit rate : 22.0 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.404
Stream size : 1.95 GiB (95%)

Audio
ID : 4352 (0x1100)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension : CM (complete main)
Format settings, Endianness : Big
Codec ID : 129
Duration : 13mn 56s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 192 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 19.2 MiB (1%)
Language : English

On the other extreme is a "corporate slide show" with audio which played on corporate-issued laptop in another enterprise for a stand-up presentation to monitors all over the room. This was encoded with Handbrake from the Vegas timeline.

General

Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media / Version 2
Codec ID : mp42
File size : 184 MiB
Duration : 12mn 55s
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 1 995 Kbps
Encoded date : UTC 2015-09-15 20:22:43
Tagged date : UTC 2015-09-15 20:34:36
Writing application : HandBrake 0.9.9 2013052900

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : Main@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 4 frames
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 12mn 55s
Bit rate : 1 672 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) : 0.027
Stream size : 154 MiB (84%)
Writing library : x264 core 130 r2273 b3065e6
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=2 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x1:0x111 / me=hex / subme=6 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=0 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=12 / lookahead_threads=2 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=1 / keyint=300 / keyint_min=30 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=30 / rc=crf / mbtree=1 / crf=16.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / vbv_maxrate=50000 / vbv_bufsize=62500 / crf_max=0.0 / nal_hrd=none / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Encoded date : UTC 2015-09-15 20:22:43
Tagged date : UTC 2015-09-15 20:34:35
Color primaries : BT.709
Transfer characteristics : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.709

Audio
ID : 2
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile : LC
Codec ID : 40
Duration : 12mn 55s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 318 Kbps
Maximum bit rate : 415 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 44.1 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 29.4 MiB (16%)
Encoded date : UTC 2015-09-15 20:22:43
Tagged date : UTC 2015-09-15 20:34:35

In both cases, I didn't meet with the end user face to face.