Rendering in MP4 H.264 format

michaelt wrote on 12/6/2008, 11:56 PM
I'd like to transfer some video to a cell phone (Sony Ericsson TM506). It supports MP4 H.264 format, 320x240 resolution.

VMS Platinum 8 does allow to render it, but the bit rate is too high (480kbps for MainConcept, 384kpbs for Sony AVC/AAC). I need the bit rate to be 250kbps at most, otherwise there is a lag between video and audio.

H.264 can be customized for example in AVI. Is there a simple and free converter from AVI to MP4 for H.264 (or, say, from AVI to 3GP), or is there any other way around the problem of limited MP4 H.264 templates?

Thanks in advance.

Comments

Eugenia wrote on 12/7/2008, 12:22 AM
The A/V synch issues are not there because of higher bitrate but because of either buggy encoders or buggy decoders. In this case, I am inclined to believe that the SE decoder is buggy. If the phone doesn't support the higher bitrate usually it drops frames, but not creating A/V sync issues.

>H.264 can be customized for example in AVI. Is there a simple and free converter from AVI to MP4 for H.264

This does not make sense. Do you mean that you want to go from h.264 to AVI and then to MP4, or do you mean that your source footage is AVI and you want to convert it to MP4?

In any way, you can try the freeware Handbrake v0.9.3. You can give it almost any input, and it can convert to MP4 h.264/AAC at any bitrate.
michaelt wrote on 12/7/2008, 10:25 AM
Eugenia, thanks a lot - you are the best!

I will certainly try Handbrake.

About AVI - I meant that MPEG-4 video (H.264) can be in .AVI or .MP4 containers, yet VMS allows to customize AVI only. I thought there might be a simple way to convert from one container to another.

Out of curiosity, where I can get more info about how containers and MPEG-4 codecs work with each other? I searched Eugenia's blogs but probably missed it...

Thanks in advance.
Eugenia wrote on 12/7/2008, 1:23 PM
>yet VMS allows to customize AVI only.

VMS 9 allows Sony AVC's mp4 h.264 to be customized too now.

h.264 in AVI won't work with your device, only MP4 will.
michaelt wrote on 12/9/2008, 10:41 AM
I tried Handbrake, and it still plays on Sony Ericsson with a lag between video and audio (unless I set bit rate low, and it compromises the quality).

But I finally found the right software, it is called "SUPER". It encodes in 3GP and MP4 with H.264 codec. While 3GP still played with a lag, MP4 works just fine. So now I finally have high quality movies.

I first render it in AVI with a lossless codec (Lagarith): 320x240, 24fps. And then SUPER encodes it in .mp4 H.264/AAC as 320x240, 24fps, 384kbps.

Eugenia, check this software out: http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html

It encodes ANY format to MPEG-4 and plays fine even on buggy cell phones, and it's totally free.

Eugenia wrote on 12/9/2008, 10:50 AM
You are preaching to the preacher. I have been using and suggesting SUPER for 2 years now. However, the new Handbrake is easier to use and... SUPER uses the *exact same* encoder as Handbrake does under the hood: the open source x264 one.

And I kind of have an issue with your statement that you said that you rendered in Lagarith and then in SUPER. You see, SUPER does not support Lagarith.
michaelt wrote on 12/9/2008, 11:28 AM
That's funny ;-)

SUPER didn't want to work with Lagarith at first, but then they suggested to select "Direct Show" check - and after that everything worked without a hitch.

Also, I don't know why but SUPER's mp4 movie plays fine on my cell phone (with really good quality), while Handbrake's had a lag that I could get rid of only on the quality expense.