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A movie to go, please

19 April, 2007 - 23:37 — Sami

Most modern-day smartphones are also rather capable video players. Combined with a stereo headset, a portable movie player is a good alternative to a Pratchett paperback during a commute or an otherwise nonstimulant occasion, such as a distant cousin's wedding or an all-hands meeting with Tommy the Powerpoint Wizard. While the experience does fall slightly short of visiting a THX theater near you, a recent device such as the N95 can provide passable audiovisual pastime when really needed.

I have been experimenting with the following free toolchain for compressing films for mobile viewing (only DVDs that I legally own, of course):

  • HandBrake (or MediaFork) for extracting the data off a DVD (for long-term storage on my Mac mini entertainment centre)
  • Either iSquint or MPEG Streamclip for compressing the higher-resolution MP4 into a small H.264 encoded MP4. iSquint is intended for converting video for the video-capable iPods, but the output works just brilliantly on an N95 as well.

For the N95, I've been using the QVGA resolution of 320x240 as the target resolution, and I am currently trying to find the balance between file size and quality. With the default iSquint settings (quality set to Standard), I could squeeze a full-length movie down to approximately 260 MB, and the video seems OK on the device itself. The compression is evident when viewed on a Mac, however, but that's not the point. The MPEG compression does hit possible subtitles worse than the video itself, and I am trying to find a suitable level of tradeoffs in size and quality.

What's your toolchain for on-to-go movie compression, and what settings do you use for mobile handsets or iPods? With some input, I could try to churn out a movie compression tutorial.

Comments

5 May, 2007 - 08:39 — pfree

I had not come accros

I had not come accros iSquint berore, but have used it to convert several mpgs to mp4 format and they look great an the M95s decent size screen. Standard setting looks fine. Thanks for the tip.

2 May, 2007 - 22:40 — Anonymous

I use Handbrake to rip then

I use Handbrake to rip then QT Pro to encode. I'm still working out which codec/resolution is best.

5 May, 2007 - 08:50 — Sami

A couple of Handbrake experiments

I've been experimenting with bitrate vs. file size in HB, and for a full-lenght movie, there seems to be a fairly easy-to-remember correlation between bitrate and file size: when I used the bitrate of 512 kbps, the output H.264 MP4 turned out about half a gig in size (a bit too big).

With the bitrate of 400, I got a 416 MB file, with the quality still very good. I'll try with 256 kpbs next to see if the quality still remains acceptable.

2 May, 2007 - 19:17 — Anonymous

Experimentation

I'm going to begin experimenting with this as well. How does iSquint compare to VisualHub (http://www.techspansion.com/visualhub/)? I'm on an N73 so I won't have quite the horsepower. Also are you using realplayer or a 3rd party media player?

-kap

2 May, 2007 - 20:32 — Anonymous

ffmpegX

I use Handbrake as mentioned in the article to RIP DVDs to MP4 files. I then use ffmpegX to reduce them to play on N95. The UI might be a lottle more complicated but it has a lot more options for getting exactly what you want. - mike

2 May, 2007 - 21:01 — Sami

Re: ffmpegX

Would you care to share exactly what settings (bitrate, resolution etc.) you use for e.g. movies and TV shows?