Nook Color: Can't Play sideloaded m4v videos [Archive]

exodus1999

11-20-2010, 04:16 AM

from: Baka no Kami

Messed around a little and finally found settings that work for making nookcolor compatible video. I used a converted called Handbrake which is available here: http://handbrake.fr/

If you need help using Handbrake check the user manual they have on the site.

Set the output container to "MP4"

On the video tab set the "video codec" to "MPEG-4 (FFmpeg)". Set the "Target Size" to something appropriate for the type of video. I find that 175MB for every 30minutes of video gives a good picture, so an hour long TV show would be 350MB a 2hr movie 700MB, etc.

On the audio tab highlight whatever is in the bottom box and hit the remove button. The audio turned out to be the problem the first couple of times I tried this, the audio on my original file had a sample rate of 48 and the NC wouldn't play it, when I lowered the sample rate suddenly the video worked. So, set the autotab like this:
Source: Automatic (or use the drop down to choose which audio track you want if the video has multiple)
Audio Codec: AAC (faac)
Mixdown: Stereo
Samplerate: 44.1
Bitrate: 128

Now hit the "Add" button.

The only thing left is to set the destination for the final file. Browse to whatever folder you want, but be sure to use .mp4 or .m4v as the file extension, if you use anything else the NC will not recognize it as a video file even if everything else is right.
Now hit the start button at the top and go read a book while you wait for Handbrake to process the video.

Other settings may also work for video, but so far this is the only thing that worked for me, so it's what I'm sticking with.

this worked for me!

The Hillarican

11-20-2010, 09:54 AM

This needs to be a sticky! I tried the Handbrake conversion trick as well and it worked very well. Smooth playback with great audio.

Exodus1999 and Baka no Kami:
Thank you!!!!!

mikipedia

11-20-2010, 08:12 PM

For what is worth I have used Freemake Video Converter and used settings SCION posted on page 1 and it worked flawlessly. Video footprint is a little on a big side, but it works very well. About 2 hour movie I have is about 1.2GB. I can give more info if needed.

madsquabbles

11-20-2010, 10:34 PM

try rebooting if you get stuttering. all my mp4's play perfectly. the were encoded only at 320 by xxx and at 350kbps (quantity over quality). even a couple video streaming sites work fine.

Noah98

11-21-2010, 08:47 AM

from: Baka no Kami

this worked for me!

I agree that this should be a sticky! This worked great.

If you use dvdshrink (freeware) you can rip a dvd to your hard drive and then use Handbrake to convert.

MobileTechReview

11-21-2010, 06:15 PM

I've played several videos I originally encoded for the iPhone and smartphones. I usually used Handbrake MPEG4 H.264 with stereo AAC audio 48Khz to encode my videos. Typically the videos are around 640 pixels wide. I haven't run into one that won't play well. The bitrates are typically 1,000 to 1,5000 kbit/s (pretty decent quality).

Baka no Kami

11-22-2010, 09:35 PM

I found an old link for a program someone wrote to automate Handbrake. You pick two folders and put in some options, then any video placed in your source folder will be automatically converted to the settings you picked and placed in the destination folder. It also already includes Handbrake so you won't need to download that separately. I thought this may work a little easier for some.

http://lifehacker.com/5596384/dropfolders-watches-folders-and-converts-media-with-handbrake

Here's the settings for the "Handbrake Arguments" box that worked great for me on the nookcolor.

-f mp4 -e ffmpeg -b 1000 -a 1 -E faac --arate 44.1 -6 stereo

If you'd like to tweak these settings a little here's Handbrake's command line arguments guide: http://trac.handbrake.fr/wiki/CLIGuide

The only thing I haven't been able to do with Dropfolders or Handbrake is hardcode a .srt subtitle file onto a movie. I was able to add a .srt file into the mp4 container with Handbrake, and the video plays on the NC, but no subtitles.

nyrath

11-27-2010, 11:20 PM

Even this i get alot of lag,
Yes, SCION "Avatar" video clip is playing quite laggy on my Color nook as well. I tried rebooting (hold power for five seconds, release, hold power for two seconds, release) but there was no change. I'm storing the video clip in internal memory, I do not have a card for the Nook yet.

The sound seems to play just fine, the problem is the video. It stutters precisely, freezing at about quarter second intervals.

NO, sorry, it was not re-booting properly. I got the Nook to totally reboot, and now the video plays just fine. sorry for the false alarm

raygeeknyc

11-28-2010, 05:56 PM

I used the "Classic" profile in Handbrake and it worked like a charm! There may be higher quality settings that would work, but I'm pretty tolerant as long as I can see what's happening :)

nyrath

11-29-2010, 01:14 PM

My first video converted with Handbrake failed to play. Turned out it was the audio. 45 sample rate/160 bit rate is too high, has to be 44.1 sample rate/125 bit rate + stereo. That played just fine.

nyrath

11-29-2010, 01:17 PM

Of course for a Japanese language Anime, you also have to turn on the English subtitles. Unless you speak Japanese.

Tess89

11-29-2010, 09:27 PM

I use airvideo to convert all my video files. If you happen to have an ipod touch, iphone or ipad, you might want to use that app for mp4/m4v conversions. While you need one of those apple devices to request the conversion, the actual converted files will remain on the host computer. I have found this method to be so much more straightforward than handbrake.

Lastblade

11-30-2010, 10:03 AM

I can't seem to get the video to work. I tried to convert various mkv videos using both Airvideo and Handbrake, following the directions posted above but the NC still won't open the file. Not sure why it is (I suspect it might be the audio track).

bbz_Ghost

11-30-2010, 10:21 AM

Ok, I'm wondering if someone can test this clip for me. I took a look at that Avatar clip posted earlier in the thread and wow, what a horrible looking clip. The bitrate is sky high, and it's just a bad encode all around, and encodes can be done much better.

Here's a clip I just encoded, the original source is an HD movie trailer (720p) from the upcoming movie Tron. That Avatar clip was 16 seconds long and took 18.1MB - this clip is 2 minutes and 31 seconds long, 720x304 resolution and it's smaller but vastly superior in terms of quality.

You tell me, does it play nice with the Nook Color or not? :D

Basically I need some guinea pigs to try the encode out and tell me if it works well on the Nook Color. If it turns out to be successful without issues, I'll bump the resolution up a notch to 800 pixels wide, then ask for more reports, then potentially take it to about 848 wide (the max you'll get with HandBrake given the mod 16 requirement for video resolution and the Nook Colors' stated maximum of 854 pixel wide content).

Thanks...

Here's the clip hosted at MediaFire, 17.8MB in size:

http://www.mediafire.com/?oz0baqsy5sli8sf

As for using HandBrake, it's far easier than most of you probably realize, and those guides out there are making it overly complex - there's no need to do anything with the Advanced properties or the command line, honestly.

Edit:
I'm not using the standard public version of HandBrake, 0.9.4, which is quite old now. I'm using a nightly build which offers more features and better encoding quality as well, so it could play into how well or not well the encode above works. It does use 48 kHz sampling for the audio as that's fairly standard - if it chokes on the audio then I can redo it with 44 kHz but these days most everything should be able to play AAC with that sample rate without issues; it's pretty much the standard.

jnuts

11-30-2010, 10:41 AM

Works great, both audio and video. Looks real nice!

What settings are you using on handbrake? I just downloaded the latest nightly and want to run some tests!

Lastblade

11-30-2010, 10:52 AM

I just tried it and that trailer looks fantastic.

SCION

11-30-2010, 11:10 AM

Looks and sounds great! :thumbsup:

exodus1999

11-30-2010, 11:15 AM

Most settings work for handbrake, just remember to turn the audio down to 44 or it will be off.

bbz_Ghost

11-30-2010, 11:32 AM

Most settings work for handbrake, just remember to turn the audio down to 44 or it will be off.

The encoding I created above is AAC audio, 128 Kbps bitrate 48 kHz sample rate which is the standard for AAC audio these days (the sampling rate). It's not necessary to alter that as several people just reported the file is playing just fine. Here's a property snapshot of the video file:

http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/7127/aac48khz.png

Now for more test clips: an 800x336 encode (like I said, that's fairly standard resolution for Android devices), another maxed out at 848 pixels wide so that should be the max that the Nook Color can handle, and a final encode at 1024 just 'cause I want to know what'll happen if you attempt to play it. ;) The last one most likely will not play on the Nook Color based on the stated specs, but try it and let me know what happens, please.

These clips are the same source material, the only difference in the settings between that 720x304 clip earlier is the resolution itself.

Here's the 800x336 encode, MediaFire, 20.7MB:

http://www.mediafire.com/?01lcigu7t8f7z8f

Next, 848x368, same settings the rest of the way through, also hosted at MediaFire, 23.1MB:

http://www.mediafire.com/?h4afcqnxieo9dnv

And the 1024x432 version, which I don't really expect the Nook Color to be able to play at all but, it might surprise us, who knows. MediaFire, 30.4MB:

http://www.mediafire.com/?nodvj1l0n33dd4r

As for the Nightly Builds, there's two components: the actual command line (CLI) app, and the GUI app. If you choose the GUI version, it will install a CLI as well but usually the CLI is a few builds behind from the separate CLI build. I usually update once a week even in spite of the builds coming somewhat more frequently, but how you handle it is up to you (if you choose to use those builds).

Install the GUI, then get the CLI .zip file, extract the contents, then just copy those contents into the main HandBrake folder and overwrite the older version(s) and you'll have the latest you grabbed.

If this works out, I planned to do a somewhat detailed thread on encoding videos for the Nook Color using HandBrake, maybe if people find it useful it can become a resource for those wishing to get more video content onto their devices. The 800x336 one might be the best choice overall since you should easily be able to move it between any devices you have, smartphones, iPod touchs, iPhones, Android tablets, etc - it should play on all of them without issues.

The idea here is to find "the sweet spot" for the best file size to quality tradeoff and also consider that you might only want to do one single encode that you can drop on any of your hardware and have it play back without issue instead of encoding per device which is time consuming and frustrating too.

We'll see what happens. Just for the record, here are the average bitrates of each of these clips, also:

720x304 = 823 Kbps
800x336 = 1024 Kbps
848x368 = 1161 Kbps
1024x432 = 1565 Kbps

One last consideration: there is also the possibility that if the Nook Color does get a fairly easy-to-do root (it's already rooted but it can be a daunting thing for some folks) OR if Barnes & Noble does create an actual marketplace and someone puts up an even better media player, more options could be added later on.

The reason I mention this is because my Wife really wants a Nook Color (so do I to some degree) but she's deaf, so unless I can find a way to get the captions/subtitles to play on the Nook Color then it's just not worth it. The Archos 70 is barely $30 more in cost but the media player on that device can handle the subs exactly as I require/need them to work as I'll explain in a moment, and of course it offers more overall than the Nook Color but with a lower quality lower resolution screen, unfortunately.

I'm going to assume the stock media player on the Nook Color just doesn't offer that functionality but there are other media players on the Android Marketplace that do have that capability, so that's my hope: that if I get one I'll be able to get some videos on there and she can watch them with captions/subs.

And yes, I know that I can burn in the captions/subtitles permanently but, I'm not deaf, and I prefer to disable them as required which is called soft-subs in video encoding terms. The media player reads the subtitle track data stream as basically text and it's just an option to turn on or off.

Anyway, enjoy the videos and let me know what the max seems to be and then I'll work on a guide later. Note: the videos above used an actual HD resolution clip (720p at 1280x544 resolution) as the source material - if you intend to do these kinds of encodings using DVDs that you own, the max resolution you'll get is 720 pixels wide and the height in pixels will vary depending on the aspect ratio of the source material. DVD resolution is 720x480 but with widescreen content that means the infamous "black bars" to fill out the image.

That's the reason I did the 720x304 clip - if you owned Tron: Legacy on DVD (kinda early since it ain't out yet) and you used that as the source, that's what you'd get for the max, 720x304 given the aspect ratio.

HandBrake encodes the raw native resolution of the actual clip meaning it leaves out the black bars so no space is wasted by a bunch of zero bits that aren't necessary in the final encode.

Thanks...

SCION

11-30-2010, 11:47 AM

1024x432 didn't play

The other 2 look and sound great.

bbz_Ghost

11-30-2010, 11:51 AM

Ok, so no issues you noted with the 848x368 one? No skipping, audio static, nothing? Played smoothly and all that jazz? :D

SCION

11-30-2010, 12:00 PM

Correct, I viewed it several times looking and listening for something out of whack. Nothing! :D Very impressive. Great for showing off the device. Listened with sensitive headphones.

jnuts

11-30-2010, 12:13 PM

1024x432 didn't play

The other 2 look and sound great.

Same here.

bbz_Ghost

11-30-2010, 12:23 PM

Excellent, excellent. Now you can show off the Nook Color and when people say "Oh that's just for reading books" boy can you show them something that'll make 'em want to buy one themselves. :D

Anyway, here's a few more test clips if you'd care to try 'em. They're all done from HD movie trailers, all encoded to the same spec as the previous 848x368 videos - and again, since the specs for the Nook Color say it's got a max of H.264 Baseline encodings at 854x480, this is the closest you'll get with HandBrake considering the way the math of encoding works out.

I wanted to get something really to show off that IPS screen on the Nook Color so this one should do that fantastically. It's the trailer for Megamind, a recent animated movie from Dreamworks, and it's 2 minutes 29 seconds long, 33.5MB in size:

http://www.mediafire.com/?bgw8i2abi0vk58m

Next is Green Lantern, which has a lot of action and moving sequences (which cause encoding bitrates to spike quite high) so I'm interested in if the Nook Color "chokes" on this one at all. 2 minutes 28 seconds long, 27.2MB in size:

http://www.mediafire.com/?i93spfi8u7c1juh

Let me know how those came out in terms of playback, and I had one more clip I'm doing straight from one of my Harry Potter DVDs but it's still encoding. Probably a non-issue since it's a max of 720 pixels wide anyway as I explained earlier.

But for 720p or 1080p content encoded down to 848 pixels wide, I think the Nook Color can handle it just fine (and I recommend HandBrake over any and all other encoders, just for the record).

Bleh, here's that Harry Potter clip. Again, it's from an original retail DVD so the resolution is obviously lower so the Nook Color won't even break a sweat playing this one. It's 720x304, 8 minutes 40 seconds long, 86.7MB in size:

http://www.mediafire.com/?ai44ir9055891ki

SCION

11-30-2010, 12:43 PM

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: Megamind looks stunning. Green Lantern is smooth.

Can't believe they're only charging $250 for this hardware. Makes everything else look considerably overpriced.:chinscratch:

bbz_Ghost

11-30-2010, 12:46 PM

Well, yeah, but things change as time goes by, technology improves, that sort of thing. It's still not a full blown Android tablet and even with the rooting it may never get there but, it certainly does seem to be a decent piece of hardware in a really small package. I like the form factor most of all, I suppose.

If the root gets simpler and it really does open the Nook Color up to most any Android app, it's going to really boost sales for B&N big time. Just reading through the rooting thread over at XDA-Developers I've noted over 60 people said they either put one on order just in the past 24 hours or went and picked one up in the same period of time just because of the root being made public.

I know that's just a handful of people overall but, the more the merrier, right? :)

Lastblade

11-30-2010, 09:42 PM

Something must be wrong with the handbrake version (0.9.4) I downloaded, because none of the videos I converted works. Just as a test, I used the Megamind trailer from bbz_Ghost and converted it just to see what happens. Sure enough, it didn't work after conversion (basically untouched). I can't tell what it had changed, but from properties, it doesn't look like anything at all. Could it some setting in my computer?

Lastblade

11-30-2010, 10:09 PM

*smacks head*

Rebo

12-01-2010, 03:20 AM

[QUOTE=bbz_Ghost;1245564]I think I'll go ahead and get started on a guide to video encoding for the Nook Color and get it posted, give me a day or two and I'll lay it out with excessive details and lots of pics and the step by step to produce the same quality of the clips I posted earlier. I may even be able to improve on the file sizes (read: make them smaller) without sacrificing too much in terms of quality.

Keep your eyes peeled for the guide in the next 2 days, if not sooner. QUOTE]

Thanks a lot for the clips. They look amazing on my NC. I'll be waiting anxiously for your instructions.

Rebo

12-01-2010, 04:57 AM

I used DVD Decrypter to rip my DVD first and saved all the files into my PC. There are a lot of files and I tried to convert one of the VTS files to MP4 using the nighty GUI handbrake version that I downloaded from the link. The video converts beautifully but the audio is now in Spanish instead of in English.:blink: When I played the source VTS file on my PC, it was in English so I am not sure what happened during the process. The video plays great on my NC but too bad I don't understand a word. I am not sure what I did wrong and is there a feature in handbrake that I should set to English instead of Spanish? Please help.

Rebo

12-01-2010, 06:25 AM

Thanks bbz_ghost.

I didn't really know what I was doing so I just used handbrake to convert one of the DVD VTS files. I finally figured out the Spanish encoding by trying out each of the options under audio sources and preview them one by one until I got the English language. I read and then followed your instructions to assign the source to the root folder and handbrake found all the chapters automatically and correctly assign the proper channel for English. It is so much easier. Thanks a lot for the help.

bbz_Ghost

12-01-2010, 06:49 AM

No problem. The reason I mentioned the chapters in the earlier post is that it's easier to learn about HandBrake by selecting just one chapter (change both drop down menus so they match, like 1-1) and encoding just that one chapter which is far shorter than trying to do an entire movie and wasting the time doing the encoding and realizing "Oh crap, I got the wrong audio track" or subtitles, etc.

Do a test encode of a single chapter (I usually look for the shortest one on a disc) and try out the settings, see how it looks, adjust things, etc. Can't learn much without hands on actually doing stuff. :D

btn

12-01-2010, 08:48 AM

I have a whole bunch of mp4's I already converted and that play great on my iphone. NONE play on my Nook. I shouldn't have to redo my whole library to get it to work on a Nook. Either it should play all mp4's, like an ipad or iphone, or they should not claim it plays mp4.

This is not my only problem with the nook color. In general this ereader should not have been released until it worked.

bbz_Ghost

12-01-2010, 09:27 AM

This is a long complicated post so, be forewarned:

mp4 is a container, not a video format.

People need to spend some time learning about what a container is and why it basically means not much of anything in the long run. A container... well, it contains streams of data, and when people think "video" files they're actually audio/video files.

The oldest container is still AVI, which by the very acronym means Audio-Video-Interleave, a Microsoft created format that's nearly 20 years old now. The problem with that container is because of its age it's never been able to support anything more than basic audio and video streams inside it.

Nowadays, that's not enough, so there are a multitude of containers out there: mkv (Matroska), mp4/m4v (the "official" MPEG4 standard container is mp4; m4v is an offshoot that allows for some different aspects), ogg (can be audio, video, or both), mov (QuickTime, fairly old to be honest, almost as old as AVI is), rm/rmvb (Real Media, plain and simple crap to be honest), and a few others.

Think of it this way: say you have a case that can hold CDs or it can hold DVDs. They're both the same size discs, hence the case - aka the container - is pretty much static, but the contents inside the container can be either format, you can store CDs or DVDs, or you can even mix them up and have combinations of both.

That's what a container like mp4/m4v does as well. You can put audio streams (aac, mp3, ogg, wav, etc) and video streams (h.264, Xvid, Divx, MPEG1, MPEG2, AVC, etc) inside, one or the other or the most common type which is both, hence the modern "video file" which again is most accurately an audio/video file.

But, there's other stuff you put inside containers nowadays since they've matured way past what the AVI container is capable of. You can put multiple audio soundtracks inside the container, you can add multiple subtitle tracks in it, custom fonts for those subtitles, multiple language files, and even chapter markers so you can skip chapters in a video file just like you do on the original DVD or Blu-ray. Hell, you can even name the chapters just like they're usually named on the liner notes of DVDs and Blu-rays, and your media players will usually display the chapter names when you jump around the files.

There's a ton of stuff you can do these days.

The one thing you shouldn't do is blame a device for being incompatible with video (again, audio/video) files that you've created designed to be played on another device like an iPhone or iPod touch. There really is no one perfect container for every device, nor is there one perfect format for the audio and video streams that will end up being compatible with everything out there.

That's just not going to happen.

The Nook Color has very specific capabilities that happen to be fairly common, actually, especially for mobile and portable media devices like iPhones, iPod touchs, Archos tablets, etc. That's why learning more about video (ok, last time: audio/video) encoding is a good thing - being less ignorant makes things easier on everyone, especially ourselves. :D

The preferred video format for the Nook Color is by using h.264 as the encoder and using a profile that encoder follows to create content, known as the Baseline profile. I'd be willing to bet that the poster above probably encoded his files using the High profile that h.264 also supports, but the Nook Color itself doesn't. The Nook Color is quite a capable little video playback device as noted by the clips I've created that I've been told play back flawlessly with no problems at all.

Apple doesn't have some special hold on "mp4" files - I have a handful of "mp4" files on my hard drive right now that no Apple product can play except the actual computers so, that's where the poster above is a bit off-course, laying blame on a container that doesn't deserve it, much less the Nook Color either.

All I can offer is this: if you're not happy with the Nook Color, send it back or return it for a refund or sell it.

I don't even own one yet but I've used one and I got no beef with it. I took a few minutes to find out what the device is capable of playing back according to the specs in the User's Guide, then I created video files that play on it and will play on any iPod touch, iPhone, iPad, HTC HD2, Archos tablets, and even my 6 year old Dell Axim X51v PocketPC without breaking a sweat, with great image quality and great sound too.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with the Nook Color - the issue lies in the format and encoding parameters used to create the videos taking into account that the iPhone and iPod touch and iPad use very different hardware. Apple doesn't do anything that is "standard" except a standard that they define for themselves and their own hardware.

Too many people approach this encoding thing backwards... :(

btn

12-01-2010, 09:55 AM

The one thing you shouldn't do is blame a device for being incompatible with video (again, audio/video) files that you've created designed to be played on another device like an iPhone or iPod touch.

I didn't create them specifically to play on a iphone. And they play on all my other devices and computers.

And I will blame the device for being way too fickle about the specs your
mp4's need to be in order to play back. Seems like an excuse for poor software to me.

Lastblade

12-01-2010, 10:14 AM

bbz_Ghost, thanks for your insight. I downloaded the most recent nightly build and it converted my movies fine. However, I think my kbps is a bit low, so the movie was quite grainy. I am going to experiment and see where the sweet spot is.

bbz_Ghost

12-01-2010, 01:04 PM

I didn't create them specifically to play on a iphone. And they play on all my other devices and computers.

And I will blame the device for being way too fickle about the specs your
mp4's need to be in order to play back. Seems like an excuse for poor software to me.

Well, considering the Nook Color is primarily designed to be an eBook reader and Barnes & Noble basically included video playback capability as almost an afterthought aka "BONUS" I think you're perhaps expecting too much.

Alas, it works just fine. It's capable of playing back h.264 encoded files with Baseline profile streams and that's that. It's called Baseline for a reason - it offers the widest possible compatibility across the broadest possible range of playback devices. iPod touchs, iPads, iPhones, those offer better compatibility with the High profile (and even Simple) in h.264 because those devices are designed for media playback in the first place which the Nook Color isn't.

The fact that it CAN play these videos is remarkable, period. Is there another eBook reader on the market today with a 7" IPS 1024x600 LCD panel and h.264 capable media playback?

Nope.

Lastblade:

Grain is a good thing, believe it or not. If the original source material appeared to have grain that's also a good thing - grain typically means the original footage was shot on film, not video so it is pretty high quality. The fact that you can see grain means the encode is pretty high quality itself.

If by grain you mean pixelation or artifacts in the resulting encode, then yes, that can be a result of too low of a bitrate. HandBrake by default uses the CRF type encoding which is somewhat new and replaces the old 2-pass methodology which, in years past, would do a first pass just scanning the video to find somewhat optimal bitrates to encode each frame of the file, and then use that information to do a second pass with more optimization. Result: encodes took twice as long, literally.

The new CRF system - for Constant Rate Factor - provides near 2-pass results in a single pass. Believe me, the guys that created the x264 encoder that's at the heart of HandBrake have been doing extensive work in video and psychovisual-perception encoding (fancy words that basically mean really complicated mathematical processing) to get the high quality results HandBrake is capable of these days.

Those people have worked on the presets and the CRF settings for a very long time with hundreds of thousands of test encodes so, no offense to anyone but, when it comes to "set it and forget it" encoding, the defaults in HandBrake will give you nearly the best encodes capable for any given source material. You might be able to tweak a few aspects of some particular video types (high motion, low motion, etc) and get some quality improvements but the basic gist of it is the CRF setting of 20 is the defacto standard and you're not going to do much better. :D

Anyway, whatever source material you have, the CRF 20 setting will offer the best tradeoff in terms of performance (how fast it'll encode) and quality without needing to muck around with settings or the command line stuff on the Advanced tab. As I said, those developers of x264 and HandBrake didn't put in all that time creating those profiles and presets for people to use if they didn't feel they're going to provide the best encodes possible with the simplest path to creating them.

I created those clips I've posted with basically 3 clicks: select the source file/material, choose the preset (and adjust it for a given clip), and start the encode. Can't get much simpler than that. ;)

Lastblade

12-01-2010, 03:21 PM

I think the CRF setting wasn't used (blank) when I converted the 2.5hour movie (less than 500 megs). Yes, it was blocky/artifact, not grainy (bad choice of word).

nyrath

12-01-2010, 05:05 PM

HandBrake by default uses the CRF type encoding which is somewhat new and replaces the old 2-pass methodology which, in years past, would do a first pass just scanning the video to find somewhat optimal bitrates to encode each frame of the file, and then use that information to do a second pass with more optimization. Result: encodes took twice as long, literally.

The new CRF system - for Constant Rate Factor - provides near 2-pass results in a single pass. Believe me, the guys that created the x264 encoder that's at the heart of HandBrake have been doing extensive work in video and psychovisual-perception encoding (fancy words that basically mean really complicated mathematical processing) to get the high quality results HandBrake is capable of these days.
Thanks! I was wondering if it was worth trying the 2-pass method.

Rebo

12-01-2010, 05:33 PM

Thanks bbz_ghost

I followed all your instructions and converted the entire DVD of "how to train your dragon". Both the video/audio plays flawlessly. The Nook color display is just gorgeous. I stayed up all night doing that and after a bunch of trial and errors and re-reading your post, I finally got it right. I showed off the movie and the video clips to my co-workers today and they all marveled at the exceptional high display quality of the Nook Color.

boswd

12-01-2010, 05:51 PM

I think this thread should be a Sticky and maybe have the title change to something like
"how to get your MP4 Videos to Play"

French

12-01-2010, 08:36 PM

I have been playing with Handbrake for most of the evening and one thing that I'm just not getting is how I can bump up the resolution. The source is showing as 720 x 480. If I don't change anything I end up with a movie that fills the screen but everything is ever so slightly stretched...it's not a ton but I find it distracting watching the movie this way. If I check Keep Aspect Ratio I no longer have the stretching but the movie is significantly smaller and I have larger black bars.

Part of what is perplexing me is that I had converted a movie for my Android phone which fits the screen very nicely on the Nook. It's possible this was not a wide screen format movie...but I also have 3 other movies I got from another source and they also fill the screen nicely...I suppose it's possible they, too, were not wide screen.

Anyway, if my original movie is only 720 x 480...how are you bumping UP the resolution?

btn

12-01-2010, 10:31 PM

Rebo

12-02-2010, 12:01 AM

Thanks bbz_ghost, exodus1999 and baki no kami,

After a bunch of tries I was able to convert a mp4. As was stated the latest version of handbrake did not work, I needed to use the beta. Also I needed to reboot the nook.

Need to ask a dumb question. How do you reboot the nook? I tried holding the power down for 5 seconds, release and then hold the power down again for 2 seconds as some have instructed. But the nook comes back on immediately after I pushed the power the 2nd time so I don't even have a chance to hold it for 2 seconds. I am not sure if I am doing the rebooting correctly.

bbz_Ghost

12-02-2010, 03:31 AM

Need to ask a dumb question. How do you reboot the nook? I tried holding the power down for 5 seconds, release and then hold the power down again for 2 seconds as some have instructed. But the nook comes back on immediately after I pushed the power the 2nd time so I don't even have a chance to hold it for 2 seconds. I am not sure if I am doing the rebooting correctly.

I could be wrong on that but it's the technique that I've seen mentioned most of all - the User's Guide says hold it ~3 seconds, choose Power off on the option that appears onscreen and then wait for it to power off.

I believe it's rebooted by holding the power for 15 seconds or more, then you get the power off option. Damn, I swear, I wish I had a Nook Color right now. :(

It'll probably be February before I can manage to get one... crap. CRAP! :p

As for a sticky, I'm working on the guide which should hopefully be the better candidate for such a topic depending on how things work out. If it does, great, if not, no big deal I suppose. As long as someone out there is able to start making great looking videos (with audio, of course) for their Nook Color, it's worth the effort.

Anyway, if my original movie is only 720 x 480...how are you bumping UP the resolution?

I'm not - I did mention that the clips I had made (aside from the Harry Potter one) came from HD file sources, movie trailers in 720p format (they're originally about 1280x544 resolution). The only way to get files to "max out" at the 848 pixel wide limit - again, it's a math thing even though the Nook Color supports up to 854 pixels wide - is if your source material is larger than that in terms of resolution.

Native DVD format resolution is 720x480 max (NTSC in North America, PAL in other parts of the world is 720x576 iirc.

So the best you'll get from converting an actual DVD to an mp4 or m4v file (same basic thing as far as playback is concerned) is 720 pixels wide, and the height will be determined by the aspect ratio of the source material. There's no way to "upscale" videos during the conversion process - that would create a lot of artifacting and is generally regarded as a very bad thing to do.

The Harry Potter clip came directly from my retail Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire DVD ripped to my hard drive, hence it's 720 pixels wide natively and the aspect ration brings in the height at 304 pixels.

Let the device itself do the upscaling as necessary which is what happens when you play a 720 pixel wide clip and it plays full screen anyway.

nyrath

12-02-2010, 12:35 PM

French

12-02-2010, 02:14 PM

I'm not - I did mention that the clips I had made (aside from the Harry Potter one) came from HD file sources, movie trailers in 720p format (they're originally about 1280x544 resolution). The only way to get files to "max out" at the 848 pixel wide limit - again, it's a math thing even though the Nook Color supports up to 854 pixels wide - is if your source material is larger than that in terms of resolution.

Native DVD format resolution is 720x480 max (NTSC in North America, PAL in other parts of the world is 720x576 iirc.

So the best you'll get from converting an actual DVD to an mp4 or m4v file (same basic thing as far as playback is concerned) is 720 pixels wide, and the height will be determined by the aspect ratio of the source material. There's no way to "upscale" videos during the conversion process - that would create a lot of artifacting and is generally regarded as a very bad thing to do.

The Harry Potter clip came directly from my retail Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire DVD ripped to my hard drive, hence it's 720 pixels wide natively and the aspect ration brings in the height at 304 pixels.

Let the device itself do the upscaling as necessary which is what happens when you play a 720 pixel wide clip and it plays full screen anyway.

Just to be sure on your last sentence...the player should be filling the screen? Because mine definitely doesn't for the movies I converted last night (but previous ones are fine)

steffner

12-03-2010, 09:59 AM

I have a question for you guys. Have any of you been able to burn a copy of LOTR and have it play on the NC. I've tried 3 different programs (Handbrake and WinXDVD and a third which I can't remember the name of). Handbrake will not even recognize the disc and the other 2 will copy the movie but when I move it over to the NC it says that the file is unplayable. I've tried about every MP4 resolution including some of the recommendations from this thread with no luck. I do know that the disc has some sort of .exe file that it wants to install to play the files but other than that, I'm at a loss. Anybody have any ideas? Thanks

Stephen.

Rebo

12-03-2010, 03:51 PM

As for a sticky, I'm working on the guide which should hopefully be the better candidate for such a topic depending on how things work out. If it does, great, if not, no big deal I suppose. As long as someone out there is able to start making great looking videos (with audio, of course) for their Nook Color, it's worth the effort.

What happened to the guide that you made for the NC? The thread appeared for one afternoon and then I couldn't find it anymore. The instructions you gave for converting DVD for view on the NC was great. A lot of my co-workers are so impressed that they are going off to get the NC themselves. The video clip that I made from the DVD is obviously inferior to the HD qualify video clip that you made for the "Green lantern" and "Megamind". I have a couple of Blu-ray DVDs but I don't think DVDdecrytor works for them. I'll have to do more research in this area to see how this can be done.

Thanks again

Souzou

12-09-2010, 01:52 PM

Great thread, very helpful.

But has anyone else had difficulty changing the width or height in Handbrake? No matter what I try, the picture tab is completely greyed out, even the Anamorphic line. It won't let me edit or change any features. The other tabs work fine.

Amafan

12-09-2010, 03:06 PM

I used the Deluxe edition of Cucusoft used the native iPad settings to convert some material to H.264 MP4. All the videos worked great on the NC.

French

12-10-2010, 10:47 AM

I used the Deluxe edition of Cucusoft used the native iPad settings to convert some material to H.264 MP4. All the videos worked great on the NC.

I have this as well, but must say that Handbrake is MUCH faster!

AbsentSpoon

12-14-2010, 09:02 AM

Okay So now Im going to ask a Noob question.
If I want to edit a DVD to play on my NC do I have to first burn the DVD to my computer using DVD decrypter or another program and then edit in Handbrake? I cant get Handbrake to access the VOB files that are on the DVD to edit..

SCION

12-14-2010, 10:50 PM

Just found this on a B&N forum. Person says there's a one-click conversion process with the NOOKcolor as a device choice. It's Windows based, but I know many Mac folks use Windows on their machine.

My husband downloaded a program called DVD Catalyst (I think it was around $10) that rips DVD's for a variety of devices. He's been using it for months to put movies on his Droid X, and it just added a setting for Nook Color to automatically optimize video files for us. It has worked PERFECTLY and now I just need a bigger microSD card so I can carry around more of my favorite movies and shows!

http://www.tools4movies.com/

rams

12-15-2010, 01:40 PM

Wow, this is exactly what I've been having problems with! I'm trying to sideload .flv videos that I have downloaded from YouTube. What video format did you start out with?Any suggestions on the .flv?

rams

12-15-2010, 02:26 PM

OK bbz_Ghost, you obviously have forgotten more than I'll ever know about video formatting, encoding, etc. In a work, awesome. Everything you have posted makes sense, I've tried them, and they all work flawlessly. Now I want to create my own videos starting out with something simple like a youtube video downloaded using YouTube Downloader. It seems the default extension is .flv (whatever that is...). No matter what I try I can't seem to get Handshake to spit out anything that works on my rooted NC. Any suggestions?

boswd

12-15-2010, 02:28 PM

rams

12-15-2010, 03:51 PM

Got it! Using .flv file and the default HandBrake video settings (720x400), changed audio settings to 48 Khz/128kbps and it worked fine. Still couldn't have done it without you guys. Thanks!

geertm

12-15-2010, 03:59 PM

Just found this on a B&N forum. Person says there's a one-click conversion process with the NOOKcolor as a device choice. It's Windows based, but I know many Mac folks use Windows on their machine.
http://www.tools4movies.com/

I bought DVD Catalyst yesterday.
Both Nook Color profiles have the wrong screen resolution. The default screen resolution is 1028x600, but the Nook only support screen resolutions upto 854X480. So you need to change the resolution to 854x480. Than the video will play fine on the Nook Color.
I assume this will be corrected in a future update.

SCION

12-15-2010, 04:05 PM

I bought DVD Catalyst yesterday.
Both Nook Color profiles have the wrong screen resolution. The default screen resolution is 1028x600, but the Nook only support screen resolutions upto 854X480. So you need to change the resolution to 854x480. Than the video will play fine on the Nook Color.
I assume this will be corrected in a future update.

Thanks for pointing that out. I haven't used the application.

discourse

12-15-2010, 06:07 PM

Another free video converter that works well is the Miro Video Converter (http://www.mirovideoconverter.com/). I set the encoding to the Nexus One and it works perfectly on the NC.

thazy2

12-15-2010, 07:49 PM

Catalyst 4 worked well....

I had a .mkv 720p 500mb coverted to .mp4 720 800mb using Droidx version.

thanks......scion

French

12-15-2010, 08:03 PM

Well I bought DVD Catalyst and when playing the movies on my Fascinate (I know, not the Nook) the video and audio are out of sync.

However on the Nook they are in sync. So if you want to convert the movie for just the Nook then you should be o.k. But I like converting a movie and putting it on my phone. When I use Handbrake the movie plays fine on all platforms.

I'm not sure what it is about this program that makes it work as expected when using the profile for the device, yet it is out of sync on another device.

Handbrake is actually pretty easy to use these days but the one thing it does not have is the ability to override the volume up (DVD Catalyst has this). I find most of my movies the volume is lower than I care for so I'll probably just live with using DVD Catalyst and if I really want a movie on my Fascinate I guess I'll convert it twice.

donovan1983

12-17-2010, 10:21 PM

I used the suggestion in this thread of using Handbrake's iPhone preset. I set the bitrate a bit lower, to 700, and used a DRC value of 3 on the audio track which helps quite a bit with the audio levels. I also make sure to set the maximum width of the video to 720 if possible. Looks quite nice on the NOOKcolor's screen.

carbphrek

12-18-2010, 09:13 AM

Well, I've been burning with CloneDVD using the IPad set. The movies look great, the vid & sound are in perfect sync.

French

12-18-2010, 11:06 AM

LoganK

12-18-2010, 12:05 PM

So the DRC being changed to 3 increases the volume?

Not really, but I suppose you could argue that it does. DRC (Dynamic Range Compression) decreases the difference between the quiet parts and the loud parts of the audio track.

If you are in a quiet environment and using good sound equipment (even headphones), then you will probably appreciate the full range.

If you are in a noisy environment or using a crummy sound system (like the speaker in the Nook Color), then applying some level of DRC will help you select a volume level where you can hear everything without being overwhelmed.

French

12-18-2010, 12:16 PM

Not really, but I suppose you could argue that it does. DRC (Dynamic Range Compression) decreases the difference between the quiet parts and the loud parts of the audio track.

If you are in a quiet environment and using good sound equipment (even headphones), then you will probably appreciate the full range.

If you are in a noisy environment or using a crummy sound system (like the speaker in the Nook Color), then applying some level of DRC will help you select a volume level where you can hear everything without being overwhelmed.

Thank you. I wish Handbrake would add support for increased audio...the ONLY thing that keeps it from being perfect.

KryptoNyte

12-18-2010, 08:20 PM

Thank you. I wish Handbrake would add support for increased audio...the ONLY thing that keeps it from being perfect.

I'll second that. Audio gain has been on the list for a long time it seems.

CoreyTod

12-21-2010, 01:54 PM

Has anyone tried putting a movie onto a microsd card and playing it from there? What class card would i need to get if i wanted to play a 848x348 movie at 23.97 fps with standard audio? I have multiple former hd movies encoded so that they play great on my nook, but I would like to know what class card (data transfer rate) i need to get before i go out and buy one.

Anyones experience is welcome.

Rebo

12-21-2010, 02:08 PM

I have a Kingston class 4 microsd card that I loaded a couple of movies on there. They all play very well.

PatrickB

12-21-2010, 02:40 PM

Ok, I'm new here. I just got a Nook Color, and found this thread. I read through all of it and have downloaded HandBrake 0.9.4(not sure if it's the right version?) and can't get this to work. I should mention I am trying to convert the digital .wmv version that came with my blu ray. I just put the extra dvd in my pc, and opened up the folder and copied and pasted the movie.wmv file onto my desktop. When I first ran it in wmv it asked for a password, which I entered, then was able to watch it. So I followed the instructions on this post and used handbrake, the movie it converted, has no audio and is a mess of indistinguishable colors and crap, you can't see anything. What am I doing wrong?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

VikingCrown

12-21-2010, 04:10 PM

Patrick,
most likely what is happening is the .wmv file has DRM on it. You would need to find a program to remove that DRM before you could convert the file into something the Nook Color would play. Hope that helps!

NoName

12-21-2010, 04:32 PM

I tried using the movies I had on my Evo, but was showing black bars in the top and bottom and thee wasn't an option to make it full screen.

Ended up using DVD Catalyst 4 with these settings -
Global settings: Borders: Completely remove black bars from device

Video player device: Android Nookcolor HQ:
Modify: Player screen: 1024 x 600
Video quality: 1500
Video mode: 1 pass
Sound quality: 160
Conversion format: h264_ipod

Put them on a 32GB class 2 card in the video folder. They're pretty large files - more than 1 GB - but they play very clear and the sound seems to match. Haven't watched a movie all the way through though. Saving it for inflight sometime. Just hope the battery lasts long enough to get from Honolulu to Las Vegas. Maybe I should give it a trial before a trip.........

PatrickB

12-21-2010, 05:42 PM

Success! Thanks VikingCrown! One problem though, it doesn't look as good as I thought it would. So I'll explain what I did and people can tell me if I should try something different...

Again, this is the digital copy of the movie from a blu ray on the 2nd disc.

So I downloaded the DRM remover free trail of "iSkysoft DRM Removal" I loaded in my .wmv, and set the output to HD MP4 with default settings of resolution and encoder. Because it's a free trial, it only does the first 1 minute. Once it finished, I loaded that into HandBrake, with the following settings:

Container: MP4 File
Picture
Width: 852 Height: 480
Keep Aspect Ratio=True
Anamorphic: Custom
Modulus: 16
Display width: 1134
Display Size: 720x480

Video
Video Codec: MPEG-4(FFmpeg)
Framerate: Same as source
Target Size (MB) 600
Constant Quality: I didn't check this, but it says it's at 94.12%QP:12

Audio Tracks
Source - Automatic
Audio Codec - AAC(faac)
Mixdown - Stereo
Samplerate - 44.1
Bitrate -128

Any ideas what to do for better quality. I want to make sure that DRM remover is the best choice before I purchase it to do a full movie. So happy I found this forum, thanks for all the help so far!

KryptoNyte

12-21-2010, 05:52 PM

NoName, I assume that your black bars are only on the top and bottom when watching a widescreen movie on your Evo.

Here's my understanding:

Evo native resolution = 800 x 480 (aspect ratio = 800/480 = 1.67)
Nook Color native resolution = 854 x 480 (aspect ratio = 854/480 = 1.78)

Frequently, when using software to encode your movies, it will scale the movie down from it's original resolution, and you can typically control this scale. In addition to scaling the new output file, some software will automatically crop the black area out to further reduce file size, which will frequently result in a movie that's (for example) 854 x 360 (aspect ratio = approx 2.35). If your devices' screen resolution aspect ratio doesn't match the aspect ratio of the encoded file, then you are going to get black bars.

Some televisions have a feature where you can "fill" the screen, which works fine if aspect ratios match, but if they don't, you're going to have a stretched result, and a circle will look like an ellipse instead.

So typically speaking, black bars are good. A movie that completely fills the screen on your Nook Color will probably not fill the screen on your evo, and vice versa, as the aspect ratios are different.

You want to be encoding video for the Nook Color at 854 x <480 or less> to give best results. If it's a DVD movie, then you'll want 720 x <400 or less>.

KryptoNyte

12-21-2010, 05:54 PM

I've had great success with Handbrake. If anyone wants screenshots of my settings for each screen, say something.

SCION

12-21-2010, 05:58 PM

I've had great success with Handbrake. If anyone wants screenshots of my settings for each screen, say something.

Something

KryptoNyte

12-21-2010, 07:42 PM

All instructions below may refer to the "Nook," but I am speaking about the Nook Color.

Attached to this first post is a PDF file with just the images from these instructions for those folks that just want to cut to the chase. EDIT: Although my video settings show leaving framerate the "same as source," I would recommend a framerate in the pull-down menu of 29.97 (or less). The Nook Color seems to struggle with 59 to 60 frames per second in the event you have some HDTV video.

Step 1:

The latest release of handbrake can be had here:

http://handbrake.fr/downloads.php

Download and install

KryptoNyte

12-21-2010, 07:56 PM

You should choose your "Source" video file right after firing up Handbrake. I usually click on the Source button, select "Video file," and then browse to the video that you want to encode.

In the main Handbrake window, you'll see some of the more common "presets" in the far right-hand column. As I recall, to get myself started, I chose the "Ipod" preset.

KryptoNyte

12-21-2010, 08:08 PM

If it's not already selected, look for the tab "Picture," and select it. A few things to note:

- I'm about to encode an HD television show, Fringe, a single mpeg2 file with commercials pre-cut using other software.

- The native HD resolution of this video file, as shown by Handbrake on the "Source" line is 1280 x 720. That's too big for Nook, so we'll need to scale that down (Nooks max resolution is 854x480). You'll probably need to select "none" on the Anamorphic pull-down, and then be sure "keep aspect ratio" is checked, and then manually set the Width to 854. When you leave the Width text box and it looses focus, Handbrake should automatically set the Height. Note: if the height at this point is 480 or less, you're set, but if it's more than 480, you'll need to set the Height text box to 480 (Handbrake should then reduce the Width text box accordingly to hold aspect ratio). No matter how you look at it, the Width should never exceed 854, and the Height should never exceed 480. If your source video is a DVD file, or something with a lower resolution than 854x480, then I believe it will not allow you to use a larger resolution than the source, so your final numbers might be something like 720x400.

- In the cropping section, I usually set Handbrake to Automatically crop. Once you get to know Handbrake a little better, or if you have artifacts on the edges of the encoded video, you can start to fool with the manual cropping.

- IMPORTANT - you also need to look at the "Destination" path of where it's going to store the file, and what it's going to call it. I believe that it will default to putting the video in the same location as the source file, however, if you've run Handbrake previously, it may put it in the previous directory. Regardless, you can click on the "Browse" button and put the destination file wherever you wish, and change the filename here at the same time if you want to.

KryptoNyte

12-21-2010, 08:14 PM

This is the Video Filters tab. I usually leave everything off here. You can completely igonore the Sidenote below for now if you wish, none of the settings on this screen are critical right now.

Sidenote: Every now and then I have a video that has a strange issue. It kind of seems like you're watching the video through a mostly open, black, teeny tiny horizontal mini-blind, usually most noticable during some fast motion. This likely means that your video source file is Interlaced (every other line of resolution is missing for older signal efficiency reasons), and you can use the "Deinterlacing" option on this screen to remedy that. If you have a slow computer, use the "fast" method in the pull-down, if you have a rocket, use the slow method (you get the idea). For Nook I'd probably just use the fast method.

KryptoNyte

12-21-2010, 08:26 PM

The Video tab - we're using H.264 which is (arguably) one of the most efficient codecs available, and usually compatible with newer devices (made in the last couple of years). EDIT: I would recommend a framerate in the pull-down menu of 29.97 (or less). The Nook Color seems to struggle with 59 to 60 frames per second in the event you have some HDTV video.

The little checkbox for 2-Pass encoding is not required. When I think about encoding all of my video files, I try to think as far forward as I can, and a little extra time and horsepower now might mean a cleaner looking video down the road as hardware improves. That said, the quality increase in 2-pass encoding is probably almost negligible. You can decide for yourself on this one, but if you have a very slow, older computer, I'd probably uncheck 2-pass as it does nearly double your encoding time to leave it checked.

My car has a turbo charger, but I never use Handbrake's turbo, not on a first pass anyways.

Average bitrate - this controls how big your final file is going to be, and how nice it looks. I would say that you could use anything between 600 and 1500 (kilobits per second, kbps) for Nook. The higher the number here, the better your final encoded video quality will be, and the larger the file will be. I have found 1100 to produce nearly perfect looking video on the Nook color screen, even in some relatively fast motion which is where the Nooks processor will start to fall down a bit. You can test different values here as much as you wish, but the range that I mentioned is probably optimal for Nook.

KryptoNyte

12-21-2010, 08:27 PM

If at this point you've become frustrated, just remember, you can pretty much ignore all of my blabbering and just look at the pictures.

If that doesn't work, do what I do - think about puppies.

KryptoNyte

12-21-2010, 08:33 PM

Audio Tab. Down in the chart on the bottom, if there is a line item in there when you arrive at this screen, select the line item and hit the "remove" button.

Now, we have no idea what your source's audio is going to be. Heck, in that little pull-down under the "Source" heading, Handbrake might list 1, or maybe 5 or 6, maybe even in different languages, maybe 4 or 5 in different languages without even telling you which is which. Pick the one you want, or guess if you have to, you may need to return to this if you end up with the wrong language in your encoded video.

Set the remaining pull-downs as I have shown. Once all set, hit the "Add Track" Button. This should now populate the little chart at the bottom with your new line item with the same settings that I'm showing.

KryptoNyte

12-21-2010, 08:37 PM

Subtitles - I don't use them, and I don't even know how Nook would react if there were any embedded in your encoded video. If there are any line items down in the chart at the bottom, click on the line item, and then hit the "Remove" button. If anyone reading this has a disability where you would need this option, please PM me and I'll see if I can troubleshoot it with you.

KryptoNyte

12-21-2010, 08:39 PM

There are no Chapters in my video. If your source video file(s) has chapters, I'd probably leave this alone for the time being and see how your final encoded video plays.

KryptoNyte

12-21-2010, 08:43 PM

The "Advanced" tab has a truckload of really good stuff in it. All of which I know little to nothing about, except that when we selected the "Ipod" preset in one of the first couple steps, Handbrake pretty much preconfigured this stuff for us. In my playing with other settings, I have found that fooling with settings on this screen, or choosing a different Handbrake preset back in the beginning can cause Nook to not want to play the encoded video. These settings work, if you find something better, let us know.

KryptoNyte

12-21-2010, 08:55 PM

There is nothing worse than having a 7 year old computer, getting this stuff all configured just the way you want it, then letting that old boy encode that video over the next few hours, only to realize that you forgot to actually hit the "Add Track" button back in the Audio tab. So all that hard work just went down the tubes.

Turns out Handbrake has a nifty feature button at the top middle of the main window called "Preview." If you want to use this feature, I believe you need to have VLC media player installed. You can grab it here:

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

When they say it plays everything, they pretty much mean it.

Anyways ... after hitting the Preview button, you'll be met by the screen in this post. I have it set to start the preview at "5," which I believe means about the 50% point in the video, and then encode just 30 seconds (Duration) right around that area. Click Play with VLC and it will do it's hard work encoding, and fire up VLC to let you watch it immediately. If anything doesn't seem right when it plays, you can go back and check those settings, and you didn't waste an entire evening with your computer gronking away on a bad video.

After you've confirmed the video is as it should be, hit the start button, and off it goes. You should be able to see a progress meter in the lower left of the Handbrake window as it works. Just remember, if you chose 2-pass video encoding, don't get all excited when it gets to 100% as it will need to start over for the second pass.

If anyone wants to know how to do this on multiple videos, and be able to walk away while it's working, just say sasquatch.

SCION

12-21-2010, 09:19 PM

Thank you, Krypto! Much karma to you.

KryptoNyte

12-21-2010, 09:27 PM

I'll also mention that if you chose to do a 30 second preview of your video that it will have created a video file in the destination directory with the word "sample" in the filename. You can delete this file whenever you wish, because I'm pretty sure Handbrake will just leave it there.

KryptoNyte

12-21-2010, 09:35 PM

In the first post of these instructions, Post #96 of this thread, I added a PDF attachment of just the images.

Now ... if only we had some device where we could view the PDF file while setting all those options in Handbrake ...

KryptoNyte

12-21-2010, 10:30 PM

Here are some approx. numbers to determine final video file sizes:

Video Bitrate = 600 (kbps)
Audio Bitrate = 128 (kbps)
About 5.3 Megabyte per minute of video duration
(About 0.0052 Gigabytes per minute of video duration)
Quality on Nook Color screen = not great, blocking apparent, would do for folks hurting for storage space

Video Bitrate = 850 (kbps)
Audio Bitrate = 128 (kbps)
About 7.1 Megabyte per minute of video duration
(About 0.0069 Gigabytes per minute of video duration)
Quality on Nook Color screen = pretty darn good, minor blocking

Video Bitrate = 1100 (kbps)
Audio Bitrate = 128 (kbps)
About 9 Megabyte per minute of video duration
(About 0.00878 Gigabytes per minute of video duration)
Quality on Nook Color screen = excellent

Video Bitrate = 1500 (kbps)
Audio Bitrate = 128 (kbps)
About 11.9 Megabyte per minute of video duration
(About 0.0116 Gigabytes per minute of video duration)
Quality on Nook Color screen = pristine, so good probably not worth the high file size.

-------------------

So, if I had an 8 gigabyte (GB) expansion card inside my Nook Color with 7 GB of free space, and the typical movie is about 110 minutes long, at a video bitrate of 850 kbps, I have room for:

110 minutes x 0.0069 GB/min = 0.759 GB/movie

7 GB / 0.759 = 9 movies

PatrickB

12-22-2010, 01:00 AM

Question... Are most of you ripping your movies from dvds? And can Handbrake do that? I've started using Video Converter Pro, because it has the DRM removal. The problem is, it won't output to the resolution of 854x368, it only does the 720x whatever. But I do like the difference the 854 makes, it fills out the screen. So as of right now, I have to use the Video Converter Pro, to remove the DRM, which takes the length of the movie to do, then run it through HandBrake again to get the resolution I want, which then again takes however long, is it the length of the movie? I haven't run a full length movie through HandBrake yet, just the 1 minute preview.

Does anybody have any better solutions that involve the DRM for digital copies of the movies? And really in the end, does the digital version once converted look any better than a dvd rip?

Thanks

KryptoNyte

12-22-2010, 01:10 AM

The speed of any video conversion is dependent on the capabilities of your computer's CPU, and in some scenarios, GPU.

Sorry, can't help with the copy protection.

CoreyTod

12-22-2010, 09:08 AM

again with the silly questions...

I bought a 16 gig microsd card last night, and i am now trying to to put some movies onto it. Is there a way I can drag and drop the files onto the card while it is in my nook? Or do i have to take the card out and put the files onto it from my computer and then put it back in?

KryptoNyte

12-22-2010, 10:03 AM

Corey, for that amount of data, you can just plug the USB Nook Color cable into your computer, and access both the internal memory space, and the micro-SDHC card space right in Windows, dragging and dropping files onto the card.

CoreyTod

12-22-2010, 10:14 AM

well would you look at that...i thought it would pop up under the nook header, but it comes up under its own file drive. I believe its worth noting that when I had plugged the nook into my computer without the sd card, that same file drive popped up but i couldn't access it.

Thanks to everyone on this thread. My nook is amazing. I also watched a hour and a half movie last night on it, and my battery only went down 17%. Granted, I had the brightness all the way down because I was in the dark, but that's pretty a pretty darn good battery imho.

Again, thank you...especially KryptoNyte and bbz_ghost.

Amazing.

KryptoNyte

12-24-2010, 05:27 PM

Here's a quick video that I converted from HDTV if you'd like to download it and have a go on your Nook Color. The original source video was 1280x720 mpeg2 Time Warner data stream @ 60 frames per second. I have found that the Nook Color doesn't like 60 fps, so I've been encoding these at 29.97 fps (rather than "same as source").

Right-click HERE (http://nelson.bz/KNfile/sample03.mp4) and choose "save target as" to save to your own hard drive.

Warning - it's a Keurig commercial.

swallman

12-25-2010, 10:07 PM

KryptoNyte,

Thanks for all of your posts - I've been able to get some nice looking videos created. One quick question - I see that Handbrake has no ability to regain the volume. Any suggestions on quick/easy tools to do that ? I see that there's an option called "DRC" in Handbrake but it doesn't sound like that will completely do what I want.

KryptoNyte

12-25-2010, 10:43 PM

Yeah, that's a problem. As you noticed, the Handbrake DRC setting only normalizes audio, like that "night" setting that some of the flat panel TV's have, so it tries to even out the loud and the soft to create one consistent audio level throughout. When I tested this feature, it seemed to hurt more than help. Add that to the already low volume of the NC device, and it's definitely an issue for videos.

I'll look into this further, but right at the moment, I'm using a (purchased) piece of software called "VideoRedo" that may allow this. It has some input file type limitations, but it will take the Nook Color mp4, and if it will input all my target file types, I'm going to see if it will actually work for all the encoding also, leaving handbrake out of it. Of course you'll need the H.264 version, which is expensive, and I haven't tested the output file on the NC yet.

After I re-root my NC to the latest stuff, I'll see if I can get some time to find something better (maybe even free). I'm also looking into an option that could automate the entire process, where you could drag/drop your source video file onto a batch file that is pre-configured specifically for the Nook Color.

ozzman

12-26-2010, 03:34 PM

sory for the dumb question just got a NC and when i put videos on the micro sd card they dont show up any where. where is the video player at ? I have put them in the video folder. I have put mp3's in the music folder and they play. but dont see a video player

SCION

12-26-2010, 03:38 PM

ozzman

12-26-2010, 03:41 PM

I dont see a my files is it suposed to be in extras with the music

SCION

12-26-2010, 03:42 PM

No, it's in your Library. My Files (top of screen) / Videos

ozzman

12-26-2010, 03:43 PM

found it sory i am too new to this stuf

SCION

12-26-2010, 03:44 PM

found it sory i am too new to this stuf

No reason to apologize. I don't mind explaining something further.

ozzman

12-26-2010, 03:52 PM

Just to let everybody know I used dvd fab to convert the video and it works great. it will go from dvd or file to mobile. It is a pretty good program

Mitzasuro

12-26-2010, 05:00 PM

I use dvd fab also. it is a really good program

KryptoNyte

12-26-2010, 06:19 PM

How long can you use that application before you have to start giving them some serious cash?

iandix

12-26-2010, 08:47 PM

For those linux uses out there. I use this small ruby script called mp4ize. If you use the option "mp4ize --iphone blah.avi" it will convert it to a mp4 file that plays very well on the nookcolor.

those new to linux to do a batch just do "mp4ize --iphone *.avi"

I think it would be easy to write a short script that will automatically upload the mp4 file to your nookcolor when complete.

#Copyright (C) 2007-2010 Thomer M. Gil [http://thomer.com/]
#
# Thanks to Brian Moore, Justin Payne, Matt Spitz, Martyn Parker,
# Jean-Francois Macaud, Thomas Hannigan, Anisse Astier, Juanma HernÃ¡ndez,
# Trung Huynh, and Mark Ryan for bugfixes and suggestions.
#
# Oct. 14, 2008: show percentage progress. add -t and -w flags.
# Jan. 11, 2009: switch to bit/s bitrates for newer ffmpeg versions.
# add --iphone option.
# add -y option to ffmpeg (overwrite).
# Jan. 20, 2009: don't exit early when processing multiple files.
# Feb. 17, 2009: deal with "Invalid pixel aspect ratio" error.
# Apr. 1, 2009: new --outdir parameter.
# May 22, 2009: handle filenames with quotes and whitespace.
# Oct 6, 2009: fix bug where we forget to read stderr
# Nov. 5, 2009: fix -v, -t, and -w command line options
# removed bogus 'here' debug statement
# Oct. 27, 2010: assume ffmpeg 0.6: use libxvid and libfaac by default,
# add "k" to -bufsize, -ab, and -b parameters.
#
# This program is free software. You may distribute it under the terms of
# the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
# Foundation, version 2.
#
# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
# WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General
# Public License for more details.
#
# This program converts video files to mp4, suitable to be played on an iPod
# or an iPhone. It is careful about maintaining the proper aspect ratio.
#

require 'getoptlong'
require 'open3'

DEFAULT_ARGS = "-f mp4 -y -vcodec libxvid -maxrate 1000 -mbd 2 -qmin 3 -qmax 5 -g 300 -acodec libfaac"
DEFAULT_BUFSIZE = "4096k"
DEFAULT_AUDIO_BITRATE = "128k"
DEFAULT_VIDEO_BITRATE = "400k"
IPOD_WIDTH = 320.0
IPOD_HEIGHT = 240.0
IPHONE_WIDTH = 480.0
IPHONE_HEIGHT = 320.0

$options = {}
opts = GetoptLong.new(*[
[ "--audio", "-a", GetoptLong::REQUIRED_ARGUMENT ], # audio bitrate
[ "--help", "-h", GetoptLong::NO_ARGUMENT ], # help
[ "--video", "-b", GetoptLong::REQUIRED_ARGUMENT ], # video bitrate
[ "--verbose", "-v", GetoptLong::NO_ARGUMENT ], # verbose
[ "--width", "-w", GetoptLong::REQUIRED_ARGUMENT ], # override width
[ "--height", "-t", GetoptLong::REQUIRED_ARGUMENT ], # override height
[ "--iphone", "-i", GetoptLong::NO_ARGUMENT ], # set width/height
[ "--outdir", "-o", GetoptLong::REQUIRED_ARGUMENT ], # dir where to write files
])
opts.each { |opt, arg| $options[opt] = arg }

if $options['--help']
puts <<EOF
mp4ize - encode videos to mp4 for an iPod or an iPhone

Usage: mp4ize file1.avi [file2.mpg [file3.asf [...]]]

Options:

-h/--help : this help
-v/--verbose : verbose

-a/--audio RATE : override default audio bitrate (#{DEFAULT_AUDIO_BITRATE})
-b/--video RATE : override default video bitrate (#{DEFAULT_VIDEO_BITRATE})

-w/--width WIDTH : over default width (#{IPOD_WIDTH.to_i})
-t/--height HEIGHT : over default height (#{IPOD_HEIGHT.to_i})
-i/--iphone : same as --width #{IPHONE_WIDTH.to_i} --height #{IPHONE_HEIGHT.to_i}

-o/--outdir O : write files to given directory
EOF
exit
end

# --iphone sets --width and --height
if $options['--iphone']
if $options['--width'] || $options['--height']
warn "You can't use --iphone with --width or --height."
exit 1
else
$options['--width'] = $options['-w'] = IPHONE_WIDTH
$options['--height'] = $options['-t'] = IPHONE_HEIGHT
end
end

audio_bitrate = $options['--audio'] || DEFAULT_AUDIO_BITRATE
video_bitrate = $options['--video'] || DEFAULT_VIDEO_BITRATE

ARGV.each do |infile|
outfile = infile.dup
ext = File.extname(outfile)
outfile.sub!(/#{ext}$/, '.mp4')
if $options['--outdir']
if !File.directory?($options['--outdir'])
warn "#{$options['--outdir']} does not exist or is not a directory. exiting."
exit 1
end
outfile = File.join($options['--outdir'], File.basename(outfile))
end

# open the file to figure out the aspect ratio
duration, w, h = 0.0, nil, nil
Open3.popen3("/usr/bin/ffmpeg", "-i", infile) do |stdin, stdout, stderr|
[stdout, stderr].each do |io|
io.each_line do |line|
if line.match(/Video:.+ (\d+)x(\d+)/)
w, h = $1.to_f, $2.to_f
elsif line.match(/Duration:\s+(\d+):(\d+):(\d+)\.(\d+)/)
duration += $1.to_f * 3600
duration += $2.to_f * 60
duration += $3.to_f
duration += $4.to_f / 10
end
end
end
end

begin
aspect = w/h
rescue
puts "Couldn't figure out aspect ratio."
exit
end

user_width = $options['--width'] ? $options['--width'].to_i : IPOD_WIDTH
user_height = $options['--height'] ? $options['--height'].to_i : IPOD_HEIGHT

width = user_width.to_i
height = (width / aspect.to_f).to_i
height -= (height % 2)
pad = ((user_height - height.to_f) / 2.0).to_i
pad -= (pad % 2)
padarg1, padarg2 = "padtop", "padbottom"

# recalculate using the height as the baseline rather than the width
if pad < 0
height = user_height.to_i
width = (height * aspect.to_f).to_i
width -= (width % 2)
pad = ((user_width - width.to_f)/2.0).to_i
pad -= (pad % 2)
padarg1, padarg2 = "padleft", "padright"
end

File.unlink(outfile) if File.exists?(outfile)

# use %infile% and %outfile% and replace those after the split() so that we
# don't split() a filename that has spaces in it.
cmd = "/usr/bin/ffmpeg -i %infile% #{DEFAULT_ARGS} -bufsize #{DEFAULT_BUFSIZE} -s #{width}x#{height} -#{padarg1} #{pad} -#{padarg2} #{pad} -ab #{audio_bitrate} -b #{video_bitrate} %outfile%"
puts cmd if $options['--verbose']

# We could just call "system cmd" here, but we want the exit code of mp4ize
# to tell us whether the duration of the generated mp4 equals the duration
# of the original movie. Exits with a non-zero code if the two are not
# within 1% of each other.

time = 0
STDOUT.sync = true

# modify -ab and -b arguments to kbit if necessary
catch(:done) do
3.times do
catch(:retry) do
# split arguments, set %infile% and %outfile%
cmd_array = cmd.split(/\s+/)
cmd_array.collect! {|s| s.sub(/^%infile%$/, infile)}
cmd_array.collect! {|s| s.sub(/^%outfile%$/, outfile)}

puts "\n\n------------------------------------" if $options['--verbose']
puts "cmdline: #{cmd_array.join(' ')}" if $options['--verbose']

Open3.popen3(*cmd_array) do |stdin, stdout, stderr|
io = select([stdout, stderr], nil, nil, 10)
2.times do |std| # both stdout and stderr
next if io[0][std].nil?
io[0][std].each_line("\r") do |line|
puts "the line is #{line}"
printf("\r%.2f%% | ", time / duration * 100.0)
print line
if line.match(/Invalid pixel aspect ratio/)
cmd.sub!("-s #{width}x#{height}", "-s #{width}x#{height} -aspect #{aspect}")
throw :retry
elsif line.match(/time=([^\s]+)/)
time = $1.to_f
end
end
end
end
throw :done
end
end
end

# return completeness of mp4 file
puts "expected duration: #{duration}" if $options['--verbose']
puts "encoded duration: #{time}" if $options['--verbose']
if ARGV.size == 1
exit((time <= duration * 1.01) && (time >= duration * 0.99))
end
end

mojonba

12-30-2010, 08:11 PM

KryptoNyte,

Can you create a Handbrake preset ala iPod/Ipad for the Nook Color with your recommended settings?

KryptoNyte

12-30-2010, 08:28 PM

I would love to Mojonba, but unfortunately the version of Handbrake that I'm using (along with most other versions) doesn't actually save all the settings, so you end up dialing a good number of the settings in manually anyways.

I thought I had another solution, where you basically drag and drop video files/DVD directories onto a batch file, but unfortunately, the developer quit working on it.. The application that I'm speaking about works darn near perfect for this task, and the Nook Color community would benefit from it greatly as it makes video conversion a no-brainer. It actually uses the Handbrake CLI (command line interface), but right at the moment, it won't allow the user to get a return status on how the encoding is going, which means you would have no idea how much time it's going to take to finish a video.

It's really unfortunate, because there was a substancial amount of genius in the way this gent had configured it. Oh well.

KryptoNyte

12-30-2010, 09:59 PM

Above Post Edited - I was able to contact the developer, and he may have an opportunity to get this software up and running.

mojonba

12-31-2010, 11:56 AM

Kryptonite,

Someone over at XDA Developers (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=894165) posted a preset with settings very similar to yours. You might want to check it out. I tried the preset using nightly svn 3705 (couldnot find svn3707 you are using) and the nook couldnt play it. Using 0.9.4 worked perfectly.

KryptoNyte

12-31-2010, 12:04 PM

Well, that's great that 0.9.4 worked! Even with 0.9.4 I've had trouble when I select the various profiles - it seems like sometimes it will pull all the profile settings, and sometimes it won't, one of the most important things being the selection of the Audio track and the misc. audio settings.

Although I haven't tried this, it's my understanding that some video players allow for Subtitles, which may also work on the NC, and might be nice if you were in a very quiet or very loud area, and didn't have your headphones.

My hopes are that the gent I mentioned above will be able to include some kind of audio gain, which is badly needed when encoding videos for the NC. He has automated nearly every other thing, just really great stuff.

swallman

01-03-2011, 07:48 PM

Krypto,

I did some looking myself for a way to increase the gain and came across this. You need to download the FFMPEG libraries and also Wavegain, but then you can run a script something like this.

Basically the first step pulls out the video stream from the MP4 file. The second step pulls out the audio file into WAV format. Then run it through Wavegain (there are more options available). Finally put all the files back together.

I've only tried it once so far and it only added about 5db with the default Wavegain settings so I need to play with it some more.

ffmpeg -i myfile.mp4 -an -vcodec copy -y video1.mp4
ffmpeg -i myfile.mp4 -vn -y audio1.wav
wavegain -r -n -y audio1.wav
ffmpeg -i video1.mp4 -i audio1.wav -vcodec copy -acodec aac -ab 128 -y ouput.mp4

KryptoNyte

01-03-2011, 08:10 PM

swallman

01-03-2011, 08:17 PM

The bigest problem I'm finding right now is actually finding a piece of software that is just simply increasing the audio gain across the board. Just about everything I find is actually doing normalization determination, similar to the setting already available in Handbrake.

I believe Wavegain has an option to increase the audio gain. With the options I used I think it just did something similar to normalizing.

-g, --gain X Apply additional Manual Gain adjustment in decibels, where
X = any floating point number between -12.0 and +12.0.

KryptoNyte

01-03-2011, 08:26 PM

That would be awful slick. Let me know if you notice any discernable difference in audio volume on the NC.

Just as a sidenote, someone over at XDA pointed out that the NC built-in speaker is mono, and the audio processor is NOT downmixing stereo to mono, so if you play 2-channel stereo audio through the speaker, you're only getting the left channel (or maybe it was only the right, I don't recall).

Anyways, as you test, you may want to use headphones where you can actually get the benefit of 2-channel audio.

Boilerman

01-06-2011, 02:36 AM

from: Baka no Kami

this worked for me!

Whenever I try to create a set profile for the NC in Handbrake, the closest I am able to set the picture dimensions are 720x416, as opposed to 720X421. Could someone tell me what I am doing wrong?
:smack:

:help:

KryptoNyte

01-06-2011, 03:52 PM

Frequently with encoding applications that are based on various codecs, the ideal video dimensions will be multiples of 16. I believe that you can force the horizontal to whatever you wish, but Handbrake will always suggest a vertical (I can't recall if you can override with various aspect ratio settings).

Another thing to watch out for is the "automatic" setting for the cropping on the same settings tab, this can also impact the final output resolution.

dgiznya

01-06-2011, 10:17 PM

KryptoNyte

01-06-2011, 11:03 PM

Hey, and there's a brand new version of Handbrake out. It's been over a year since the last official version. Still seems to work with these settings, but didn't really test much to see if it was any faster.

http://handbrake.fr/downloads.php

Quote of the day: "Can ... I ... borrow your towel for a sec? My car just hit water buffalo."

dgiznya

01-07-2011, 10:24 AM

Someone ought to change the title of this thread form:

Nook Color: Can't Play sideloaded m4v videos

to

"Nook Color: Plays sideloaded m4v videos and does a great job of it."

buddy6713

01-08-2011, 07:19 PM

Thank you! I thought I'd selected the pre-set for the ipad/ipod and that everything else would fall in line without requiring me to actively set anything but since my video has a question mark (in my Nook Library) I guess I have to be more pro active.

I'm going to print out all your terrific helpful posts and follow them consecutively. Should produce video that Nook displays.

NOOKcolor B&N

01-23-2011, 01:13 PM

I, unfortunately, have been having the same problems as you. I have everything succesfully converted to MP4 format and saved on my Micro SD card but CANNOT play on NOOKcolor!!! If anyone is out there, I NEED HELP!!!!!!

KryptoNyte

01-23-2011, 01:48 PM

Have you read through this entire thread, and then performed the steps using the correct software?

SCION

01-23-2011, 01:50 PM

Yes, the answer is within this thread. There's much to grasp, but the pay off is big.

merlin5353

01-30-2011, 09:47 AM

Working well for me. Thanks for the info, KryptoNyte!

leday

02-05-2011, 10:16 PM

I know I'm late getting in on this discussion, but I just now got around to converting some of my movies for use on the NC. I use Daniusoft Media Converter. It's a great program. You can convert to output files with one touch basically. The program has many output settings optimized to many different devices, including iPod, Android, Blackberry, Zune, and LOTS more. For me, I just selected the video I wanted to convert, told it to convert it to the Zune mp4 setting (I have a Zune and wanted to be able to use that too...the Zune setting works great for the NC too), and told it to place the converted file in whatever directory I wanted, and voila! Worked like a charm. Didn't have to mess with any other settings at all.

thef00l2

02-10-2011, 04:38 PM

I've been able to convert using the roxio converter. I'll check the settings I used after i get home.
I was able to sideload and play Avatar (complete with subtitles) with no problem. I'm only using a class 4 8gb. sound is only decent thru headphones or external speakers attached thru the jack.
I did not notice any noticeable lag.

gstealer

02-11-2011, 05:41 PM

Ran into a problem here.

I've burned 2 videos using CloneDVD mobile and 'fixed' like the hints here using handbreak that run fine. (District9 and Wall-e).

Did the same with Tformers and Avatar, but both of these are a skewed split screen. I've run handbreak again and each time get the same thing.
Any ideas since you all rawk?
I've read thru this posting a few times and dont see this happening to anyone else. Thanks :o

merlin5353

02-13-2011, 09:45 AM

Just got back from a trip. Used my NC on the 4 hour flight to watch 'Avatar extended directors cut' and 'Crazy Heart'. Sound was good with no lag; vid was smooth. Ran it off my Sd class ? (probably 1, I didn't pay much for it). Used Handbrake, IPOD and IPOD Legacy (no diff), used all the specs posted here before.

ibm650

02-18-2011, 08:17 PM

so battery was good for 4 hours of movies?

merlin5353

02-20-2011, 08:00 PM

so battery was good for 4 hours of movies?

Sorry for the delay. Yep, I watched more than 4 hours of movies and read for about 2 hours on one charge. I had about 20% left when I finally put it on charge late that night.

mmw1161

02-28-2011, 09:04 PM

I use tools4movies/DVD Catalyst 4. Easy to use.

Belle2Be

03-04-2011, 12:45 AM

I'm having technical difficulties, I downloaded HandBreak, converted a .avi to a MP4 via the instructions on page 2, (Post 18, Baka'swalk thru-), Then I transferred via USB into the Nook/My File/Video and when I loaded it up, I got an error that says "cannot play video". Any ideas?
Its like magic, everytime I post, I find the answer. I left the V codec at 264 so I changed it and am trying again :)

ThirtyBird

03-04-2011, 12:54 PM

This is a great thread for Nook Color owners who wish to play video - thanks to the helpful posters! I've been converting DVD's & TV Captures etc to watch from my hard drive since the days of Divx 3.11alpha, but I can still learn something new!

The single most important thing I learned from this thread may help you belle2be. The Nook Color supports 264 "baseline" encodes only - what this means is that in handbrake, you MUST ensure several settings on the Advanced tab are set properly. Those being :

Maximum B-Frames : Must be 0!
CABAC Entropy Coding : must be unchecked
8x8 Transform : must be unchecked
Weighted P-Frames : must be unchecked

reference : https://forum.handbrake.fr/viewtopic.php?t=16829&p=78494#p78491

I had trouble with encodes that work on my Droid not working on my NC. If you hover over each of these options, handbrake gives you a bit of help on them, and once I learned this and made those changes, it was smooth sailing and working video from there!

For those who want more details: If you check out the wiki for h.264, it gives a good description of profiles. It looks to me like encoding "baseline" will lose some quality and some features, but looks like it would be compatible with a wide variety of devices.

JamesG

03-04-2011, 05:47 PM

But can this process allow me to convert itunes video so that it plays on my nook?

I found this post on the Barnes and Noble forum:

FINDINGS

----------------

ok, the Nook Color has a resolution of 1024x600, which is an aspect ratio of 1.71

720 seems to be the maximum width of a video, so at 1.71 aspect ratio the correct width should be 421 pixels.

I encoded a video with a width of 721 pixels and it would load the player, but then crash and say it couldn't play the file. Anything larger than that and it doesn't even attempt to load it. So apparently 720 pixels is the built in maximum width for video files.

I did not discover a maximum height, however it's irrelevant.

ENCODING

-----------------
I encoded all of my test videos with MPEGstreamclip which is a free tool. I would assume these settings would also work in HandBrake.

MPEGstreamclip - http://www.squared5.com/

(if you're unfortunate enough to be on a Windows computer you will also need Quicktime Alternative 1.81 to run MPEGstreamclip properly)

Quicktime Alternative 1.81 - http://www.filehippo.com/download_quicktime_alternative/2615/

BASICS

------------
Just make sure you're set to MPEG-4 encoding, 720x421 (640x480 for 4:3 content) and you should be good.

Here are my Compressor presets (if you have a Mac and Final Cut Studio)

http://www.mediafire.com/?akfeeefjvbgjs7d

And here is a test video

http://www.mediafire.com/?meby28unjt7jhyc

merlin5353

03-06-2011, 07:35 PM

Try Handbrake and use the directions here:
http://www.androidtablets.net/forum/nook-color-technical/5531-how-using-handbrake-convert-video-nook-color.html
I've not had any problems converting several types of files.

gstealer

03-09-2011, 07:13 PM

I use tools4movies/DVD Catalyst 4. Easy to use.
:thumbsup::thumbsup:

I splurged on the $10 for this last night and am very happy with it.
Much easier 1 step process then trying to use 3 other files to do the same job.

borg man

03-10-2011, 12:39 AM

merlin5353

03-11-2011, 01:23 PM

I think we (mostly) have established that it IS possible to side-load the NC with all kinds of files (movies, videos, crap). Just have to pick your poison and try it. Especially if you are using a Mac. ;) I mean, it IS a disadvantage for we PC'rs to have several free progs to choose from. BTW, I'm pretty sure my copy of VLC will play 'bout anything. I removed quicktime a while ago. It was too buggy for me. :)

borg man

03-11-2011, 02:27 PM

You can also use iWisoft Free Video Convert from easy-video-converter.com

Choose the MPEG-4 Movie (*.mp4) profile under the Common Video profiles, click on Settings, and use these:

68051

Volume adjustment is optional.

Should point out that you have to manually type in 720x420 for the Video Size (thanks to the original poster for determining this value); it's not a default from the drop-down menu. The only other change I made to the defaults was to set Audio Sample Rate to 48000Hz.

Also, this software does batch conversions. Just select the files and drag and drop them. I have not used Handbrake and I don't know if it does batch conversions or not, but I recall reading somewhere here that someone had written a script to use with Handbrake for batch conversions. Cheers.

Pushka

03-11-2011, 05:42 PM

I am getting an error message trying to load the original videos into the Handbrake converter. Some load fine, others won't. All the videos play fine on my iPad so they are not corrupted.

gmon

04-04-2011, 02:04 AM

I got a simple question, I hope anyway - where is the stock media player that is allegedly preinstalled in the Nook Color and what is it called? I can't find anything that appears to be a video player in the Extras tab.

MobileTechReview

04-04-2011, 11:22 AM

The app is called Gallery and it handles photo and videos.

rumplestiltskin

04-05-2011, 07:49 PM

{snip}... And here is a test video
http://www.mediafire.com/?meby28unjt7jhyc

That video seems to be encoded completely wrong for almost any portable media device. The bitrate is way too high, averaging over 9000kbps (probably should be closer to 1500 or 2000). The audio is 256kbps and that is also way too high (even for a 1st gen AppleTV); that should be no more than 160kbps although 128kb should certainly be sufficient. As well, the aspect ratio is wrong (or is the video expecting something to correct an anamorphic setting?).

I took the liberty of re-encoding that file into something that, I hope, will work much better given the limitations in the hardware in the Nook Color. It should also play nicely with iPad and AppleTV (and, of course, all Macs and most PCs). I won't be able to test it in my Nook until it arrives next week.

Please let me know how this works:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/alddl8

I used Handbrake and used the "AppleTV Legacy" setting as the starting point. Then I set the audio to AAC-128kb and the video to a target size of 5MB (which provided a bitrate of 2336). I set the fps to 23.976 just to be paranoid (as Handbrake -should- maintain the existing fps but I've seen it get confused), the video codec to MPEG-4 (not H264), then enabled 2-pass encoding; in this instance, 2-pass probably didn't make a difference but it's a habit.

I'd imagine playing a 2 hour video would wipe out the battery pretty well. However, if we can reduce the bitrate sufficiently, this might be mitigated.

Barry

edit: Looks like others have done some work in this matter before I got around to it. Still, I'm excited to see how the Nook does video. Mine should arrive late next week.

Pushka

04-14-2011, 03:42 AM

Should point out that you have to manually type in 720x420 for the Video Size (thanks to the original poster for determining this value); it's not a default from the drop-down menu. The only other change I made to the defaults was to set Audio Sample Rate to 48000Hz.

Also, this software does batch conversions. Just select the files and drag and drop them. I have not used Handbrake and I don't know if it does batch conversions or not, but I recall reading somewhere here that someone had written a script to use with Handbrake for batch conversions. Cheers.

I tried the free version and it isnt free to get a good quality video. And even forking out for the subscription, I have been trying to get it to work with no success.

rumplestiltskin

04-15-2011, 03:34 PM

Found another app that works well: MPEG Streamclip. Of course, if you're on a PC you'll also have to install QuickTime (or QuickTime Alternate). Export to MP4, Choose the "iTunes" button and select the "iPhone 16:9" setting (as a good starting point). Then set the Frame Size to no more than what the Nook can do natively (I used 640x352 for a recent video that came from my Samsung camcorder). Leave the Quality slider at 50%. I didn't limit the data rate but I'll have to try a much larger/richer video to see if this option still works. Make sure you do NOT check the "B-Frames" checkbox.

Another voice here recommended 44.1KHz audio at 128kbps; I see no reason to contradict that advice as, after all, this isn't a home theater, eh?

Click the "Make MP4" button, provide a name a location for the saved file, and then wait for the transcoding to finish. Shouldn't take very long (assuming you have a reasonably powerful, modern Mac or PC).

Funny thing about this first successful test of video on my new Nook: I was thinking about the day I bought my first 5th gen iPod (the first one that did video) and how that device exemplified the paradigm shift that had taken place from tape and DVD to files on a hard drive and how it provided total freedom in time- and place-shifting my video media. I even used it with the audio/video-out cable set so it played on my big-screen (SD) TV. While I'm not concerned about doing that part now (as I have an AppleTV and a WD TV Media Player), I thought how well this "half an iPad" played the video and, all of a sudden, my perspective of this device shifted radically. While I had bought it as an eBook reader (and found that it surfed the web in a not-half-bad manner, as well), its ability to play videos now made me think of it as a video player that surfs the web and does a bang-up job as an eReader, as well. Perhaps because I never went down the path of an iPod Touch (its screen is miniscule and useless, AFAIC), I'm looking at the Nook as what my original 5th gen iPod has grown up to be. So, rather than compare it to an iPad (which I own and is awesome), I'm comparing it to an earlier Apple product (the 5G iPod) and finding that it stands up to that comparison quite well. It's cheaper than what I paid (then), has a larger, incredibly sharp screen, and does one thing that the iPod has never done: I don't need no stinkin' earbuds to hear the audio.

Job well done, B&N!