Nook Color: Can't Play sideloaded m4v videos

[NoName]

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]

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]

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]

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

[SCION]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

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

Something

[KryptoNyte]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.