PSP: Need Help With Settings

Discuss encoding for devices and presets.
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tedtaylor
Posts: 44
Joined: Wed Dec 17, 2008 7:24 am

Re: PSP: Need Help With Settings

Post by tedtaylor »

Hi smokeypsd,

From your activity log:

Code: Select all

### CLI Query:  -i "E:\VIDEO_TS" -t 1 --angle 1 -c 1 -o "G:\VIDEO\PSP Encode\CD_DVD_DISK_1-1.m4v" -f mp4 -X 480 -l 272 -e x264 -b 128 -a 1 -E faac -6 dpl2 -R 48 -B 128 -D 0.0 --markers="C:\Users\Smokey\AppData\Local\Temp\CD_DVD_DISK_1-1-1-chapters.csv" -x cabac=0:ref=2:me=umh:bframes=0:subq=6:8x8dct=0:trellis=0:weightb=0 -v 1
The "-X 480" means that the width will vary to match the aspect ratio, up to a maximum of 480 pixels wide.
The "-l 272" means that your video will always be exactly 272 pixels high.

This is fine for 4:3 TV show, and fine for a "normal" widescreen TV show /movie ... but it would cause a horizontally compressed image on super widescreen movies. In those cases, you would want "-X 480 -Y 272" ... the "-Y 272" meaning "vary the height to match the aspect ratio, up to a maximum of 272 pixels high", as compared to "exactly 272 pixels high".

Here are my recommendations for the PSP using the Windows GUI of HandBrake v0.9.4 (regardless of Windows XP, Vista, 7, etc):
  • Select the source
  • Select the destination file
  • Select Apple-Universal preset : This sets most of the settings required for the PSP.
  • Scale the video to 480 x 272 (max dimensions) : On the "Picture" tab, change "Anamorphic" to NONE (or else your video will not display in the proper proportions on the PSP). Change the Width to be 480, height to be 272, or any numbers that are both lower than 480 x 272.
  • Set max video bitrate to 768 kbps : Click on the "Video" tab. Change the option to "Avg Bitrate (kbps)". Change the value to be 768 or any number lower than 768. The PSP 1001 manual states "The PSP system cannot play video data converted at bit rates higher than 768 kbps." You may need to set your number lower than 768; it seems that this is an "average" bitrate. If your encoded video stops playing midway through the video, chances are it averaged over the max value of 768.
At this point, you can start your Encode, and ignore the rest of this message. From one video to the next, you'll always be manually searching for the "sweet spot" where the video does not exceed 480x272. Or, read on to set the "MaxWidth" and "MaxHeight"...

*** *** ***
The Windows GUI has an extra feature that is not available on the HandBrake GUI for other operating systems : the Query Editor. If you do not see a Query Editor tab, you must enable it under menu options Tools > Options > Advanced/Other . Once you have enabled it, you should see an extra tab marked 'Query Editor".

After you've configured your settings as above, but before you encode:
  • Generate Query : Click on the "Query Editor" tab. Click "Generate Query". These are the precise command line parameters that the Windows GUI options translated to. You can change the options here, where the Windows GUI does not have equivalent controls.
  • Modify Query for "MaxWidth" / "MaxHeight" : Find the settings "-X 480 -l 272" (the second setting is a lower case "l" as in "Lima, Peru"), and change it to "-X 480 -Y 272" (they MUST be an uppercase -X and uppercase -Y). You've now told the query to use "MaxWidth" / "MaxHeight" instead of "MaxWidth" / "ExactHeight". It doesn't matter what the old numbers were before ... eg it may have said "-X 720 -l 400". Still change it to "-X 480 -Y 272", using the new numbers.
  • Encode
The advantage of the Query Editor is that you can save this query (copy it by highlighting the entire query and pressing CTRL+C on your keyboard, then paste it into another document or email message to yourself or whererever you keep your personal notes). Then, for your next video, you can do the following:
  • Go to your personal notes to self, and copy the saved Query into the clipboard.
  • Start the HandBrake program
  • Go straight to the Query Editor without choosing anything.
  • Click on the (currently empty) Query Editor box to activate it, then press CTRL+V to paste the previous Query into the box.
  • Change the two or three options that are different from last Query:
    • You may have to change the -i "C:\Source.mp4" to match the new source video that you want to encode.
    • You will have to change the -o "C:\Destination.mp4" to match the new destination file that you want to encode.
    • You may have to change the --markers="C:\blah-blah-blah\Destination-1-chapters.csv" to match the new source video that you want to encode. I don't bother; I've never found a use for chapter markers. But you may want to.
It's a bit of typing ; you may or may not like this route. One definite down-side of using the Query Editor like this, is that you cannot use any of the features of the GUI ... your manual changes don't make it back to the GUI controls.

G'luck!
tedtaylor.
jonathanjobe
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Mar 19, 2010 12:08 am

Re: PSP: Need Help With Settings

Post by jonathanjobe »

Hi tedtaylor,

Your GUI instructions for PSP were super useful, thanks! I am trying to get started using the CLI, but I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. The wiki is not updated for 0.9.4 so I didn't want to spend too much time there. I assume for CLI you use .bat files (oh, I'm running Windows 7). Could you post the whole contents of your batch file so I can look and figure out what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks

EDIT: After more research/digging I've got this .bat file:
"E:\Program Files\HandBrake\HandBrakeCLI.exe" -i "G:\Video\test.avi" -t 1 -c 1 -o "E:\Jonathan\Videos\Handbrake\handbrake.mp4" -f mp4 -X 480 -Y 272 -e x264 -b 768 -a 1 -E faac -6 stereo -R 48 -B 128 -D 0.0 -x ref=2:bframes=2:subq=6:mixed-refs=0:weightb=0:8x8dct=0:trellis=0 -C 4 -v 1

Is there any way to make this into a drag-and-drop script (drag the input video onto the .bat, and conversion starts with these settings?
tedtaylor
Posts: 44
Joined: Wed Dec 17, 2008 7:24 am

Re: PSP: Need Help With Settings

Post by tedtaylor »

Hi jonathanjobe,

This is a little off topic for a thread titled "PSP: Need Help With Settings" :D

For the short answer, try changing { -i "G:\Video\Test.avi" } into { -i %1 }. Your output will always be named "E:\Jonathan\Videos\Handbrake\handbrake.mp4", so make sure you rename your output to something other than "handbrake.mp4", before you start encoding your next file.

For a more detailed answer : Cerberus has put a lot of time into his batch file located here : http://forum.handbrake.fr/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=11981. I haven't tried his batch file, but it looks promising.

I myself am running Ubuntu Linux, so my CLI shell script is not easily translatable to the Windows world. You're welcome to download it from here: http://www.4shmoos.ca/HandBrake_Encode.sh.zip.

tedtaylor.
RogerDahl
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun May 23, 2010 6:41 pm

Re: PSP: Need Help With Settings

Post by RogerDahl »

Tedtaylor,

Thank you for the settings. Very useful!

Roger
stephens
Posts: 12
Joined: Sat Feb 13, 2010 11:59 pm

Re: PSP: Need Help With Settings

Post by stephens »

by tedtaylor
Here's what I did (I'm using the HandBrake GUI v0.9.4 on Ubuntu x64)

* Select the source
* Select Apple-Universal preset : This sets most of the settings required for the PSP.
* Scale the video to 480 x 272 (max dimensions) : Click on the "Picture Settings" toolbar button. Change "Anamorphic" to OFF (or else your video will not display in the proper proportions on the PSP). Change the "Storage" width to be 480, height to be 272, or any numbers that are both lower than 480 x 272. Close "Picture Settings".
* Set max video bitrate to 768 kbps : Click on the "Video" tab. Change the option to "Bitrate (kbps)". Change the value to be 768 or any number lower than 768. The PSP 1001 manual states "The PSP system cannot play video data converted at bit rates higher than 768 kbps." You may need to set your number lower than 768; it seems that this is an "average" bitrate. If your encoded video stops playing midway through the video, chances are it averaged over the max value of 768.
* Encode
Thanks for the above info tedtaylor and thanks also to Vacuum who suggested the "iPhone & iPod Touch" preset as an alternative to the Apple "Universal" preset. They both work great for my Slim & Lite PSP.

Both presets are basically the same. The reason the Universal setting produces large files for the bitrate (I use 1024 for the PSP) is because in audio there is an extra track2, AC3 Passthru that is not required for the PSP, it is there to make the preset more universal.

If using Universal, in audio "remove" that track2 and set track 1 to Dolby Pro LogicII (or Stereo) and 128 for the bitrate (the common audio bitrate setting for PSP encoders: XviD4PSP, PSP Video9 etc.) as per audio setting for the "iPhone & iPod Touch" preset.

Either will then produce the same file size as they are the same settings (I tried with short test clip and the file sizes were identical.)

This reduces the last film I encoded from 1.73GB to 1.22GB, at a bitrate of 1024.

Also, depending on your PSP model and firmware version, you can encode at quite a high bitrate. PSP Video 9 settings Basic, Medium, High & Best equate to 512, 768, 1024 and 1536! I have tried them all and I am on old firmware on a Slim & Lite PSP.

I find little advantage going over 1024. I use 1-pass 1024 as a quick alternative to 2-pass 768 as the results are similar.

The default constant quality CQ20 setting is fine and efficient for the PSP screen but I view them on a 20" PC monitor sometimes so I like 1024.

Hope that helps those using the GUI version of Handbrake for the PSP, it's amazing how quick you can fill HDDs with these movies! :D
Last edited by stephens on Thu Jul 22, 2010 12:21 am, edited 1 time in total.
mjfoxtrot
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Jul 15, 2010 3:59 pm

Re: PSP: Need Help With Settings

Post by mjfoxtrot »

Hi. I just started using Handbrake and I found these settings to be excellent for creating a PSP preset. I ripped a couple of DVDs last night and I was very impressed with the quality; in particular, the colors looked very vivid on the PSP.

One question, though: I ripped the DVDs using Handbrake's option to insert the original chapter marks. And it worked, because the .M4V files it made definitely have the chapter marks in them . . . I played the files first on my PC using QuickTime, and I was able to skip forward to each of the chapters that Handbrake inserted into the file. But when I put the .M4V on my PSP, the chapter marks are not recognized. If I try to skip ahead to the next chapter, it just takes me to the end of the film.

Is this a limitation of the PSP? The chapter marks are clearly in the .M4V, but perhaps the PSP uses a different chapter marking system of some kind??? I notice that when I play UMD discs, I can skip forward to different chapters. Maybe this is because there is an .IFO file of some kind for those discs . . . but I would really like to find a way to insert workable chapter marks in videos that I make for the PSP. Is it possible?

Thanks for any advice.
NJShadow
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Sep 10, 2010 6:35 pm

Re: PSP: Need Help With Settings

Post by NJShadow »

Hey guys, I just edited my query and now it asks "Do you want to replace the manual query with the updated GUI-generated query?". it said that the edited GUI wouldn't apply to my current project, so I selected no, and it's encoding now. Was this the right response? (Sorry, I'm brand-new to Handbrake) And yeah, I modified the query to utilize the correct PSP video parameters.
User avatar
s55
HandBrake Team
Posts: 10350
Joined: Sun Dec 24, 2006 1:05 pm

Re: PSP: Need Help With Settings

Post by s55 »

For a custom query, yes. The query editor always overrides every setting in the GUI. It's just warning you that it's doing that.
NJShadow
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Sep 10, 2010 6:35 pm

Re: PSP: Need Help With Settings

Post by NJShadow »

Worked like a charm and I'm watching Transformers 2 on my PSP right now. SCORE. You guys rock!
jametsko
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Dec 16, 2009 1:02 pm

Re: PSP: Need Help With Settings

Post by jametsko »

Hi If you like to encode with bigger resolution and bit-rate and play it with PSP you need to use Try PMPlayer Advance(PPA) ( http://cooleyes.fx-world.org/ )

Same encode will work also in old xbox xbmc and with most nokia phones!.

Here is example from my encode:
c:\HandBrake\svn3705\HandBrakeCLI.exe" -i "c:\mydvd.ISO" -t 1 -c 1 -o "f:\mydvd" -f mp4 -w 640 -l 272 -e x264 -b 1100 -2 -T -a 3 -E faac -6 dpl2 -R Auto -B 160 -D 0 -x ref=1:me=umh:bframes=0:weightp=0:8x8dct=0:trellis=0:subq=6:deblock=1,0 --verbose=1
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