PS3 Encoding Hit and Miss...

[McCall]

Hi Folks,

I have been going through my DVD collection encoding movies to keep on my PS3's hard drive. I have found that most of the time the encodes work, but using a preset that I know works sometimes produces movies that will play fine on a Mac or under Windows (even on the 360!) but not on the PS3.

On the PS3 I get sound but no picture. The PS3 reports all the details about the movie and everything looks like the movie should play fine, but it doesn't. After doing some Google searches I think this might be because the PS3 is very picky about resolution. I have read somewhere that the height and width have to be dividable by 16 for the picture to play on a PS3 (Can anyone confirm this?!).

(UPDATE - I have just compared two movies I have with my right now, the broken one has a resolution of 1024x428 and the one that works has a resolution of 1024x424 leading me to believe that the resolution not being dividable by 16 does cause the black screen on the PS3. I don't have more the 100% confirm that this is the issue though)

If this is the case - can, or does it already, Handbrake have an option to ensure that the movie resolution is dividable by 16 so movies encoded will always be playable on the PS3?

Thanks!

[realityking]

If your encoding anamorphic, loose anamorphic would do the trick (in the current development version). If you are using 0.9.1 you have to check the resolution on your own.

PS: You don't use chapter markers, do you?

[McCall]

Is there a nightly build I can check out somewhere? I can't compile Handbrake on my own

Actually the dividable by 16-theory is wrong. I have found a third encode that has 1021x554 and I know that works fine. I don't know whats breaking the encodes now.

I have the chapter markers checked, but IIRC they don't work on the PS3. I don't know if they work in anything else, I can't see anywhere in QT that shows them.

[dynaflash]

Is there a nightly build I can check out somewhere? I can't compile Handbrake on my own

Sorry, no nightlies.

[Phil Treble]

I've been compiling a list of the dimensions that have worked for me:

-------------
1024 x

416
420
432
436
552
560
------------
1021 x

576
-------------
1018 x

420
436
552
-------------
1009 x

432
-------------
995 x

436
548
576

[McCall]

I have decided to encode to mkv's, using H.264 and passing through the AC3 using the following command:

./HandBrakeCLI -v -i /tmp/MOVIE -o /tmp/test/MOVIE.mkv -e x264 -f mkv -p -b 2500 -2 -T -x crf=18:ref=2:mixed-refs=1:bframes=3:bime=1:weightb=1:subq=7:trellis=2:analyse=all:level=41:merange=64:no-fast-pskip=1:me=umh:sar=1/1 -E ac3

I am then running them through mkv2vob as this allows me to have great quality movies with 5.1 channel sound straight from the PS3's hard drive. Hopefully Sony will either support the .mkv container through the XMB which will allow me to cut out the mkv2vob step, or work out how to do 6 Channel AAC in MP4's and I will move back to MP4's and skip the mkv2vob.

I haven't tested this exact command on Linux yet, but I have tested producing a mkv with ac3 sound through the MacUI and passing it through mkv2vob with success.

I don't know if I am going to get the same black-screen issues doing it this way.

[BucksSaddler]

Hopefully Sony will either support the .mkv container through the XMB which will allow me to cut out the mkv2vob step, or work out how to do 6 Channel AAC in MP4's and I will move back to MP4's and skip the mkv2vob.

The PS3 supports MP4's with 6 channel AAC now - it converts it internally to 5.1 PCM and sends it out. To get the full 5.1 you need to link your PS3 to your receiver by HDMI - Optical will only give you 2 channel due to bandwidth.
Cheers

[McCall]

Hopefully Sony will either support the .mkv container through the XMB which will allow me to cut out the mkv2vob step, or work out how to do 6 Channel AAC in MP4's and I will move back to MP4's and skip the mkv2vob.

The PS3 supports MP4's with 6 channel AAC now - it converts it internally to 5.1 PCM and sends it out. To get the full 5.1 you need to link your PS3 to your receiver by HDMI - Optical will only give you 2 channel due to bandwidth.
Cheers

I have a Yamaha RX-V461, it has HDMI ports on it, but I don't think it supports 6 channel PCM. I don't have a spare HDMI cable to test it.

Plus, am I correct in assuming that 6 channel AAC would actually contain more data but be lower quality than straight AC3?

[BucksSaddler]

Hi,
Just looking at your model type and according to Yamaha's website it doesn't mention anything about having HDMI ports on it. If you don't have this, you will not be able to get 5.1 PCM from the PS3 - your best route to get 5.1 on your PS3 is to carry on what you are doing - MKV2VOB.
I'm not entirely sure about lower quality - AC3 is normally 448 kbps or 640 kbps, but from what i believe this total is for all channels, however you can get 384 kbps in AAC from Handbrake and i think this is per channel. This is my (very very) basic understanding of it, and i may be completely off the mark with those assumptions. Please feel free to correct me people.
Anyway - 6 channel AAC from my PS3 sounds great.
Cheers

[McCall]

Just looking at your model type and according to Yamaha's website it doesn't mention anything about having HDMI ports on it. If you don't have this, you will not be able to get 5.1 PCM from the PS3 - your best route to get 5.1 on your PS3 is to carry on what you are doing - MKV2VOB.

Getting slightly off-topic now, but I *think* the European models differ to the US models. The model I have is French, and definitely has HDMI ports on it, but lacks DAB. I think the US model has DAB, but lacks the HDMI ports.

[BucksSaddler]

Ok - if i certainly has HDMI ports then it will be able to handle 5.1 PCM. You don't need HDMI 1.3 for this, 1.1 will be fine

[McCall]

Ok - if i certainly has HDMI ports then it will be able to handle 5.1 PCM. You don't need HDMI 1.3 for this, 1.1 will be fine

I found this in AVForums discussing the package I have:

Hi

The EU version has an HDMI Switch (so no audio) which is why we decided to drop the HDMI section on the UK model. HDMI switches can never process audio and cause confusion generally, so in the UK we are only supporting HDMI repeaters on all our models. These will all handle HDMI audio.

The UK model does have DAB and is slightly different in terms of board layout so will sound slightly different.

If an RXV461 has an HDMI switch it's an import and therefore we do not support it at all in the UK.

Hope his is of help

Regards
Chris Moseley
Yamaha UK

So I guess I get my answer - keep encoding to MKV and converting to VOB or wait for Sony to add MKV support!

Useful discussion, thank you very much.

[jbrjake]

(UPDATE - I have just compared two movies I have with my right now, the broken one has a resolution of 1024x428 and the one that works has a resolution of 1024x424 leading me to believe that the resolution not being dividable by 16 does cause the black screen on the PS3. I don't have more the 100% confirm that this is the issue though)

Did you ever confirm this? Maybe I should have set the PS3 preset in 0.9.2 to use loose anamorphic, which does mod16 dimensions...

[McCall]

(UPDATE - I have just compared two movies I have with my right now, the broken one has a resolution of 1024x428 and the one that works has a resolution of 1024x424 leading me to believe that the resolution not being dividable by 16 does cause the black screen on the PS3. I don't have more the 100% confirm that this is the issue though)

Did you ever confirm this? Maybe I should have set the PS3 preset in 0.9.2 to use loose anamorphic, which does mod16 dimensions...

mod16 dimensions isn't the issue, I encoded another movie with a resolution of 1021x554, and this plays fine.

[wjohn13]

Thanks to everyone for the replies. I have been trying an H264 encode, and it does seem to take longer than my other, but the quality seems nice. Files are bigger than I was hoping for, but. I'll keep messing with it.

[McCall]

I think this is because I using -b 2500. I am sure that you can probably get similar quality, with variable bit rate and a lower file size - I will probably be looking into this during the week. I encoded a few more movies and was getting 2.7Gb, which is way too big. I would be happy with around 2Gb per movie. If I work something out that I am happy with I will post the command here.