Optimal settings for Archos 5

Discuss encoding for devices and presets.
Forum rules
An Activity Log is required for support requests. Please read How-to get an activity log? for details on how and why this should be provided.
Post Reply
sidx900mg
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Jan 10, 2009 10:05 am

Optimal settings for Archos 5

Post by sidx900mg »

Can you please advise on optimal settings to rip feature film for Archoss 5. Ideally in a format that I can also use for AppleTV.

I'm using Handbrake 0.9.3 on Mac OS X 10.5.6 - all available software updates installed.
Playing on Archos 5 250Gb Firmware 1.2.05 (WMDRMPD: 10.1) - lates available
Video Podcast plug-in installed

Based on information I have found elsewhere in this forum an others the best I have been able to find so-far is:

Format: MP4 file. Large file size/Web optimizes/iPod 5G support all unchecked
Video codec: H.264 (x264) Average bitrate: 1200 kbps
2-pass and Turbo First pass both checked
Source: Typically 720x576 Output: 720x400
Anamorphic: off, Keep aspect ratio: on, Crop: Auto
Denoise: Off, Detelecine: No, Deinterlace: Off, deblock: Off, Decomb: Off
Reference frames: 1, B-Frames: 0
Motion Estimation Method: defaul (Hexagon)
Motion Estimation Range: Default (16)
Subpixel Motion Estimation: 5
Analysis: All, 8x8 DCT: Unchecked
Deblocking: -1 -1, Trellis: default (0)
No Fast P-Skip: Checked, No DCT-Decimate: Unchecked
CABAC Entropy Coding: Checked
Current x264 Advanced Option String: ref=1:subq=5:bframes=0:bime=1:analyse=all:deblock=-1,-1:no-fast-pskip=1

When I use these settings the Handbake encodes always run to successful completion. Video playback quality on Archos is excellent and from iTunes and Apple TV quality is good enough.

However, with some feature films (typically more recent ones) movie plays fine from start to end, but if i fast forward, rewind or jump back/forward using the progress bar in playback the Archos either shows message: "Cannot play video! Codec H.264 "Profile" and "Level" [Main/3.0] is not supported", freezes the picture and requires power off/on to recover or re-boots itself.

Seems to me that this could just as easily be a bug with the Archos firmware or plug-in, but there is a lot of good advice about encoding options on this forum and I thought I might get some good advice - a lot of these options are beyond my understanding.

Any/all suggestions greatfully received. Thanks.
ArchAngel123
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat Jan 10, 2009 11:18 am

Re: Optimal settings for Archos 5

Post by ArchAngel123 »

hiya

I more or less the same issue, and got rid of the msg by typing the following in the "Current x264 Advanced Option String:" at the end ":level=41"

Also not got it perfect yet .. but another thing you may try is to ensure you set the frame rate, do not rely on "from source"

Ill will update you if i get anywhere ..
sidx900mg
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Jan 10, 2009 10:05 am

Re: Optimal settings for Archos 5

Post by sidx900mg »

Thanks for the information. Any advice on what value to set the frame rate to?
ArchAngel123
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat Jan 10, 2009 11:18 am

Re: Optimal settings for Archos 5

Post by ArchAngel123 »

Hi there

I'm afraid after days and days of encoding and trying various options, I have given up on handbrake, perhaps Im too much of a n00b to use it.

However, head over to this forum http://forum.archosfans.com/viewtopic.p ... gs#p128652. It shows how to create a perfectly compatible Archos 5 file
sidx900mg
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Jan 10, 2009 10:05 am

Re: Optimal settings for Archos 5

Post by sidx900mg »

ArchAngel123, sorry to hear you continued to have problems with HandBrake.

For information, I tried :level=41 and it made no difference, but changing framerate to 25 seems to have fixed the problem I had.

I'll monitor this as I rip more of my collection, and post any further observations.

If anyone else has any tips, please let me know.

Thanks
BobH
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Dec 04, 2008 7:54 pm

Re: Optimal settings for Archos 5

Post by BobH »

Regarding the problem of movie encoded with 0.9.3 causing Archos to reboot and/or generating "Cannot play video..." error and/or stuttering on playback:

I had this same problem and was very frustrated that every one of the pre-sets in 0.9.3 would cause one or more of the above problems to occur on my Archos 504, even though I previously had no problem creating videos with 0.9.2.

I finally stumbled onto the following solution: With 0.9.3, do NOT choose "Same as source" for framerate. Instead, set the framerate manually to your desired setting (e.g., for most DVDs, 24fps [NTSC Film] is the right setting, though in some cases I need to choose 30fps [NTSC Video]), and you will generally avoid the above problems. I think the problem is that the Archos is not able to handle the possibility of variable framerates, which is enabled by choosing "Same as source" for this setting.

To determine which single framerate to use, I play the source video using a player with a video inspector, such as Nero Showtime or Quicktime (requires plug-in to play DVD video). [Note to devs, it would be great if the program somehow displayed framerate information in the Picture Settings window for the frames that you can skip through on that page or otherwise gave a useful suggestion for which manual choice to make for the framerate setting.]

The only other thing to keep in mind with the Archos (at least those of the 04 generation) is that the podcast/h.264 plug-in can't handle anamorphic video. You have to record square pixel (i.e., uncheck Anamorphic and make sure Keep Aspect Ratio is checked).

Hope that helps.
sidx900mg
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Jan 10, 2009 10:05 am

Re: Optimal settings for Archos 5

Post by sidx900mg »

BobH

Thanks for your response. This is consistent with what I have found. I guess we should look to Handbrake to revert to handling framerate in the same way as it did prior to 0.9.3. Meanhile hard setting framrate as you suggest is also orking for me.
TedJ
Veteran User
Posts: 5388
Joined: Wed Feb 20, 2008 11:25 pm

Re: Optimal settings for Archos 5

Post by TedJ »

Sorry, but Handbrake moving away from VFR detelecine because your hardware doesn't support it simply isn't going to happen - especially since specifying the framerate fixes the problem in your case.
BobH
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Dec 04, 2008 7:54 pm

Re: Optimal settings for Archos 5

Post by BobH »

Not asking to move away from VFR--it's fine for most of my devices. However, it would be nice to see a suggestion for which manual frame rate to set, so you don't have to fire up another program to get a reading. Also, I would suspect there are other devices besides the Archos that could have some difficulty with variable frame rate, at least in some circumstances.

All of that said, this is a minor issue with what overall is one of the most useful pieces of software ever written.

Thanks,

Bob
jbrjake
Veteran User
Posts: 4805
Joined: Wed Dec 13, 2006 1:38 am

Re: Optimal settings for Archos 5

Post by jbrjake »

I don't know what your problem is. Every bit of info HB can derive from the source, including a rough estimate of what FPS it signals, is available in the log. Why would you have to fire up another app?
sidx900mg
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Jan 10, 2009 10:05 am

Re: Optimal settings for Archos 5

Post by sidx900mg »

Tedj - that's fair comment, and I wouldn't want to take anything away from Handbrake - It's a great piece of software. Maybe I should be asking Archos to support VFR.

jbrjake - thanks for the tip about looking in the log for the framerate.

I guess the iceing on the cake would be to have an option in handbrake to fix the framerate, but frankly, I'm happy with the way it works now you guys have given me this additional info.

Great software, great forum!
sdm
Bright Spark User
Posts: 194
Joined: Mon Feb 19, 2007 4:53 pm

Re: Optimal settings for Archos 5

Post by sdm »

sidx900mg wrote:Maybe I should be asking Archos to support VFR.
I asked Archos support for this six or seven months ago. They replied that they would look into it, but so far ... nothing.

Too bad I didn't see this thread until today, I went through all this a long time ago and came up with the same conclusion that Archos devices don't work well with vfr, especially if you ffwd, and that they don't handle anamorphic video files (well there is a plugin to allow playback from video_ts folders - I assume that would handle anamorphic flags properly).
Post Reply