Hacking NDS Movie Encoding Comparison

[Verocity]

Hey guys, this is my comparison to all of the different movie encoders you can do on the DS. I have been confused about this for awhile and have wanted some nice quality. What I decided to do was make a comparison chart and show which one should be the best.

Tests

I have tested multiple settings and found the best one. The movie I have decided to do my testing is an Over the Hedge Trailer, click here. It has very good quality and I have ripped it from Google as an .AVI.

One of my first tests where to max everything out and see what I can get this baby to do. First I took my Video Convert Master (or your video converting program). And I converted the .avi to a .mp4 since the new MPEG-4 ACC plugin is out. (see chart for all settings)

One of my other tests that I did was I took a DVD movie, I took National Treasure and converted it into a MP4, since I like the MP4 alot better. I took the DVD file which was 2.73 GB and made it an MP4 which made it 652 MB, and thats a hog, but its pretty much DVD quality on your DS.

What You Need

-AviSynth v2.5a
Download

Ezbuilder_F5
Download

Moonshell v1.51 with DPG Tools 1.21
Download

Moonshell MPEG-4 AAC plugin(haven't gotten to work, supposabley does MP4)
Download

Setup with Moonshell

Ive tested my Moonshell with the following setup:

Dithering=0

GOPSkip=0

So I'm not sure how it works with those on the default. To change these go to you Moonshells /shell folder and open up the global.ini

How to Convert

Make sure that you have downloaded Moonshell v1.51 located above.

To DPG
Now take your media file (I have found that .avi .mpg .flv and a couple others work) and open up dpgtools121, inside that you will find dpgenc.exe, from there you can set your options, language and pretty much anything you need to edit. After fixing your options, then you just simply drag and drop your file and it will begin encoding.

To MP4
Make sure that you have downloaded Ezbuilder above.
After unzipping you will see the many folders inside of Ezbuilder, the one that says MediaFile is the one where you need to put your file you want to convert to MP4. After doing that double click on ezbuilder.exe it will ask you what format you want tell it number 4. After testing this I have found that Ezbuilder somehow reduces quality or something. I find it better to use a converter like Video Convert Master to do it, and you can manually tell it your settings.

On the DS

I am still trying to get this to work on the ds with the MPEG-4 AAC plugin but I have had no luck so far.

Here are some shots Ive found on the internet, this shows that people are using the mp4 and aac plugin.

Screens of Video Quality

If you zoom in and look closely the MP4 is better, its also plays better with fast actions.​

Try My Videos

If you would like to try this and to see how the quality is on yours then you can download the DPG and the MP4, if you like. These are both 512 kbps on High Quality.


------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Over the Hedge Trailer DPG (HQ) ---------Over the Hedge Trailer MP4 (HQ)

In Conclusion

When looking down to detail the MP4 is MUCH faster to encode has better quality and is not that big. As I said I do not have this working yet, but I am working on it, I would really appreciate it if someone would help me I haven't found anywhere on here people talking about this, the quality is great though, some of the best ive seen. Video for the DS is really improving

Thanks for reading my Comparison guide/review.


EDIT:I have just test Moonshell 1.51 and the new dpg2 format runs great on it, but I tried running beup a homebrew application and I got an error. I have just tried switch back over to v1.5 and it runs beup fine, but trying to play the dpg it hangs at fast action sections. So if you don't do much homebrew then you can stick with 1.51, I also noticed that 1.51 boots faster.

 

[FAST6191]

EZBuilder is an all in one type builder so the MP4 container files are likely for PSP or ipod (not to mention probably using H264 which my comp stuggles to decode at the best of times let alone a DS)

The AAC decoder I have had working but it is designed to decode AAC audio, use low(ish) bitrate (100kbps on FAAC (a less than brilliant AAC encoder) low complexity (normally abbreviated to LC) works pretty nicely for a complex track).
You also need to have raw streams (given the extension .AAC) so if you use neros encoder (or one of the other ones floating around that outputs MP4 containered files) you will need to demux the audio from the MP4 file, to do this there are quite a few tools but MP4box and YAMB (yet another MP4 Box gui) work well for this, grab both here: http://yamb.unite-video.com/features.html

As for your screens I know it changes framerate meaning you will probably have to bust out your calculator but it really needs to be the same frame, to do this the best/easiet way is set 4 video sections (you will have to replace path to files and the numbers inside the frame bracket, although when you retest it will likely be .mv1 extensions for the video)

a=directshowsource("\path\name.avi").trim(2000,2001)
b=directshowsource("\path\name2.mp4").trim(2000,2001)
c=directshowsource("\path\name3.avi").trim(2000,2001)
d=directshowsource("\path\name4.mp4").trim(2000,2001)
StackVertical(StackHorizontal(a,b),StackHorizontal(c,d))

It will come out like ab and cd on the bottom, I will leave out subtitle madness for now (stick a ".Subtitle("text", align=7)" sans quotes after each video clip declaration if you want to subtitle the video.
I used directshow source so make sure to turn off any postprocessing in FFDShow and/or codecs/players you use.

This being said I will probably get in on this game to test out some of hand encoded films against the best batchDPG, EZBuilder and DPGTools have to offer.

 

[Verocity]

Thanks FAST, you know abit more about this then I do, but I just wanted to put some information out there and show people whats new, and whats being done. Thanks for your explination, I appreciate it.

 

[yee]

Does this mean that we can now play videos that are encoded at 512KBPS without any skipping?

 

[Verocity]

yes, currently with DPG tools 1.21.

 

[coolbgdog]

The mp4 plugin isn't working. I just moved the aac.msp plugin to the shell plugin folder and it replaced one that was there already.

 

[Verocity]

In Conclusion

When looking down to detail the MP4 is MUCH faster to encode has better quality and is not that big. As I said I do not have this working yet, but I am working on it, I would really appreciate it if someone would help me I haven't found anywhere on here people talking about this, the quality is great though, some of the best ive seen. Video for the DS is really improvingÂ

 

[coolbgdog]

Batchdpg v1.3 beta 4 uses dpg2 format and I found it better to use. It seems like both programs are about the same. I converted videos using the same settings on batchdpg and dpgtools and they both visually looked the same. It doesn't skip as long as you have it like 256x144. I tried fullscreen and the video kept skipping.

 

[Verocity]

Was Batchdpg 1.3 beta 4 faster or was dpg tools faster?

Edit: I mean encoding speed..

 

[coolbgdog]

Batchdpg had a bit of an edge. It felt much faster. I'd say batchdpg is faster but dpgtools isn't too far behind. I prefer batchdpg simply because of the interface.

 

[Verocity]

cool, ill give it a try, on my DSVNC love this thing.

 

[Firon]

MPEG-4 AAC is AUDIO. It has nothing to do with video. And it is only for music playback. It's also too slow to really play back anything.

Also, despite the profile changes I got added to dpgenc, BatchDPG still does a better job. HOWEVER, BatchDPG 1.3 beta 4 has a bug where the video loses sync if you seek or pause. So, don't use it yet.

Also, for fullscreen video, you have to use 20fps. It skips too much with 24.

 

[Verocity]

Thanks thats good to know.

 

[fischju_original]

yea.....firon is a big part of making batchdpg.

you guys know of gbatmw.net and our abjects chatroom #gba-tmw ?

 

[coolbgdog]

MPEG-4 AAC is AUDIO. It has nothing to do with video. And it is only for music playback. It's also too slow to really play back anything.

Also, despite the profile changes I got added to dpgenc, BatchDPG still does a better job. HOWEVER, BatchDPG 1.3 beta 4 has a bug where the video loses sync if you seek or pause. So, don't use it yet.

Also, for fullscreen video, you have to use 20fps. It skips too much with 24.

It isn't? How come theres a link to a mp4 above to download? The mp4 video plugin isn't working yet right?
Edit: I just tried converting a video with these settings on batchdpg.
framerate:20 Width:256 Bitrate: 512 Passes 1
Profile Med Height: 192 Maz Bitrate:512 Resizer Bicubic
Bitrate: 128 Samplerate 32000 Mode: Joint Stereo -Normalize.
The video kept skipping and was choppy. Only way I can get smooth playback is if its 256x144 on 24fps. I tried 20fps fullscreen and it kept skipping.

 

[Firon]

There is no MPEG-4 video plugin. There's only an audio plugin.

Also, make sure you're using the profile Ultra. I also used a bitrate of 384 average and 512 max, not 512/512.
Don't use 32000Hz audio. Use 32768. And bicubic is blurry, try using spline16.


Anyway, about the sync bug with BatchDPG 1.3 beta 4...
I made a DPG2 -> DPG0 remuxer, so you can still encode with 1.3 and not have audio sync problems. You'll lose fast seeking, but you'll still get the better audio and better resizers. I tested it and it works fine.
This WILL replace the original file. It checks to make sure that the input file is actually DPG2, so don't worry about accidentally putting the wrong file or something.

To use it, open it and just drag and drog a single DPG onto it, and then you'll have your "fixed" file. Alternatively, you can browse for it and then click Remux.

http://download.utorrent.com/remuxer.7z

 

[Verocity]

Thanks Firon, I was confused about some of the mp4 formats, thanks for clearing it up, your the man!

 

[coolbgdog]

There is no MPEG-4 video plugin. There's only an audio plugin.

Also, make sure you're using the profile Ultra. I also used a bitrate of 384 average and 512 max, not 512/512.
Don't use 32000Hz audio. Use 32768. And bicubic is blurry, try using spline16.


Anyway, about the sync bug with BatchDPG 1.3 beta 4...
I made a DPG2 -> DPG0 remuxer, so you can still encode with 1.3 and not have audio sync problems. You'll lose fast seeking, but you'll still get the better audio and better resizers. I tested it and it works fine.
This WILL replace the original file. It checks to make sure that the input file is actually DPG2, so don't worry about accidentally putting the wrong file or something.

To use it, open it and just drag and drog a single DPG onto it, and then you'll have your "fixed" file. Alternatively, you can browse for it and then click Remux.

http://download.utorrent.com/remuxer.7z

Thanks. One question though is there a big difference with profiles? I seem to use "med" because it encodes much faster. The ultra profile takes waaay too long. Like right now I just tried to convert a video on Ultra. It was on 0% for about 5 minutes. On med it's better.

 

[Verocity]

Are you using Moonshell v1.51

 

[fischju_original]

ultra makes the video alot smaller. also try 3 passes and a bitrate of 384-512 and 24fps at widescreen or 20fps at full screen