[scratt]

Ok...

I have an HD-DVD movie (which I own) and have ripped to a large .mov file. That was actually not too difficult.
So now I have a huge 7GB file.

I want to play it on my 720p tv, using my G4 Mac Mini, which obviously cannot handle the movie size / format.
BUt obviously I don't want to downgrade this movie to a web movie.

I have tried with my Dual Core G5, and my 17" MBP to export this file from Quicktime to various 720 or even VGA formats and it basically does it, but based on the time estimate for the job it won't happen in this lifetime*.

Can anyone recommend something which will do this better than Quicktime?
I have also tried VLC etc. etc. So I am guess what I am looking for is either something that can play HD stuff on a G4, or somethnig which does a better job of converting stuff to a lower (but still decent quality) resolution.

Thanks.

*Squirrels don't live as long as humans!

[Luca]

Handbrake? I've never used it but people always mention it.

QuickTime definitely isn't the way to go.

[scratt]

Handbrake! Of course. Duh! Thanks Luca.

Believe it or not I even installed this for a friend who has an AppleTV a few weeks ago, and it didn't even register to me!

[dmegatool]

Lol. Just saw this article and made me though of you. Here's a quote of it :

Nvidia is also boasting that a dual-core GTX 280 can convert a high-definition movie into iPod video format in 35 minutes, compared to about five hours for a quad-core CPU system with low-end integrated graphics.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-9968992-64.html
(Article on next(current) gen of ATI's and Nvidia cards.

[scratt]

That article is quite interesting. So thanks for that.

But, ugh, the quote makes me wonder if I will get this done.
It's amazing how HD in these file types really cripples even quite powerful computers.

I tried handbrake and unfortunately I will need to be able to read it from the disc as the file doesn't seem to behave as handbrake requires.

[Dorian Gray]

Are you encoding to H.264? If you're not planning to keep the encoded movie around after you've watched it, and you've got plenty of temp disk space, encode to something less demanding.

Both the dual-G5 and the MBP will decode the 720p H.264 content significantly faster than realtime, so if it's taking substantially longer to encode the movie than the length of the movie in minutes, then the bulk of the time is being spent encoding rather than decoding the source.

So choose a codec that is light to encode and you'll be fine. For example, if you encode using the Animation codec (lossless at max quality) I bet you'll be able to encode the movie in less time than it takes to play it (i.e. faster than realtime). You'll need tons of disk space though.

Another advantage of using a less CPU-intensive codec is that your G4 mini could play back 720p content. Meaning the quality will be better and you'll eliminate the time taken during the encode to resize every frame.

A while ago I tested QuickTime's encoding speed and performance against alternatives, and while it was slower at max-quality H.264 encoding than some alternatives like x264 (what HandBrake uses), it also delivered better visual quality than x264 at that setting. At settings delivering equal quality to x264, it took almost exactly the same amount of encoding time. This was on a PowerPC however. From playing around with QuickTime on my brother's MacBook, I get the distinct impression that it's still not as optimised for Intel as PowerPC, while x264 might be.

[nikstar101]

Would iSquint help. That does a lot of conversions

[dmegatool]

Just to mention that sometimes when I encode, the quicktime estimated is really innacurate. Like it does 35% of the job and the rest take 2 seconds.

[scratt]

Dorian... So, please, correct me if I am doing something wrong..

Basically I have H.264 file. It's around 6.6GB, and is 720p. I have ooodles of disk space.

I cannot play it on the 1.42Gig G4 we have using either mplayer, VLC, or Quicktime with Perian. To be honest it is touch and go to play on my G5, and whilst it plays on my MBP 17" it's a CPU hog still.

When I am trying to export I am asking it to be put into simply a .mov file as a VGA size file. So 640 x 480.

The best result I have had is around 48 hours "projected.." Actually that was choosing to simply export to AppleTV, ironically! And yeah, I did think what you suggested might be the case dmegatool.. On Saturday and Sunday I gave two different attempts with varying quality settings most of the day to have a go at it.. And none got further than a few measly blue pixels on the progress bar.

Is that last bit where I am going wrong? If so please point me the right way, because as far as I can see it's a totally different situation than you have found!

nikstar I will take a look at iSquint. I may have already over the weekend, but cannot remember.

Right now I am considering reading up on the format and simply writing something in c++ to do it for me!!

[Dorian Gray]

Export to QuickTime Movie, Animation ("Compression Type"), "Best" quality. Set the frame size to "Current" and make sure there are no filters applied. Try AAC, stereo, 48 kHz, 160 kbps for audio unless you want something else.

You're going to need a fast disk as well as a lot of space. 720p Animation is probably going to be north of 30 megaBYTES per second. Your G4 should just about manage to decode it if there's nothing else consuming CPU cycles.

For a milder version of this, try encoding to MPEG-4 Part 2 (the old MPEG-4 standard). This will be a heck of a lot quicker than H.264, take much less disk space (about 8000-10000 kbps for decent quality 720p) and be easier to decode on the G4 (though it probably won't reliably decode 720p MPEG-4, so you'll probably have to reduce the frame size to around 480p and bitrate to ~5000 kbps).

You're right that working with high-definition H.264 is still beyond the practical capabilities of most computers. Everything has to be tweaked to work at all, and it's strictly for geeks at this point.

[dmegatool]

Solution : Split the file in... let say 6 parts. Send one part to 5 AN members. Join the 6 parts after everybody send it back to you.

[Dorian Gray]

I have a G4 and a borked QuickTime installation. The most I can handle is about 30 seconds.

[scratt]

Morning all!

The Quicktime Movie Animation setting was hopeless. My G5 just sat there for a few hours. Obviously the CPUs were round the back of the case having a smoke or something, and they lied to Menu Meters or stuck tape over it's sensors or something, cos there was nothing going on in the box apart from a lot of fans and no progress bar movement - despite the 200% CPU reading!

I am giving the MPEG-4 setting a go now. That in the last 20 minutes has actually shown some progress bar movement, and at a rough guesstimate I would say that it'll probably take most of the day. I can live with that.. Fingers crossed for no power cuts in Thailand today - it's rainy season!

I am also checking out iSquint ne VisualHub in trial mode.. So far to produce a 2 minute sample of the movie on my old PB G4 17" it is vacillating between 1600 minutes and 900 minutes. It looks very professional and has lots of options, and if it produces anything decent I might pick it up.. but I think Quicktime it going to beat it today, simply because it's free..

scratch that.. It just went ding.. So the time was an estimate for the entire decoding..

I have a VOB.

I have a great soundtrack and a completely black screen.

*buzzer*

iSquint ne VisualHub is in the bin...

So here's hoping that I don't get a fuzzy piece of crap .mpg out of Quicktime later today...

Thanks for your help Dorian. I will report back with the results later today..

[scratt]

Been going just over 3 hours now on the G5, trying to export to an Mpeg 4 at SD resolution.

It seemed to be going quite fast to start with, but I know the first 5 minutes of the film has a lot of black screen sequences so that was probably that bit being done then...

I'll see how it goes over the next few hours...

[scratt]

*bump*

UPDATE : Quicktime is now halfway through doing the conversion of this file.
The source file is 6GB and so far it has written 1.7GB of data to the new file.

So that's 48 hours so far. Based on the progress bar and *if* we have no power cuts here in Thailand in the next 48 hours then this should be done by Saturday morning!

I am now keeping this going just out of stubbornness. Had I known it would really drag out this long then I would have split the file to protect myself against the inevitable rainy season power cut which my G5 and I are both willing not to happen!!