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Help me test some video formats (Mac and mobile) — Parallax Forums

Help me test some video formats (Mac and mobile)

GordonMcCombGordonMcComb Posts: 3,366
edited 2014-03-26 17:45 in General Discussion
I'm experimenting with video encoding settings for a project I'm working on. Mobile devices, especially, have difficulty decoding MP4 videos that desktop computers show with ease. This has to do with the parameters selected for encoding.

For those of you with Apple iPad, Apple 4 or 5 phone, Blackberry, and Android phones and tablets, if you have a moment could you test two short test videos at the following to see if they will play?

http://www.gmccomb.com/vids/

You should see picture and hear sound. The encoding bitrate is fairly low, and the original video is from a 20 year old 8mm tape, so the image quality isn't HD. However, please let me know if you see excessive "tearing" or jumping in the picture.

Also, I need to double check that they'll play under Quicktime on a relatively new Mac (OSX 10.8 or later). There's no reason I can think of that they wouldn't, but my Mac has an earlier release of OS X, and I'd like to make sure.

Thanks.

Comments

  • LeonLeon Posts: 7,620
    edited 2014-03-26 11:15
    They seem to play OK on my old Dell Streak Android tablet.
  • mindrobotsmindrobots Posts: 6,506
    edited 2014-03-26 11:30
    OS X 10.9.2

    First play of first video, sound started before video started but it wasn't out of sync. No significant tearing or jumping that I noticed.

    Second video nothing unusual noted.

    There were a couple tears (not terrible) during the first 6 seconds or so of each - after that, I didn't see any. I didn't play them side by side but the quality was about the same on both.

    Replay of first video, sound and video started at the same time.

    This was all through Firefox - the videos started in the browser when I clicked on them.
  • Kenny GardnerKenny Gardner Posts: 169
    edited 2014-03-26 11:42
    Gordon,

    On a MacBook Pro 17", OS x Mavericks 10.9.2 (latest), they play fine.

    They also play fine on the latest iPad Air and iPhone 5.

    Like you said, the quality isn't all that great, but there was no problem playing the videos.

    I use Permute to encode all my videos. It has settings for iPads and iPhones and Apple TV. Don't know if there is a Windows version of it or not.

    Kenny
  • potatoheadpotatohead Posts: 10,261
    edited 2014-03-26 11:49
    I could play them on a Moto Droid 4.
  • potatoheadpotatohead Posts: 10,261
    edited 2014-03-26 11:55
    BTW, I don't often recommend Microsoft, but Expressions is free. The codec is has built in is frankly amazingly good.

    You can tune all the options and it can make very small, high performing mobile friendly videos. I've used it for some projects that ended up on mobile. If you are interested in small sizes, this one packs quite a punch.

    I will sometimes render the video with something mor capable as a production tool, then run it through Expressions to distill that down to mobile sizes.

    Just FYI. My basic rule is 3-5 mins = 20Mb = fits in an email...
  • GordonMcCombGordonMcComb Posts: 3,366
    edited 2014-03-26 11:59
    To all so far: Thanks, Mucho!

    Kenny, in order to play on older iPhones and some earlier Android phones I have to use MP4 Baseline 3.0 profile, which reduces quality somewhat. Later phones can handle Main profile, which increases compression so you can effectively get more bits in there. At some point I'll probably add some server-side junk to detect the version of iOS and Android, and serve separate videos depending on the level of profile support.

    The problem with Adobe Media Encoder -- the tool that I use -- is that while they have presets, they often don't work with older devices and they don't tell you why. But that's Adobe for you. I'd get Permute, but my Mac is an older G4 and won't run the software.
  • Bob Lawrence (VE1RLL)Bob Lawrence (VE1RLL) Posts: 1,720
    edited 2014-03-26 12:03
    For those of you with Apple iPad, Apple 4 or 5 phone, Blackberry, and Android phones and tablets, if you have a moment could you test two short test videos at the following to see if they will play?

    They both ran on a Android Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 Tablet with no problems. As a matter of fact you could say it was child's play. :)
  • GordonMcCombGordonMcComb Posts: 3,366
    edited 2014-03-26 12:08
    potatohead wrote: »
    BTW, I don't often recommend Microsoft, but Expressions is free. The codec is has built in is frankly amazingly good.

    Agreed, it's very good. The encoding engine is basically from Windows Media Encoder, which I have and use from time to time. I've lamented MS's decision to move to encoding as a service, ending development of Expression Encoder. I guess that's the way of things these days.
  • kwinnkwinn Posts: 8,697
    edited 2014-03-26 12:17
    Both ran fine on my iPad.
  • potatoheadpotatohead Posts: 10,261
    edited 2014-03-26 12:37
    Yeah, me too. But the good news is that codec will work for a good long time, and on a ton of older devices.
  • RS_JimRS_Jim Posts: 1,766
    edited 2014-03-26 13:33
    Both play ok on my ipad1.
    Jim
  • Martin_HMartin_H Posts: 4,051
    edited 2014-03-26 16:07
    I played them in the Chrome browser on my generation 1 Google Nexus 7. The video Max-1m-1.0m.mp4 stuttered pretty badly while the second one worked fine. I didn't try downloading them and playing them with the dedicated MP4 player which is often better.
  • mindrobotsmindrobots Posts: 6,506
    edited 2014-03-26 16:51
    Fine on my Samsung Galaxy Tab 2.
  • MacTuxLinMacTuxLin Posts: 821
    edited 2014-03-26 16:55
    Brand: HTC, S One
    OS: Android 4.1.1
    Player: MX Player

    Video had some horizontal lines (2 to 3 times) showing up for a very short while & quality a little jerky. The bottom horizontal line (about 1mm) is out of alignment.
  • GordonMcCombGordonMcComb Posts: 3,366
    edited 2014-03-26 17:45
    Martin_H wrote: »
    The video Max-1m-1.0m.mp4 stuttered pretty badly while the second one worked fine. I didn't try downloading them

    Yeah, that's to be expected. My general site, which is on an inexpensive shared host, can't sustain 1 mbps video playback at peak times. If another site (of the 100+) on the host is very busy, throughput will be highly degraded. The videos will stream from a dedicated server and/or CDN, eventually.

    Kenichi, the bottom of the screen is head switching noise on the original tape, fairly common in older 8mm recorders. This one dated back to the early 1990s. I still remember the horrendous amount of money I paid for it. Never be an early adopter...

    Thanks, again, to everyone who has responded. Looks like these profile settings are working pretty well across devices.
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