Quicktime Conversion for PS3

Hi(Bonjour)!

Visual Hub is an economic app that allows many video conversions including PSP. May be it can do the job ?

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/video/visualhub.html

There is a demo version

Michel Boissonneault

Picture quality should be reasonable good with MPEG-4. The only way to find out is for you to try the Visualhub. If you want best output the quality setting should be set to 100% or I think in Visualhub is 'got nuts'.

As for the size here is a discussion that may help you http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5595668

You are most likely using the default QT-PRO bitrate which is woefully inadequate for HD. Put in 18000 in the "DATA RATE" field (18000Kbps aka 18Mbps). Note your file size will go up accordingly!

Also, on my PS3 with firmware 2.01 if I select double pass encoding I have to use "DOWNLOAD" in the "OPTIMIZED FOR" select box or the PS3 gives me an error (I installed firmware update 2.1 yesterday, but have not experimented to see if it clears this problem up).

On the quality aspect:

I am using a JVC GZ-HD7 camera and can directly display the camera files on the PS3 by remaning the ".TOD" extension to ".m2ts". This provides a good A/B comparison to judge the source quality against the finished product after editing. I might have an advantage in that regard as I am starting with less aggressive MPEG-2 compression in the camera.

In my opinion, high bitrate H.264 coded FCE edited video displayed on a PS3 compares favorably with the original source video straight out of the camera. The main difference being slight compression artifacts (blockiness) in the low light shadow details.

On the 1440 horizontal expansion issue:

I havent cracked that problem yet (I am still spinning around on the anamorphic merry-go-round). I have been forcing 1920X1080 output through QT. I assume this is transcoding since FCE does not seem to support a 1920X1080 timeline.

I am looking into a free command line program called "Atomic Parsley" to nose around in the MPEG-4 header data and see if I can get an idea of what is really going on at a low level.

I know I can open the .mp4 file in QT-PRO and scale the video track, but it won't stick unless you save it in a .mov format.

This problem gets more complicated when I try to export 16:9 in the iphone/ipod formats which have no user settable options. One workaround I have found is to export full 1920X1080 in AIC and then recode to iphone .m4v format.

OK, I just tried a size "passthru" export encoding and got a "unsupported data" error on the PS3 with 2.1 firmware! I believe these files had previously played back in 4:3 format (literally 1440X1080 with no horizontal expansion) using previous firmware.
The coding times are so long it is difficult to run through all of the possible combinations in a reaonable amount of time.
The file does play back in 4:3 in QT player. Evidently, the 2.1 firmware either disabled 1440X1080 video or added a check to refuse playback with no anamorphic expansion flag set.
In a way it kinda makes sense that QT would play it because it has to support odd sizes such as that, whereas 1440X1080 non-anamorphic would not be a standard HD format.

I opened the file in QT-PRO and scaled the horizontal width as follows:

window-->show movie properties-->select video track-->visual settings-->uncheck "preserve aspect ratio" -->revise horizontal "scaled size" to 1920 -->file-export mp4-->options-video format "passthrough"-->save

The file now plays in 16:9 in QT, but still shows as "unsupported data" on the PS3.

from searching the web, I get the impression that the mp4 specification for horizontal scaling has somehow diverged from the original QT method. From there it seems to digress to people resorting to low level HEX editors to sort things out (good grief!).

reference--- http://forum.doom9.org/showpost.php?p=988006&postcount=2838

Actually, I am not sure why a scaling flag would even be required for true HD since there is no legitimate 1440X1080 4:3 aspect ratio format in the AVCHD spec

http://www.avchd-info.org/format/index.html

For my part, I definitely should have done some more research; the bottom line is that while Camcorders are available to record in HD, there are really no means to implement the advantage of same unless one acquires a Sony Playstation, connects directly from Camcorder to HD set, etc...

And there are apparently problems with FCE4 and the Sony HVR-A1U such as the Capture Window not displaying the Transport Controls.

With respect to the above, I've noticed also that the color bars are not available in the Preview area. Has anyone else experienced this?
- Lyman

"I've noticed also that the color bars are not available in the Preview area."

I don't know what this means. Bars in the capture window are there usually simply to fill the screen when there is no video and have no significance or value. Not that bars off digital tape have much value anyway.

Or do you mean something else?

Tom,

Thanks. The bars in the capture window, though originally present when no signal was present, are no longer there.

FEC4's behavior has changed in two aspects since connecting that Sony: I am no longer informed that a device is not connected, and (2) the color bars are no longer visible in the capture window as just mentioned.

Purging the files as listed at the URL you provided in a previous post, as well as reinstalling FCE4, has not alleviated either problem. It is frustrating and I am unsure where to proceed from here.

Thanks again,

Lyman

Message was edited by: lgldsr712