HOW TO convert any video to your Nexus One

[tomvb]

Dear Friends,

Allow me to post the steps required to convert video's to MP4 (= M4V) with H.264 video and AAC audio.
In my opinion, that format is best suited for our beloved Nexus One.

Best regards,

A very satisfied N1 user.


STEP 1: Install Handbrake
HandBrake is an open-source, GPL-licensed, multiplatform, multithreaded video transcoder, available for MacOS X, Linux and Windows. It is packaged with all the needed libraries, so you don't have to go through the pain of compiling ffmpeg or mencoder with x264 support. Go to the download page and install it !

Note:
Ubuntu Linux users once again have the edge here; instead of downloading the installation package from the website, you can also add Ubuntu's Handbrake repository to your software sources, so that it's automatically upgraded and what not. Read all about it in the official HOW-TO.

STEP 2: Use Handbrake to convert your first video
Start Handbrake.

The easiest way to convert your first video is to:

• open the input video (CTRL-O)
• select the "iPhone and iPod Touch" preset on the right
• click "Queue" -> "Start Queue" to start converting.

Now you're done ! Go do something else because this takes a while (about 1 hour to convert a 90-minute movie on my Intel Core Duo @ 2.33Ghz). When the video has finished converting, copy it to your Nexus One and try it out.

STEP 3 (optional): Customizations
Handbrake allows you to tweak your output video in many ways - take a look at the Handbrake Guide.

When you change one of the settings, be sure to save it in a preset (call it "Nexus One") so you can easily load it next time.

One thing that's really recommended, is using a higher video resolution (thanks dvdcatalyst). The "iPhone and iPod Touch" preset sets the video width to 480px, which is the maximum for those devices. That's pretty nice, but since the N1 can handle 800x480, you can take advantage of that like so:

1. Go to View -> "Picture Settings"
2. If your source video width is <= 800px, then check "Optimal for source" under "Storage".
3. If your source video width is > 800px, then "Optimal width for source" will be bigger then your screen can display, so you'll be wasting storage space and CPU time. Manually setting the "Storage" width to 800px will alleviate this problem.

Here are a few things that you might want to experiment with:

• Increase the video quality (on the "Video" tab) to 65%, although you proably won't notice this on your phone.
• Under View -> "Picture Settings" you can customize the dimensions of the video, or...
• ...enable the Deblocking filter (level 5-10) if your source video exhibits "blockiness".
• Increase the audio quality (on the "Audio" tab) by increasing the AAC bitrate. Don't go over 160 (cfr. the phone specs) !
• Burn in subtitles (on the "Subtitles" tab). I don't think the native "Gallery" video player supports .srt files (yet?). NOTE: I haven't done this, feel free to share your experience.
• Toy around with the Anamorphic Modes - using them can make your files smaller without losing quality. Try "Loose Anamorphic" with an alignment of 16.

If you want to do this from command line, the following command should get your started:

 HandBrakeCLI -i "<inputfile>" -o "<outputfile>" -f mp4 -e x264 -q 0.60 --loose-anamorphic -x level=30:cabac=0:ref=2:mixed-refs:analyse=all:me=umh:no-fast-pskip=1 --deblock -E faac -B 128 -R 48 -6 dpl2

It does autocropping, a little deblocking, and loose anamorphic encoding at 60% quality.

FAQ
Why can't we just download a media player app that plays downloaded movies (for example, Xvid in AVI) ?

1. There are to my knowledge no free apps that do this.
2. If your video is encoded with H.264 AVC, you can benefit from the hardware acceleration, and you can stick with the built-in "Gallery" movie player.
3. It doesn't hurt to convert your video's to H.264. In fact, they'll take less space for the same quality.

Known Issues

• When rotating the video (by tilting the phone), it goes white. This has been seen when opening the video with ES File Explorer, but I have a feeling this always happens when you try to rotate a video on the Nexus One (thanks m1bxf).
• Some users report having a different GUI (different menu's and such) in Handbrake 0.9.4. We haven't gotten to the bottom of that, so anyone who can confirm or deny this if free to do so.

Questions, tips, hints ? Post them here !
I'll update the HOW-TO and the FAQ accordingly.

[nDrg]

Excellent! This is a great guide that actually uses freeware programs

[m1bxf]

Good guide. The video does play however if I rotate the screen the image goes white and doesn't recover unless I restart the video file, the audio continues as normal - I'm using the default "iPhone and iPod Touch" preset.

EDIT: Updated with more info below:

It appears rotating the video (by orientating the phone) doesn't happen when you open a video from the gallery. I was originally opening the video file using ES File Explorer which seems to allow the video to rotate which cause the issue described above.

Gavin.

[dvdcatalyst]

Great guide, but I would definitely add something about changing the screen resolution to achieve a higher quality video.

The iPhone profile, while producing a good looking video is limited to 480x320 in resolution, while the Nexus has a resolution of 800x480. This basically results in that the video player on the Nexus pretty much doubles the resolution, which doesnt truly do justice to the quality of the video.

Specifically in regards of the h264 acceleration chip the Nexus has, I would certainly go for video files of a screen resolution closer to the resolution of the device.

edit:

Since I was doing trailers for my "Trailer Thread" anyway, I converted the 2012 trailer (full-screen option to eliminate black bars completely) to show the difference in resolution.
The source was a 720p MOV file obtained from Apple's Trailer website.

The mp4's are stream-capable, and should play while downloading, the zips are for PC download and manual transfer to your Nexus

iPhone 480x320 full screen

http://www.tools4movies.com/Nexus1/2012_fs_iphone.mp4
http://www.tools4movies.com/Nexus1/2012_fs_iphone.zip

Nexus One 800x480 full screen

http://www.tools4movies.com/Nexus1/2012_fs_nexus.mp4
http://www.tools4movies.com/Nexus1/2012_fs_nexus.zip

Note, the full-screen method used removes a small portion from the sides of the video. The different methods to achieve full-screen movies on your device is explained in detail in my original Movie Trailer thread for the Motorola Droid, and can be found here: http://www.droidforums.net/forum/dro...-trailers.html

[lovemarser]

I like Handbrake, but it not works very well on Windows. I got the Aimersoft video converter to convert my videos before. Luckly, It fully support my Nexus One.
If some one need it too, free try it here:
http://www.aimersoft.com/video-converter.html#161

[tomvb]

Thanks for all the feedback guys !

I'm going to incorporate all of them in the How-To, I'm experimenting with the higher resolutions at the moment.

[BrandonG777]

Working on a post processing script for SABnzbd, will probably incorporate your settings. Good looking out!

[tomvb]

Interesting, BrandonG777 - are you going to add an "Copy downloaded movies to Nexus One" option to SABnzbd or something ?

[BrandonG777]

Originally Posted by tomvb

Interesting, BrandonG777 - are you going to add an "Copy downloaded movies to Nexus One" option to SABnzbd or something ?

No, it'll just convert downloaded content automatically/optionally for easy playback on a nexus one. Going to try and find a common setting that will playback on ps3/Xbox 360 too since I own a few of those too and in combination with twonkyserver you'll be able to stream to those devices from the nexus one.

[dlp1000]

Hi, thanks for the guide. It is exactly what I am looking for... the only problem is, I cannot actually follow the instructions on a Mac under 0.9.4. Are there new instructions or am I missing something?

Specifically, where is "Optimal for source" under "Storage?"

From:

One thing that's really recommended, is using a higher video resolution (thanks dvdcatalyst). The "iPhone and iPod Touch" preset sets the video width to 480px, which is the maximum for those devices. That's pretty nice, but since the N1 can handle 800x480, you can take advantage of that like so:

1. Go to View -> "Picture Settings"
2. If your source video width is <= 800px, then check "Optimal for source" under "Storage".
3. If your source video width is > 800px, then "Optimal width for source" will be bigger then your screen can display, so you'll be wasting storage space and CPU time. Manually setting the "Storage" width to 800px will alleviate this problem.

Cheers