Best Video Quality Playable on 1Ghz unit ?


ekianjo

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Just a simple question - has anyone around here done any test regarding what the CPU can decode for video playback ? 

I have heard that Xvid can perform better than h264, but until what bitrate for video was xvid tested? 

I would like to do some tests with the TV-out, but before that I'd like to confirm what are the best encoding conditions I can hope to use for playback on Pandora (file size does not matter that much). 
 
If you want to use the tvout for videoplayback, resolutions higher than 640x480 will not really improve quality, better use this resolution and a higher bitrate setting.

Xvid is not that cpu intensive like h264, so if you use pure cpu encoding, you can use up to 720p resolution with a bit lower bitrate.

h264 videos should not be bigger than 480p. If you could use the dsp for decoding, the Pandora should be able to play h264 videos with mid profile in 720p.
 
If you want to use the tvout for videoplayback, resolutions higher than 640x480 will not really improve quality, better use this resolution and a higher bitrate setting.
Thanks for the tip.

Any idea what is maximum bitrate setting that would be playable on Pandora? I'd like to avoid compression artifacts as much as possible.  
 
Big Buck Bunny was the sample video I was using to test. The 720p mp4 plays perfectly when mplayer is properly configured. I'm not sure what the bitrate is, but it's pretty good.

The 480p h264 version runs pretty well with some frameskipping, only getting choppy during particularly actiony scenes.

You can start with those in your testing as well.
 
Big Buck Bunny was the sample video I was using to test. The 720p mp4 plays perfectly when mplayer is properly configured. I'm not sure what the bitrate is, but it's pretty good.
What do you mean by "mplayer properly configured" ? Do you use a different mplayer from the default one included in Pandora ?

Appreciate if you could elaborate :)  
 
hmm... I found VLC to be able to play things that mplayer refused to play.

Also, Ponyo in handbrake, with "normal" setting crunched to 1Gb. It plays very highres, but stutters a lot when there is lots of movement (only in very specific parts, like in the beginning, with lots of fishes swimming around). I also found that the pandora can play better through USB (from a normal harddisk) than from my cheaper SD cards due to the card not able to deliver the throughput (I use slower class 10 cards).

ponyo is 720x552 H264 MPEG4 AVC (avc1) variable bitrate (which I should have limited with a max, however, no artifacts at any point when paused)

The stuttering is at above 4Mb/s throughput. (in VLC, control+I then tab Statistics, under input bitrate). CPU goes to 100% at those points.
 
never tested that one, downloading pnd.

Ok, SMPlayer2 plays without stuttering, until you want a bit of postprocessing for better video quality.

Ponyo is great, no stuttering, and when deblock enabled, nearly as good video quality as VLC.

You can nitpick about it, but I find it negligible at Pandora's screen size.

MJ Jam videoclip does not display if deblock is enabled. And with these lesser quality videos (youtube flv's), if not post-processed, they look way worse. But the CPU usage is about 20% lower than VLC (so the battery also lasts longer...)

Also, I had to manually set the audiocodec to get audio working for Ponyo (mpga 48Mhz 128Kbs... normal). It was detected as ffmp2, set to libmad. Strange.

SMPlayer also played everything I threw at it (just a few things). I also see some exotic codec's like vivo. Got to try them... now where do I have some files...

so:

SMPlayer2 is set to play at less quality and uses less CPU. Plays more formats. Does not seem to display my usb camera.
 
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