Channel Issues & Questions

[RockyFord]

"bflong" wrote:
I'm converting my media with handbrake, and have run into a minor issue. It seems that Roksbox is stretching the video out to fill the screen without having any respect for the aspect ratio. In my case, I have a letterbox movie (LotR). Even on a 16:9 screen, there is letterboxing on the top and bottom. When I transcode the video, this letterboxing is removed, which is standard procedure when transcoding. However when playing the video, the picture is stretched to the top and the bottom of the screen. Is there some setting I need to put in the video to fix this? Perhaps I don't have a choice but to leave the letterboxing in the transcoded video? That would be a shame because I also want to watch these videos on my computer and the letterboxing just adds wasted space.

I had this problem as well when I started encoding video. What works for me is in the "Picture" tab set Anamorphic: None, set the Width: 640, Check the box labled "Keep Aspect Ratio" and set Cropping to "automatic".(the Height is auto set to maintain aspect ratio after cropping is applied)
By setting the width to 640 you make the picture 1 std def screen width or 1/2 a 720p screen width. Makes it easier for the electronics to handle upconversion and maintain aspect ratio. The autocropping works pretty good in handbrake.

When everything works you should expect width and height numbers to be close to the same for the different aspect ratiosapprox) 4:3(1.33:1) = 640x480, 16:9(1.78:1) = 640x360 and 2.35:1 = 640x272
This should work 99% of the time. Sometimes nothing works quite right.

[RockyFord]

Anyone know how to fix the "mp4 demux" error. I get this error on longer files sometimes. Always after the 90min mark.
files encodeed using handbrake h.264 mp4 codec for video at 2000 to 2500 kbps
Using AAC audio codec at 160kbps

[shelleye]

"RockyFord" wrote:
1. 29.97 seems to work with video over an hour in length to prevent rebuffering (I don't know why)
2. I use 640 wide because it works perfectly on 4x3 screens and it is exactly a 2x upscale for 720p so the tv or the roku will not be likely to screw up the upscale. I had some problems with weird scaling at 720 wide.
3.I don't know the answer to this one. I don't use the command line.

One note: I have found the setting cropping to auto goes along to helping to maintain proper aspect ratios. (Likely I'm way behind the curve on this one

also be careful using ac3 passthru. I learned the hardway that it won't work on all devices like AAC does. When it does work it's great.

Thank you. These are answers I have been looking for. No matter how many times I read the Handbrake Anamorphic/General guide I don't understand it, so I am sort of polling people who seem to know what they're talking about, and doing what they say...it would be a great help if you could answer a couple more/related questions:

1. What were your issues with "weird scaling"? Or, more to the point, if I have no 4x3 screens in my house, only 16:9, one 720p and one 1080p, do you think I could stick with 720? (I'm looking for best possible quality, and the idea of scaling down to scale up seems counter intuitive to me.)
2. Similar question regarding ac3 passthrough-- "won't work on all devices..." What kinds of devices gave you trouble? If I am only transcoding to stream via Roku to my widescreen tvs, do you imagine I could get away with it?
3. Lastly: following advice from a Handbrake guru over at the Tivo forum (he/she does not have a Roku, so is only speaking to coding issues), I tried a constant quality encode and compared it to the fixed bitrate encode, and I was really shocked by the difference in quality-- much better, to my eye, using constant quality than fixed bitrate. I'm not sure why this would be so, but I don't really care-- what are the reasons people around here don't use constant quality, and is there any reason why I shouldn't?
4. Nope, one more: when people complain that "Roksbox" is having trouble handling a particular encode, do they really mean Roku? In other words, does the Roku hardware create streaming parameters/challenges all streaming apps solve the same way, or is there particular programming in Roksbox which makes the solutions we come up with here unique to Roksbox? I hope to start a "best Handbrake practices for Roku" thread once I have gathered all my info, but there's no point in that if best practices for Roksbox are different ...

Thanks in advance.

[midiwall]

"shelleye" wrote:
3. (okay, three questions) KMTTG uses the handbrake command line interface to set profiles. How do I tell it to set anamorphic to "none", as per these suggestions, using the command line? (My thinking was to set the width, and not specify the height, assuming handbrake would adjust the height to preserve the ratio, but when I do that, the ratio gets a little wonky...)

I think I have this one for you... To figure it out, I used Handbrake's "Query Editor" which is disabled by default. To enable it:

• Start Handbrake


• Go to Tools / Options


• Click the Advanced Tab


• Set the checkbox for "Enable Query Editor"


• Restart Handbrake

When it comes back up, you'll see a new tab on the main screen called "Query Editor". To use it:

• Set the options in Handbrake you want to use


• Click "Query Editor"


• Click "Generate Query"

Using Apocolypse Now as a test, this is what I see as the difference between "Anamorphic: Strict" and "Anamorphic: None":

Strict:
 -i "V:\Apocolypse Now - Redux Disc 1.m4v" -t 1 -c 1 -o "v:\Apocolypse Now - Redux Disc 1-1.m4v" -f mp4 --strict-anamorphic  -e x264 -q 20 -r 29.97 -a 1 -E faac -6 dpl2 -R 48 -B 160 -D 0.0 -x ref=2:bframes=2:subq=6:mixed-refs=0:weightb=0:8x8dct=0:trellis=0 -C 4  -v 1

None:
 -i "V:\Apocolypse Now - Redux Disc 1.m4v" -t 1 -c 1 -o "v:\Apocolypse Now - Redux Disc 1-1.m4v" -f mp4 -w 718 -l 368 -e x264 -q 20 -r 29.97 -a 1 -E faac -6 dpl2 -R 48 -B 160 -D 0.0 -x ref=2:bframes=2:subq=6:mixed-refs=0:weightb=0:8x8dct=0:trellis=0 -C 4  -v 1

[WilDD]

"shelleye" wrote:

4. Nope, one more: when people complain that "Roksbox" is having trouble handling a particular encode, do they really mean Roku? In other words, does the Roku hardware create streaming parameters/challenges all streaming apps solve the same way, or is there particular programming in Roksbox which makes the solutions we come up with here unique to Roksbox?

Roksbox uses the built in Roku video player to play its videos, just like every other Roku streaming video application. So any problems or challenges that occur in Roksbox are a result of the Roku player, not something unique to Roksbox.

I hope to start a "best Handbrake practices for Roku" thread once I have gathered all my info, but there's no point in that if best practices for Roksbox are different ...

It would be nice to start a user supported wiki for Roksbox/Roku which would include experiences, solutions, and general information that users have come up. Let me know if you (or anyone else) are interested and I can help get you started.

[shelleye]

"midiwall" wrote:
Using Apocolypse Now as a test, this is what I see as the difference between "Anamorphic: Strict" and "Anamorphic: None":

Strict:
 -i "V:\Apocolypse Now - Redux Disc 1.m4v" -t 1 -c 1 -o "v:\Apocolypse Now - Redux Disc 1-1.m4v" -f mp4 --strict-anamorphic  -e x264 -q 20 -r 29.97 -a 1 -E faac -6 dpl2 -R 48 -B 160 -D 0.0 -x ref=2:bframes=2:subq=6:mixed-refs=0:weightb=0:8x8dct=0:trellis=0 -C 4  -v 1

None:
 -i "V:\Apocolypse Now - Redux Disc 1.m4v" -t 1 -c 1 -o "v:\Apocolypse Now - Redux Disc 1-1.m4v" -f mp4 -w 718 -l 368 -e x264 -q 20 -r 29.97 -a 1 -E faac -6 dpl2 -R 48 -B 160 -D 0.0 -x ref=2:bframes=2:subq=6:mixed-refs=0:weightb=0:8x8dct=0:trellis=0 -C 4  -v 1

Hey, thanks very much! What I get from reading that command line, however, leaves me still stumped. Seems like the GUI is doing some kind of internal calculation, and setting it's own width and height. I wonder, if I were to just remove the references to -w (width) and -l (height), if it would scale it properly. From some of the comments on this thread, it would seem not.

I love knowing how to figure out command line versions of the gui. Thank you.

[shelleye]

"WilDD" wrote:
Roksbox uses the built in Roku video player to play its videos, just like every other Roku streaming video application. So any problems or challenges that occur in Roksbox are a result of the Roku player, not something unique to Roksbox.

Very good to know. It's what I assumed. Thanks.

"WilDD" wrote:
It would be nice to start a user supported wiki for Roksbox/Roku which would include experiences, solutions, and general information that users have come up. Let me know if you (or anyone else) are interested and I can help get you started.

I am in complete and total agreement, but definitely don’t have the resources (time and experience) to take it on. Maybe one of the other users here could do it. In any case, this board (this thread in particular) is proving to be quite fun and helpful to me already. I know a lot more about encoding now than I did a month ago.

[WilDD]

Roksbox now supports video subtitles

Roksbox uses SRT files to display subtitles. SRT files have the extension .srt, and can be created manually (difficult), by using software such as Subtitle Workshop (http://www.videohelp.com/tools/Subtitle_Workshop), or can be downloaded from online sites such as http://mysubtitles.com, or http://subtitles.com.br.

To use subtitle SRT files in Roksbox, name your SRT file the same name as your video file, with the .srt extension (MyVideo.mp4 would be MyVideo.srt), and put it in the same folder as your video. That's all you need to do. Roksbox will find the SRT file, and display the subtitles when the video plays.

Edited: Changed the original subtitle site to two other sites.

[philsoft]

"WilDD" wrote:
Roksbox now supports video subtitles

Roksbox uses SRT files to display subtitles. --- or can be downloaded from online sites such as http://xxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx ----

WilDD,
My security software blocks this site as a Malicious site.

[pjoshua5000]

"WilDD" wrote:
Roksbox now supports video subtitles

Roksbox uses SRT files to display subtitles. SRT files have the extension .srt, and can be created manually (difficult), by using software such as Subtitle Workshop (http://www.videohelp.com/tools/Subtitle_Workshop), or can be downloaded from online sites such as http://opensubtitles.org.

To use subtitle SRT files in Roksbox, name your SRT file the same name as your video file, with the .srt extension (MyVideo.mp4 would be MyVideo.srt), and put it in the same folder as your video. That's all you need to do. Roksbox will find the SRT file, and display the subtitles when the video plays.

It works, but you have to fine the exact srt file that matches your file. Because the one I find for my show is off by a few seconds. However you can edit the times and data in the srt files with notepad++ Is they any program that can extract the file from the dvd?

Also WilDD you need an option to turn to play with and with subtitles.

And what about color of the text.

thanks
-josh