Video Encoding: Rule of 16

As I mentioned on a previous article, I recently bought a PSP and I love it. Other than games and web browsing, one thing you can do is what videos on this thing. Encoding your home videos or any video is easy since you have various software options. Whether you have a PC or a Mac, software like PSPWare, PSPVideo9, or Missing Sync PSP are great solution to convert video to play on your PSP and sync other applications.

I started playing with some of those and immediately notice that the quality was less than acceptable, so I started playing with the video codec from FFMPEGX. My first try was a disaster; the second one was a little better but took my G4 nine hours to encode it. I started looking at my computer logs when I notice a line that said, “Conversion 720 x 468 is not divisible by 16, compression will suffer.” Literary just like that, then it hit me, right on my face; it makes a lot of sense, encoding aspect ration is one of the most important things to have clear.

I went back to the PSP specifications and copy the aspect ratio needed for it to look good. The PSP is 480 x 272 so you need no more than this to make a video looked good, keep in mind that your encoding has to be in MPEG-4 and un-encrypted AAC audio format. If you do the math both 480 and 272 are divisible by 16, I started encoding again and this time it took my Macintosh 5 hours to encode the same movie, that’s 44 percent faster.

So I though I should share a couple tips with everybody. First thing you should do when thinking on re-encoding video to be displayed on electronics other than a TV, is know the output size of the device. Like I said the PSP is 480 x 272, iPod is 320 x 240, these two are the ones that I have experience with, so for your specific device check the technical specifications on the equipment’s website.

One more thing about the size of your screen is that the size of the screen does not limit the size of the file or the aspect ratio of the file. One example is iPods, while the iPod screen is 320 by 240 you can encode in 640 by 480 and watch it on your iPod. This format also gives you the option to connect your iPod to a TV and get decent resolution to watch your favorite’s videos on a regular TV.

With the PSP we didn’t had this option because there was not video output, until now. The next revision of the PSP due in September will have a video output option so you will need to reconsider encoding for the PSP depending on what the final output will be. Depending on the platform you are using, get to know your tools. In my Macintosh, I’m using Quicktime, Handbrake, FFMPEG, PSPWare, among other software to get the job done.

Encoding is not an easy task so give yourself sometime to learn every aspect of it. My second tip is to get a small video, maybe a 10 minutes video to play with it. If you are manually setting the aspect ratio, make sure that you uncheck any selection for automatic aspect ratio or anamorphic options. If this is your first time doing all these, write down a note with your work flow. Products like Handbrake lets you save preset of setting so that when you are ready to encode you don’t have to set the presets again.

Let me know if you liked this post, let me know if you want more details. Like a step by step guide or anything like that. Email me at lumencreativegroup (at) gmail.com for all your questions. Also, don’t forget to support this Blog by visiting my Marketplace to do your Amazon shopping. Thanks.