Batman and trouble with .MP4 support

I offered my daughter a small Sanyo Xacti C6 mp4 camcorder ; and she asked me for a very simple/straightforward recompression tool both for her laptop and/or for her Meizu M6

the 'obvious' tool seems Batman ; now unfortunately as with .mov files in the past ( dunno if its fixed now) , I found that Batman has problems with .mp4 file format

the Sanyo Xacti exports as true standard proof .mp4 file format ; a very simple way to check at a glance is to see if Quicktime can play it , then you know it is standard compliant

so I wanted to recompress the video as 320*240 and either full frame rate (29,97) or possibly only 25fps , no big importance here ; so I used the Custom option in Batman and it turned that whatever the res' setting (320*240 or 640*480) the encoded res' was some weird 'almost' QCIF that is 176*128 !? (instead of 176*144)

the movie res' format is conform to the option selected in Batman ; only the encode res' is wrong here

here is what this gives :
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(20MB file)

=> this is poor quality screen video , one fast shot ; indeed a screen capture Snagit ,Camtasia, etc..would give a cleaner screen image ; but this is not the point here; it is enough quality to see what the point is

so hope it helps , since this is some bug to fix ; a minor one I would think (?)

It might be because you have a corrupted version of Batman, try downloading the latest one. Have you used Batman before successfully?

well then all three versions I have would be corrupted...and indeed as seen from the movie files I used here the latest version

earlier versions would even have some frame rate pb ( like you enter 25 and it caps @20) ; this does not happen any more with the latest release

and yes, I have used Batman with some success before

now my question : it might be you have not tried converting true .mp4 files ( not .avi with some mpeg4 codec) did you ?

in the past ( I could try to find the thread but it has been a long time since I had a look @this forum) I had found some kinda similar problem with .mov files ; they would display upside down, etc..

the best I can do is to upload some sample I have so that the dev' can see for himself what is going on

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this shot was made to check how a pan on grass would stress the codec ; and by the way the kind of mpeg4 used here is pretty basic , with no B frame for instance ; it is simply a fully 100% compliant .mp4 file in the end , at 3Mbits bit rate ; even ... WMP11 can play it as .mp4 , so !!

on the codec size, one can notice that the QT decoder gives marginally a better picture , with a correct gamma for instance, if one wants to compare with other mpeg4 codecs on the quality decode aspect ; small differences overall anyway ; now this is NOT the point here , the later being that the resolution you enter in Batman will only produce a correct res' window size , while the real encoded res' is faulty ; so this is the point to check ...

What i do to get mp4 and other formats to my meizu m6, i first convert these other formats to divx with the following program: Winnydows: XviD4PSP & GlassBalance: Comments
after that you get a nice divx file, wich batman will not have any trouble with!

i hope this solves your problem

sure any kind of intermediate format will solve the problem here , but this is not very practicle nore 'elegant'

probably it is some small fix and then Batman will get (even) better

I was able to make BatMan convert your video properly by doing the following :
- create plugins\mp4.bat with the following content :

Code:

if %~x1z==.mp4z goto anfang
if %~x1z==.MP4z goto anfang
goto ende

:anfang
echo MPEG4-Visual (.mp4) plugin started.
echo turning off frame rate conversion for ths type of file ..
set avisynth=no
set dsdecode=yes
echo.

:ende

- add call plugins\mp4.bat %CURRENTFILE% to your "plugins\do this before each file.bat"

This will turn off the framerate conversion for your mp4 files.
I would like to add that I do have h.264 (.mp4) files that convert properly without any problem. Must be something with this "mpeg-4 visual" codec your camera is using. Mpeg-4 is a standard, not an implementation.

Do not have much time to investigate further right now.

about your 176*128 problem (which is the resolution of the Meizu M3 by the way) : I don't know what exact settings you have made in Qc, but if I were you, I would use the presets Q0-Q5 and device mode "PC" if you want to convert for your PC, or "Meizu M6" if you want it to be played on your M6.
I have tested it with D=M6, Z=Wide, Q5, and the above plugin, and it is working like a charm.

Originally Posted by BobbyQ

I was able to make BatMan convert your video properly by doing the following :
- create plugins\mp4.bat with the following content :

Code:

if %~x1z==.mp4z goto anfang
if %~x1z==.MP4z goto anfang
goto ende

:anfang
echo MPEG4-Visual (.mp4) plugin started.
echo turning off frame rate conversion for ths type of file ..
set avisynth=no
set dsdecode=yes
echo.

:ende

- add call plugins\mp4.bat %CURRENTFILE% to your "plugins\do this before each file.bat"

This will turn off the framerate conversion for your mp4 files.
I would like to add that I do have h.264 (.mp4) files that convert properly without any problem. Must be something with this "mpeg-4 visual" codec your camera is using. Mpeg-4 is a standard, not an implementation.

Do not have much time to investigate further right now.

1) thnx for the 'special' code that solves the pb ; hope you can add it to Batman though in the future since my daughter will surely be a bit reluctant here

2) this is 100% pure Mpeg4 in .mp4 file format ; that's why I uploaded the file to Megaupload so that you can check ; a very simple and straightforward to have some "immediate" idea if an .mp4 IS fully iso compliant is to play it with QT ; the later is some pain as it rejects any .mp4 file that is not 100% compliant but the other side of the coin is that it is useful to check fast

ps => this is the line up of similar Sanyo equipment ( German link here)
SANYO FISHER Sales (Europe) GmbH: Produkte - XACTI - Digital Imaging - Digital Movie

the C6 is almost the same as the CG65 while the later uses of H264 instead of Mpeg4 (!) , well part 2then ; and it does show with some improvement in image quality ; otherwise all these are fully hardware on a chip ala Sony etc.. so 100% ISO compliant

Originally Posted by BobbyQ

about your 176*128 problem (which is the resolution of the Meizu M3 by the way) : I don't know what exact settings you have made in Qc, but if I were you, I would use the presets Q0-Q5 and device mode "PC" if you want to convert for your PC, or "Meizu M6" if you want it to be played on your M6.
I have tested it with D=M6, Z=Wide, Q5, and the above plugin, and it is working like a charm.

that's why I made this (crap) fast movie; everything is on screen in real time; so nothing special here ; I even did not take full time to check the real pixel value , my guess was 'immediate at a glance' from screen !

it has no big importance here if it was not 128 but 132 , etc.., the point was it is not 240 (as entered in Batman ; such as visible on the movie when I type 320*240 ; and 640*480 in the second case)

I don't get it ...
If you don't tell me what your exact Qc settings and your selected device are, I cannot give you any support. Today I have successfully converted your video with Q5 (and the mp4.bat) : everything is safe and sound.

please watch the movie , even if it is not super quality (!)

still you can monitor in real time all I did ; and so very basically for Qc here a 320*240 size and 29.97fps ; this ends in the anormal size (176*128) you can see for yourself in the movie !

I don't even have it anymore myself , but I can upload it back to my machine with the Megaupload link ; now I am 100% sure it is what is on the movie !

in the second part , you will see I choosed to stay in the original VGA size 640*480 of the movie, thus entering 640*480 in Batman and it turned out , again, the Batman encoded movie is not 640*480 again ; for this second encode I choosed to swap to 25fps and here Batman would output at demanded 25fps frame rate (which was not the case with some earlier version where it would cap @ 20)

as for other parameters (audio) there are pretty standard

my aim is here , once again, to... help ! nothing else ; just as , in the past, when I found some issues here and there , I would report ; just too normal (imho)

so summing up !

Qc =>

1) 320*240 @29,97
2)640*480 @25

in both case the output is wrong size from this Qc setting; such as displayed in the 100% total duration movie for all these operations ; now yes you may have to look closely to the screen , sorry for that crap aspect

now if you tell me that with the source movie I uploaded , and entering the very same Qc parameters as Qc , you get a correct file, then sure there is a problem ! and we would see this , asking other forumers for instance, if ...it is the case

ps : the screen action movie as mentioned earlier MEGAUPLOAD - The leading online storage and file delivery service

first of all, I still didn't understand all of what you wrote :-/
So here are some tests which I just passed (in each case I used your original SANY0098.MP4 file and the above posted mp4 plugin) :
1. D=M6, Z=Wide, Q5 : all fine. (240x320@20fps)
2. Qc with fps=25, rest Enter : all fine. (240x320@25fps)
3. Qc with fps=29.97, rest Enter : all fine. (240x320@29.97fps)
4. D=PC, Q5 : all fine (480x640@25fps).

--> everything seems to be working as planned. Whatever you are doing there, maybe it is a good idea to download the latest BatMan (2008/03/02), and clean up your /ini folder before doing any further tests. Don't forget to install FFDShow. It may work with any other DirectShow filter, but that's the only one I have testetd and officially support in BatMan.

>>Sunday, March 02, 2008, 1:47:32 PM

I used this version, which is the latest available Batman version, if I am not wrong;

and this is the ini folder



>>Don't forget to install FFDShow

indeed ! the version I use (one year old) is indeed not the latest available , but so far I guess there is nothing obsolete in it as for mpeg4 ; only for H264 I will prefer some other options ; if I have time I will however recheck with the latest version available ...hum

Originally Posted by BobbyQ

1. D=M6, Z=Wide, Q5 : all fine. (240x320@20fps)
2. Qc with fps=25, rest Enter : all fine. (240x320@25fps)
3. Qc with fps=29.97, rest Enter : all fine. (240x320@29.97fps)
4. D=PC, Q5 : all fine (480x640@25fps).

BTW, I notice you refer here to rotated video ( 240*320 , 480*640) , could it be that non rotated option would be a clue ?

or did you mean 320*240 , 640*480 , and it was only some kinda typo here ?

yeah, a typo in case 4. With D=PC, the video was not rotated (default for PC). But I have tested rotated and unrotated with Qc, both worked fine.
And yes, March 3rd is the latest build.

- upgrade your ffdshow to the one on the BatMan homepage.
- delete everything in your ini folder
- install the mp4.bat as explained above
- try with D=PC and Q5 first (use test1 to be faster)

yep, it's OK in the end , using the mp4.bat and Qc

I simply cleaned up manually with regedit too many entries I had for 3 versions of Batman ! and it works

and no need to change my FFDShow since july 2007 is the same you seem to use

oooops ! nothing looks more like grass than grass , so I did no pay attention in the first time, only witnessing correct size (320*240) and frame rate

but later I found that the image is upside down ! can you check on your side ?

- BatMan does not use the registry for itself. It just modifies the registry entry that turns FFDShow's sharpening filter on and off if you have BatMan's sharpening plugin installed.
- yes, my picture is not flipped - everything is still okay.

Why don't you first try the whole thing on another PC or in a virtual machine ? I guess that will solve your problem if you follow the directions I gave you.

Originally Posted by BobbyQ

I was able to make BatMan convert your video properly by doing the following :
- create plugins\mp4.bat with the following content :

Code:

if %~x1z==.mp4z goto anfang
if %~x1z==.MP4z goto anfang
goto ende

:anfang
echo MPEG4-Visual (.mp4) plugin started.
echo turning off frame rate conversion for ths type of file ..
set avisynth=no
 set dsdecode=yes
echo.

:ende

- add call plugins\mp4.bat %CURRENTFILE% to your "plugins\do this before each file.bat"

This will turn off the framerate conversion for your mp4 files.
I would like to add that I do have h.264 (.mp4) files that convert properly without any problem. Must be something with this "mpeg-4 visual" codec your camera is using. Mpeg-4 is a standard, not an implementation.

Do not have much time to investigate further right now.

are you sure here you use DS ? because if I set it to 'no' and use of some intermediate file ( like you do for FLV for instance), then there is no pb ; no image flip, everything is okay ; so ?