Batman and trouble with .MP4 support

trane · 09-30-2008

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 (?)

mbarry · 09-30-2008

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

trane · 09-30-2008

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..

trane · 09-30-2008

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 ...

roelandb · 09-30-2008

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

trane · 09-30-2008

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

BobbyQ · 10-01-2008

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.

BobbyQ · 10-01-2008

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.

trane · 10-01-2008

Quote:

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

trane · 10-01-2008

Quote:

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)