Nook Color: Can't Play sideloaded m4v videos

[rumplestiltskin]

Originally Posted by SCION

{snip}... And here is a test video
http://www.mediafire.com/?meby28unjt7jhyc

That video seems to be encoded completely wrong for almost any portable media device. The bitrate is way too high, averaging over 9000kbps (probably should be closer to 1500 or 2000). The audio is 256kbps and that is also way too high (even for a 1st gen AppleTV); that should be no more than 160kbps although 128kb should certainly be sufficient. As well, the aspect ratio is wrong (or is the video expecting something to correct an anamorphic setting?).

I took the liberty of re-encoding that file into something that, I hope, will work much better given the limitations in the hardware in the Nook Color. It should also play nicely with iPad and AppleTV (and, of course, all Macs and most PCs). I won't be able to test it in my Nook until it arrives next week.

Please let me know how this works:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/alddl8

I used Handbrake and used the "AppleTV Legacy" setting as the starting point. Then I set the audio to AAC-128kb and the video to a target size of 5MB (which provided a bitrate of 2336). I set the fps to 23.976 just to be paranoid (as Handbrake -should- maintain the existing fps but I've seen it get confused), the video codec to MPEG-4 (not H264), then enabled 2-pass encoding; in this instance, 2-pass probably didn't make a difference but it's a habit.

I'd imagine playing a 2 hour video would wipe out the battery pretty well. However, if we can reduce the bitrate sufficiently, this might be mitigated.

Barry

edit: Looks like others have done some work in this matter before I got around to it. Still, I'm excited to see how the Nook does video. Mine should arrive late next week.

[Pushka]

Originally Posted by borg man

Should point out that you have to manually type in 720x420 for the Video Size (thanks to the original poster for determining this value); it's not a default from the drop-down menu. The only other change I made to the defaults was to set Audio Sample Rate to 48000Hz.

Also, this software does batch conversions. Just select the files and drag and drop them. I have not used Handbrake and I don't know if it does batch conversions or not, but I recall reading somewhere here that someone had written a script to use with Handbrake for batch conversions. Cheers.

I tried the free version and it isnt free to get a good quality video. And even forking out for the subscription, I have been trying to get it to work with no success.

[rumplestiltskin]

Found another app that works well: MPEG Streamclip. Of course, if you're on a PC you'll also have to install QuickTime (or QuickTime Alternate). Export to MP4, Choose the "iTunes" button and select the "iPhone 16:9" setting (as a good starting point). Then set the Frame Size to no more than what the Nook can do natively (I used 640x352 for a recent video that came from my Samsung camcorder). Leave the Quality slider at 50%. I didn't limit the data rate but I'll have to try a much larger/richer video to see if this option still works. Make sure you do NOT check the "B-Frames" checkbox.

Another voice here recommended 44.1KHz audio at 128kbps; I see no reason to contradict that advice as, after all, this isn't a home theater, eh?

Click the "Make MP4" button, provide a name a location for the saved file, and then wait for the transcoding to finish. Shouldn't take very long (assuming you have a reasonably powerful, modern Mac or PC).

Funny thing about this first successful test of video on my new Nook: I was thinking about the day I bought my first 5th gen iPod (the first one that did video) and how that device exemplified the paradigm shift that had taken place from tape and DVD to files on a hard drive and how it provided total freedom in time- and place-shifting my video media. I even used it with the audio/video-out cable set so it played on my big-screen (SD) TV. While I'm not concerned about doing that part now (as I have an AppleTV and a WD TV Media Player), I thought how well this "half an iPad" played the video and, all of a sudden, my perspective of this device shifted radically. While I had bought it as an eBook reader (and found that it surfed the web in a not-half-bad manner, as well), its ability to play videos now made me think of it as a video player that surfs the web and does a bang-up job as an eReader, as well. Perhaps because I never went down the path of an iPod Touch (its screen is miniscule and useless, AFAIC), I'm looking at the Nook as what my original 5th gen iPod has grown up to be. So, rather than compare it to an iPad (which I own and is awesome), I'm comparing it to an earlier Apple product (the 5G iPod) and finding that it stands up to that comparison quite well. It's cheaper than what I paid (then), has a larger, incredibly sharp screen, and does one thing that the iPod has never done: I don't need no stinkin' earbuds to hear the audio.

Job well done, B&N!

[KryptoNyte]

Originally Posted by rumplestiltskin

... and does one thing that the iPod has never done: I don't need no stinkin' earbuds to hear the audio ...

The ability to expand the internal memory without being forced to purchase a completely new device ain't bad either.

[rumplestiltskin]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

The ability to expand the internal memory without being forced to purchase a completely new device ain't bad either.

Absolutely. There is so much goodness in the Nook that it's sometimes hard to remember everything.