Encoding video for Nook Color?

[maxsideburn]

I cannot seem to find a simple video that the Nook Color will play. Is there an official spec for the types of videos it will play and what settings to encode with? Thanks.

[maxsideburn]

ok here's what I've figured out so far:

1.) Open your file in Quicktime and export to the iPhone preset

2.) Open in compressor and export to either of the two iPhone presets

3.) Open with MPEGstreamclip and export to Other Formats, then change to iPhone preset. The benefit of this method over the other two is that you can leave the video in it's original size and not have to resize it to either 640x480 or 320x240

If anyone else figures out better ways to do this please let me know. I would really like some official information on what compression settings to use and what the upper resolution limits are.

I tried the AppleTV presets since they should be the same as the iPhone settings only in a higher resolution...but the device failed to play them.

[NookGuy]

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maxsideburn wrote:

I cannot seem to find a simple video that the Nook Color will play. Is there an official spec for the types of videos it will play and what settings to encode with? Thanks.

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From the NOOKcolor FAQ:

"Your NOOkcolor supports the following video file formats: 3gp, 3g2, mp4, m4v; MPEG-4 Simple Profile up to 854x480; H.263 up to 352x288; H.264 Baseline profile up to 854x480 

Your NOOKcolor will not support the following video file formats: Flash (Flv/swf); Mov/qt; AVI; MKV; Xvid/divx; WMV / VC-1; H.264 Main and High profile; and videos with a resolution higher than 854x480"

[Zippercat]

I guess that leaves out ustream.tv, Rats!  You tube played nicely tho on mine.

[maxsideburn]

yeah but I tried playing a bunch of mp4 and m4v files that I already had lying around that WERE encoded to those specs....and not even one of them would play.

I had to re-encode all of them to make them work.

Now the issue I'm having is that all of my widescreen content looks stretched vertically when I put it in landscape mode. (people look tall and thin)

I even tried encoding a video at 1024x600, the resolution of the NC screen yet it still play it with black bars on the sides (verticle letterbox) when in landscape mode.

Is there any way B&N could come out with an official guide to encoding videos properly for the NC? An app would be even better.....but only if there's a Linux version (or at the very least Mac please)

[maxsideburn]

FINDINGS

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ok, the Nook Color has a resolution of 1024x600, which is an aspect ratio of 1.71

720 seems to be the maximum width of a video, so at 1.71 aspect ratio the correct width should be 421 pixels.

I encoded a video with a width of 721 pixels and it would load the player, but then crash and say it couldn't play the file. Anything larger than that and it doesn't even attempt to load it. So apparently 720 pixels is the built in maximum width for video files.

I did not discover a maximum height, however it's irrelevant.

ENCODING

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I encoded all of my test videos with MPEGstreamclip which is a free tool. I would assume these settings would also work in HandBrake.

MPEGstreamclip - http://www.squared5.com/

(if you're unfortunate enough to be on a Windows computer you will also need Quicktime Alternative 1.81 to run MPEGstreamclip properly)

Quicktime Alternative 1.81 - http://www.filehippo.com/download_quicktime_alternative/2615/

BASICS

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Just make sure you're set to MPEG-4 encoding, 720x421 (640x480 for 4:3 content) and you should be good.

Here are my Compressor presets (if you have a Mac and Final Cut Studio)

http://www.mediafire.com/?akfeeefjvbgjs7d

And here is a test video

http://www.mediafire.com/?meby28unjt7jhyc

Hope this helps.

(to the admins, sorry to double-post this info, but I'm trying to get it out there for future forum members who may be searching for such info)

[hakepuck]

Use Handbrake, which will take just about any video as a source, even DVDs that it can decrypt, and convert them to a nookcolor playable format.

http://handbrake.fr/   Windows, Mac, Linux

Use the iphone/ipad preset for your output video and you should be good to go.

[maxsideburn]

...just make sure and set your resolution to 720x421 (or otherwise maintain an aspect ratio of 1.71) if you want it fullscreen. the standard iphone preset will make the videos have black bars on the sides in landscape mode.

[RucknRun]

Everything for me plays really jumpy.  Can't get it to play.  DOODIE.  I tried a couple of movies mp4.

[MedhatGA]

I use Handbrake 0.94 (due for upgrade to 0.95 shortly) and it works great if one uses the settings for iPod Touch/iPhone.

[hakepuck]

Same thing happened to me Ruck.  What fixes this is a power off and power on of your nook, just once should do the trick.

[yoshipumkin]

I'm getting incredibly frustrated.  I've been sitting here for the past two or three hours trying over and over to get a video to play.  I've tried everybody's suggestions both on this thread and this one http://bookclubs.barnesandnoble.com/t5/NOOK-and-NOOKcolor-General/MP4-resolution-issue/m-p/745018/hi... and this one http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1225926, trying different videos.  I cannot get anything to run.  I still have no idea what a video looks like on this thing and I'm actually thinking of returning it to the store I'm so annoyed. 

Does anybody have any further suggestions on how to convert videos to actually play?  What specific settings have you used that work? I tried Handbrake, Any Video Converter and 3GP Converter.  If pulling your hair out would make this work, it'd be working by now cuz I've been pulling mine out for a couple hours now.  Why would BN say this thing plays MP4s or MPVs if it can only play one specific combination of settings out of 5000 possibilities and nowhere have they bothered to post what the working settings are. 

Sorry, I'm outrageously annoyed right now.

[sk8bikerun]

For what it's worth, my son shares your pain over the video transcoding.  I wound up writing a script which helps him do batch conversions.  It calls the HandbrakeCLI program with the following parameters (gleaned from another forum post):

Video Settings:  -f mp4 -e ffmpeg -b 1000
Audio Settings:  -a 1 -E faac --arate 44.1 -B 128 -6 stereo

Handbrake is a great choice because it's free, but I've also had success with a program called WinAVI converter.  Using the same settings, it also produced very usable files.

Most of the source material I've tried has been TV shows encoded at 624x352.  I've been leaving them at their original size and frame rate and they still look amazing on the Nookcolor.

Good luck and keep trying . . . the end result really is worth the effort!

[mogulman]

Usually the sizes need to be divisible by 16.  I think it should 848x480.  If it is from a DVD use 720xXXX.

[yoshipumkin]

Thanks, guys, for your help.  I finally got videos to play and they do look very nice.  I used Handbrake and selected the  "iPhone & iPod Touch" preset.  The only settings I changed were:

• Picture tab - selected "Keep Aspect Ratio"
• changed the .m4v extension in the "Destination" field to .mp4 (not sure if that's necessary)

That worked mysteriously, although I'm 95% sure that I had already tried doing that when I first started my conversion attempts. 

(Ironically, after getting the videos to work, I no longer had sound on my Nook Color.  I had to power off and turn it back on to get the sound back.  This has happened numerous times as I was trying different conversion settings and I'm beginning to think it has to do with enabling/disabling the USB connection to my PC.)

Thanks again!

[hakepuck]

.m4v rename to .mp4 is not necessary.  Both have worked on mine via Handbrake encoding.

[draksig]

I've been tryign to figure this out, thank you.  I'll be trying this after work today.

[ressing1]

Try using Freemake video Converter.  It has an android preset which works great.  And it's free.  Will take almost any video format, including DVD.

http://www.freemake.com/free_video_converter/

[riffrafff]

Hmmmm.  I just tried the FreeMake converter.  Converted three short videos to multiple outputs; Android: Large, Normal, and Small screens.  Apple: iPad, iPhone4, iPhone1-3GS, and iPod Touch.  No joy.  Just a black screen until I press the Nook button.   Bummer.

[sk8bikerun]

Here’s the English version of the working Handbrake parameters I posted above:

Video Encoder     = Baseline or Simple Profile MP4

Video Bit Rate    = 1000 kb/s

Audio Encoder     = AAC

Audio Sample Rate = 44.1 KHz or 44,100 Hz (CD Quality)

Audio Mix Format  = Stereo

Audio Bit Rate    = 128 kb/s

These are pretty conservative parameters, so they should work in most other media transcoding programs.  I’ve had success using WinAVI and MediaCoder, although MediaCoder only worked with short videos.  Audio sync issues ruined the longer ones.

Common barriers to creating working videos that I’ve run into or read about include:

-        Forgetting to scale HQ videos (usually 1920 wide) down to a 720ish or 640ish width.

-        Using Main, High, or Extended profiles instead of Baseline.

-        Setting one of the bit rates too high for the processor to keep up.

-        Using 48 KHz audio sampling (DVD quality) instead of 44.1 KHz.

That last one I haven’t checked for myself.  I read in another forum that 48 KHz didn’t work, so I’ve only used 44.1.

If you are using some video converter preset and it isn’t working, you might try checking the codec parameters while you play the file on your PC.  If you are using VLC Player, that’s located under the Tools menu.  You don’t get as much information from Windows Media Player, but it will give you something if you right-click the Now Playing filename and select Properties.

Keep trying; the result really is worth it!