MrBean: Hello,
i have a bit of info on my observations of the dreaded double transcodewith zune software. and some queries on why we are banging our heads on this.
zune software needs to import all supported formats and convert them to wmv in order to output, the exception to this is low res mp4, (avc) at native 320x240 resolution - i have confirmed this using 1.06, mce buddy....that was the only profile for zune at that point and it did not need to double encode. Now none of the present profiles for Zune in 1.07 (there is only 1) and its 720 x540? why not 720x480?? ( xbox 360 appears to be the same720X540??) needs to double encode...the PSP ones i assume are 320x240 as well,ergo no double encode needed from what i read...i have never used this profile...I have found a program that does not need a double encode buts its wmv. winavi 8.0 has a wmv9 dvd profile that encodes vc-1 and this does not need a double encode for the zune, but wmv 8 and lower profiles do...more testing needed...so it keeps the same resolution, 720x480 at a slightly larger filesize than mp4 avc. but same quality. Zune has the ability to then output this video via zune video out cables to a tv at dvd resolution. This is what i am aiming for, but if i just intend to watch it on my zune then i encode mp4 avc using 1.06 mce buddy zune profile and no double encode required...320x240....so please bring back 1.06 zune profile at is seems to work fine. I am still doing further testing...
if you bring a good quality mp4(avc) into the zune software above 320x240 it seems to have to transcode this, takes forvever! the transcode is not near the quality of the original - it looks fine on the zune player, but once output to tv via cables its not good. So the best option for me is encode with winavi the wmv - VC-1 great quality but larger files size but 720x480 output...no transcode VC-1 is what HD and Blu ray use or will use more of in the future..dont get me started on that tangent.....i wish M$ would get their *** together....windows media player does this but not that, zune software does that but not this, xbox 360 blade likes this but not that, media center gui likes very little of anything....CONVERGENCE does anyone at M$ know what the hell that word means!!!????
Keep up the great work Derek.
my rant.
That sounds like a vote for the iPod based one to me. Here is the profile I currently have slated for the next release. It takes the 1.0.6 one (which itself was derived from the iPod profile) and improves a little.
[Zune-1]
profile-desc="Zune"
vf=pullup,softskip,pp=fd,scale=320:-2,crop=320:240,hqdn3d,harddup
lavdopts=threads=2
ovc=x264=yes
x264encopts=threads=auto:subq=5:frameref=3:me=umh:partitions=all:b-pyramid=yes:qcomp=0.7:trellis=1:nocabac:level_idc=13:bitrate=500
oac=faac=yes
faacopts=br=128:raw=yes:mpeg=4:tns=yes:object=2
af=volnorm=2
of=lavf=yes
lavfopts=format=mp4
#FileExtension=mp4
#IPod=yes
As for MS consistency. Well, it's a big company these days and has many of the typical big company problems. Specifically infighting, politics and left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. Sometimes the left hand doesn't know it's doing itself either. It's not in IBM territory but it's a lot worse than it used to be. It also has a lot of smart technical people, which means a high concentration of preciousness and ego.
- Continuing the rant -
As for WMV and other codecs. Each of those MS products address different markets. MS likes to use WMV because its theirs. H.264 is a better product because its technically comparable to WMV but has much, much wider support. But MS has little control over it, which is why everyone else likes it and MS doesn't. It's like the US armed forces. They will purchase significantly poorer equipment if its made in the USA over that from other countries (closesly allied or not) because of control and ego, mostly ego. In the case of the different MS products the more the product is exposed to the consumer the more MS must fit in with others. So XBox and the like should have better H.264 support. Media Center is still fairly techy (I don't know of many/any completely non-technical MCE owners) so it's a different market. The quandary is Zune. It forces VC-1/WMV3/WMV9/Whatever else its called as the only real native codec on the device...and it's the bit player trying to get into the market. I'm beginning to understand why the Zune has been such a flop. They needed to go down the path of the Zen and Archos devices in the case of codec support if not form factor/etc. But they didn't, they've gone down the 90's MS/Sony 'proprietary' format. It's like the Memory Stick (r) of the early 21st century. The codecs might have been hard for the dev team as MS seems to have an allergic reaction to anything DivX or Xvid and not having those natively would really hurt the acceptance of their product. I assume its either MS legals (which are just so fun to deal with, even internally), unacceptable licensing costs to MS from DivX, or and GPL-like terms wrapped around Xvid. Or it could just be arrogance and stupidity. Who knows. I don't know any of the Zune team.
In any case, MS had to make the Zune *better* than the equivalent iPod and they made a product that is actually less capable and more proprietary. So the Zune languishes in marketplace insignificance and I go and buy and iPod. I might even get one that has video sometime.
:-)
Derek