Apad video encoding

The quest for the best Video Settings « on: May 31, 2010, 11:52:34 PM » Okay so this device is sold as a HD 720p player. First thing that should discredit that statement is the 800x480 screen res (given 720 should be 1280 x 720) My experimentation with 720p has been as follows - Yes it will play 720p movies and will automatically "downsize" the image to play on the screen but two points to note 1) Bitrate is a killer - Any downloaded movie (normal length) seems to have a HUGE bitrate (as one would expect) and it leads to the player saying "Cant play movie" 2) Any short movies (small size file) seems to play ok even with higher bitrates (curious!) Anyway after experimentation I personally find that the quality IMPROVES dramatically if the movie is re-encoded for the device size The two profiles I have found that work the best are (using handbrake / itouch/iphone profile) encoding as mp4.( All sources are 1280x720) 1) 720x400 = bitrate 1250 (I started at 1500 but large movies do not support this = short one do ) Definitely the best but obviously does not fil the screen 2) 800 x 448 = bitrate 1250 (I started at 1500 but large movies do not support this = short one do ) Quality is almost exactly the same as 1) but the benfit is that the total screen size is used. Although the birtrate is specified as 1250 in handbrake the result is higher. And I am still pushing the bitrate up. Trying to find the max (somewhere between 1250-1500) Anyhow I would appreciate anyone elses observations/comments/experience Thanks