Messing with MP4.

[222aaah]

Cliepet! I am giving up on MP4. ;)

Clie player is not just picky - it plays only when it sees that it was coded by IC. Or at least I think so.
Here are my findings, may be you will find it helpfull.

MP4 is just a container, video stream inside is most probably Microsoft MP42, Audio stream is QT AAC. Both are easy recreatable, but MP4 container itself is marked. It is not ISO MP4.

In order not to waste time trying to recreate audio/video streams, I decided to take IC2.0 converted MP4, extract video and audio tracks from it, and reassemble mp4 using 3rd party tools using ready tracks. I tried a lot of MP4 tools ( http://www.rarewares.org/mp4.html ).
MP4box seems to be most complete and properly functional. http://gpac.sourceforge.net/downloads.php

There are my steps:
mp4box -info original.mp4
======================
* Movie Info *
Timescale 90000 - Duration 1595025
Fragmented File no - 2 tracks
File Brand MSNV - version 16777249
File has no MPEG4 IOD/OD
(Original file plays fine on CLie :) )
======================
let convert it to ISMA
mp4box -isma original.mp4
======================
* Movie Info *
Timescale 90000 - Duration 1595025
Fragmented File no - 4 tracks
File Brand MSNV - version 16777249
File has root IOD
Scene PL 1 - Graphics PL 1 - OD PL 1 - Visual PL 1 - Audio PL 1
inline profiles included no

And it still plays on Clie. (Means that there is a way to do it using 3rd party)
=======================
Then if I extract video and audio tracks using "-single" and the reassemble it to one mp4 using "-merge" and update it to -isma standarts - I am getting perfectly functional file.
* Movie Info *
Timescale 600 - Duration 10633
Fragmented File no - 4 tracks
File Brand isom - version 1
File has root IOD
Scene PL 1 - Graphics PL 1 - OD PL 1 - Visual PL 1 - Audio PL 1
inline profiles included no

It plays in Quicktime and other MP4 players, but do not plays in Clie ;( . FMP gives me file not found.
If I will hexedit it and change isom to MSNV - FMP gives me - unsupported format.
If I use hexedit even more and change all isom to MSNV to make it look more genuine :D - it becomes not valid MP4 file.

I am giving up. May be some tweaking in MP4box sources and a bit deeper knowledge of MP4 structure in needed. If somebody is willing to continue - feel free to ask. I will help.

[CliePet]

> Clie player is not just picky
Not surprising considering the past CLIE quirks.
I suspect they only care about videos created by Sony movie cameras (and IC2 of course)

Thanks for trying, and the info provided. That may help me figure out what to do with M4A files (if anything)

[KH Chan]

Yeah.. Me too trying to use other Mp4 encoder to see if it play on my Th55. However no luck so far.

One intersting Mp4 encoder that i found is Nero Recode 2.

Lot's of good review out there about this encoder. I think it is very impressive, It may very well better than DIVX or XVID.

For anyone that is interested you can check it out @ http://www.ahead.de/en/631943753993336.html
http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=337

Everything seems the best so far.. but.... the thing is.. these Mp4 can't play in my TH55 :-(

Maybe others will have better luck.

[KH Chan]

I Found out that Sony HMP Device come together with Nero Recode 2.

Soo... i think somehow with some tweaking.. VZ90 and TH55 is able to play Nero Digital format too.

Here is the HMP-A1 info page if somebody interested.

http://www.sony.jp/products/Consumer/HMP/

[madmaxmedia]

I would love to see alternative coding methods. Even being able to do a simple 2-pass encoding would improve quality a lot.

I used to think Image Converter 1 was pretty good, until I started making small Xvid and Divx clips. With relatively basic settings and 2-pass, I'm able to get much better quality/size ratio than Image Converter.

[222aaah]

I think 2-pass encoding definitelly out of question on Clie. 2-pass means VBR (variable bit rate), and Clie uses CBR (constant one) for both audio and video.

You can't play VBR MP3 using build-in audio player, because DSP can't handle it, the same true is here.
I wish I am wrong, but I think I not.

[madmaxmedia]

I think you're right, that's too bad-