Motorola Droid – Best Video Format Conversion Settings Using Free HandBrake

Klink, Great instructions but I did have an issue. I used Handbreak and all your suggested settings. Converted video played fine on my pc but when I transferred to droid it only played sound. Maybe one possible issue is I had output settings set to M4V. Should it only be MP4? I tried to change it on the fly (change fine name tag but this did not work.
Thanks in advance.

Klink: Make sure you have the latest version of Handbrake, Set to iPod Legacy not iphone, make sure the output is MP4. Set the mixdown of the audio to stereo output. I have yet to have a problem with those settings. You issues may have come from a different video format that you are importing. If your are having issues test your DROID with this small sample video. This video was encoded at 1000kbps, 848×480.

Worked perfectly for my droid thanks, i use handbreak as well and went through SOO many other combinations of mp4 to try and get it to work.

Klink: I’m glad I could help.

Hello –
The settings you provided work great. Only issue I noticed is a slight frame-skip/delay every once in a while (albeit, very minor). btw, I am converting DVD’s..

Thank you,
Derek

Klink: I had one vid do that also. The issue is not with the DROID but with Handbrake. It does that from time to time with the iPhone also.

I am using the latest version of Handbrake, using the iPod legacy setting, but am unable to extend past 720px for the width. If I change the ‘anamorphic’ setting to custom, there’s a box to change it to 848, but the width remains 720px. I am using a Mac.

Klink: It should work fine if you leave anamorphic as none. I am sorry but I can’t recreate the problem while testing. If someone else knows of this issue please chime in.

Klink, thanks for your help. Along the same lines of my first question…I have been ripping DVD’s using DVD Fab which also has a built in encoder for converting video files. I am using the exact settings you provided (thanks!), including 2 pass encoding, with exception to the audio bitrate which tops out @128kbps in DVD Fab. Examples of movies I have been converting are the new Star Trek movie, Taking of Pelham 123, etc. In some instances when the action scenes pick up (maybe putting more strain on the CPU/processor?) the frames skip as it seems the Droid can’t keep up. The files are around 1.5 gigs each and I make sure to exit all apps before switching on the movies. Furthermore I have been keeping 2 movies (abt 3 gigs) on my 16gb card at a time. Do you think the skipping has to do with the video bitrate being too high? Does the video bitrate directly impact the RAM, which you think can possibly be causing the frame skips? If so, can you think of any solutions without reducing the quality of the DVD? If none of the above is true, do you think my Droid may be defective or maybe the DVD Fab video converter is not good enough for encoding these ultra-high def movies to the Droid. BTW, the converted movies do not skip when I play them on my PC. I appreciate any assistance you can provide!

Regards,
Derek

Klink: After trying varying bit rates my Droid will drop a frame from time to time even when the video is as low as 500kbs. This also happens when I use Super or Adobe Premiere to convert a video. It appears to be a Droid issue.

Thanks a bunch! No probs whatsoever and brilliant clear picture and sound.

Chinese message board just leaked that the Moto droid successor will have no sliding keyboard and an HDMI out. And hopefully a bigger, better battery.

The future is getting weird with people absorbed more and more with tiny screens.

I got the M4V extension, but still worked perfectly on my Droid. Thank you very much!

Klink: No Problem.

Is this walk-through using version 0.9.3?

Klink: Yes. 9.3 – 9.4 is out now but have not tried yet.

I can’t change the dimensions with the new version. Know where I can get the old one?

Klink: 9.4 has made some changes for the worse. I will try to find a link to the 9.3 version and post it.

Klink, first I’d like to thank you for making yourself available to help. I have the most recent version on Handbrake and I too am unable to change the width beyond 720. When I do it flips right back. When time perhaps and you’ve updated to 0.9.4, would you kindly provide updated instructions for us lame ducks? Thanks a million!

Klink: 9.4 has made some changes for the worse. I will try to find a link to the 9.3 version and post it.

Klink, For the newest version of Handbrake (the only version I’ve used):

Under the “Picture” tab, start by selecting “Custom Cropping” and set all values to zero.

You can then type 480 for height and you will get 848 for width.

Weird way of doing things, but it works.

(This is on the Windows version of Handbrake.)

Klink: Thanks for sharing.

Klink, thanks for sharing so much info. Unfortunately it doesn’t work on my droid. I downloaded the test file you created and it shows only the first frame and freezes. After a moment id displays the message “sorry, this video cannot be played”. Is there something wrong with my phone? Just bought that and it is up to date. Please help…

Klink: It must be something to do with your Droid. Download the vid again just to test if the download was bad. I have two Droids and the file plays perfect on both.

Oh the post regarding not being able to set a size greater than WxH but less than 848×480, I believe it is because the source is only that WxH dimension and the new Handbrake isn’t that keen on letting you software upscale it. Just my experience though.

I installed everything like you instructed but the audio is not working all I hear is a little tinny sounding noise where the audio should be. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Klink: not sure on that one. If anyone else can help please comment.

I do have the newest version of Handbrake, & I followed your settings to the “T”, but there is no way to change the file output type to mp4, the drop drown menu only gives you the option for either m4v or mkv?? so I don’t understand how you did this, I did it over and over again, I think those who got it to work was a shot in the dark.

Klink: Handbrake has made some recent changes that limit the functionality. I am trying to get a older copy to post. Vesion 9.3 gives you more options if you can find it.

Yes the test file works fine, no problems. My phone is less than 2 weeks old. I did download version 9.3 from a bit torrent client, installed it and still the same problem, it just tells me the “file can not be played”. The files play fine on my computer though.

Klink: Not sure what to tell you. Have you tried different source files?

Worked for me with one exception: I set Anamorphic to ‘loose’. I did this on a large H.264 encoded video to convert to Droid specs. Video wouldn’t be visible until I made this one change.

I set all the settings as you said and they worked perfectly! There is a little bit of noise when the video first starts, but after that, its all good. I still have one problem. I am converting a .mkv to mp4 with handbrake, but the problem is, is that the language on the .mkv is Japanese with English subtitles. On the converted file, the sound is great, but there is no subtitles. Any ideas?

Klink: Handbrake doesn’t do soft subs. Sorry.

Thanks for this info; I’m testing the Linux version (on Ubuntu) of 0.9.4 as we speak.

Haven’t tried it yet, but I do see an option in this version for subtitles. I also had the option to select m4v or mp4 under the iPod Legacy preset, which someone else said they did not have.

The only thing I’ve noticed that’s significantly different from your Win/0.9.3 article is there is nowhere to set the number of cores it’s using. Too bad; it’s predicting almost 4 hours to do a 2-hour movie.

I’m having the same problem with trying to stretch it to 848. It looks like these instructions were written for an earlier version than 0.9.4.

Have you done this with the newest version, Klink?

Klink: No. After all the negative reports on 9.4 i have stuck with 9.3.

I got version 9.3 and I it works much better. Thank you. Does anyone know of a good video player app? I was using mVideoPlayer but it caused a lot of problems with all video playback and various sound settings throughout the phone. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Kitaro, I wasn’t able to change the width to 848 using version 9.4 like I mentioned above. I see that u said u used klinks settings and I wanted to know if u could tell me how u did it? I switched to 9.3 for a day but it turns out the output files from that were causing problems with my phone, not the video app like I thought. I’m guessing I had a setting wrong in 9.3 since that’s what klink is using. Thanks to anyone with any input.

Edan,
Sorry, on handbrake 9.4 I kept the settings at 720×480 and it came out very good. All the other settings are same as above. Video set at H264 and container at MP4 bitrate 1500.
*Note * My friend tried running DVD shrink on his computer and realized the old DVD shrink would not work. We later realized that the copy that I had did not run in Windows 7. There is a Windows 7 version that we downloaded.

For some reason HandBreak wont let me change the resolution from 624×352 to 848×480 like you suggest. Is this because I’m using a different (more up-to-date) version of HandBreak than you did in this guide?

Klink: HandBreak 9.4 made some changes that limit the setting. Try installing 9.3 if you have troubles. There is a DL link in this post for 9.3.

so did all the above – file shows up as not playable on my Droid – downloaded the test file and works fine – notice in my explorer test file says MPEG4 Movie – the file I created in Handbake sakys MPEG4 Video fil e- does that matter? – have I created a setting wrong in Handbake? – what is confusing is the image in this article is the older Handbake software

Klink: download the 9.3 Handbrake version. People are having much better luck when using that version for the DROID.

Hey Klink… i have a few questions… (but before i get started i just want to thank you for helping everyone out!)

Ok i have your settings perfect, and im using version 9.3 of handbrake, however when im converting it always crashes my computer when it gets to about 70,000 kb… any help?

Klink: It’s more than likely an issue with the video you started with.

idk what people that r havin problems r smokin but it works great! i have been lookin for a video program for my droid for awhile and this rocks because its free and converts videos great

Hello again!.. I was just wondering, if you had time to do these settings in adobe premiere cs3? It should be possible, but when I try it the quality is horrible, and it doesn’t fit the screen right… any help?

Klink: Don’t know about adobe premiere but it works with Premiere Elements 7.

This question is a little off base but maybe you can help. I am trying to find a file format that I can convert my video so that either a droid, blackberry, or iphone can play the video. Is there a ONE FILE FORMAT that fits all?

Klink: I think 3gp format 320×240 will work with all.

Thanks for all of the wonderful tips! I just have one problem. When I hit the start button the conversion seems to be instant but when i see the file its only 24 bytes in size. I used to use handbrake for all sorts of conversions but its been awhile. Am i missing a step?

Klink: You are using a file that can’t be converted with Handbrake or your settings are wrong.

Nice program. I get a lot of fight videos sent to me and this allows me to watch them as time allows from my phone. Setting worked great.