My findings on the playback of H.264 on the Nokia 5800.
Notes for people who know what they're doing.
1. Device Specs
Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, red
Software V11.0.008.red.01, 9/12/2008
Language set 19
Type RM-356
2. Source Video
Tests were done on:
a. mpeg1 352x240 29.97fps 1149kbps
b. h.264 1280x720 23.976fps
3. Conversion Software
meGUI
Used because of the number of things you can tweak.
And it's free and awesome.
4. Results
a. h.264 Level
Level 2 is the highest it will read. It will read everything lower. It will not read 2.1 or higher.
I encode at Level 2. For further reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264
b. h.264 Profile
It will read baseline, main, and high. I encode baseline for the flexible macroblock order feature.
c. Resolution
Level 2 basically calls for 352x288 as the max res. I've gotten it to read 384x208, with some extra
choppiness. I encode at 352x(whatever keeps the ratio right).
d. Bitrate
I've encoded as high as 1000kbps, and it will probably handle higher. The level 2 specs call for up to 2mbps.
I encode pretty stuff at 768kbps, and blah stuff at 512kbps.
e. FRAMERATE
This one is tricky. I have encoded and successfully played 24fps, 25fps, 29.97fps, and 30fps. It might go
higher or lower, but I don't care about those.
NOTE: 23.976fps, which is a pretty common rate out there, will cause it to crazy jerk and freeze.
You MUST change it to one of the above.
I encode using meGUI's avs script creator when faced with 23.976fps, and add the line:
"ChangeFPS(24)" (don't use the quotes) right before any resizing. I tried convertFPS, but prefer changeFPS.
General muxing:
I setup the above for the video with MP4 output, setup the audio for nero AAC encoding with
96kbps adaptive bitrate, Low Complexity (AAC-LC) and MP4-AAC output, and mux to .mp4 with mp4box (in meGUI)
Party on,
steve