PMP-AVC Manual Conversion Guide

This is a guide on how to convert your videos into PMP-AVC manually (ie without using one of those automated programs).
Written up at the request of Games Like a Grrl and Invalice

Why go to all this effort?

• It gives you the most options
  
• Has a higher success rate
  
• Allows you to easily find problems
  

PMP-AVC vs full-res (3.03 OE-C +) MP4-AVC
Advantages of PMP-AVC:

• Downclocks to 120MHz = longer battery life
  
• Volume / luminosity boost feature
  
• Support for multiple audio tracks
  
• Support for soft subbing
  
• No strict audio format standard - basically supports any MP3 audio stream (MP4-AVC is very strict on the audio track, though not so strict on the video stream)
  
• Loop feature (useless though)
  
• Resume playback even after PSP restart
  
• Only way to watch videos through iR Shell (if you're an iR Shell > XMB believer)
  

Advantages of MP4-AVC:

• Easier to get to (for me, it saves about 15secs to get to the XMB player than running PMP-Mod AVC)
  
• Support for AAC+ v2 audio stream
  
• Player may be a bit easier to use
  
• Non proprietary format
  

If you don't want to manually convert, there are some wonderful tools out there which do the converting process for you, such as XviD4PSP and AVItoPMP.


Tools needed

• PMP Mod AVC (obviously)
  
• PMP Muxer AVC
  
• x264 (modified version)

Note, these tools can be obtained from jonny's homepage at http://jonny.leffe.dnsalias.com/
Also, more tools may be needed - see relevant section for more details.


Contents

• Part 1: Obtaining and demuxing the container
  
• Part 2: Converting the video
  
• Part 3: Converting the audio
  
• Part 4: Converting subtitles (note, this is for "soft" subbing)
  
• Part 5: Muxing into PMP-AVC
  
• Part 6: Getting the video onto the PSP
  
• Appendix 1: Useful x264 Command-line switches
  

Part 1: Obtaining and demuxing the container
AVI/OGM Source
Tools Needed:

• VirtualDub Mod

1. Open your AVI/OGM file in VirtualDub Mod
   
2. Go Streams menu»Stream List
   
3. In the dialog that pops up, select the audio track (for AVI, there should only be on track there)
   
4. Click Demux and save the file in the same folder as the video
   
5. If there are multiple audio tracks, and you want to have multiple audio tracks in your final PMP file, demux all of the tracks you need
   
6. If there's a subtitle track that you want, demux that as well
   

MKV Source
I can't find a good GUI for this yet, so you'll either need to use mkvextract, or wait.

MP4 Source
Tools Needed:

• mp4UI

1. Open your MP4 in mp4UI
   
2. Extract all the audio/subtitle tracks you want in the final PMP
   

DVD Source
To be done later...

FLV/MOV/RM/RMVB Source
Needs to be done...


Part 2: Converting the video
Tools Needed:

• Avisynth
  

1. Copy x264.exe to the place where your video resides
   
2. Open Notepad and copy the following:
   
   Code:

   DirectShowSource("MyAVI.avi") KillAudio Lanczos4Resize(480,272) ConvertToYV12

   ---

   replacing MyAVI.avi with the your video source.
   For more information on how to write AVS scripts, like the above, check the Avisynth Documentation
   

3. Save this file in the same folder as the video and x264.exe as c.avs
   
4. Play c.avs in Windows Media Player to confirm that everything is working fine - note, you will need Avisynth to be installed at this point, otherwise it won't work.  If the file still won't play back, you have a problem with Avisynth, DirectShow or the source file - don't continue.
   
5. In Notepad, goto File»New
   
6. Copy the following two lines:
   
   Code:

   x264 --crf 24 --me hex -A all --level 3 --pictiming --aud --no-psnr --thread-input --progress --output "out.264" c.avs pause

   ---

   save this file as c.bat in the same folder as everything else.
   I'll summerize what some of the command-line switches do, below
   

7. Now run c.bat - the video should start converting
   

Part 3: Converting the audio
Tools Needed:

• MediaCoder

1. Open MediaCoder
   
2. Select the Output Folder in the top-right hand corner of the window
   
3. Add all the audio streams that you want into MediaCoder
   
4. On the bottom-left half of the window, click the Audio tab
   
5. In the Encoder listbox, select LAME MP3
   
6. In the bottom-right half of the window, the LAME tab should automatically be selected
   
7. In the Rate Mode listbox, select VBR
   
8. For Bitrate/Quality select 2
   
9. For Algorithm Quality select any value from 0 to 2 (0=better quality, 2=faster encode)
   
10. Press F5 to start the conversion
    

Part 4: Converting subtitles (note, this is for "soft" subbing)
Tools Needed:

1. Subtitle Workshop

• Open Subtitle Workshop
  
• Go Tools menu»Batch Convert
  
• Select the path containing the subtitle files
  
• Select the desired output path
  
• Select MicroDVD as the Output format
  
• Select the correct Default FPS
  
• Click Next
  
• Make sure the correct FPS is selected in the listbox near the bottom-right hand corner of the window
  
• Click Convert
  

Part 5: Muxing into PMP-AVC
By now, you should have a .264, .264.txt and one or more .mp3 files.  Additionally, a .sub file if you want soft subtitles.

1. Open pmp_muxer_avc_tk.exe
   
2. For the video input, select the .264 file
   
3. Add your audio streams to the Audio input list - note that there's actually no delete button, so if you stuff up, you must use the Reset button!!!
   
4. Select the PMP output file
   
5. Click Go
   

Part 6: Getting the video onto the PSP

1. If not done already, copy PMP-Mod AVC onto your PSP (go figure how to do it yourself, I'm not gonna guide a n00b on how to install homebrew)
   
2. Make the folder ms0:/PSP/VIDEO - if it doesn't exist already
   
3. Copy your PMP file in there
   
4. If you have a .sub file that you want to use, copy that there as well, making sure that it has the same filename as the PMP file
   
5. All done! :)
   

Appendix 1: Useful x264 Command-line switches
The command I suggested was:

Quote:x264 --crf 24 --me hex -A all --level 3 --pictiming --aud --no-psnr --thread-input --progress --output "out.264" c.avs

x264 commands can get quite complex, so I'm only gonna bother telling you what two of the switches do.
--crf 24 - tells x264 to use VBR mode, quality level 24.  Basically, 0=highest quality (lossless in fact) and 51=lowest quality.  Generally a value between 20 and 30 is best.
--me hex - Motion esimation level.  Here's a list:

• dia (diamond search) [fastest, not recommended]
  
• hex (hexagonal search) [default]
  
• umh (Uneven Multi-hexagon search) [good if you don't mind the slower speed for better compression]
  
• esa (Exhaustive search) [slowest and totally unnecessary, not recommended]
  

So basically, dia will take the least time to convert, but give the worst results, whereas esa will be the slowest, but will give the best results

As said above, x264 options fall under a category by itself, if you need more info, look here:
http://www.digital-digest.com/articles/x...page1.html




Anyways, I hope this guide helps some people out :)

(This post was last modified: 05/02/2007 11:24 PM by ZiNgA BuRgA.)

wow that's a lot to take in ill try wen i get downgraded from 3.03

Great work Zinga

STICKIED

Cool.         Just found this while reading through the forums..
Shouldn't this be in the Tutorials/Guides section?

Mr. Shizzy Wrote:Cool.         Just found this while reading through the forums..
Shouldn't this be in the Tutorials/Guides section?

It's quite out of date.

And these days, you should just use MP4 instead.

(This post was last modified: 08/03/2010 06:49 AM by Assassinator.)

Assassinator Wrote:

Mr. Shizzy Wrote:Cool.         Just found this while reading through the forums..
Shouldn't this be in the Tutorials/Guides section?

It's quite out of date.

And these days, you should just use MP4 instead.

Well I never really knew about PMP.. until now, see section "PMP-AVC vs full-res (3.03 OE-C +) MP4-AVC".

Wonder how relevant it is now?

Shizzy, wee only have a Tutorial section for customizations :/

(This post was last modified: 08/03/2010 08:28 AM by S7*.)

Senseito7 Wrote:

Assassinator Wrote:

Mr. Shizzy Wrote:Cool.         Just found this while reading through the forums..
Shouldn't this be in the Tutorials/Guides section?

It's quite out of date.

And these days, you should just use MP4 instead.

Well I never really knew about PMP.. until now, see section "PMP-AVC vs full-res (3.03 OE-C +) MP4-AVC".

Wonder how relevant it is now?

Shizzy, wee only have a Tutorial section for customizations :/

Ahhh.   Then wee should add a General Tutorial section as well then.
And yeah, PMP is still very relevant.   The latest PMP Player Advance is absolutely awesome !!    


EDIT:  Funny this thread got revived even without necroBot.

(This post was last modified: 08/03/2010 08:40 AM by Mr. Shizzy.)

PPA can do MP4, though it isn't terribly good at seeking in it.

Otherwise, this is a bit old, yeah.