Ask Flash: How to Play HD Movies on the Kiss 1600 & Freecom MP350

I now have had the Kiss 1600 & Freecom MP350 for three months and have come to expect several limitations with playback of the numerous HD formats out there. The problem is that TS, MPG, AVI, MKV, MOV,WMV, are all containers which can be multiplexed from many of the 100s of audio & video Codecs out there. These codecs spring up on a weekly basis and without the correct one installed & enabled it is impossible to play them even on the PC. I find the K-lite Mega Codec Pack a valuable source of the latest codecs. These Media Players will play MPEG2 streams with video bitrates up to around 30Mbps, The Freecom MP350 will play these from the internal hard drive but USB & Network limit the transfer rate to around 20Mbps and much less with wireless. The KiSS 1600 copes quite well with the higher bitrates via USB but the KiSS PC-Link is restricted to 10Mbps transfer rate. I use files with maximum bitrates of 20Mbps for the Kiss 1600 via a USB drive. I use files with maximum bitrates of 10Mbps for the Kiss via the KiSS PC-Link. I use files with maximum bitrates of 18Mbps for the Freecom MP350 via a USB drive or FTP. I use files with maximum bitrates of 25-30Mbps for the Freecom MP350 from the internal HD. A standard DVD has a maximum bitrate of around 10Mbps so there is no problem playing an un-encrypted DVD. I cannot recommend using wireless network for playing HD definition movies. Audio playback will play DTS & AC3 streams but if these are badly muxed with the video or non standard bitrate then audio can be choppy or non existent. My Solution My answer is to re-encode the audio & video into formats that will play on these Players and this is a tutorial as to how I do it using the following programs ProjectX mediainfo DVD Audio Files Splitter Tranzcode Tranzcode is a command line tool but you can use this modified TranzGUI to make the job easier Wav to AC3 Encoder TMPGEnc 4 Xpress MPEG Video Wizard TMPGEnc MPEG Editor 2 First I need to extract the audio AC3 or DTS track I am going to use & for this I use ProjectX which will demux the audio into .ac or ac3.wav. I then use mediainfo to determine the correct format .ac3 or .dts & rename the extension accordingly. If more than one audio file are demuxed it is advisable to play them in "Media Player Classic" to make sure the one you are going to use is the correct language. Next is to convert this file to a multi-channel .wav, but if the movie is over 1 hour long the multi-channel .wav file will be in excess of 4gig which is too large for the next program to handle. So the best way I find is to split the .dts or .ac3 into 55min pieces with DVD Audio Files Splitter. Now that I have working size .ac3 or dts files I can convert them into multi-channel .wav files with Tranzcode. This is a command line tool but if the split audio files are in the same directory then a simple batch file with notepad can be created as follows
echo off cls Tranzcode.exe "My demuxed.audio.file-part1.dts" /mch Tranzcode.exe "My demuxed.audio.file-part2.dts" /mch Tranzcode.exe "My demuxed.audio.file-part3.dts" /mch Tranzcode.exe "My demuxed.audio.file-part4.dts" /mch echo. echo. echo. echo Job Complete pause
Make sure you enclose the file name in the "quotes" as shown, save this file as *.bat in the same directory as the audio files & Tranzcode.exe. Double click on the *.bat file and wait for the conversion. Alternatively you can use my modified TranzGUI to convert the individual files After which you will have the multi-channel wav files of just under 4gig each. These files then need to be converted back to AC3 6 channel format with Wav to AC3 Encoder use the default settings with 384kbps or 448kbps as maximum bitrates (Any higher or lower causes compatibility problems). The resultant *.ac3 files can then be joined up into a single ac3 file by the simple command line .bat file in the same directory copy /b "My demuxed.audio.file-part1(multichn).ac3" + "My demuxed.audio.file-part2(multichn).ac3" + "My demuxed.audio.file-part3(multichn).ac3 "+ "My demuxed.audio.file-part4(multichn).ac3" "My demuxed.audio.file.ac3" This command line needs to be entered on a single line without word-wrap & once joined is ready for muxing The next thing is to convert the video into an MPEG2 compatible stream and depending on your requirements only the bitrate may need to be adjusted. I use TMPGEnc 4 Xpress to do my encoding and providing I have a compatible codecs installed for the video it is usually straight forward, I use the encoding settings as in the illustration. Keeping the resolution, frame rate, & aspect the same as the original. Scan is set to progressive as against interlaced to improve playback quality, video bitrate is set according to the original & how I will be viewing the movies. There is no point in encoding at a higher bitrate than the original. The settings shown are well within the USB limits of the Kiss 1600 but the maximum bitrate needs to be lower for the Freecom MP530 which has a slower USB & Network transfer speed. Higher bitrates can be used if the movie is to be viewed directly from the MP350 internal HD or much lower bitrates if you are attempting to view from a slower wireless network network. Output the video stream as system (Video only) *.m2t. The outputted file will actually be larger than the final video file. The final step is to Mux the audio & video back into an mpg stream which can be done with various programs with mixed results. I have had success with MPEG Video Wizard TMPGEnc MPEG Editor 2 (A new version is due out shortly & I hope to do a full review) With TMPGEnc MPEG Editor 2 simply add the completed *.m2t & ac3 files adjust the a/v delay if necessary & encode, lossless encoding will mux the two files & produce a compatible mpg file. If the original movies is in several parts I find it best to process each part separately and assemble the processed movie with TMPGEnc MPEG Editor 2 enabling me to adjust the a/v delay individually and edit out any bad frames caused by poor splitting. This is just one way of reprocessing a movie for Media Player compatibility and I have had the most success with it. It is not the only way and I do not proclaim that this is the best way but it works for me and I hope it will work for you I would like to hear from anyone who has used different ways to successfully re-encode the movies Now once all this is done I can sit back & enjoy my movies

Added:  September 5th 2007
Reviewer:  Flash
Hits: 3955