Stunning audio/video performance on Nokia E72.

Question

I bought my E72 a week ago and one of the first thing on the to-do list, was to load it with high quality video material and my goodness, this mobile phone can deliver stunning performance.
Using YouTube downloader addon in Firefox, I found quite decent HD material. Downloaded it onto my computer (Lenovo Z61p).
Next step:  Using Pazera MP4 to AVI converter. Transforming from MP4 to lossless HuffYUV video and lossless PCM audio AVI file, keeping aspect ratio and all pixels. During the process, I kept an eye open and noticed how many frames per second the video contained and of course pixel width/height.
Next step: Using Windows Media Encoder, I had the video transformed to 320x240 if the original material had the same 4:3 aspect. Otherwise I had videos done so it matched either 320px width or 240px in height according to the original video aspect ratio.
Using the encoder WMV-9 I had to try several times in order to find the highest possible video quality.
A couple of HD music videos from youTube, Destinys Child "Say My name" and "Bootylicious" were the first to undergo transformation. the material itself is upscaled SD, but it's okay, since the final results has to be within a frame of 320x240 pixels.
I had the material encoded with (video) 3584 kbit/sec and (audio) 320 kbit/sec, Videosmoothness at 100 and keeping the framerate.
The result was stunning. But it still seem, that WMV material is more demanding on the CPU than appreciated. The result videos does contain jitter or perhaps even lost frames.
Yesterday I had a BluRay-rip of Baraka made. The Baraka movie is one of the absolutely best BluRay discs available.
This time I raised the max bitrate in Windows Media Encoder to 6000 kbit/sec. I've noticed in my previous experiments, that even though you choose a high setting in the encoder and choosing CBR, the encoder is actually using some kind of variable bitrate and the average bitrate is still lower than the ultra high settings of 3500-6000 kbit/sec. But by using ultra high settings, the encoder have room to give detailed footage enough bits leaving it without any digital artifacts such as macroblocking, which I hate.
The result. Well. The 320x240 matrix sure does have some impact on video material containing horizontal and vertical lines. It doesn't look too good to be honest. But organic shapes, such as animals, plants and human beings really looks amazing on a mobile phone )
But it still contained small amounts of jitter. During moments when I specifically knows the encoder used high bitrate like 5500 kbit/sec, the E72 lost a couple of frames.
Now. I have to do more experiments. Last night I found a way to make MP4's directly from a DVD, still containing subtitles. The material was the Twilight movie. My daughter, age 13, also got a Nokia E72.
The first experiments with small clips from the Twilight DVD showed, that the E72 can handle MP4 video at 8000 kbit/sec much better than WMV at 6000 kbit/sec. I noticed absolutely no jitter at all, even when using an ultra high bitrate setting like 8000 kbit/sec. Promising )
But....in order to enjoy high quality video material on your Nokia E72, I've noticed that you have to watch them in full screen. The socalled normal window (inside RealPlayer) degrades the video severe.
You also have to copy final video material directly to the phone. Don't let the Nokia PC-Suite transform the video material. Even the socalled "High Quality" setting in PC-Suite reduces video material to roughly 480 kbit/sec and that can't be recommended.
Now....the hunt is on to find the breakpoint of the CPU, using MP4 material. If it melts, it's my own responsibility. But for the time being, 8000kbit/sec (video bitrate, MP4) is no problem for E72.
I forgot to say: The audio quality on E72 is great. 9.5 stars out of 10. I've used Sennheiser HD600 headphones.

Answer 1

I've just found a splendid piece of software. Avidemux.
It can convert mkv directly into MP4.
As we speak, I'm experimenting with some videomaterial, which look promising. I'll report back at a later point in time.