Transcoding mp4's for Motorola Xoom (i.e. Android Device)?

I have Serviio running on my Windows 7 PC.
I have BubbleUPnP installed on the Motorola Xoom Tablet.
I have MX Player with ARMv7 Codec support installed on the Xoom tablet.

I can play movies that are on my PC over the WLAN on my tablet, but I was already able to do this with a Windows 7 Homegroup using its SMP protocol. The problem is that these mp4's are not encoded for the Tegra 2 chipset in the Xoom, and most of them are 1080p (the Xoom's resolution is 1280x800). Thus, I can only play them in MX Player using the SW decoder (not HW or HW+ decoding), and the result is that the framerate is too slow/choppy. Thus far, my solution has been to convert these files for optimal playback on the Xoom using a program called DVD Catalyst, and this works, but this is undesirable because: (a) I can only convert one movie at a time, (b) I have to wait for the conversion to finish to view the movie, and (c) the converted movie files takes up more hard drive space, and I'd prefer to not delete the source files. The end result is that I have to choose one movie that I want to watch, convert it, then play it over the network. Typically the conversion rate is about 1.25x-1.50x, so a 90 minute movie takes an hour or longer to convert.

Is there a way to use Serviio to transcode these files in real-time (i.e. during a stream)? This way I could stream any movie in my library over the network without having to wait for the conversion. Frankly, I don't even care if they convert. Basically I want to use the power of my PC to play the files, downscaling to 720p if necessary, and for my Xoom to basically function as a computer monitor that displays the data stream. Can I do this?

Some of the files are MKV's (which I understand is just a package containing an mp4, typically), and some are AVI's, but most are mp4s. Here is an example of the format information for such an mp4:

FORMAT: MP4
CODEC: X264
FILE SIZE: 1.95 GB
RESOLUTION: 1920 x 800
FRAME RATE: 23.976 fps
AUDIO: 92.0 Kbps AAC-LC (2CH)

Even when the file's resolution is 1280x534 (720p minus the cropped bars due to the cinematic 2.35:1 aspect ratio) it won't play using hardware acceleration on the Xoom's Tegra 2 chipset. I was under the impression that the H.264 codec for the .mp4 file type was the preferred video format for the Android OS, but something about these files seems to be optimized for x86/x64 chipsets, and not ARM, because MX Player will only play them using software decoding.

Hope this additional information clarifies my issue.

[zip]

It is possible, you just have to find a format the Xoom plays to transcode to.

It is possible, you just have to find a format the Xoom plays to transcode to.

The format I want is mp4 with the h.264 codec. I thought this was the same as the x264 codec, but apparently there is a difference:

http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/nv ... iew,6.html

Here's the thing, anything not capable of being accelerated by the GPU will always be dealt with by the CPU. And that's a problem for Atom processors. They just do not pack enough punch.

Example: enormously popular these days for example is x.264 (not to confuse with h.264 itself). It is also known under Matroska MKV and this is the kind of movie playback where you'd run intro restrictions as they are not supported (accelerated) over the graphics processor. It's really no different for high bitrate high-definition XVID and DIVX content either. Atom would not be able to handle it in 1080P or often even 720P, so immediately you'd run into restrictions if the media-file is not DXVA or bit-stream GPU accelerated. On an Atom platform this is your biggest problem.

From that perspective we feel that NVIDIA has a challenge it needs to address. The GPU can certainly deal with x.264 file formats. But NVIDIA places its focus in supporting file formats like DVD, WMV (HD) and Blu-Ray (VC1/h.264) only.

What we all really want and need is simple: to click on a movie and watch it in media player, and regardless of what format it is to have that movie accelerated over the GPU. It's as simple as that. Some sort of codec like the initial PureVideo you could purchase, and then accelerate, post process and playback the content in MediaPlayer, Media Center, similar to Popcorn hour .. for example. I certainly would like to see native GPU support for far more than just a DVD or Blu-ray movies.

How do I transcode into the h.264 codec? Thanks.

[zip]

you can trnscode to h264 (x264 is just the library), but not into mp4 container (only to mpeg2 ts).

you can trnscode to h264 (x264 is just the library), but not into mp4 container (only to mpeg2 ts).

Finally came back to this problem today, and I still don't understand how and where I set the transcoding instructions in Serviio and/or BubbleUPnP so that my videos will be transcoded by the PC while streaming to the tablet. I iterate; the tablet doesn't have the horsepower in the Tegra 2 chipset to decode these videos. Right now I'm able to stream the videos to the tablet, but they're choppy because MX Player is playing them in software decoding. In Serviio's "Delivery" tab, there is a "Transcoding" tab, and there is the option to check a box that enables transcoding. I don't see anything with an option for selecting an output codec.

If there is a sticky or some general FAQ on how to set up a standard PC-to-Android transcoding media server, then I'm willing to read.