Lately, the files that our video department have been sending us have been a bit glitchy, so I want to see what the prevailing wisdom is for best compatibility with Xibo. I see various mentions of MP4 but on a surface level that’s what we are receiving. Is MP4 still the best format? Are there any details to the way that the files are being encoded that we should be mindful of to make sure they play well? Right now we work in 1080p. We have 4k displays and the video department is talking about getting 4k cameras so that could enter the mix sometime in the future.
I would recommend H264 encoded MP4 format for video, as this is the most widely supported format. Please note that the best video format/encoding for your Display will depend on the device you are using.
If you find that the video files you are receiving are not showing correctly or consistently, you can use an application such as Handbrake to convert the video to an alternative format/encoding. It may take some trial and error, but this is a good way to test the performance of different formats on your own setup, helping you to choose a format for your video department.
I hope that other members of our Community also respond to your post with the formats they find most suitable for their setup. Please also feel free to update this post as you continue to find the best format for your digital signage.
We’ve been using ffmpeg (default settings), to lower quality (not noticeable to casual eye) and improve memory usage (always using h264, mp4). ffmpeg -i original.mp4 processed.mp4
We used klite codecs to lower cpu, but it probably increased memory leaks, and we had to return to stock codecs. (we use several shorts video, and probable triggers some kind of memory leak or usage)
It’s better to user one large video than several regions, if you are using a multimonitor setup. we used ffmpeg to create a larger video with differents sources. This improves cpu and memory use. If you are playing several short video, it’s better to build a longer video. Whenever possible use a single layout, with a single region, as it lowers loading time between the videos.
We make use of watchdog, lowering the memory usage threshold to restart player before out of memory errors gets triggered.
Just in case, we disable windows error reporting and use the DontShowUI key to disable any annoying popup.