Unbox Video Quality
On the Unbox website, we give some general information about the quality of Unbox videos. Because some videos come in from content owners already encoded, and some are encoded by us, the specifics of each video can vary.
Below are some technical details about our most common video and audio parameters.
DVD-quality PC File
- Video Encoding Type: 2-pass bitrate VBR
- Video Codec: Windows Media Video 9 Advanced Profile
- Video Bitrate: 2500 kbps avg, 6000 kbps peak
- Video Frame Size: 640x480 (4x3 content), 720x408 (16x9 content)
- Video Frame Rate: 23.98, 29.97 (same as source)
- Video Keyframe Interval: 4 seconds
- Audio Encoding Type: 2-pass bitrate VBR
- Audio Codec: Windows Media Audio 9.1 Professional
- Audio Bitrate: 192 kbps avg, 1000 kbps peak
- Audio Sample Rate: 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz (same as source)
TiVo "Best Quality" File
- Video Encoding Type: 2-pass bitrate VBR
- Video Codec: MPEG-2
- Video Bitrate: 2800 kbps avg, 6600 kbps peak
- Video Frame Size: 640x480 - all 16x9 content is letterboxed
- Video Frame Rate: 23.98, 29.97 (same as source)
- Video Keyframe Interval: 4 seconds
- Audio Encoding Type: 2-pass bitrate VBR
- Audio Codec: MPEG-2 Layer 3
- Audio Bitrate: 192 kbps avg, 1000 kbps peak
- Audio Sample Rate: 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz (same as source)
Portable Video File
- Video Encoding Type: 2-pass bitrate CBR
- Video Codec: Windows Media Video 9
- Video Bitrate: 600 kbps
- Video Frame Size: 320x240 (4x3 content), 320x180 (16x9 content)
- Video Frame Rate: 23.98, 29.97 (same as source)
- Video Keyframe Interval: 6 seconds
- Audio Encoding Type: 2-pass bitrate CBR
- Audio Codec: Windows Media Audio 9
- Audio Bitrate: 96 kbps
- Audio Sample Rate: 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz (same as source)
-- Sam
I noticed that Unbox for TiVo downloads are missing closed captioning data.
This is very strange, because every other piece of content (movies, broadcast news, sports, commercials, etc.) that I watch on my TV has captions.
Is it possible to fix this?
Posted by:Kevin | May 01, 2007 at 05:31 PM
Kevin -
Thanks for your comment.
Closed captions are part of the signal that is sent from broadcast television stations and cable networks. The process of encoding video for download normally strips this data out and creates a separate file containing the text. Unfortunately, most of the content we receive from our partners does not include this text information.
However, adding support for closed captioning is in our future plans. We don't yet have a date when this will be available, but we recognize the need to add this feature.
-- Sam
Posted by:Sam | May 02, 2007 at 10:07 AM
As an alternative to Tivo or watching on the PC, we are using my son's Xbox 360 as a media center. Hooked to a plasma TV, the wireless connection does not degrade the image. You might consider suggesting this setup for others who complain about the lack of DVD burning or inability to watch movies on their TV.
Posted by:Tamara | May 20, 2007 at 07:59 AM