Best encoding settings for Nexus 7

[Griff88]

I'm going overseas next month and I'd like to stick a load of TV episodes on my Nexus 7 for the flights and while I've used the likes of Handbrake and Freemake in the past I'm not sure what the optimal settings are for use with the Nexus.

Each episode is in the mkv format and weighs in at around 800MB/900MB. I know the Nexus wouldn't break into a sweat playing them but I'd like to reduce the file size while keeping the quality as high as possible.

I've tried the default Android preset on Freemake as well as tweaking the Android preset in Handbrake and they've reduced the file size to 470'ish and 420'ish respectively.

Should I be happy with that or with further tweaking and different encoding settings can I reduce the file size further?

 

[MJKearney]

I'm not sure of specific settings, so can only recommend you do what you've already done. That is, experiment a little bit until you get the smallest size with acceptable results. 400 MB for a one hour video sounds like a good balance to me, but there are a lot of factors to consider beyond the file size/length ratio that determines viewing quality. Also, viewing quality is somewhat subjective, so what I consider acceptable might not be good enough for you.

Another idea that would probably make more sense for you is to purchase the Nexus Media Importer app, an OTG USB cable, and a flash drive. Put all your space hogging media on a spacious flash drive or two, and be less concerned about maximum compression settings. Then plug the flash drive/OTG cable combo into the N7. Using NMI, you can then either play your videos directly from the flash drive, or transfer selected videos to the N7 for viewing from internal memory, and delete them when you're done. Doing it this way gives you more flexibility with your limited N7 storage space.

Here's a thread that discusses recommendations for OTG cables: http://forums.androidcentral.com/showthread.php?p=2358267