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iPod Encoding with ffmpegx for ipod

B

bepster

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 21, 2005
78
0
Hi!

did some encoding with ffmpegx, cause it seems like it's the only app that converts .avi to mpeg-4.mov on os x, right?

so when I do that, I end upp with a file that QT can play, but the picture is all messed up... hard to discribe (english is not my first, or second language!) but I'll try:

there are large coloured bits and pieces everywhere, you can not reallt see the real pic, not watchable!

this is really bugging me, cause I am looking for a better quality when I am playing my avi-movies on the TV, than encoded to h.264..

thanks guys,
bep
 
so nobody wants to help us out here just because we don't understand all this high-end-encoding stuff??

...thanks for nothing then I guess!
 
I'll do that, snowmoon, thanks...
I found this in an apple forum! take a look at this, what do you guys think??

"OK. I used ffmpegX to encode it with these settings:

Video tab:
- Video Codec: XviD [.MP4] (ffmpeg)
- Video Bitrate: 600-700
- Video Size: 480 x work out the height to keep the aspect ratio of the original file.
- Framerate: Keep the original

Audio tab:
- Audio Codec: AAC (MOV/MP4/3GP)
- Audio bitrate: 128
- Sampling: 44100
- Channels: Stereo
- Mode: CBR

Options tab:
- High Quality checked
- Two-pass encoding checked

If you need to deinterlace the picture the option is in the Filters tab.

To learn what all the options do check the ffmpegX Documentation.

So if you want to convert video from a DVD use HandBrake and from any other source use ffpmegX.

Hope it helps."
 
I don't know what to tell you, everything looks ok. The bitrate seems a tad low for 480xY movies, but to each their own. If you plan on only using the video in the ipod there is no reason to go over 320xY and if you plan on using the video out 640xY is good for all but 4:3(fullscreen) titles.

ffmpegx uses plug in tools. I would download handbrake and then point ffmpegx to the copy of ffmpeg hidden in the program directory. It appears that the ffmpeg that ffmpegx asks you to download might be old and poorly updated.
 
snowmoon said:
I don't know what to tell you, everything looks ok. The bitrate seems a tad low for 480xY movies, but to each their own. If you plan on only using the video in the ipod there is no reason to go over 320xY and if you plan on using the video out 640xY is good for all but 4:3(fullscreen) titles.

ffmpegx uses plug in tools. I would download handbrake and then point ffmpegx to the copy of ffmpeg hidden in the program directory. It appears that the ffmpeg that ffmpegx asks you to download might be old and poorly updated.
Click to expand...


how does one do that? when converting to mpeg, mine gets to 30%, then goes straight to finished?
 
Sky Blue said:
how does one do that? when converting to mpeg, mine gets to 30%, then goes straight to finished?
Click to expand...

I would need to see the logs. it's quite possible that ffmpeg is running into a corrupted stream.

If you have handbrake installed, use the command line tool to "cd" into handbrake.app and find the embeded copy of ffmpeg, copy it out and then use the ffmpegx prefrences to use THAT copy rather than the one that ffmpegx tells you to download.
 
Sky Blue said:
how does one do that? when converting to mpeg, mine gets to 30%, then goes straight to finished?
Click to expand...

Mine does the same thing, but at about 5-9%. The finished video files are broken. All the frames of the video are speed up in the first 5-9% of the file. The rest of it is white. The audio plays normal throughout.
 
snowmoon said:
If you have handbrake installed, use the command line tool to "cd" into handbrake.app and find the embeded copy of ffmpeg, copy it out and then use the ffmpegx prefrences to use THAT copy rather than the one that ffmpegx tells you to download.
Click to expand...

Hmm, I looked inside handbrake.app and didn't see ffmpeg around.
 
avi files are pc at heart and aren't very mac friendly. you either get the sound and no video or visa versa. and most of the time you get neither. I have never seen any program that works every time. your best bet is to get the 3ivx MPEG-4 codec plug-in and a copy of divx doctor http://www.3ivx.com/divxdoctor/. both free. this will turn your .avi into an editable and playable .mov. I would say this works 90% of the time. there are of course some avi's that just wont play on the mac.:(
 
freeny said:
avi files are pc at heart and aren't very mac friendly. you either get the sound and no video or visa versa. and most of the time you get neither. I have never seen any program that works every time. your best bet is to get the 3ivx MPEG-4 codec plug-in and a copy of divx doctor http://www.3ivx.com/divxdoctor/. both free. this will turn your .avi into an editable and playable .mov. I would say this works 90% of the time. there are of course some avi's that just wont play on the mac.:(
Click to expand...

3ivx is just another wrapper ( IIRC ) around ffmpeg. You just need a copy of ffmpeg that has ALL the options compiled in. The biggest problem is that there are no "official" ffmpeg releases to base a comparison on. You can build the CVS version with some or all of the optional libraries compiled in.

Makes me want to sit down and build a nice complete ffmpeg binary for osx so that we can end this debate.
 
snowmoon said:
3ivx is just another wrapper ( IIRC ) around ffmpeg. You just need a copy of ffmpeg that has ALL the options compiled in. The biggest problem is that there are no "official" ffmpeg releases to base a comparison on. You can build the CVS version with some or all of the optional libraries compiled in.

Makes me want to sit down and build a nice complete ffmpeg binary for osx so that we can end this debate.
Click to expand...

yes, it makes me want you to do that too ;)
 
I was finally able to get divx content encoded for the ipod, after struggling with pretty much every problem mentioned here (including getting files to work great in quicktime and itunes, but not updating to ipod)..

The trick for me was to make sure to select the 'XviD [.MP4] (ffmpeg)' setting on the Video tab next to 'Video Codec'. After that things work wonderfully and I'm able to encode video that plays on my ipod.

Don't know if this solves anyone else's problem, but it helped me.

Additionally, I emailed the maintainer of ffmpegX and his video ipod is apparently in transit. Once he gets it he'll test it out, write a howto, and I hope add an easy drop down 'ipod video' option like the one he has for psp.

Good luck.
 
Okay... so now my only issue is that I can't get subtitles written onto the outputted file using this codec. When I was using the H.264 mencoder, ffmpegX enabled the feature.. When ffmpegX is using ffmpeg, I seem to be out of luck getting subtitles burned onto the video. If anyone else figures this one out then let me know.

I looked at the ffmpeg documentation and it doesn't seem to support this feature itself... I suppose I can encode twice (once to get the subtitles onto the video via mencoder, and then again to make it 'ipodable') but that's no fun. If anyone finds a better way, feel free to let me know.
 
Did you actually get that to work? I tried those exact steps and no matter what I did I was never successful with mencoder's H.264 encoding. It would play great on Quicktime and import to itunes.. but when it came time to update the ipod.. no dice.

I'm actually suspecting a lot of the folks writing howto's out there are simply making sure their videos play well with itunes and quicktime and assuming that they'll make it to the ipod intact.
 
Alright i am exhausted trying to get this whole ffmeg stuff to work. I followed the instructions on this website: http://arstechnica.com/guides/tweaks/ipod-video.ars/4 without any success. I tried with two different files but i keep getting outputs of very weird file extensions such as........ nineinchnails_theperfectdrug.mov.ff.mp4

nineinchnails_theperfectdrug_00602498831557_dl.mov.ff.mp4

rhcp_zephyrsong_dl222.264

ZepMusVid.264

rhcp_zephyrsong_dl.mp4

ZepMusVid.aac.mp4

but none of these work. I even downloaded a file that claimed to be ipod video ready it was H.264 30fps and the right res. This seems like such a damn hassle, i guess maybe that's what apple wanted though so they could only sell their music videos and tv shows. Can anyone help i'm glad to try and type of file with any type of setting and to post the log read out. Please HELP!!!

P.S. I was able to get a video podcast to play but i really wanna see a "cool" video play on this thing, rather then 2 heavy set dudes talking.
 
I'm finishing up a long how-to on this very subject. In my opinion it is very fast and easy, even at near-dvd quality for good tv-out viewing.

On my dual 2.0 g5 it took about 8 minutes to convert a 22 minute episode of American Dad.

Check back later tonight and I'll post a link to my website with full instructions on how to do this.
 
XjeffX said:
I'm finishing up a long how-to on this very subject. In my opinion it is very fast and easy, even at near-dvd quality for good tv-out viewing.

On my dual 2.0 g5 it took about 8 minutes to convert a 22 minute episode of American Dad.

Check back later tonight and I'll post a link to my website with full instructions on how to do this.
Click to expand...

I know beggers can't be choosy but i really hope this isn't the same FFmpegx because well i tried that in 5 or 6 different combinations on 3 different videos and they keep spitting out all of these weird extensions .ff.aac.mp4, .264, .aac.mp4 all kinds of weird crap, also please tell me that you have tested these on an ipod because spitting out a video that works in quicktime is alot different then getting it to play on these extremely anal res specs required by apple!!!! I'm kinda annoyed by all the hoops we have to jump trough, why didn't apple just make the encoding of these files easy through itunes or make it available on quicktimes after all i dropped 300 bones on this damn thing
 
iDM said:
I know beggers can't be choosy but i really hope this isn't the same FFmpegx because well i tried that in 5 or 6 different combinations on 3 different videos and they keep spitting out all of these weird extensions .ff.aac.mp4, .264, .aac.mp4 all kinds of weird crap, also please tell me that you have tested these on an ipod because spitting out a video that works in quicktime is alot different then getting it to play on these extremely anal res specs required by apple!!!! I'm kinda annoyed by all the hoops we have to jump trough, why didn't apple just make the encoding of these files easy through itunes or make it available on quicktimes after all i dropped 300 bones on this damn thing
Click to expand...


I've been testing it for the past two days and it works perfectly. It's easier than everybody is making it out to be.

I agree that it should be easier though because I can't see many average mac users being able to do this. Then again, why would apple want to make it any easier for people to use this as the pirating device it is? :) I mean who converts xvid videos for home use? Obviously 99% of people that need this are doing so for less than legal reasons.

Give me about 20 more mins.. I'm distracted by the world series :cool:
 
XjeffX said:
It's up. Sorry for the delay. Hopefully this helps every out a bit. Let me know if there is anything that should be added.

http://www.jeffpatch.com/?postid=101
Click to expand...

hmm, pretty much the same as the others.
I would love some one to do instructions on how to do the MtR >ffmpegx route, as Handbrake hardly recognises my DVDs (no valid title) and ffmpegx spits out files QT doesn't like.
 
When i rip a DVD in Mac The Ripper, I end up with a bunch of VOB files. In ffmpegx which VOB file to I point it to?
 
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