[MPlayer-users] mencoder parameters for iPod

[Tom Evans]

On Fri, Feb 5, 2010 at 12:02 PM, Andrew Daviel <advax at triumf.ca> wrote:
> On Thu, 4 Feb 2010, Rolf Ernst wrote:
>
>> Sorry, Andrew, that was the only reference info I had. It did not
>> distinguish between player generations so that may have been dubious
>> already. I don't have the device myself but the players I have are all
>> very
>> sensitive about which parameters are used in encoding.
>
> I messed around with later versions of libplist, gtkpod, libgpod which have
> some support for the 5g. I could see some of the database, but finally
> managed to zap it writing with the latest libgpod-teuf-sandbox.
> But that's not a big deal (the lack of support; the database recovered under
> iTunes on XP) as my daughter uses XP anyway. I was just
>
> I'm really more interested in being able to convert files from
> camcorder/youtube etc. I guess there must be something free for Windows but
> I haven't looked.
>
> I found "-lavfopts format=ipod" in the mencoder manpage, so my command
> looked like
> $ mencoder -of lavf -lavfopts format=ipod -oac faac -ovc x264 foobar.avi -o
> foobar.m4v
> (plus other options you suggest)
> iTunes silently refuses to add the result to the library, so I don't
> actually know if it will play on the hardware since I have no way of getting
> it there. Quicktime player won't play it, saying "an invalid sample
> description was found".
>
> I saw some comment in mplayer to the effect "lavf still has bugs", so maybe
> it is generating invalid data that Quicktime and iTunes choke on.
>
> Can you give me some complete command lines that work with earlier iPods ?
> Are you uploading direct from Linux or using iTunes on Mac/Windows ?
> Do your files play in Windows Quicktime ?
>
> (I did find some mp4's in my collection that do play, but I can't remember
> where they came from. Downloaded from the net, I expect)
>
> regards, Andrew

This is the command line I use to transcode DVB in the UK (720x576 at 25
fps MPEG2) to a format that I can use in itunes and play on ipod
touch/iphone. Maybe it is useful to you?

nice -+19 mencoder -ofps 25 -of lavf -lavfopts format=mp4 -af
lavcresample=44100 -vf-add harddup \
     -vf-add scale=320:240 -oac lavc -ovc lavc -lavcopts
aglobal=1:vglobal=1:acodec=libfaac:abitrate=128:vcodec=mpeg4:vbitrate=384:keyint=25
\
     -o $VIDEODIR/pda/$TITLE-$STARTTIME-$SUBTITLE.mp4 $VIDEODIR/$FILENAME -quiet

Cheers

Tom