Re: [gentoo-user] Re: converting any video to mpeg-1, mpeg-4 or DivX-5

[Iain Buchanan]

Success!  Partially at least (skip to the bottom if you want to know
how!)

On Thu, 2005-12-15 at 15:02 +0000, James wrote:
> Iain Buchanan <iaindb <at> netspace.net.au> writes:
>
> > Space it not too much of an issue
>
> Disc space is a relative thing. It always get's filled up. Human nature.
> You will never have enough disk space for adults is like
> candy for children, never, ever enough.

good point - same with memory, processor speed, etc.  As soon as you
have more, something more intensive comes out to use it...

> > So, here are my questions:
> > 1. whats the best format to use out of the ones listed, given
>
> Well you first have to realize that 'mpeg 4' is like saying
> I want a car.
[snip]

wow.  After reading your post, I realise it's much more complicated that
I first thought...

> Use H.264 until theora matures.

Unfortunately, with the comments from you and Uwe, I don't think H.264
will be suitable.  Firstly, I doubt my little low powered video device
will decode it, secondly I doubt I can encode it properly on linux, as
good as it sounds.

I think I will be happy with something simpler, even though it may be a
lower quality (that's the human subjective perception of the quality of
course :)  I guess it's like when people ask me for a recommendation on
purchasing computers.  They want to buy the cheap sub-$1000 all in one
deals, and I say "stay away, you're better off in the long run going for
something more expensive, with a better quality, longer life, etc".
However, sometimes they purchase their sub-$1000 PC's and they're
perfectly happy, because they don't use it like I do, and they haven't
had the experience with higher quality.

> HTH,

absolutely!

---------------------------------------------------------------

So, this is what I've come up with so far (for those following the
thread).  Simply:

ffmpeg -i test.wmv -b 4000 -s 640x480 -an test.mp4

(It's the filename .mp4 that did it! note the -an produces no audio)

$ file test.mp4
test.mp4: ISO Media, MPEG v4 system, version 1

however:
$ ls -alh test*
-rw-r--r--  1 iain users 8.5M 2005-12-16 09:18 test.mp4
-rw-------  1 iain users 1.8M 2005-12-15 21:51 test.wmv

as you can see, thats ~4x the size of the original... and thats without
sound.  That's not so good...

Well, I still have a bit to go, but at least I know I can put
_something_ on the device!  If anyone is interested, I can keep posting
back here with my results.

PS, can someone give me an example of how to encode divx with mencoder
or ffmpeg?  Or any program on linux for that matter?

thanks!
-- 
Iain Buchanan <iaindb at netspace dot net dot au>

Mater artium necessitas.
	[Necessity is the mother of invention].

-- 
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