Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[glynor]

So, my wife got a new fancypants smartphone yesterday (of the Apple variety), and so I was getting her sync with MC all set up.  In doing so, I ran across the new "MPEG4" conversion type available in the "generic" handheld video conversion settings.  This actually works OK for my purposes, once I figured out how to make MC download and install ffmpeg.exe and the ffmpeg.xml config file.  However, a few relatively simple UI changes to this would make it DRAMATICALLY more useful (or at least they seem to be all simple UI changes).

MC's audio conversion options are second-to-none when it comes to both manual conversions and handheld "automatic" conversions.  There really isn't much in the way of configuration that you could want for, even if you really know what you are doing.  However, MC's video conversion options seem like the "redheaded stepchild" of the application.  They don't get no love, and you have to hack everything manually.  This is almost entirely a UI issue though.  The power of ffmpeg to actually perform the conversions is all there!

First of all, I noticed that the build of ffmpeg.exe that MC is downloading and using is QUITE OLD.  Specifically, the build date is: Nov  1 2007 12:23:35.  Newer builds of ffmpeg include all sorts of new features that could come in handy (including x264 and multithreading support).  I downloaded a new build (from here) and replaced MC's copy of ffmpeg.exe and it worked fine.  Why aren't we including/using a newer version of ffmpeg?

Regarding the UI issues though, what I discovered is this:

When you choose MPEG4 as the video conversion mode for a "generic" handheld, MC uses the top line in the ffmpeg.xml file as the conversion settings, which happens to be the line labeled <psp>.  I had to figure this out manually, and the UI gives you no way to select the conversion "profile" from within MC's options dialog.  So basically, what I'm asking is this...

Can we have an "Encoder settings" dialog, similar to the one we have for Audio?  Or, at the very least, a second combo-box for "conversion profile" where we can choose from the different profiles in the ffmpeg.xml file (including our own profiles if we add them)?

[glynor]

Even better would be the separate Encoder settings dialog though... I'm not asking for anything fancy at this time (with quality sliders, codec selection, and whatnot).  Just a combo-box where we can choose from a set of conversion profiles pulled from the ffmpeg.xml file, and a text entry field and add/edit/delete buttons where we can make new profiles by entering the ffmpeg command line strings, just as we would by editing the ffmpeg.xml file.

One other thing I ran into is that the line in the <psp> tags in the ffmpeg.xml file is, obviously, not the full ffmpeg command line that is run.  MC is parsing this input somehow, and at the very least, adding paths for the input file and the output file.  However, I ran into issues with positioning of commands when writing my own custom conversion options.  For example, I added "-thread 2" to the string.  It worked fine when it was put at the end of the <psp> string, but not when it was at the front of the string.  Exactly how is MC parsing these command line strings?

Either way... After installing my own build of ffmpeg.exe and modifying the <psp> option in the ffmpeg.xml file, I was able to get MC to convert video files to x264 640x360 MP4 files and use two threads (I didn't want to push my quad-core all the way for this) to speed up processing dramatically.  It works great!  The problem is that I can't do any of this through the MC UI, and if I want to change my settings (to 640x480 for 4x3 content, for example), I have to go in and manually edit the XML file and I don't have a way to save a 4x3 and a 16x9 profile or anything like that.

[glynor]

The last thing I would ask is if as an additional mode, we could get the equivalent of the Audio conversion External Encoder type.  There are LOTS of options for command-line capable video conversion utilities.  The ability to define our own video conversion utilities (and use something with a more powerful UI) and have MC feed it custom parameters (just like the external encoder settings for audio) would be terrific!  Especially if the parameters field in the UI actually was a combobox that remembered the last 4-5 used strings...

Using MC with Telestream Episode for Windows, or with Mencoder, or any of the other available video conversion tools would be fantastic!

[tgack]

Thanks glynor this is extremely helpful in teaching me how to adjust some of those conversion settings (even if it is manual at the moment).  I always found it strange that at least the older model iPods when connected to MC had two options (320x240 or 640x480) but the generic handhelds had only a single mpeg4 option.

I second the request to put a GUI around these video conversion options.

[jmone]

Much of Glynors requests for exposing the Conversion options have been raised and are valid for the DLNA (streaming) server as well

[cncb]

Does anyone know offhand if television recordings (specifically high-def ATSC) done in MC can be converted for a handheld?

[glynor]

Generally it'll convert anything that FFMPEG can handle, which is a LOT.  Try it out!

[Matt]

You'd have to convert to WMV (or some other DirectShow-based encoder) since television recordings only play in DirectShow.

I just gave it a shot and it didn't work.  I'm not sure why, so we'll have to investigate.  It seems like it should be possible to me.

[jmone]

Does anyone know offhand if television recordings (specifically high-def ATSC) done in MC can be converted for a handheld?

I'd just like to convert it from JRiver's container to something Std (MPG would be fine)

[glynor]

One other thing I ran into is that the line in the <psp> tags in the ffmpeg.xml file is, obviously, not the full ffmpeg command line that is run.  MC is parsing this input somehow, and at the very least, adding paths for the input file and the output file.  However, I ran into issues with positioning of commands when writing my own custom conversion options.  For example, I added "-thread 2" to the string.  It worked fine when it was put at the end of the <psp> string, but not when it was at the front of the string.  Exactly how is MC parsing these command line strings?

Can someone (Yaobing) answer this?

[JimH]

glynor,
I agree with almost everything you've said.  It's a matter of time.  We spent much of the day putting out fires. 

Yaobing, for example, has a new OS (win7) and a new 1TB drive.  Eventually, he will be able to reply to your question.

Jim

[helpme]

Any news on this ?

I would certainly want to use these features