iPod H.264 640X480 3gp_converter hack

ssj2_goha · iMember Joined: 18 Oct 2005 Location: Japan

OK here it is, a FREE simple one step video converter to convert files to the new iPod format. i have tested it on my G5.5 iPod. and thus far it works. right now it only has 2 profiles (hi-res TV, hi-res Movie). I will be adding more profiles shortly. i also included a poll to see what profiles people want me to add. oh yeah here is the file.
oh yeah i'm also working on getting chapter points working. i will write a guide about how to make the chapters once i get it working......
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FulciLives · Posted: Nov 15, 2006 03:53

What is the difference between the 2 profiles?

- John "FulciLives" Coleman
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ssj2_goha · iMember Joined: 18 Oct 2005 Location: Japan

well part of what i changed was putting atomicparsley as part of the encodeing so it taggs the files as a movie or tv show so in iTunes and on the iPod they are shown correctly.

the current version of the interface is gonna change alot with the next release. with the next version you can enter in most information that will tag the file.

I encoded the movie UHF and it came out a little over 650MB and it was great quality on both the comp and on the iPod.
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FulciLives · Posted: Nov 15, 2006 04:51

I don't have an iPOD but the thought of having one is kinda kewl I mean the idea that you can take a movie or two or three whatever with you is nice. I tend to spend a lot of time at one of my friend's house so the idea of hooking up an iPOD so we can watch a movie is neato.

I tried it though and I was not all that impressed with the quality. I used a MPEG-2 file (with muxed AC-3 audio) that I created on my Pioneer DVD recorder (model DVR-531H-s). The recording looks good ... SP 2 hour mode recording from an HDTV episode of CSI. This was a sample clip only that I made for something else so it was short (like 1 1/2 minutes or so).

I just dragged it into the 3GP Converter window and used your Hi-Res TV profile from your hacked version.

I then played it back on the computer using VLC player. There were odd "interlaced" artifacts and while the resolution and image quality looked OK when there was no movement even the slightest of movements caused what looked like massive compression artifacts.

I'm guessing that I somehow did something wrong?

If you feel like it ... here is my original clip: CLICK HERE

I'd be curious if you can download it and convert it then upload it somewhere so I can download it and see how it looks after you have done the conversion.

This way I know for sure if it was just me doing something wrong or ... that's just the way it looks LOL

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

P.S.
That link is to my MPEG file that came from the Pioneer DVD recording and was my source that I used to create the lackluster M4V I ended up with (yuck).
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"The eyes are the first thing that you have to destroy ... because they have seen too many bad things" - Lucio Fulci
EXPLORE THE FILMS OF LUCIO FULCI - THE MAESTRO OF GORE

ssj2_goha · iMember Joined: 18 Oct 2005 Location: Japan

I will take a look at it once i get home from work.
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guns1inger · So Very Tired Joined: 01 Apr 2004 Location: Miskatonic U

your site seems to have exceeded it's allocation for the time being. Geocities isn't a great home for downloads.

/edit : apologies - it seems to be back up now

Initial test with a quicktime 480p HD trailer as source produced a an immediate crash. SUPER processes the same file without any issues. I then tested it with a short flv, and although it processed it, it seemed to be going very slowly. Will do more testing when I get some time.
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ssj2_goha · iMember Joined: 18 Oct 2005 Location: Japan

right now the back end of my hack is an old version of ffmpeg as i do more updates the newer version of ffmpeg will be used that might be why it's causing problems.
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ssj2_goha · iMember Joined: 18 Oct 2005 Location: Japan

FulciLives · Posted: Nov 15, 2006 13:56

So it did the same thing for you then, huh?

Well at least I know it wasn't me LOL

Let me know what you find out.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman
_________________
"The eyes are the first thing that you have to destroy ... because they have seen too many bad things" - Lucio Fulci
EXPLORE THE FILMS OF LUCIO FULCI - THE MAESTRO OF GORE

GMaq · Linux Member Joined: 17 Mar 2004 Location: Canada

FulciLives,
While the 3gp thing is getting ironed out, it's not like XviD or DivX looks so terrible on an iPod either, Something that has been overlooked by a lot of people is that the new iPod resolution specs were also increased for Regular MP4 not just H.264, So DivX, XVid and Nero Digital at 640x??? (or any resolution that doesn't exceed 307200 pixels in total ie 704x320 etc.) with a minimum of 1000kbps look pretty good as well, even Satellite Caps. Since there are no stupid disk size limitations crank up the bitrate as high as you need (2500kbps is the limit though). And yes it is kewl to carry around a couple dozen movies in yer pocket!! You could probably fit your entire Fulci collection on there.

The only caveat is iPod's don't like B-Frames but still the quality is good IMHO.
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FulciLives · Posted: Nov 15, 2006 17:37

ssj2_goha · iMember Joined: 18 Oct 2005 Location: Japan

yeah all should be fine
I guess i should add mpeg-4 (xvid) profiles to my hack too.... well thats now on my list
aso i think i'm gonna move to mencoder instead of ffmpeg as the video encoder. See if one of them is faster than the other.
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jagabo · Member Joined: 09 Dec 2005 Location: none

ssj2_goha · iMember Joined: 18 Oct 2005 Location: Japan

how do you tell ffmpeg to deinterlace?
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GMaq · Linux Member Joined: 17 Mar 2004 Location: Canada

@FulciLives,
For your consideration http://www.apple.com/ipod/specs.html has all the video specs for the iPod.
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FulciLives · Posted: Nov 15, 2006 21:52

ssj2_goha · iMember Joined: 18 Oct 2005 Location: Japan

well i got alot of the problem ironed out now.... i also have setting for widescreen (16X9) and fullscreen (4X3) videos, chapters still don't work that is my next step. Once i get home and get a chance i will upload my newer version and post a link here. (would it be against forum rules to post a .torrent to download the program????) i will also put the new version up where i have the old one. also i think i have the interlace problem solved and the videos are now done with 2 pass encodeing.
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crash447 · Member Joined: 07 Aug 2002 Location: United States

I am very interested in this hack and trying it out right now, but I was wondering if there was a reason there was only profiles for 800kbps. I encode all my iPod files at 640x480 1.5mbps and really don't want any less. I also saw you said there were profiles for 16x9 and 4x3, but as I am trying this out I don't see these options. Where should I be looking? Thanks for the work.
John

ssj2_goha · iMember Joined: 18 Oct 2005 Location: Japan

I haven't had a chance to upload the newest version yet when i do i will post it here.
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GMaq · Linux Member Joined: 17 Mar 2004 Location: Canada

Oops,
Looks like I've downloaded the wrong one then! I've used pretty much every other iPod soft, I tried 3GP last year and it didn't like the AVI's I was trying to do, but because of your diligence I'd like to give it another whirl. Can you please tell me if it will accept VOB files (in 1gb splits) or do they need to be .d2v's or contiguous MPEG files to drop on 3GP?? Thanks for you hard work!!
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My Site: www.bandshed.net
Wife's Site: www.morethanwordsbooks.ca
My Guide: http://forum.videohelp.com/topic330839.html
My App: http://www.bandshed.net/3GP.html

ssj2_goha · iMember Joined: 18 Oct 2005 Location: Japan

Happy New year. and now on to my gift to you guys. the newest version of my hack:
Download the new transcode.zip file and put the ini file in the iPod_converter folder replacing the old one.[/url]
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crash447 · Member Joined: 07 Aug 2002 Location: United States

First of all I want to say thank you very much for your work on this so far. I am pretty pleased and that is a huge compliment considering I have gotten refunds on two converters that had major issues and I paid for them. I do have a few questions. I messed around with the bitrates a little on my own and that has made me happy, but in reading the commands it made me wonder a few things.

1) Is this deinterlacing everything and if so do you know if there is a way to perform an IVTC instead.
2) I am assuming the 64 in the audio bitrate gives 128 kbps since there are two channels or is this actually a 64kbps encode?
3) Out of interest in learning how did you come up with the 2 and 51 for the quantiser numbers? Are these numbers relevant to ipod specs.

Once again I think you have done a great job. Thanks tons for your work.

John