ffmpegX 0.0.9s released

[major]

http://homepage.mac.com/major4/
ffmpegX 0.0.9s - Jan 24, 2004

What's new in this version:

- The new ffmpegX opening view is the "Summary" tab. It provides a quick and easy way to operate ffmpegX by simply dropping a file on the left, choosing a preset on the right, and clicking "Encode". The source and target formats are detailed in the "LCD-like" screens.
- Added support of drag and drop of input files over the left "LCD" screen AND the Open.. field.
- Autocrop is now also supported with ffmpeg engine.
- Crop values are now always in TBLR format (top bottom left right) for both mencoder and ffmpeg engines. The needed conversions are now done internally and you do not longer need to convert between mencoder and ffmpeg crop formats.
- Autocrop now autocrops AND previews, for faster checking of crop values (hit the Return key to stop the preview).
- Fixed bug which caused wrong cropping values in recent releases.
- Added normalize audio option in the audio tab. It analyzes the whole input audio track and automatically adjusts the volume for the best average value before encoding it, so as to avoid volume too low or clipping. Currently available with ffmpeg mpeg-2, ffmpeg mpeg-1, and mpeg2enc without "Decode with mplayer". (For mencoder engine DivX/XviD/h.264, you may still use the Audio "Gain" popup to manually adjust the encoded volume).
- Added setting of subtitle size (Filters tab), for burning subtitles in DivX/XviD/h.264/mpeg1/2 or for creating DVD selectable subtitles with the specified font size. (Click the 'Play' button with a subtitle file loaded in the Filters tab to preview).
- Added setting of subtitle font (Filters tab), for burning subtitles in DivX/XviD/h.264/mpeg1/2 or for creating DVD selectable subtitles with the specified font. Available fonts are a subset of the Apple fonts installed in OSX 10.3. Fonts for non-latin alphabets are available, like Chinese, Japanese, Cyrillic, Greek, etc. (Click the 'Play' button with a subtitle file loaded in the Filters tab to preview).
- Added setting of subtitle text encoding (Filters tab), for burning subtitles in DivX/XviD/h.264/mpeg1/2 or for creating DVD selectable subtitles. Allow to use subtitle files with non-english characters sets. More than 60 choices are available to cover almost all possible cases. (Click the 'Play' button with a subtitle file loaded in the Filters tab to preview).
- Added "PSP ffmpeg" quick preset to encode video suitable for playback on the Sony PSP. Sets the new "psp" ffmpeg profile. Please note that once converted to the special PSP profile, the files will be not readable by ffmpegX for converting back to another format. Also sets the particular file naming needed for PSP, and the name used internally to catalog the movies (to be entered in the "PSP name" field which will appear in the Options tab).
- Added support of TiVo .ty files input for encoding with mencoder engine (to DivX, XviD, h.264), and with mpeg2enc engine and "Decode with mplayer" enabled (to mpeg-1, mpeg-2), as well as playback with the "Play" button.
- Added support of TiVo .ty files demuxing with the "Demux" tool. Standard .m2v and .mp2 streams will be generated as output (you can then import them in DVDSP).
- Added support of TiVo .ty files "Author as DVD" with the "Author" tool, to directly author them as VIDEO_TS folders without any re-encoding (audio is automatically resampled to 48Khz and elementary streams are kept, for any further processing in Sizzle or DVDSP).
- Added b-frames option to mencoder h.264.
- When encoding sources with AAC audio to ffmpeg mpeg-2, you may now avoid known ffmpeg memory leaks in decoding AAC audio, by enabling the "Normalize" option (now default in the presets). By doing so, Quicktime will be used to decode the audio, while ffmpeg will still be used to decode the video.
- "Decode with mplayer" temp files are now created in the destination folder.
- Better support of Quicktime files for ffmpeg engine.
- Several bugfixes from 0.0.9r and better error handling.
- Updated to mencoder CVS of Jan 23, 2005 (static build). This version improves VOB subtitle displaying and also fixes a bug which made XviD files impossible to open on PC.
- Updated to ffmpeg CVS of Jan 6, 2005.
- Updated to h.264 x264 rev104 of Jan 23, 2005.
- Updated to XviD 1.1 CVS of Jan 23, 2005.

[DaleMox]

Is this mencoder compatible with the G3?

Dale

[major]

I don't think so. Possibly I could get a G3 to build alternate binaries, though. Thank you for your suggestion.

[DaleMox]

PLEASE major, let me thank YOU. A G3 build would be excellent.

Dale

[major]

And I forgot to add, MKV files with mpeg-4 video and AAC audio should be recognized with this release.

[Mildew]

I don't think so. Possibly I could get a G3 to build alternate binaries, though. Thank you for your suggestion.

Can I still use this version on my G3 iMac to convert AVIs to MPGs?

[major]

Yes, I guess that ffmpeg engine should work on G3.

[Mildew]

Yes, I guess that ffmpeg engine should work on G3.

How about mpeg2enc?

[major]

mpeg2enc should work too, even if it should be painfully slow on a G3.

[alph]

There are too many things I like about this new release to mention. Thank you.

In doing half-DVD with ffmpeg as decoder and encoder, it seems that when normalize audio is enabled that the aspect ratio flags do not get set. Also, when normalize is enabled the .mpv files don't preview: mplayer launches and closes.

I too would appreciate the G3 support.

Thanks again,
Alph

[major]

A new version is online at the same address (http://homepage.mac.com/major4/ffmpegX.dmg) correcting some small glitches in the initial 0.0.9s release:

- fixed tooltips text in crop fields
- fixed alert in VCD mpeg-1 conversion
- fixed alert with audio-only encodings
- fixed error with "add audio"

More reported glitches to be fixed in the coming hours.

[ykz]

A new version is online

did i ever say thank you?

Thanks, major!

[major]

Thank you everyone for the support.

[DaleMox]

Hehe... I think major is running out of letters. Hopefully the next releases will be released, despite the lack of remaining letters. I would prefer having version 0.0.9z13 then not having the fixes, glitches and additional improvements.

Dale

[major]

The small fixes are published under the same release number.

[major]

A new version is now available at the same address (http://homepage.mac.com/major4/ffmpegX.dmg). Two more glitches have been corrected further to today's user reports:

- subtitle language names are now correctly displayed from VIDEO_TS analysis
- the 'fix' tool has been fixed

[alph]

I'm curious to know if this is normal, if I'm doing something wrong, or both.

With all other settings remaining the same this is what I get when viewing in mplayer depending if I had Normalize Audio on or off.



Settings: DVD ffmpeg, Half DVD, NTSC Film, 1463kb, AC3, 160kb, 48000hz, Stereo.

Source size: 640 x 352
Set size: 352 by 352 with letterbox value of 64, 64, 0, 0

Regards,
Alph

[thoughton]

The new version is awesome Great work!

One question: I've just noticed that the DVD presets now default to mp2 audio. Didn't they default to ac3 audio before?

[major]

They should default to ac3 or mp2 depending whether the source is detected being stereo or multichannel.

[major]

I'm curious to know if this is normal, if I'm doing something wrong, or both.

With all other settings remaining the same this is what I get when viewing in mplayer depending if I had Normalize Audio on or off.



Settings: DVD ffmpeg, Half DVD, NTSC Film, 1463kb, AC3, 160kb, 48000hz, Stereo.

Source size: 640 x 352
Set size: 352 by 352 with letterbox value of 64, 64, 0, 0

Regards,
Alph

A new version is now available at the same address (http://homepage.mac.com/major4/ffmpegX.dmg) with the following:

- Fixed taking into account aspect ratio flag when "normalize" is used with ffmpeg engine.

[promoter]

Hi Major,

I'm having some strange problems with ffmpegX 0.0.9s that first cropped up 2 or 3 versions ago. Namely, when I click on the "Open" button and select a file, ffmpegX seems to incorrectly identify the video & audio type. For example, NTSC files (including iMovie .mov exports and various .avis) encoded at 29.97fps are identified as "NTSC Film" or a PAL rate (sorry, I'm not at my Mac). When I choose the DVD Quick Presets (either mpeg2enc or ffmpeg), the default framerate & video size is set incorrectly (e.g., video size is set to 720 x 5?? instead of 720 x 480). In 0.0.9s (downloaded yesterday, so it's the updated version), the Summary tab's "Audio" box shows "No Audio" for files that do have audio tracks, and which do in fact encode with audio tracks.

I've mentioned some of these problems before, but they appear to be isolated to my system. I've reinstalled the binaries, downloaded and installed ffmpegX again, repaired permissions, run Disk Warrior, thoroughly cleaned my system & caches with OnyX & Yasu, but still have these errors. I'm writing to ask if there's a way to completely remove ffmpegX, along with any preference files, caches, etc., so that I can truly start from scratch. Thanks for your help.

[major]

There is a sticky message in this forum about completely removing ffmpegX.

I think your NTSC vs PAL issue should be tested by comparing behavior on another Mac (eg. my one, you can send me a clip or a link to download it to major4@mac.com).

About the "No audio" issue it is possibly a bug occurring with a very specific kind of files. Also this should be isolated by sending a clip.

[promoter]

Thanks, Major. I had read the message before posting, but completely missed the 2nd sentence to remove the folder "/Library/Application Support/ffmpegX." I'll give that a shot when I get back to my Mac, and let you know whether it resolves my problems or not.

[promoter]

Hi Major,

I think what I'm seeing (wrongly identified video & audio types) are premission related.

After deleting the \lLibrary\Application Support\ffmpegX folder and the ffmpegX application folder, then loading a fresh copy of ffmpegX 0.0.9s and its binaries, the Summary tab displayed the correct video and audio types for the first file I opened. After opening a couple of more files, all subsequent files I opened (including the first, correctly identified one) resulted in the Summary tab's "Audio" window incorrectly displaying "No audio" for all subsequent files.

I logged out, then in again, but with the same results. Same thing for restarting the Mac. Then, I tried logging in with my Administrator's account (my normal account doesn't have administrative privileges), fired up ffmpegX, and bingo. Every file was correctly identified, both for video and audio type. So it appears related to the user's permissions.

As I mentioned before, I'm very cautious and prefer not to use an account with administrative privileges on a regular basis. Based on the information I provided, is there any way to manually change any file/folder privileges so I can run from a normal account? Thanks for your help.

[major]

Indeed, ffmpegX must be run on an admin-type OSX account not just because of this, but I will perhaps downgrade that in further versions.

[promoter]

Well, I'll bump up my privileges when I want to use ffmpegX. Thanks for considering changing the requirement, Major.

[ykz]

greetings major,

i feel that this tiny bug is back in 0.0.9s

selecting an m2v and mp2 file, muxing as xsvcd, post -processing: author as SVCD

Split in Auto chunks unchecked as the mpg is < 600MB

/bin/sh: line 1: /Library/Application: No such file or directory

cheers
ykz

[major]

Fixed & re-uploaded 0.0.9s (r6).

[thoughton]

Hi, I'm getting an odd error when trying to use the ffmpeg engine to encode low framerate xvid/mp3s (for SmartMovie player):

AppleScript Error
The variable _frameratey is not defined. (-2753)

I got this error with fps set to 10 and also with 15.

[Boozerini]

Major,

My 0.0.9s was working great for one week and then it started that "Can't get text item 2". I have deleted all files (yes in application support) and reinstalled ffmpegx, post 1/23/05, at least 3 times, to no avail. The only thing that happened in the interim was I had installed MPEG2works and Forty-Two, both of which I deleted out in their entirety when I started having problems with ffmpeg and then reinstalled ffmpegx. Nothing. Help.

A new version is online at the same address (http://homepage.mac.com/major4/ffmpegX.dmg) correcting some small glitches in the initial 0.0.9s release:

- fixed tooltips text in crop fields
- fixed alert in VCD mpeg-1 conversion
- fixed alert with audio-only encodings
- fixed error with "add audio"

More reported glitches to be fixed in the coming hours.