ffmpegX 0.0.9t released

[major]

v0.0.9t Aug 27, 2005
http://homepage.mac.com/major4/download.html

With this new version you are required to download a new version of the mencoder and mplayer binaries even if you already installed ffmpegX before. The download URL is http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/mplayerosx/ffmpegXbinaries20050814.zip
Other versions will not work. Only mplayer and mencoder need to be updated. Please read the installation instructions at http://homepage.mac.com/major4/download.html

What's new in 0.0.9t:

- Added new MP4 H.264 quick preset for encoding with outstanding quality to the H.264 Advanced Video Codec (mpeg-4 part 10), and AAC sound, in a MP4 container fully compatible with Quicktime 7. Supports VIDEO_TS input and all mencoder features (subtitles, etc). Please note: AVI h.264 has been discontinued, because it is highly unstandard to use H264 into AVI, and its previous availability was only experimental. Please note: PSP H.264 uses a non-standard muxing profile and will be added later to the available encoding formats.
- Added support of PSP non-standard resolutions (for use with 16:9 sources): mainly 368x208, as well as 416x176, 320x176, 384x160, 480x160 and 400x192. Note that the PSP screen has a resolution of 480x272, but for movie playback, width x height must not exceed 76800 pixels, so the smaller sizes listed above have to be used. Note that no matter the non-standard resolution used, the picture will be always scaled to the full 16:9 PSP screen size, so if your source is 2.35;1 you must prior reverse it to 16:9 by using black bars. For 4:3 sources, always use the standard 320x240 resolution. To gain a little quality if you don't mind for the bigger filesize, you may use a video bitrate of 400 kbps.
- Fixed display bug in ffmpegX Progress.
- The installer is now compatible with 10.4 Tiger.
- New "Tools" tab. Each tool has now its own view for easier operations and more room for additional options.
- The "Open in Terminal Window" and "Keep Elementary Streams" option have been moved in the ffmpegX menu in the Apple bar.
- The "Author as DVD/SVCD/VCD" and "Split in N chunks" options for ffmpeg and mpeg2enc post-processing have been moved in the Options tab.
- Prescanning of VIDEO_TS folders is now instantaneous.
- Added "ME Function" option for H.264 encoding. Sets the comparison function used for fullpixel motion estimation (affects quality). Available values: Diamond search (fastest), Hexagon search (default), Uneven multi-hexagon, Exhaustive search (very slow).
- Support for new source formats with newer versions of the binaries, including QT7 H.264, Ogg, Vorbis, VP3, FPS1, Theora, Alac.
- Added a smaller subtitle font size value of 0.
- Added simplified chinese subtitle font (STHeiti).
- Added new autosize values of 16:9, 1.85:1 and 2.35:1 "keeping height", allowing for the maximum possible quality in case of anamorphic 16:9 DVDs encoding (eg. you'll keep all vertical resolution and increase width, instead of keeping width and decreasing horizontal resolution).
- Fixed encoding issues for some .rm files previously resulting in a bus error.
- Crop information is now included in user-saved presets.
- When manually editing the image width or height, 'best' bitrate is automatically re-computed.
- The "Fix" tool for doctoring AVI files now runs in the Progress window.
- Fixed preview for mpeg-2 encoding with 'Normalize' enabled.
- Fixed encoding to ffmpeg mpeg-2 with ntsc-film framerate (previously forcing ntsc).
- Some improvements to better support running on a japanese OSX.
- Fixed various bugs from 0.0.9s.
- Updated to mplayer/mencoder CVS of Aug 14, 2005.
- Updated to ffmpeg CVS of Aug 14, 2005.
- Updated to h.264 x264 rev285 of Aug 10, 2005.
- Updated to XviD CVS of Aug 10, 2005.

[promoter]

Major,

Kudos on another great release. Not only do you create great tools, you handle your users with class & respect.

I really like the new Tools window. The new tabbed organization is much cleaner, and it's a lot easier to tell which options/input boxes pertain to a particular function. Thanks for the thoughtful redesign. Since I often queue a lot of files, I also appreciate the Progress window bug fix.

The only change I'm not keen on is the smaller font in some of the tabbed windows, e.g., the "Encoding profile" pulldown of the Options tab. It's very evident in the Tools->Author tab, where the "Author as" pulldown font is much bigger than the pulldowns for "Split mpeg," "Subtitles font," and "Text encoding" below it. It would be easier on my eyes if they could all be the size of the "Author as" pulldown, but this is a minor quibble.

Again, thanks for continuing to improve this great tool. Have a great weekend!

[major]

Thank you. I agree that sometimes the font are too small and that this should be improved.

[sedination]

x264 is utterly amazing. I've never seen an encode of this quality at 300kbps. I'm no codec expert myself but according to the experts at Doom9, x264 is second only to Nerodigital AVC at producing the best quality at low bitrates.

Thanks for the great release, major

[Dunnyman]

So far so good, but no option to run it in the terminal window? Only one file at a time?
Other than that, great!

[lhawkins]

You can still encode multiple files at once. just queue them up and then click the little "play" arrow-button in the queue. The other button opens the information window so that you can see the same information you used to be able to see in the terminal window.

[warmace]

Great update. Thanks again.

I was hoping for PSP h.264 support. I'm sure you're busy and you are working on it. If there is anything that might help get support faster ( info, testing, donation, etc.), please let us know. ffmpegx is the most versatile program out there for PSP encoding and hopefully all of us Mac PSP users could help you out.

[major]

Great update. Thanks again.

I was hoping for PSP h.264 support. I'm sure you're busy and you are working on it. If there is anything that might help get support faster ( info, testing, donation, etc.), please let us know. ffmpegx is the most versatile program out there for PSP encoding and hopefully all of us Mac PSP users could help you out.

PSP H264 is also going to be supported, donations are welcomed as I'm running out of Coca Cola containers.

[major]

x264 is utterly amazing. I've never seen an encode of this quality at 300kbps. I'm no codec expert myself but according to the experts at Doom9, x264 is second only to Nerodigital AVC at producing the best quality at low bitrates.

Thanks for the great release, major

Indeed, the quality is also extremely superior than QT7 own H264 encoder.

[G Rom]

Great news !
I'm trying MP4 H.264 encoding right now

[sedination]

x264 is utterly amazing. I've never seen an encode of this quality at 300kbps. I'm no codec expert myself but according to the experts at Doom9, x264 is second only to Nerodigital AVC at producing the best quality at low bitrates.

Thanks for the great release, major

Indeed, the quality is also extremely superior than QT7 own H264 encoder.

And unless I'm mistaken, ffmpegx only does x264 Main Profile. If the High Profile was included as well the gap between x264 and Quicktime 7 would be even greater but I guess it was a wise decision to exclude it because as far as I know there's no player yet released for the mac that can play high profile.

[dayos_x]

Say, guys... Did something happen to the Split AVI file feature? You know, the function that lets you split a DivX AVI with AC3 audio into multiple CDs? I can't find it anywhere now with 0.0.9t. Hope it's not gone for good.

[major]

It is there.. in the Filters tab.

[Mildew]

Major,

Nice work. I really appreciate the refinements you've made to the interface. It's a professional piece of work all round.

Were there any G5-specific improvements or enhancements made to version 0.0.9t?

[DaleMox]

Thank you Major.
What a nice surprise having returned from my vacation...

Dale

[alph]

Thank you: ffmpegx is an ever increasingly great application.

I was wondering if there are any limitations or optimisations that should be noted with respect to processor type, ie G3, G4 or G5. Will there be a forthcoming G3 version of the binaries as was once tested for s?

Also, the current builds of reallibs do not seem to be recognised by ffmpegx. The "stable" version works however. If a current build is installed ffmpegx does not display any info in the Summary Source pane, but with the stable version it does, and, despite the source information not displaying, if you try to encode with mencoder it starts but fails with a bus error.

Thanks again, and cheers
Alph

[major]

I'll try to make optimized versions of the binaries. For reallib, better always use the stable build.

[smileyq]

With the new keep height feature do I use just as I always have? For example I rip my dvd's then usually go and set the width to 720 then select the aspect ratio. With this new feature will I do the same thing and what benifits will this have? Thanks for the update!

[major]

If you set this feature then the width will get larger, but at least height will not get smaller (so as no pixels will be lost from the source).

[smileyq]

So for example normally a 2.35 film would be 720 x 304 with this it would be 832 x304 and giving me more detail when the avi is fit to the screen?

[major]

No, it will be like 720x304 in the first case and 960x410 in the second case (supposing 410 is the height of your movie after cropping).

[karipu]

I think the Split should be in the Tools with these options:

Split in half according to size
Split in to certain CD size (700 or 800)

Please, Major, please!

I'm quite sure that many people want this!

[thoughton]

Major, have I told you lately how flippin' awesome you are? Finally had a chance to play with this release - and it is amazing.