Converting .rm files with ffmpegX

[monalisa]

I am having problems converting my .rm files to something usable for my ipod using ffmpegX. Part of the problem may be that I can't adequately download mpeg2enc. When I try to download all I get is a website filled with gibberish. Then I followed the instructions to hold down control and click the link. I now have a document filled with gibberish. Everytime I open ffmpegX it tells me to locate this file, which I do but it never seems to accept it.

An additional problem occurs when I place a .rm file in ffmpegX window and try to play it. An error message occurs that says "the application mplayer has unexpectedly quit". I have downloaded reallib and placed it in ApplicationSupport/ffmpegX so ffmpegX does recognize it as a real audio file.

any hints?

[monalisa]

I just switched to firefox and it seems that empeg2enc has downloaded and installed correctly though the file has the .intel extension. I'm still getting all of the same errors.

[major]

Either you cannot encode any .rm files at all, then the cause could be either the reallib installation or its processor compatibility G3/Intel, either you can encode at least some .rm files but not some others, in that case the behavior could be normal as reallib is not able to decode all the ten flavors of .rm but only some of them.

[monalisa]

I was succesful in converting the file to .avi. Unfortunately itunes would not accept this file. Then I went to Toast 7 to convert from avi to .mov and Toast 7 just quit every time I did it. ARRRRGGHHHH

[monalisa]

When I try to convert to .mov it gives this:

Encoding started on Sun Oct 22 16:37:09 PDT 2006
FFmpeg version CVS, Copyright (c) 2000-2004 Fabrice Bellard
Mac OSX universal build for ffmpegX
libavutil version: 49.0.0
libavcodec version: 51.9.0
libavformat version: 50.4.0
[NULL @ 0x45a630]Unsupported video codec
Input #0, rm, from '/Users/christop/Desktop/1010_-_miss_teacher_bangs_a_boy.rm':
Duration: 00:21:44.0, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 229 kb/s
Stream #0.0, 12.00 fps(r): Video: RV40 / 0x30345652, 320x240, 180 kb/s
Stream #0.1: Audio: cook, 44100 Hz, stereo, 44 kb/s
Stream #0.2: Data: 0x0000
Output #0, mov, to '/Users/christop/Desktop/1010.mov':
Stream #0.0, 23.00 fps(c): Video: mpeg4, yuv420p, 320x176, q=2-9, 290 kb/s
Stream #0.1: Audio: aac, 48000 Hz, stereo, 96 kb/s
Stream mapping:
Stream #0.0 -> #0.0
Stream #0.1 -> #0.1
Unsupported codec (id=72) for input stream #0.0


When I convert to .avi or this time I tried MP4 H.264 it seems to work sort of. The first time I did it I got a bunch of "Skipping frame" and "(1) Duplicate frames". I stopped it early, but then it said it was done. When I played the movie with QuickTime it seems I got everything except the final credits. A similar thing appears to be happening with mp4.H264.

[major]

If it works converting to .avi, just convert back this .avi to iPod format.

[julianps]

any hints?

I am running the install at the moment and recognise your issues.

I too found the "gibberish" sourceforge page, right-clicked the link instead and download a file that was saved by Safari as mpeg2enc.intel.txt

After installing ffmpegX I used the Install Binaries menu -> tick in the box to the left of mpeg2enc -> select the Locate button and navigate through the Finder windows to the downoaded mpeg2enc.intel.txt file. ffmpegX created a binary called mpeg2enc in /Library/Application Support/ffmpegx/

If you followed the installer steps you should be able to confirm that you have mencoder, mpeg2enc and mplayer all installed in this same folder.

At the same time, if you want ffmpegX to access quicktime/mpeg2 or divx codecs you will need to get a copy of the QT/mpeg2 component from the Apple Store and divx codecs for Mac (I think the free version of divx is good enough, but I have the $20 "Pro" version so cannot confirm that) from the divx.com site.

The respective ffmpegX menus will not work without a prior installation of these components for ffmpegX to access (a re-start is required...

Which brings me to the RealPlayer files. In order to play (and consequently to convert) .rm files, ffmpegX needs an HelixDNA component be installed. The "macos-gcc3-pb" Helix4Mac component is no longer available (it seems) so use the Sourceforge link instead.

The components must be in a folder at /Library/Application Support/ffmpegx/reallib/

I recomend a restart to make sure that all of the loaded components (dixv, qt/mpeg2, mencoder, reallib, etc) are all started.

If ffmpegx cannot play a file it will not be able to do anything else with it, so the first test it always reading/playing files. The second is certainly to ensure that all folders you will be using are read/write enabled.

this got me going so I hope it helps others as well.

Jules