Big Platform difference with AviDemux....Why?

[GMaq]

Hello,
I have AviDemux 2.4.1 installed on both XP and Mepis Linux, When I import a VOB in Linux the Audio playback is very choppy and I can't "scrub" to find frames at all, However I can encode to XVid with no problems in the finished file, x264 is another story, all I get is a gray screen along with the Audio. In XP I can "scrub" quite easily and the same input VOB plays back smoothly and successfully encodes to XVid but not x264 (same result as Linux). In both cases the finished XVid file will playback in VLC Player on both platforms but not in Quicktime Pro/iTunes under XP. Is this a FourCC issue? How does XViD4 differ from plain ole' XViD?? I am really baffled by the performance differences, AviDemux is supposedly a Linux application that has been ported over to Windows but in this case it kinda sucks on both platforms but really sucks under Linux. I am trying to create .mp4 files in Linux, there all kinds of DVD rip to AVI programs but AviDemux seems to be one of the few .mp4 progs that doesn't rely on advanced command line skills. As far as I know AviDemux is self contained and doesn't have any "dependencies" that I'm missing. HELP!

[disturbed1]

2.3.0 works just fine in Ubuntu.

About VOB playback, try changing the audio output from OSS to Alsa. OSS is kind of old, and Alsa just seems to work better. If your on KDE which uses ARTs, sorry, I don't do Troll Tech Scrubbing also works like a charm. This could be a hardware issue, such as slow disk through-put, or other programs reading from the hard drive at the same time.

Your Xvid settings could be wrong, but I have never in my life used Quick Time nor iTunes. My XviD encodes work fine with Totem-GStreamer/VLC and my Philips DVD player. Are you encoding with GMC or other non standard options?

x264 also works just fine on the PC and my friend's iPod.

Avidemux is self contained other than the XviD binary. XviD4 is just the newest XviD.

I thought perhaps it was an issue with you using a newer verison, so I downloaded and installed from here http://www.getdeb.net/release.php?id=478. Vob scrubbing and x264/FAAC encoding works just fine. This is for 32bit.

[GMaq]

disturbed1,
Thanks a lot for replying, I'm a recent convert from the big "Should I switch to Linux" thread awhile back. I'm really trying to give it a complete and thorough evaluation, if I wasn't into such specific areas of multimedia it'd be a lot easier I'm sure. I did try switching the audio to ALSA, it didn't make any difference. And yes MEPIS uses KDE, perhaps that is an issue. I am a big VirtualDub user and to be able to go directly to MPEG-4 would be sweet. I use x264 in a few XP apps and I really want to get it working, the only non-standard settings are no B-Frames. iPod won't playback B-frames, so even if I can get x264 to work with the standard settings it won't be of any use. Maybe I'll try it in a Gnome environment and see what it does. I see WinFF has a new version with iPod presets, maybe worth a look as well.

[GMaq]

OK,
Much better, I picked SDL Accel in the video tab, now I can scrub my little brains out. Still no x264 but maybe it's got something to do with the no B-frames with this particular x264 build.

[disturbed1]

I wouldn't say KDE is an issue, could be, but I doubt it. Some people like Pepsi, other's like Coke. I like Gnome

Glad you at least got the scrubbing to work. On my system, alsa works just fine, while OSS has sound quality issues. This is with NVidia CK8s 7 channel on board sound.

I've only done a couple of x264 encodes. The only options I've changed from the default were just the bitrate. I used a previous version than 2.3 (perhaps an svn I compiled? IDK) that work for the ipod, and only used it twice. No ipod encodes since then.

If you wanted to give a decent script a shot, here's a couple that are really good.
http://www.kde-apps.org/content/show.php/h264enc?content=51872
http://www.kde-apps.org/content/show.php/xvidenc?content=51873

If you continue to have issues or questions post here, or at the Ubuntu forums, and/or the avidemux forums. Mepis is based off of Ubuntu, so most of what you need could be answered there. Mepis has a forum also, but I believe Ubuntu's is a bit more active

[GMaq]

disturbed1,
Thanks again for the assistance and the Links, Imagine a Gnome guy sending me KDE links!!! Please forgive my "tone" at the beginning of the thread sometimes a learning curve gets tiring, obviously software is usually only as good as the time you're willing to put into it. I think Xvid is my best bet for iPod compliance at the maximum frame resolutions and AviDemux does that very well. So we'll perfect that and see what goes. Looks like Handbrake might have a GUI for Linux in not too long. Lot's of good video apps are heading Linux's way methinks!!!