Having trouble determining proper format for Sansa MP3 player

[sofasurferlinux]

I'm using a Sansa Zip MP3 player. Mostly listen to MP3 audio books. I also use it for storage just like any thumb drive. I found that I can put video on it and watch it on a video player in a 2012 Chevy Sonic. The video player displays multiple formats including MPEG4 and AVI. I converted the videos to the proper formats and I have not been successful with viewing MPEG4 but AVI was watchable. That is until today when I put some new AVI videos on the MP3 player. I know I saved them as AVI but they would not play. I do not know what I did differently in the conversion process. Does it matter if I choose "full screen" or "wide screen"? How can I know what is required to get a video display?

[Baldrick]

What do you convert with? You must probably use the divx or xvid video codec with mp3 audio and no HD resolutions.

[hech54]

"AVI" is a container that can contain a wide range of video codec tapes(and audio types as well). Time to break out the manual for the Chevy Sonic radio and do some reading.

[Cornucopia]

A similar thing could be said about the Mp4 container...

[Slipster]

It just has been.

[sofasurferlinux]

For just downloading audio tracks off youtube I use Clipgrab. For converting video to AVI I download from youtube, or others, with Clipgrab and then convert with WinFF because Clipgrab does not seem to support AVI conversion.
O crap! Reading manuals? Sounds tough.
I'll get that info and get back with you.
Thanks.

[sofasurferlinux]

Here is the information from the cars manual which detail movie requirements...

Movie System Information


Caution for Using Movie Files

• Available resolution: Within 720 x 576 (W x H) pixels.

• Frame rate: Less than 30 fps.

• Playable movie file: .avi, .mpg, .mp4, .divx, .xvid, .wmv. The playable movie file may not be played according to the codec format.

• Playable codec format: divx, xvid, mpeg-1, mpeg-4 (mpg4, mp42, mp43), wmv9 (wmv3).

• Playable Audio format: MP3, AC3, AAC, WMA.

• Max video bitrate:

- mpeg-1: 8Mbps

- mpeg-4 (mpg4, mp42, mp43): 4Mbps

- wmv9: 3 Mbps

- divx 3: 3 Mbps

- divx 4/5/6: 4.8 Mbps

- xvid: 4.5 Mbps

• Max audio bitrate:

- mp3: 320 Kbps

- wma: 320 Kbps

- ac-3: 640 Kbps

- aac: 449 Kbps

• Movie files to which Digital Right Management (DRM) is applied may not be played.

So, I wonder, when I convert a video, I should be able to chose any of these... .avi, .mpg, .mp4, .divx, .xvid, .wmv?
What I did was to chose MP4 which did not play. Then I tried AVI which did play. Later, I tried AVI again and it did not play.
I'm thinking, in my totally unknowledgible way, that I need to use the correct codec. Hows that sound? But how would I do that?

Thanks for your attention.

[Slipster]

As said above AVI is not a video encoding standard, it's the container the video file sits in, so saying it's AVI leaves us pretty much none the wiser.

[bat999]

... and then convert with WinFF ...

Hi
Some of those presets in WinFF are a bit out of date.
Maybe you just need to make a better WinFF preset suitable for your car's player.
It's easy to do this.

Please test the attached video in your player, see if it plays and the quality is OK.
It's a video clip that I downloaded from YouTube and converted using WinFF-v1.4.2 with a better preset.

[FulciLives]

I'm thinking HandBrake should work fine as long as you respect the bitrate limits of your device and since you have to stick to SD resolution that shouldn't be too hard.

I would try the DEVICES ---> UNIVERSAL profile and try a bitrate of 2500kbps with a 2-pass encode

In fact I have a short sample clip (just under 1 minute) that I cut out of a high quality 1080p MKV and re-encoded using what I just said above. This was done using HandBrake 0.9.8 for Ubuntu 12.04 LTS

Here's the file so you can test it on your device: CLICK HERE FOR LINK
This file is approximately 17MB and is a simple ZIP file.
Please note the file ends in .m4v and you may have to change it to .mp4 for it to work on your device (just edit the filename, nothing more fancy than that needed).

BELOW: HandBrake 0.9.8 in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (32-Bit Version)





Here's the MediaInfo output for the file that I encoded in HandBrake:

General
Complete name                            : /home/fulcilives/Videos/fun_test_clip.m4v
Format                                   : MPEG-4
Format profile                           : Base Media / Version 2
Codec ID                                 : mp42
File size                                : 17.1 MiB
Duration                                 : 53s 845ms
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 2 669 Kbps
Encoded date                             : UTC 2012-08-27 18:03:56
Tagged date                              : UTC 2012-08-27 18:07:51
Writing application                      : HandBrake 0.9.8 2012071800

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : Baseline@L3.0
Format settings, CABAC                   : No
Format settings, ReFrames                : 2 frames
Codec ID                                 : avc1
Codec ID/Info                            : Advanced Video Coding
Duration                                 : 53s 845ms
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 2 500 Kbps
Width                                    : 720 pixels
Height                                   : 400 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate mode                          : Variable
Frame rate                               : 23.976 fps
Minimum frame rate                       : 23.974 fps
Maximum frame rate                       : 23.981 fps
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.362
Stream size                              : 16.1 MiB (94%)
Writing library                          : x264 core 120
Encoding settings                        : cabac=0 / ref=2 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x1:0x111 / me=umh / subme=6 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=0 / 8x8dct=0 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=1 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=0 / weightp=0 / keyint=240 / keyint_min=24 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=40 / rc=2pass / mbtree=1 / bitrate=2500 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=3 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Encoded date                             : UTC 2012-08-27 18:03:56
Tagged date                              : UTC 2012-08-27 18:07:51
Color primaries                          : BT.709-5, BT.1361, IEC 61966-2-4, SMPTE RP177
Transfer characteristics                 : BT.709-5, BT.1361
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.709-5, BT.1361, IEC 61966-2-4 709, SMPTE RP177

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : AAC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile                           : LC
Codec ID                                 : 40
Duration                                 : 53s 845ms
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 160 Kbps
Maximum bit rate                         : 183 Kbps
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel positions                        : Front: L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 1.03 MiB (6%)
Language                                 : English
Encoded date                             : UTC 2012-08-27 18:03:56
Tagged date                              : UTC 2012-08-27 18:07:51

Bitrate Viewer:


As you can see the bitrate never spikes over 4,000kbps which is the limit for your device.
This Bitrate Viewer program is handy. Here's a link for it: CLICK HERE FOR LINK

[Slipster]

...or if you go back to the previous version of MediaInfo (0.7.58), it shows you the peak bitrate without having to resort to Bitrate Viewer. Does anyone know why this feature was removed from 0.7.59?

Also, I think you'd need to encode a much longer test sample than that to get an accurate idea of what the bitrate peaks at as even my 1333kbps 2-pass x264 encodes peak at up to 7Mbps sometimes during full-length movies whilst showing a similarly low percentage swing to yours on sub-1 minute clips.

[FulciLives]

My clip has massive action, both in frame and with the camera moving. That's why I picked it.

[Slipster]

So did the ones I tried when making 1-minute tests, but you need a mix of low action and high action scenes over an extended period for MB-tree to really kick in and start distributing the bitrate sensibly throughout the encode.

Out of over 100 assorted encodes averaging around 100 minutes each, I've not had one go much below a low/high bitrate ratio of around 1:4 yet with the average being closer to 1:5. I think that's a large enough spread of test cases to take the outcome as being fairly representative, at least with the target bitrate and other encoder settings I'm using here.

I frequently see prolonged dips as low 1/10th of the target bitrate during simple title sequences too where the bitrate just isn't needed. I guess that's why some of us love 2-pass with x264 as much as we do with the predictable file sizes and it's incredible VBR-eyness!

[jman98]

I see a boatload of well intentioned people on this thread and almost all of them are neglecting what may be the crux of the whole matter.

How exactly are you connecting this Sansa player to your Sonic? Do you know for a fact that this type connection is supported and works? If you're using USB for example, have you just tried putting a file that should work on a USB stick and tested that?

I find it absolutely bizarre that your Sonic does not support MPEG-2. What the heck kind of player is this anyway? DVD is MPEG-2 so does it not play DVD?

[sofasurferlinux]

... and then convert with WinFF ...

Hi
Some of those presets in WinFF are a bit out of date.
Maybe you just need to make a better WinFF preset suitable for your car's player.
It's easy to do this.

Please test the attached video in your player, see if it plays and the quality is OK.
It's a video clip that I downloaded from YouTube and converted using WinFF-v1.4.2 with a better preset.

Bat999...that "testfile" did play well. What, exactly, do I need to use for settings? WinFF v1.4.2 is what I am using.

[bat999]

... that "testfile" did play well. What, exactly, do I need to use for settings? WinFF v1.4.2 is what I am using.

OK
Now you can make your own preset for WinFF.
The tutorial is here ---> http://code.google.com/p/winff/wiki/HowToMakePresets

These are the settings that I used ...

Preset name:-

AVIchevy

Preset label:-

AVI - Chevy

Preset command line parameters:-

-c:v mpeg4 -q:v 3 -tag:v xvid -c:a libmp3lame -b:a 128k -ar 44100 -ac 2

Output file extension:-

avi

Category:-

AVI

[sofasurferlinux]

Bat999.
I followed your commands. My output in a terminal window is as follows...

FFmpeg version SVN-r0.5.9-4:0.5.9-0ubuntu0.10.04.1, Copyright (c) 2000-2009 Fabrice Bellard, et al.
configuration: --extra-version=4:0.5.9-0ubuntu0.10.04.1 --prefix=/usr --enable-avfilter --enable-avfilter-lavf --enable-vdpau --enable-bzlib --enable-libgsm --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-pthreads --enable-zlib --disable-stripping --disable-vhook --enable-runtime-cpudetect --enable-gpl --enable-postproc --enable-swscale --enable-x11grab --enable-libdc1394 --enable-shared --disable-static
libavutil 49.15. 0 / 49.15. 0
libavcodec 52.20. 1 / 52.20. 1
libavformat 52.31. 0 / 52.31. 0
libavdevice 52. 1. 0 / 52. 1. 0
libavfilter 0. 4. 0 / 0. 4. 0
libswscale 0. 7. 1 / 0. 7. 1
libpostproc 51. 2. 0 / 51. 2. 0
built on Jun 12 2012 16:27:59, gcc: 4.4.3

Seems stream 0 codec frame rate differs from container frame rate: 59.94 (2997/50) -> 29.92 (359/12)
Input #0, flv, from '/home/daryl/ebooks/Michigan CPL Laws.flv':
Duration: 00:09:51.92, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 486 kb/s
Stream #0.0: Video: h264, yuv420p, 640x480 [PAR 1:1 DAR 4:3], 486 kb/s, 29.92 tbr, 1k tbn, 59.94 tbc
Stream #0.1: Audio: aac, 44100 Hz, stereo, s16
/usr/bin/ffmpeg: unrecognized option '-c:v'
Press Enter to Continue


When I press enter the terminal window disappears.
What do I do for the require settings?

[bat999]

/usr/bin/ffmpeg: unrecognized option '-c:v'

What do I do for the require settings?

Hi
WinFF is based on FFmpeg program.
Your FFmpeg is different version than mine, needs different "Preset command line parameters".
Try this line instead:-

-vcodec mpeg4 -qscale 3 -vtag xvid -acodec libmp3lame -ab 128k -ar 44100 -ac 2

[sofasurferlinux]

My apologies. That video (that failed) was originally a .flv. I am trying again with and mp4 later today. I'll let you know.