[mythtv-users] Transcoding for the PDA problems

[James Pifer]

On Wed, 2007-02-14 at 14:13 -0500, Jeff volckaert wrote:
> On 2/14/07, Jeff volckaert <jvolckaert at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > Didn't work. I was able to install that version of the player, but it
> > > goes bezerk when I start it. Not even playing a video yet, just the
> > > program. Almost like it's a video problem.
> > >
> > > I think I need to figure out how to get my transcoded shows working with
> > > Media Player :-(.
> > Did you try the smartphone version?  What phone do you use?  I've
> > always used the ARM cabs since I have a Dell PPC.  If you really want
> > to use the stock player then I would try msmpeg4 or wmv2 for the video
> > codec.  MP3 should be fine for audio.
> >
> > The video codecs supported for lavc are:
> >  vcodec=
> >               Employ the specified codec (default: mpeg4).
> >                  mjpeg
> >                       Motion JPEG
> >                  ljpeg
> >                       Lossless JPEG
> >                  h263
> >                       H.263
> >                  h263p
> >                       H.263+
> >                  mpeg4
> >                       MPEG-4 (DivX 4/5)
> >                  msmpeg4
> >                       DivX 3
> >                  msmpeg4v2
> >                       MS MPEG4v2
> >                  wmv1
> >                       Windows Media Video, version 1 (AKA WMV7)
> >                  wmv2
> >                       Windows Media Video, version 2 (AKA WMV8)
> >                  rv10
> >                       an old RealVideo codec
> >                  mpeg1video
> >                       MPEG-1 video
> >                  mpeg2video
> >                       MPEG-2 video
> >                  huffyuv
> >                       HuffYUV
> >                  asv1
> >                       ASUS Video v1
> >                  asv2
> >                       ASUS Video v2
> >                  ffv1
> >                       FFmpeg's lossless video codec
> >
> >
> > Jeff
> >
> >From (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/windowsmobile/faq.aspx#5_2):
> *********************************************************************************************
> 5.2  Which codecs does Windows Media Player 10 Mobile support?
> High-quality digital media files can require a large amount of storage
> space. To minimize file size, digital media files are often compressed
> by using software called a codec (short for compressor/decompressor).
> To play the file, it must be decompressed by using the same codec that
> compressed the file.
> 
> By default, Windows Media Player 10 Mobile can play files that have
> been compressed by using any of the following audio and video codecs.
> In some cases, your device manufacturer or mobile operator might
> configure the Player to support other codecs. You can determine which
> codecs a file uses by checking its file properties (Menu >
> Properties).
> 
> Audio codecs
>       Microsoft Windows Media Audio codec versions 1.0, 2.0, 7, 8, and 9.
>       Although Windows Media Player for Pocket PC supports all the
> variants of the Windows Media Audio 9 codec (including the Windows
> Media Audio 9 codec, Windows Media Audio 9 Professional codec, Windows
> Media Audio 9 Voice codec, and Windows Media Audio 9 Lossless codec),
> the following variants are only partially supported:
>           o
>             Windows Media Audio 9 Professional codec. Multiple
> channels are combined into a stereo mix during playback. Depending
> upon the audio playback capabilities of your device, content with an
> audio sampling rate higher than 48 kilohertz (KHz) might be played as
> 48 KHz.
>           o
>             Windows Media Audio 9 Lossless codec. Depending upon the
> audio playback capabilities of your device, content with an audio
> sampling rate higher than 48 kilohertz (KHz) might be played as 48
> KHz.
>     *
>       MP3
> 
> Video codecs
>       Microsoft Windows Media Video codec versions 7, 8, and 9.
>       Microsoft Windows Media Video 9 Image codec versions 1.0 (used
> by Microsoft Photo Story 1 and 2) and 2.0 (used by Photo Story 3).
>       Microsoft MPEG-4 codec version 2.0 and 3.0.
>       ISO MPEG-4 video codec version 1.0.

I just tried a transcoded show using wmv2 and both pocket windows media
player and pocket divx both say it's an invalid video format. The
mencoder command was:
mencoder -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=wmv2:vbitrate=300:vhq:vpass=1 \
-vf scale=320:240 -oac lavc -lavcopts acodec=mp3:abitrate=128 -ffourcc \
DX50 -o $VIDEODIR/pda/$TITLE-$STARTTIME.avi $VIDEODIR/$FILENAME -quiet

Just to make sure it plays somewhere, vlc plays it back fine. 

I'll try msmpeg4 next. 

James