Converting videos for portable devices (including softsubs)

[Bakadeshi]

oh I see i'm not the only person around here who thought of writing a tool to batch process files for webstreaming and portable devices

except my tool is written in vb.net, but uses mencoder, ffmpeg, neroacc, and some various other cmdline tools to do the actual processing work.
I first wrote it to batch encode all the amvs on aunstudios for streaming, and ended up just adding other formats (such as nintendo DS and PSP formats)

if your curious, I have a earlier copy here but should be treated as alpha software, some things don't work yet. mp4, mp4 for streaming, flv for streaming, mpeg for conventions, and mp4 for psp formats should work 100%, but all settings are optimized for anime and amvs, so may not produce best quality for live action.

[fobboy]

I did you send you a pm about the problem in case you were no longer looking at your post. But I thought it worked like e-mail in that once I send the message off it'll be in your inbox regardless of whether I deleted the message from my outbox. Apparently not. But it's in regards to the same thing anyways.

1) I have completely extracted the ConvertMP4Portable-1.1-Final zip file to my desktop.

2) The name of my exe file is MP4Box.exe (the same file name as the one provided by Zarx264gui and downloaded from the same link you posted). I have turned off hiding extensions of known file types.

3) I am using XP. This might be the problem. I don't have a Vista machine, so if you would be so kind as to test it out on your XP machine.

Thank You

[Corran]

Looks like version of OS doesn't really matter in this case. The reason you are having problems is that you are running it from the desktop. On XP the user's desktop path is "C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Desktop\". The spaces in "Documents and Settings" is causing problems. If I create a folder with spaces on Vista and then run the batch from within that, I get the same problems.


Move the folder to a directory that does not have spaces in its path for now I will work on fixing the code and upload a fixed version later.


Edit: New version uploaded. Link is in first post.

[fobboy]

Brilliant! You've hit the nail on the head.

Now I have errors while running the batch...I think the program hates my computer.

While running the batch, the following errors were experienced:
1) Matroska file format detected.
Video [avc1] 1280x780...............
=============================================
Forced video codec: dummy
Cannot find codec matching selected -vo and video format 0x31637661.
==============================================
==============================================
Trying to force audio codec driver family libmad...
Opening audio decoder: [faad] AAC
FAAD: compressed input bitrate missing, assuming 128kbit/s!

2) Processed 1379 seconds...
"Muxing files for "[SZN_&_I-O]_Hajime_no_Ippo_New_Challenger_-_01[720p][1B50A5AA]_v2.mkv"

After this step, a popup shows up saying "MP4Box.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.

I click on "Don't Send", then batch file says everything has been completed. I go to converted files, and all I see is an xml and a txt file.


Note: I have no idea what these problems are but I assume it has something to do with a missing codec. I believe the only codec I installed were the ones batched with CCCP (Combined Community Codec Pack).


One other question though: Are there any options available when converting the videos (Output resolution in particular)?

[Corran]

I think I know what I can do to prevent the first error but it is safe to ignore, it won't mess up the encode. The second error might be related to the version of mp4box that you are using. Are you trying the version found in Zarxgui? I remember you saying that you had used it but that you also tried using other versions. The one in Zarxgui I think doesn't output text and xml files though, afaik.
http://amvhell.com/stuff/zarx264gui/


To change some output settings, right click the encode.bat file, select edit, and at the top of the file there will be some variables. The one that controls resolution is targetwidth. Height automatically scales depending on this value in order to maintain the video's aspect ratio.

[fobboy]

I am using the stable version of zarxgui. I do have output of text and xml.

[GloryQuestor]

btw, I would also recommend looking at Videora as an alternative. It supports the widest configuration range of devices, including the latest phone models. I've been using it for years now on both my PSP and currently for iPhone 3G video, and each video works perfectly in the correct resolution.

[fobboy]

I don't think videora converts softsubs (the ones without txt files).

[Corran]

@fobboy
I'm still looking into this. I am trying to encode the exact same file that you are and am getting an error as well. I'm not sure why... I haven't had this problem with other files that I've encoded. I'm using the same mp4box syntax as ZarxGUI's generated batch files. Encoding a file with the Zarxgui batch works but even when I use the same mp4box line in my batch this doesn't... I'm thinking that I might be doing something to an input stream that makes it incompatible in one of the earlier commands, not sure what though...


@GQ
I tried using Videora for Android devices after seeing your post. When I started setting setting up an encode, ads started popping up and caused numerous javascript errors in IE. I blindly clicked the option to stop executing scripts on the page to close the errors and it appears that the interface itself was a webapp. When I tried to add a video to encode after that, the dialog to add the file was missing. Closing Videora itself didn't bring back the UI. Had to close IE as well.

I did getting it working in the end, but It doesn't seem to maintain mkv softsubs. An option to batch process all files in a directory didn't jump out at me either. These are major differences from what my batch file aims to do.

[Corran]

Fixed the problem. For some reason mp4box doesn't like outputting a file with that name to the converted_files folder so I instead am having it output a file called output.mp4 to the temp_files directory. Then when it is done the file is moved to the converted_files directory with the correct name. Probably should have been doing it this way from the start... This also prevents xml and txt files from showing up in the converted_files folder. Link in first post has been updated to new version.