Video Player Success stories

[chrget]

excellent post chris, this will help me alot..

Well, glad I could be of help. Feel free to ask if there's more I can do.

I understand not all Zaurus are not created equal, my old 5000D is currently doing nothing more than being my wireless access point, but thanks to you I should have enough information to cover various quality settings so even you guys with the 5500's can enjoy mobile video.

Well, that one wasn't specifically aimed at you, it's just a minor gripe that I have with a lot of posts here -- someone asks a question very specific to a model and/or ROM version and immediately quite a few people completely unfamiliar with that environment start posting more or less non-applicable stuff. I personally find that quite annoying, even though I am aware that they mean well.

As for enjoying mobile video on my 5500 -- well, I am, for some time now

I wasent ignoring VLC, its just I hadent had a chance to use it yet so I hadent commented.. i'll add it to my todo.

Sorry, no offense intended, that was meant more tongue-in-cheek.

im working on it on my spare time, my goal is for people to be able to create mobile media without having to dive head first into codecs and methodology like I had to do.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=70832\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

Well, so far nobody has paid me for doing mobile media as well

But creating it without diving into the concepts and acquiring at least a basic understanding of the mechanisms involved is something I wouldn't recommend anyway. But there is nothing like a good introduction, possibly with examples and a few recipes to get you started doing what you want -- and I think that is what you probably should be aiming for.

Best regards,
Chris.

[chrget]

Since I needed a way to play back some old RealAudio files on the Zaurus, I decided to add A52/AC3 support to my statically linked VLC binary -- seemed like the sensible solution rather than transcoding 100+ files to some state-of-the-art codecs (and potentially losing a lot of quality in the process).

The updated binary can be found via the link indicated above.

On another note, contrary to my belief that it is a silly idea, I built a tiny frontend for VLC on the Zaurus to provide it with at least a minimum of shell integration (so you may now officially call me silly  ). Given enough interest I might extend, clean it up and package it as well.

Judging from the feedback so far, I doubt I'll need more than the fingers of one hand to count the people using VLC for the Zaurus on a regular basis, though

If I'm way off, it'd be nice to be proven wrong for a change

As for my mega-post above, I decided to put two 31-second samples online for those interested:

1) Demo_QCIF_AVC_HE_AAC.mp4 (audio MPEG-4 AAC HE, 12 kbps, 32000 Hz;
video H264 Main@4, 80 kbps, 176x144 @ 12.5 fps -- 365622 bytes)

2) Demo_SIF_MPEG4_LC_AAC.mp4 (audio MPEG-2 AAC LC, 31 kbps, 24000 Hz; video   MPEG-4 Adv Simple@L4, 323 kbps, 320x240 @ 12.5 fps -- 1427935 bytes)

These should illustrate what to expect of the encoding parameter sets mentioned in the previous post.

Best regards,
Chris.

[JohnKiniston]

As for my mega-post above, I decided to put two 31-second samples online for those interested:

1) Demo_QCIF_AVC_HE_AAC.mp4 (audio MPEG-4 AAC HE, 12 kbps, 32000 Hz;
video H264 Main@4, 80 kbps, 176x144 @ 12.5 fps -- 365622 bytes)

2) Demo_SIF_MPEG4_LC_AAC.mp4 (audio MPEG-2 AAC LC, 31 kbps, 24000 Hz; video   MPEG-4 Adv Simple@L4, 323 kbps, 320x240 @ 12.5 fps -- 1427935 bytes)

These should illustrate what to expect of the encoding parameter sets mentioned in the previous post.

Best regards,
Chris.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=71520\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

Chris,

What do you use to do your encoding? I've seen mention of your settings but not what your method and software toolkit consists of.

I'm a Mac user and I've got mencoder but not all the fancy plugins that the linux people have in theirs but I'd like to create video that doesnt take hours to make and play like garbage on my 5500.

I'm using OZ but I plan to pick up a copy of your VLC binary to try.

[chrget]

What do you use to do your encoding? I've seen mention of your settings but not what your method and software toolkit consists of.

Ah, you want to know the hard part

Actually I am using an entire zoo of software for the conversion. Let's see if I can really come up with all of the packages here in a quick rundown ...

- obviously MPlayer
- MJPEG Tools
- FFMPEG
- XViD
- x264
- Theora
- Vorbis
- tooLAME
- LAME
- FAAC
- 3GPP enhanced AAC+ reference codec
- 3GPP AMR reference codec
- SoX - Sound eXchange
- MPEG4IP

and to round it all off a couple of tools/scripts written by yours truly -- as glue to hold all those packages together, so to speak. Be warned that the above list may not be complete, though ...

I'm a Mac user and I've got mencoder but not all the fancy plugins that the linux people have in theirs but I'd like to create video that doesnt take hours to make and play like garbage on my 5500.

Well, why didn't you say so in the first place?  Just use Quicktime, then!

Now, I'm not very familiar with the Mac, but the old Quicktime (6?) available to me on a Windows box produces wonderful MPEG-4 files for playback on the Zaurus as well -- so my guess is that a Mac will most likely do the very same.

Best regards,
Chris.

[ken]

Since I needed a way to play back some old RealAudio files on the Zaurus, I decided to add A52/AC3 support to my statically linked VLC binary -- seemed like the sensible solution rather than transcoding 100+ files to some state-of-the-art codecs (and potentially losing a lot of quality in the process).

The updated binary can be found via the link indicated above.

On another note, contrary to my belief that it is a silly idea, I built a tiny frontend for VLC on the Zaurus to provide it with at least a minimum of shell integration (so you may now officially call me silly  ). Given enough interest I might extend, clean it up and package it as well.

[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=71520\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

I've just started playing with your static binary.  It plays the mp4 file quite nicely.  I think you're definitely on the right track.  I also used it to play some streams that zRadio won't touch (urls with directories) which vlc does very very nicely.

Yes, please do the front end thing, that's the only thing missing from it.  I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised.

On the thought that you may go ahead with the front end thing, here are a few things that might be nice:

1) screen blank (to save battery life) button
2) repeat, random play, play once
3) add to playlist, reorder playlist, remove items from playlist
4) permanent playlists (for shoutcast streaming stations)
5) able to save default directory information (ie, point to the sd+directory)
6) separate tabs for video, audio, streams

Having a static binary does help with installation issues, so I'm okay with that

If it's even half decent, I can get rid of a bunch of applications (zRadio, media player, maybe even mplayer and kino?).  I realize that the version you have doesn't do divx video at this time, but perhaps it may in the future?

I look forward to trying the front end!

[chrget]

Yes, please do the front end thing, that's the only thing missing from it.[div align=\"right\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

Heh, me and my big mouth

Ok, I'll see that I'll package at least my minimal frontend next time I'm building a binary. It certainly won't do all that much, but it certainly does make life a little easier not having to open a terminal just to play a movie or playlist.

I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised.[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=77237\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

That's nice to hear. I must say I'm pretty taken with VLC myself, it's a really nice piece of software (not just on the Zaurus) and quite well-structured and -written at that.

I realize that the version you have doesn't do divx video at this time, but perhaps it may in the future?[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=77237\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

It doesn't? That's the first time I've heard about it. Since it uses ffmpeg for decoding (i.e. the same code as MPlayer) it should happily play back DivX. Certainly works for the (granted, precious few and probably not very recent) DivX files I have around here somewhere. Of course the Z is easily overtaxed with video playback once the parameters of the file go beyond certain constraints, so that might be the root of the problem.

I look forward to trying the front end!
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=77237\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

Uhm, maybe you should have a look at what I did for LAMIP first (in [a href=\"https://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=11336]this thread[/url]) -- that'll show you what to expect, at least in the beginning. By the way, did I mention I just hate GUI programming  

Best regards,
Chris.

[jesperht]

Hi!  I tried the above binary, however, im not getting any video (tkcvideo works), only audio!  My encoding looks as follows:

mencoder -of avi -oac mp3lame -lameopts q=5:vbr=2:abr=128:aq=5:ratio=50:mode=3:vol=0 -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:vbitrate=100::keyint=250:vlelim=-4:vcelim=7:vfdct=0:idct=0:subcmp=0 -vf scale=272:200 -ofps 18 -sws 2 A\ I\ R\ -\ 03\ \[Ishin\]\[55B7E332\].avi -o /tmp/3.avi


Best wishes,
Jesper

p.s Any tips on the encoding? tkcvideo gives me an occasional studder/chop...  Thanks!

[chrget]

[...]im not getting any video (tkcvideo works), only audio!

Hmmm, have a look here, most likely yours is a similar problem and you need to explicitely specify the video output to use.

My encoding looks as follows: [...]

Well, I already said quite a lot  about encoding parameters earlier in this thread. In the end, everybody needs to figure out what's best for them by themselves. Personally, I would certainly allocate less bandwidth to audio (and use AAC for it -- dunno if mencoder will do that out of the box, though), more to video and make sure frame decimation is done with an even divisor to avoid the jerkiness introduced otherwise. Also I'd go for full QVGA resolution with simple MPEG-4.

[...] Any tips on the encoding? tkcvideo gives me an occasional studder/chop...[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=78941\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

Well, see above. And even further above

Best regards,
Chris.

[jesperht]

hehe, yeah. I know, you have alot of good stuff written on the encoding!  Thanks! I was just wondering if anything caught your eye ... ill change the audio settings some!
But I still dont get any video. I tried the following:

 ./vlc -V qte --filter transform --transform 270 3.avi
 ./vlc -V fb 3.avi

Both give no video. However, after checking more verbose output, i got the following:

"Main decoder error: no suitable decoder module for fourcc 'FMP4'.
VLC probobly does not support this sound or video format.

Odd. Any ideas? Any dependencies/codec libraries im missing?  Thanks again for the help Chris, im very thankfull!

[chrget]

[...] But I still dont get any video. [...] after checking more verbose output, i got the following:

"Main decoder error: no suitable decoder module for fourcc 'FMP4'.
VLC probobly does not support this sound or video format.

Odd. Any ideas? Any dependencies/codec libraries im missing?

Certainly no libraries or dependencies, since the vlc executable is statically linked, i.e. everything it can/should use is in there

Here's a wild guess: your mencoder is really really recent. A quick check just told me that the fourcc in question (FMP4) was introduced very recently to represent libavcodec's native MPEG-4 encoder (my first kneejerk reaction is that the person responsible for that should probably be shot^H^H^H^H... uhm ... talked to very sternly ).

I'm pretty sure that problem will vanish once I check out all the current CVS code once again and do a new build . Until then, the only simple solution is probably to use an older version of mencoder (my MEncoder 1.0pre6 produces playable files with your command line) or somehow force a different fourcc into the output file (no idea if and how that is possible, since I usually don't use mencoder).

Thanks again for the help Chris, im very thankfull![div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=79031\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

You're quite welcome.

Best regards,
Chris.

P.S.: Just to rule out anything else, did you try one of the example files linked above?

[jesperht]

No i havent. Ill try it out, and let you know!

Best wishes,
Jesper

[jesperht]

No i havent. Ill try it out, and let you know!

Best wishes,
Jesper
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=79195\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

Sorry for the delay, but yes, they worked.