But mencoder by itself should take full advantge of your x2 cpu (if it’s correctly built, which might not be the case…), so running two mencoder conversions in parallel shouldn’t make any performance increase. But it is definitely doable for the avi-mux gui part of the conversion. I’ll look into that. But i’ll need a way to know how many cpu cores you have from within python… or let the user tell it.
This is not the case, because most encoders (codecs) mencoder uses are not multithreaded for obvious reasons. I wont go into details here. There are many other mencoder and video processing forums on the web where you can find more information.
If you were about converting several videos at once by starting multiple video conversion processes in video4fuze that is another story and indeed might be helpful for some users - maybe this is what struct is looking for.
thanks for your investigations and additional information about your issue. As it appears a very special case and you provide a workaround already, there is no need to step in any further.
But mencoder by itself should take full advantge of your x2 cpu (if it’s correctly built, which might not be the case…), so running two mencoder conversions in parallel shouldn’t make any performance increase. But it is definitely doable for the avi-mux gui part of the conversion. I’ll look into that. But i’ll need a way to know how many cpu cores you have from within python… or let the user tell it.
This is not the case, because most encoders (codecs) mencoder uses are not multithreaded for obvious reasons. I wont go into details here. There are many other mencoder and video processing forums on the web where you can find more information.
If you were about converting several videos at once by starting multiple video conversion processes in video4fuze that is another story and indeed might be helpful for some users - maybe this is what struct is looking for.
Edit: corrected a typo
Message Edited by ewelot on 09-24-2009 11:33 AM
Thank you, it’s always good to learn new things
Hum, i’ll look into implementing it, but i don’t promise anything. Or if someone is willing to do it, i’d happily accept it
PD: I’m currently focusing on fixing some bugs, adding features to the playlist editor, and getting it to work properly on macosx. Oh, I don’t like macosx… it’s so complicated to install stuff… and the few by default included frameworks by apple are badly broken (python, X11…). Hoping to see the day Debian GNU/Darwin appears :)
Follow the thread and you’ll see it is a possibility.
Cheers,
Jeff
I already investigated on that, but mencoder needs more changes than that to produce a fuze-usable avi file… that, with the fact that I’m not a C/C++ programmer and my poor knowledge abut the avi specification, makes it all like arcane black magic to me.
But i’ll look into port avi-mux GUI’s avi implementation to gcc and then make python bindings around it. Or even porting it to python. But I promise nothing, as I’m not a C++ programmer ;).
If there’s someone out there with some C++ knowledge, his/her help would be greatly appreciated.
This is a great solution!! I’ve been watching for a way to create a video for the Fuze completely on Linux for quite a while.
One potential problem, however-- I created my first video using mencoder/AVI-Mux and am finding that when I skip forward in it by pushing and holding the “>>” button, or by pushing it multiple times, the video skips forward a bit but ends up hanging and I can only power off the Fuze to unlock it. This doesn’t happen on my SMC videos. Is it possible that there is still a problem with the way some of the indexes are being created? This happens on a 1.5 hour chunk of video I converted directly from an HDTV broadcast I recorded from a HD Homerun box.
Yes, there are still some issues with if you skip forward that way. But you can just hold >> to skip forward and it’ll work fine.
Ewelot was looking on that a few weeks ago, but I think that we no more have so much free time as we had in august and earlier september (BTW: that’s the reason why there haven’t been updates for video4fuze for a while, now).
If you have some time to dedicate to it, you could investigate on that issue. I think the person on this forum who can best help you is ewelot.
This is a great solution!! I’ve been watching for a way to create a video for the Fuze completely on Linux for quite a while.
One potential problem, however-- I created my first video using mencoder/AVI-Mux and am finding that when I skip forward in it by pushing and holding the “>>” button, or by pushing it multiple times, the video skips forward a bit but ends up hanging and I can only power off the Fuze to unlock it. This doesn’t happen on my SMC videos. Is it possible that there is still a problem with the way some of the indexes are being created? This happens on a 1.5 hour chunk of video I converted directly from an HDTV broadcast I recorded from a HD Homerun box.
The occational freeze of the device on fast forward is a known issue with videos converted by mencoder (using pvc.sh or video4fuze). It really depends o how you do the FF. Unfortunately the two most natural forward operations cause the observed freeze. This is exactly what you describe.
But - at least in my case - there is no problem at all if I push the “>>” button for multiple times slowly which is about 2 times per second. I tested this many times on my conversion of the wonderful 1.7 hour “Buena Vista Social Club” video. I know this is not perfect at all but it works if you get used to it. Could you (or others) try this suggestion on your own and give some feedback, please?
If I would push the button repeatedly as quickly as I can - about >5 times per second - then the player definitely runs into a freeze. This observation suggests a lack of some processing power instead of some oddities with the index itself, IMHO. Maybe the videos converted by SMC are better suited due to stream format differences. I cannot say any better because I do not run SMC at all and have no long video examples from this software at hand.
While pvc.sh and video4fuze worked on a lot of videos, I now have a video that cant be converted. First steps with mencoder run fine, but then after remuxing with avimuxgui the process stops, while nothing is written to the output file. Seems that avimuxgui doesnt find the fideo in the input file: After running through the file, position is still 0000:00:00 /01:50:000. video, audio and subtitle size and transfer rate are 0, while overhead is not 0.
(Obviously there is something wrong with the font in the log window, but this is not the problem, as avimuxgui works for other files without problem)
The video was taken from a dvd (mpeg2 file). The problem is reproduceable. It happens the same way with pvc.sh and video4fuze. Th source file and the temporary avi seem ok to me. At least, they play perfectly on my box.
I now have converted the source file from mpeg2 to mpeg2 (complete reencode). This file can be converted without problem.
Any idea what happens here? Seems to me that mencoder does something special in its output, that avimuxgui doesnt understand.
Has someone else experienced this problem? Any workaround (other than rencoding before converting)?
yes, indeed I have seen exactly the same behaviour by myself on one single movie file (it was an mkv rip from DVD) but I have no idea what causes the problem for avimux-gui. Meanwhile the workaround in these rare cases is the 2-step encoding you describe. Obviously this is not the best path in terms of image quality but still better than nothing.
There are many Linux-native conversion programs (k9copy, avidemux, dvd::rip) in which you can create MP4’s with any customized format. Why does the tutorial use a Windows application in Wine? That’s ridiculous.
@perspectoff wrote:
There are many Linux-native conversion programs (k9copy, avidemux, dvd::rip) in which you can create MP4’s with any customized format. Why does the tutorial use a Windows application in Wine? That’s ridiculous.
Sure, there exist plenty of good video conversion programs for Linux. But unfortunately there is no native Linux program which does build the OpenDML index as required by the Fuze. At least no program which I know of.
If you were talking about the Sansa View (which uses mp4) then you are right: no need for any unusual processing steps. But in this case you probably missed the right forum, don’t you?
Sure, there exist plenty of good video conversion programs for Linux. But unfortunately there is no native Linux program which does build the OpenDML index as required by the Fuze. At least no program which I know of.
Avidemux creates OpenDML files. Are you saying they are not compatible with the Fuze?
Avidemux creates OpenDML files. Are you saying they are not compatible with the Fuze?
Yes, exactly. It creates OpenDML files only for large files (>1GB). Even then there is no way of forcing the type of index splitting as required by the Fuze.
I’m running windows vista, and my issue is the sound not syncing with the video on movies I’ve ripped from my DVDs. Before I dive into this solution, does it fix that problem?
I know the whole “it’s not made for video, get over it” reply, but hope springs eternal.
Message Edited by njbethany on 12-13-2009 05:52 AM
I appreciate the info, but I am not what you call computer savvy by any means: we purchased a Fuze for my daughter and I can’t figure out how to put video on it. I downloaded the video4fuze but I get a message when I pick a movie file and press the convert button “Error 2”- file cannot be found. I did get something that resembled a video on it but it’s at best a fast blur. Could you please tell me how and what to do and keep in mind that I have no idea what I am doing and I don’t speak “tech”. I have been and will continue to read through all the entries to find more information. Thank you so much in advance for your help!
