Video Conversion
Ah, the fun part. Videos must be first converted to uncompressed, 24-bit .avi files at the iPod's screen resolution. Then, they are reconverted to be the exact format needed for the iPod. A small program has been written to do this reconversion, but please do not look at the source code (the code is in shambles and looking at it will cause more harm than good).
This won't be the case in the future, but I currently haven't finished any part of my conversion utility.
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Linux, Mac OS X
mencoder may be downloaded and compiled from: http://www.mplayerhq.hu/homepage/design7/dload.html
Or you can download a pre-compiled binary from: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=62947&package_id=70503&release_id=132403 . You may need to get a different binary if you have a G3 processor from: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=62947&package_id=70503&release_id=162732. To install, copy the mplayer and mencoder files to your /usr/bin folder. To go to that folder, press Command-Shift-G and type /usr/bin. You may need to authenticate in order to move the files.
2bppconv will be found in the ConverForGray-0_3.tgz file in the downloads section. 2bppconv-x86-linux is the binary for Linux, 2bppconv-ppc-osx is the binary for Mac OS X.
To install ffmpeg and mencoder in debian it's more easy to write
$ sudo apt-get install mencoder
and
$ sudo apt-get install ffmpeg
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Nano
Please note that the latest released version of mencoder for Mac OS X (binary / Unix executable) has an RGB colour bug, which means that you will not be able to get the correct colour result on your iPod Nano.
Use following mencoder commands:
convert to raw pcm_s16le audio
$ ffmpeg -vcodec rawvideo -acodec pcm_s16le -r 15 -i file.avi -s 220x176 -aspect 4:3 output.avi
Then convert to raw video bgr16
$ mencoder -ovc raw -ofps 15 -oac pcm -vf scale=176:-2,expand=176:132,format=bgr16 in.avi -o out.avi
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Photo
Please note that the latest released version of the mencoder for Mac OS X (binary / Unix executable) has an RGB colour bug, which means that you will not be able to get the correct colour result on your iPod Photo.
You have to compile mencoder on Mac OS X from the sources!
Use following mencoder command:
$ mencoder -ovc raw -ofps 15 -oac pcm -vf scale=220:-2,expand=220:176,format=bgr16 in.avi -o out.avi
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Grayscale iPods
A much more in-depth tutorial for converting to Grayscale iPods/iPod Minis can be found link here (http://ipodlinux.org/Grayscale_Conversion_on_Mac).
Use the following mencoder command, then run the conversion program on the output of mencoder. (The conversion program can be found in the downloads section.):
$ mencoder -ovc raw -ofps 15 -oac pcm -vf scale=160:-2,expand=160:128,format=bgr24 in.avi -o out.avi
$ 2bppconv out.avi ipodmovie.avi
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Mini
$ mencoder -ovc raw -ofps 15 -oac pcm -vf scale=138:-2,expand=138:110,format=bgr24 in.avi -o out.avi
$ 2bppconv out.avi ipodmovie.avi
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Windows
This tutorial assumes that you already have cygwin (http://www.cygwin.com/) installed on Windows. If you are installing on an iPod Photo or Nano, neither 2bppconv nor cygwin is necessary. A simpler guide (for the iPod Photo or nano only) can be found here: Video conversion guide for Windows. A simpler way of doing this with an iPod Nano can be found here: vid4nano package (http://www.iainlearmonth.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Vid4nano)
* Download mplayer for Windows (http://ftp5.mplayerhq.hu/mplayer/releases/win32-beta/)
* After unzipping it, put the mplayer folder in C:\cygwin\home\YourName
* Download 2bppconv (http://so2.sys-techs.com/ipod/2bppconv)
* Put 2bppconv in the mplayer folder
* Place the video you are converting in the mplayer folder
* Launch cygwin and type:
$ cd mplayer
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Nano
$ ./mencoder.exe -ovc raw -ofps 15 -oac pcm -vf scale=176:-2,expand=176:132,format=bgr16 filename.here -o out.avi
To do this without cygwin open "Run" and type this in:
"C:\folder\mencoder.exe" -ovc raw -ofps 15 -oac pcm -vf scale=176:-2,expand=176:132,format=bgr16 "Z:\folder\in.avi" -o "Z:\folder\output.avi"
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Photo
$ ./mencoder.exe -ovc raw -ofps 15 -oac pcm -vf scale=220:-2,expand=220:176,format=bgr16 filename.here -o out.avi
To do this without cygwin open "Run" and type this in:
"C:\folder\mencoder.exe" -ovc raw -ofps 15 -oac pcm -vf scale=220:-2,expand=220:176,format=bgr16 "Z:\folder\in.avi" -o "Z:\folder\output.avi"
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Grayscale iPods
Use the following mencoder command, then run the conversion program on the output of mencoder:
$ ./mencoder.exe -ovc raw -ofps 15 -oac pcm -vf scale=160:-2,expand=160:128,format=bgr24 filename.here -o out.avi
$ ./2bppconv out.avi ipodmovie.avi
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Mini
$ ./mencoder.exe -ovc raw -ofps 15 -oac pcm -vf scale=138:-2,expand=138:110,format=bgr24 filename.here -o out.avi
$ ./2bppconv out.avi ipodmovie.avi
* Replace filename.here with the filename of the video you are converting.
Retrieved from "http://www.ipodlinux.org/Video_Player"
Categories: Video