Playing avi and wmv files on the MVP

[rscheller]

I tried 4800 and 9600 and there was still a lot of pixelation compared to the original avi file it was transcoded from.

Perhaps this new version of ffmpeg has some other settings that can be tweaked? jksmurf, any suggestions?

[dljones8053]

If you are going to use AVI files may I suggest the follow software that I use to convert my vob files to xvid and it works great with no issues on my MVP and my DVD player playing them I set a 2gig max and get great quailty you can crank it down to what you like, a move on a CD or two CD's and so on, but I like one avi file myself. The site below will tell you all you need to get it up and running have fun.

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/AutoGK.htm

[jksmurf]

I tried 4800 and 9600 and there was still a lot of pixelation compared to the original avi file it was transcoded from.

Perhaps this new version of ffmpeg has some other settings that can be tweaked? jksmurf, any suggestions?

I really don't know enough about ffmpeg's switches to be a reliable source here, but what you could do is either use zehd's excellent utility "Zprocess" or what I have been using with reasonable success, GUI4FFMPEG a (tada) GUI for ffmpeg.

GUI4FFMPEG is really simple and will generate the settings "automagically" so you can copy and paste them to compare.

It should work fine with avi's using the ffmpeg build that came with it, I only had to use celtic druids with the -sameq setting for a x264 trasncode. It was also pixelated with -qmin 2, which is what GUI4FFMPEG generated, but -qmin 2 should work fine with everything else. Give it a whirl. It's small and quick to setup.

For MVP use, using the settings I put in this post, works well (except just ignore the red X I made over the -qmin 2 that it auto-generates, unless you use x264 and the Celtic Druid build, in which case change it as noted above). i.e. stick with -qmin 2.

HTH

k.

I note from video help that one of the comments on GUI4FFMPEG (Posted September 09, 2006) was

"I tried to use it to convert a .wmv file to mpeg2 but it crashed. However, I believe this was because the underlying program (ffmpeg) is not yet capable of handling the latest .wmv format (version 9), as stated in the ffmpeg documentation. Thus I do not fault gui4ffmpeg for this."

so it looks like you WILL probably need the updated ffmpeg build. Based on that, you could simply try -sameq as the command-line setting and get rid of -b 2400?

[rscheller]

Thanks everyone. I have it working well now. The ffmpeg transcode command line I'm now using is,

<MVPFFmpegTranscodeCmdLineNTSC>-y -i "{SOURCE_FILE}" -sameq -ac 2 -ab 128 -r 29.97 -s 704x480 -f dvd "{DEST_FILE}"</MVPFFmpegTranscodeCmdLineNTSC>

I'll do some more tweaking after the Thanksgiving period but I needed to get it working because we have a big family coming to visit for a few days and I wanted to show pictures and home movies as well as showcase the abilities of GBPVR and the MVP.

Thanks again and happy Thankgiving to you who celebrate the day.

[thebavarian]

Great.... that setup works for me as well !!!
Thank You

[thebavarian]

Hmmm, everything but the wmv files is being transcoded. the screen goes balck and comes back to the menu in few seconds.
any suggestions ?

[SuMo]

Hmmm, everything but the wmv files is being transcoded. the screen goes balck and comes back to the menu in few seconds.
any suggestions ?

Try to replace -sameq for -b2400k (don't forget the k !)

[thebavarian]

Didn't work. using the -b2400k I couldn't play any videos, the MVP kept rebooting everytime I tried playing one.
I am using the FFMpeg that comes with the gb-pvr

[fhmanas]

try -b 2400k instead of -b2400k

[SuMo]

try -b 2400k instead of -b2400k

:o typo... sorry !