This is a page for a new project I'm thinking about. I want to use the video wall computers to encode video files into ipod touch compatible video files. This would make the process of batch converting many videos much faster. I'm going to throw a bunch of resources/instructions on this page so I have them all in one place.

====== Getting mp4ize ======

  * mp4ize url: http://thomer.com/howtos/ipod_video.html
  * mp4ize script: (can't upload this for some reason, will try again later)

Add apt source:
deb http://packages.medibuntu.org/ maverick free non-free

sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude reinstall libavcodec52


====== Compiling ffmpeg ======

<wrap class='round info box'>I did a lot of this as root... it might be smarter not to do that</wrap>

<code> 
sudo apt-get install build-essential devscripts ubuntu-dev-tools dh-make module-assistant cdbs debconf-utils fakeroot
</code>

<code>
sudo apt-get install libopencore-amrnb-dev libopencore-amrwb-dev liba52-dev libdts-dev libgsm1-dev libvorbis-dev libxvidcore4 libxvidcore-dev libdc1394-22-dev libfaac-dev libmp3lame-dev libx264-dev libfaad-dev libtheora-dev libsdl1.2-dev
</code>

<code>
mkdir ffmpeg-src
cd ffmpeg-src
sudo apt-get source ffmpeg

cd ffmpeg-0.5.1
sudo apt-get install build-dep ffmpeg

sudo ./configure --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --enable-nonfree --enable-postproc --enable-pthreads --enable-libfaac --enable-libfaad --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libtheora --enable-libx264 --enable-libxvid --enable-x11grab


make

sudo checkinstall
</code>


Script parameters

Ipod touch resolution:
width: 960px
height: 640px

video bitrate: not entirely sure, need to experiment with this. I'm going to start with around 700, maybe try 768. 
audio bitrate: seems to max out at 160kbs? the default in the mp4ize script is 128k. I think I'll leave it at that for now.

ignore all the stuff above about mp4ize, this is an easier way to do it I think: 
alternatively I could modify mp4ize to use this command:

ffmpeg command:
ffmpeg -i INPUT.avi -acodec libfaac -ab 128k -s 960x640 -vcodec libx264 -vpre /usr/local/share/ffmpeg/libx264-default.ffpreset -metadata "title=The Ski Lift" -threads 4 -f ipod OUTPUT.mp4

======Existing Projects======
If you haven't already, you may want to take a look at some existing projects that tackle cluster-based media encoding:

  * [[http://www.exit1.org/dvdrip/|DVD::RIP]]
  * http://www.codergrid.de/