Comments on: The elusive multi-device video format

By: Bruce

Bruce — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 09:25:01 +0000

Vidy, I see a new beta of MPEG Streamclip has just been released for Windows. I'm afraid I'm not familiar with any other Windows tools; these days I tend to use Handbrake (Mac or Win or Linux) or iSquint (Mac only) depending on the source.

By: Vidy

Vidy — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 14:33:04 +0000

Thank you bruce for the excellent guide, ive been using mpeg streamclip to convert xvid's to .mp4's to play on the pocket pc and the results are good. however if i use the batch convert on mpeg streamclip i get invalid timecode error although i checked the fix timecode breaks box, so its just 1 movie/night. also the conversion uses all the resources of my intel mobile p4 processor and i cant do much while converting it would be nice if I could slow down the conversion to use less processor resources.
the guide is nearly 2 years old now is there anything new and better software out there?

By: Eenie Meanie Minie Moe- Pick a Video By The …

Eenie Meanie Minie Moe- Pick a Video By The … — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 23:55:13 +0000

[...] On a few project front I am wrestling with trying to pick the “best” web video format. Some have boiled it down to selecting the “elusive” best format. [...]

By: Bruce

Bruce — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 12:08:26 +0000

You could try ffmpegX Mike; link in comment above. If you open the movie in QuickTime Player, choose Window then Show Movie Info, it shoud tell you the audio and video codec used in your source file under Format. Do this for your output file as well, and it might give a clue as to what's going on.

By: mike

mike — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 10:46:20 +0000

yes i did everything the above stated.....the file format i was converting from is an mpeg......i dont know how to find out the audio/video codecs though.

By: Bruce

Bruce — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 11:55:48 +0000

Difficult to help Mike without knowing the file format and audio video codecs of your source material. Did you specify conversion of audio to AAC (as shown above)?

By: mike

mike — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 10:48:39 +0000

im using the apple ipod. I used mpeg streamclip converted to mp4 and when i uploaded to ipod i couldnt hear a thing......the picture is fine just no sound

By: Bruce

Bruce — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 19:40:27 +0000

Tim, ffmpegX will convert just about any video source to MPEG1. I've used it before, don't care too much for the interface, but it does what it says on the tin ;-)

By: Tim Merritt

Tim Merritt — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 18:05:58 +0000

Nice overview; I'm still looking for that elusive multi-device format, too. At the college where I work, much of the video development is on Macs for display on Windows via PowerPoint. I've found that encoding to MPEG1 provides a good result, and now more and more faculty are using Transana, an open-source transcription app that depends on MPEG1 too.

MPEG Streamclip is an excellent toolset, but it doesn't export to MPEG1. I just discovered VisualHub, from the nice folk that brought is the free iSquint you reference above. It'll go from VOBs on a non-encrypted DVD right to MPEG1... but it's crippled shareware, and I can't install shareware on the Macs in my lab.

Do you know of another free app that can encode directly from VOBs to MPEG1?

By: Bruce

Bruce — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 08:04:58 +0000

Suras, on which device, using which file format, produced with which software, using which player version, and with which (if any) plugins have you no sound?