07.22.08
PGP Key
FYI, you can get my public PGP key from the PGP Global Directory
05.19.08
Convert Phone Video using FFMPEG
I recently shot some video using the camera on my HTC Touch Cruise. I was easily able to send it as an e-mail attachment using Pocket Outlook and my GMail account. However, when the video arrived it was in an unusable format so I had to do some FFMPEG processing on it. Read the rest of this entry »
01.24.08
DivX Noobs
I saw this question today so I’m posting my response here for everyone.
I am seeking a way to covert my dvd’s to a video file format. I am looking to use mp4 or divx…
In the USA it is illegal to circumvent the copy protection found on most commercial DVDs. However, if you have an unprotected DVD, you can use DivX Converter to convert the DVD to a DivX file.
For example, I have a DVD from my wedding. I paid the videographer for the footage and he gave me an unencrypted DVD. I put that DVD into my computer and can see the contents of the disc. In one of the sub-directories there is a set of large files with names ending in VOB.
Drag and drop the VOB files into DivX Converter, select the “Home Theater” profile, wait a while, and you’ll get a file out with a name ending in divx that is about one quarter the size of the original VOB files. Converter automatically stitches the VOBs together into one file. Take that divx file, burn it on to a CD-ROM and you can watch it on any DivX Certified DVD player. There are many models to choose from starting from as little as $40.
Go to www.divx.com for the software. The DivX Converter software is free, but you’ll need the optional ($10) MPEG2 plug-in to read VOB files. If you are converting lots of videos, consider upgrading to DivX Pro ($20) that will convert files faster and/or provide better quality.
Beware of software that says it creates “DivX” files but is not actually certified by DivX or does not use the DivX encoder. There are lots of free converters out there, many based on FFMPEG, MENCODER, and/or XVID that do not use the fast, high-quality DivX encoder. I only use DivX Converter, Dr. DivX, StreamClip or VirtualDub. I avoid ffmpegx, handbrake, etc.
Advanced Encoding
So you’ve tried DivX Converter but you’ve found you want more control over the encoding process. I’d suggest using software that gives you direct access to the DivX encoder options.
For Mobile, I always crop to 4:3 aspect ratio then scale to 320×240 (qVGA) and keep the video bitrate around 300 kbps. Lanczos is the best resize filter. Always crop off any black borders that may appear around the original video. You waste lots of bitrate trying to encode a sharp black frame around your video. Get rid of them.
For all encodings, I take advantage of the optional enhancements offered by DivX Pro. That means, Multipass (fast first pass), Insane Quality, Experimental SSE4 Search, Enhanced Multithreading, Bidirectional coding, Auto Noise Reduction, Optimized Quantization, Shaping Psychovisual Enhancements and Enhanced I-Blocks. For grainy video, I use Masking Psychovisual Enhancements.
Multi-pass provides better quality and better control of the bitrate. For example, if you try 300 kbps with 1 pass, you might get 275 kbps or 325 kbps. With fast first pass, you will usually get within 2 kbps of your target rate. If you really want exactly the target rate, make a slow first pass.
If you don’t care about rate, use the “1-pass quality based” setting. It’s really the best and fastest method. You let the encoder choose the optimal bit-rate based on the content. I typically use a Quality setting between 3.5 and 5.0 depending on the content. Unfortunately, with this setting, you don’t know what bitrate you’ll end up with and you could easily get something your phone can’t handle, so I don’t use this setting for Mobile sized videos.
I never mess with the max key frames and keyframe threshold. Theoretically you could optimize those settings based on your content. For example, if you have lots of video of a talking head, use a very high max key frame. If you have lots of panning or short, similar scenes, lower the max or the keyframe threshold. By default, you’ll get a key frame at least every 3 seconds and I rarely try to tweak it.
For more detail about what all these settings mean, see the Dr. DivX user guide.
Don’t forget about the audio. Many DivX videos have 128 kbps MP3 stereo audio. That’s usually what you want for Mobile clips and a converter like VirtualDub will copy the audio stream as-is without re-encoding it. Unfortunately Dr. DivX will always re-encode the audio stream whether you need to or not. Sometimes I will use DivXMux to use the original audio stream and the converted video stream.
If you never use stereo headphones, you can save a few bytes by converting the audio to mono and drop the bitrate to 96 kbps.
12.26.07
William Frantz Elementary School Address
William Frantz Elementary School is located at 3811 North Galvez Street, New Orleans, LA 70117. While we share the same name, I’m not related to the school.
Lee Harvey Oswald was born October 18, 1939. He lived on Alvar Street, across from William Frantz Elementary which he attended with his brother.
Decades later, 6 year old Ruby Bridges also attended William Frantz Elementary marking the end of segregation on November 14, 1960.
3 years later, on November 22, 1963, Lee assassinated one of the biggest proponents of civil rights, President John F. Kennedy.
12.21.07
Apple Teaches People
By now there are a few million iPhone users compared to hundreds of million Windows Mobile phone users. Yet, in The Seven Biggest Mobile Content Stories of 2007, Fierce Mobile reported that iPhone Safari browser usage has dramatically exceeded Windows Mobile Pocket Internet Explorer.
I find this astonishing. Apple overcame a 100:1 disadvantage and a several year head start. Then again, I’m often taken aback when “average users” believe some feature is revolutionary when in fact it has been available for years. Now I realize that Apple’s skill is not simply making good products but actually promoting their use. There are no commercials on TV that show happy Windows Mobile users scrolling around web pages on a phone, so I guess nobody realizes its possible until Apple runs an iPhone ad. Suddenly everyone thinks only an iPhone can do this, that or the other thing.
For example, in Year of the iPhone Sue Marek says, Apple’s iPhone transformed wireless handsets with its innovative design and touch screen. I disagree. Hold an iPhone next to an iPaq from 1999. The design is sleeker and smaller but it doesn’t seem innovative considering 8 years have past.
Sue continues, the device finally showed consumers that mobile computing was not only possible but actually fun to do. Here I agree and this is where Apple made a difference. They showed consumers.
Consider iTunes and CD burners. Nobody realized they could make their own CD’s until the “Rip, Mix, Burn” commercials ran?
Go back to the first iPod. Handheld, digital music players had been around for a long time but people didn’t know they existed or didn’t understand what they did. Apple entered the market and taught everybody.
Go back to the first Mac. Other computers had mice and GUIs (including Apple’s own Lisa) but Apple had to show people that computers could be easy to use. I honestly don’t think Apple computers are any easier or harder to use than other computers but Apple does the best job at teaching people.
I’m not an Apple basher. To the contrary, I have an iPod, iMac and a Macbook. I love the products, however I didn’t pay retail for any of them and they don’t offer any feature I can’t replicate for less money. It seems, the “average user” doesn’t share my aptitude for cobbling together solutions or hunting down alternative products.
10.24.07
Fire Map
The KPBS Fire Map has been a great source of information during the San Diego fire. It’s a Google Map with icons and boundries drawn by a local San Diego PBS station.
There’s also a good KBSP News Feed on Twitter that gets updated regularly.
Here’s another Map at Live.com
10.08.07
You Can’t Resell That CD
The RIAA won a $222,000 lawsuit against an individual woman in Minnesota who was using a peer-to-peer network. As absurd as that sounds, it didn’t alarm me much until I read more of the details. Apparently, the woman wasn’t found guilty of downloading copyright music. She was guilt of making copyright music available for download.
Apparently, copyright law also grants distribution rights to the copyright holder. For example, in this particular case, Virgin Records filed the following statement with the court…
A person also violates a copyright holder’s distribution right by making copyrighted works available to others without authorization from the copyright holder. Section 106(3) of the Copyright Act gives the owner of copyright “the exclusive rights to do and to authorize any of the following: . . . (3) To distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending . . . . 17 U.S.C. 106(3).” This language makes it clear that it is an actionable infringement for one to violate a copyright owner’s exclusive right to authorize the distribution of copies or phonorecords of a copyrighted work.
I can only hope that Virgin Records somehow took 17 U.S.C. 106(3) completely out of context. If I interpret it as written above, it seems that I am legally required to keep every CD, DVD, LP and VHS tape that I’ve ever purchased. I can’t sell my old DVDs. I cannot give you a CD, even as a gift. Can I even toss a VHS tape in the trash? Why aren’t there massive raids going on at all the second hand book stores around the country? Are all libraries required to explicitly obtain distribution rights for every work in their collection?
Any of these acts are undeniably prohibited under the aforementioned copyright distribution clause. Technically, I must get permission from the copyright holder of my Air Supply record before I transfer ownership to the city landfill.
07.04.07
DV to MPEG4
Recently, a friend asked how to convert video from his Sony camcorder to his Motorola Q phone. I wrote a short primer on MPEG video and figured I’d just post it here.
The first thing to realize is there is a difference between compression methods and file formats although most people don’t distinguish between the two. This has led to a lot of the confusion among consumers.
MPEG1 was used for laser discs (remember them?). MPEG2 is used for DVDs and broadcast HDTV. Blu-ray discs use MPEG4, more specifically MPEG4 AVC H.264. All discs store video in TS (Transport Stream) file containers.
Most consumer video cameras record in DV (Digital Video) which is a unique standard using DCT intraframe compression and not directly related to MPEG. Some HiDef cameras use HDV tapes which is like DV but it’s MPEG2. Few, but growing, cameras record in MPEG4. Some create DivX AVI files. Some create MP4 (aka. Quicktime MOV). Some create AVCHD TS files. Obviously, the MPEG4 market is much more fragmented than MPEG2.
If you have a DV camera, it probably came with software that converts those files to MPEG1. What you want is software that goes directly from DV to MPEG4. Ideally, you’d go directly from DV to MPEG4 SP in a 3GP file. Alternatively (and probably better) would be to go from DV to WMV. Either of those would play on on a Motorola Q. Let’s try Google… “dv to wmv”.
- Convert Video from DV(Digital Video Cassette) to WMV(Windows Media Video) with River Past Video Cleaner
- How to convert DV to WMV using Windows Media Encoder
- DV MPEG4 Maker is a software tool that helps you create MPEG4/DIVX/AVI/WMV video clip files from your digital camcorder
I’ve never used any of these. My camera records in AVCHD. That’s much harder to deal with. There are few applications that can read AVCHD files. However, I did manage to find some Mac OS X command line tools that can convert AVCHD to DivX.