Converting video to a mobile format - file size

I'll try setting mine to use the mp3 plugin, will take a while to download the build tools though.

I just built it I've never done that before...

ffmpeg -formats shows the MP3 encoding is now available... About to try again then...

Done. Using ffmpeg -i "input.avi" -s 320x240 -b 200 -acodec mp3 -vcodec mpeg4 -ab 64 -ac 1 output.avi A 21 minute video is 42MB (source is approx 150MB). Thats not as bad as before (last attempt was about 50MB last time).

Is this good?

Look at the file on your pocketpc, then run the same file again with lower settings.
The ab as 32 for example. if you find that good enough to listen to you saved a few mb's
then the b as 160 or something and see if that still looks enough.
you could play around with the framerate (-r 15) for example, and half the -b value (100)

good or bad is all from ones own perspective. It also depends on your use.
If you know you will be having a lot of spare time while you only have a small memorycard, you might just settle for very low settings to fight repetition and boredom
(example: 128mb memorycard, and you know that over the whole day. without coming close to a computer to refill your memorycard with new videos, you have 2 hours to watch stuff, you might want to accept a low quality to avoid having to play freecell for half the waiting time)

Did that a little after posting. Its fine when played on the internal speaker and resonable when played though headphones. Now i've done a few more in that format.

The video settings i dont want to lower any further. Its not-too-bad at the moment, but there is some pixelation on the scences with more rapid movement.


I've got a total of 1500 megabytes (ish) split over three cards.

Thanks for the input. The settings i'm using at the moment are ok, approx 1.7MB/min.

A new question. Can i run ffmpeg on multiple files at once? I've got a folder full of videos, would like to start it converting then leave it to finish overnight. e.g. input1.avi -> output1.avi, input2.mpg -> output2.avi and so on.

Edited by chazco 2006-08-05 11:09 AM

you could try using "-r 20" (20fps as a framerate) to increase the video quality a bit. just play it back on your ppc and see if the audio sync is still good. For faster movies, 20fps might be a little low, but I find it good watchable.
if the quality you have now with 200 is fine, you could lower the quality to 160 when you use 20fps to get a similair quality


you will have to write a script for it, or look around for scripts. I've never done anything with writing scripts, but its possible.
essentially you would just create an executable script that takes variables from the commandline, and you will execute the script when you are in the folder where your video files are located.

here is a link google found for me. you might find more info there
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=62625&highlight=video-...


Edited by PocketDVD 2006-08-05 12:28 PM

I've tried those settings, but prefer the ones i had before, which give a good balnce of watchability/filesize.

Breaking tradition i read the ffmpeg documentation. It seems there is support for wildcards in the input/output names, so will try that for batch conversion later.

I've created a .deb package of my new ffmpeg, and backed it up, so if i ever have to format it should be easy to get going again.