FFMPEG, A breakdown of settings

Recently for a project I was tasked with the challenge to setup a server distribution to handle any video upload, transcode it to MP4 with autostart capabilities and get it looking great on Apple/Android devices.  I accepted the challenge, and was it ever fun.  I’m not going to get into the gritty details of setting up FFMPEG on a linux machine, but after a few good hours of package installation on a Rack Cloud Debian machine, i got a really solid system running, all that was left was to write the commands to process the file uploads.

Conversion
The goal here was not only to get a small file size, decent bitrate and audio, but also keep the audio/video in sync & get it fully compatible for iPhone/iPad/Android devices.

/usr/bin/ffmpeg -i /var/dir/in_file.mov -r 24 -vsync 1 -async 1 -acodec libfaac -ab 128kb -vcodec libx264 -b 1200kb -mbd 2 -flags +4mv+trell -aic 2 -cmp 2 -subcmp 2 -s 560x336 -title MetaTitleName /var/dir/outfile_tmp.mp4

The keys to my success on this were as follows:

  • -r 24 -vsync 1 -async 1 helped to solve sync issues with the audio/video. I think the win here is to specify the hard framerate with the -async -vsync switches for it to work best
  • -acodec libfaac ensured that there was a compatible audio stream for Apple devices
  • -vcodec libx264 again, many to choose from but h264 was a great choice and ensured playback properly for Apple devices

Faststart
It’s always a pain when you have to sit there and wait for a file to download all the way before the packet of information is found at the end telling the video to start.  Just doing an mp4 conversion isn’t enough, you need to introduce the gt-faststart command which does some lovely magic and allows an immediate download. 

/usr/bin/qt-faststart /var/dir/outfile_tmp.mp4 /var/dir/outfile_final.mp4

Simple, but very effective.  

iOS 4, so much better. Went from nine pages of apps down to two.
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iOS 4, so much better. Went from nine pages of apps down to two.

Apple issuing invitations for MobileMe Mail beta

Mobile Me Beta

Invitations are floating around in Mobile Me (I just got one and accepted it) for a beta they’re planning to roll out.  New Features:

  • The ability to have both widescreen and compact views.
  • Rules to help keep mail organized on any device you use MobileMe. Note that any rules set up on the beta may override rules already in place on OS X Mail, so disable duplicate rules on your Mac before giving this a test drive.
  • Single-click archiving of e-mail.
  • Formatting toolbar including the ability to shorten long URLs.
  • Improved performance for MobileMe Mail through me.com.
  • SSL security no matter where you access your MobileMe Mail.
Mark the day, hard to believe that worldwide a 3rd party browser could be the #1 downloaded app in a proprietary store.  The power of suggestion, it’s a beautiful thing.
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Mark the day, hard to believe that worldwide a 3rd party browser could be the #1 downloaded app in a proprietary store.  The power of suggestion, it’s a beautiful thing.

It’s a big week for Apple

I’m not only a user of Apple products, I’m a believer in their model and vision of leading the way and doing it with style. It took me a while to convert, but once I looked at it close, I never looked back.  Not only do I agree with Job’s direction with the company, I respect him for being such an innovator.  That said it’s no surprise he was given the cover of TIME, as I really do believe he deserves the success he’s built.

Taken from this article in Mac Observer:

Steve Jobs and the iPad are the subject of the cover story of this week’s Time magazine, including a remarkable photo of Mr. Jobs looking healthier than he’s appeared in the last couple of years. The story itself is part look at author Stephen Fry’s own obsession with Apple products, part mini-history of Apple, part look at Apple’s design philosophy, and part look at the iPad itself.
One passage in particular offers a poignant look at Mr. Jobs that will be nodded at by Apple enthusiats and derided and dismissed by the Apple haters in the world.
“I have met five British Prime Ministers, two American Presidents, Nelson Mandela, Michael Jackson and the Queen,” wrote Mr. Fry. “My hour with Steve Jobs certainly made me more nervous than any of those encounters. I know what you are thinking, but it’s the truth. I do believe Jobs to be a truly great figure, one of the small group of innovators who have changed the world. He exists somewhere between showman, perfectionist overseer, visionary, enthusiast and opportunist, and his insistence upon design, detail, finish, quality, ease of use and reliability are a huge part of Apple’s success.”

The funny part of it all is I’m pretty sure I’d feel the same way.  Maybe to me it’s simply his stage presence that gives everyone that sense of “what is really going on in that dude’s mind” stance, I don’t know.  In any case, it was the last line of the article that really brought things full circle, and that was when you read:

You can find this week’s Time magazine on the newstand or on the App Store (US$4.99 for the app).

Enough said.