Itouch mp4 settings

[Andy Bircumshaw]

On 28/12/2010, at 11:17am, Don Rossie wrote:

> Hi,
> Thanks for your reply Andy and the attached information.
> 
> Am I right in saying that after I run get_iplayer and it has downloaded the
> video file from iplayer, it then has a second stage of where it converts it
> to a mp4 file from a flv file by using ffmpeg ?

Yes. This is shown in this part of get_iplayer's output:

...
318090.957 kB / 1734.20 sec (99.9%)
318218.957 kB / 1734.56 sec (99.9%)
318282.957 kB / 1734.92 sec (99.9%)
318304.984 kB / 1
735.08 sec (99.9%)
Download complete
FFmpeg version SVN-r25767, Copyright (c) 2000-2010 the FFmpeg developers
 built on Dec 14 2010 00:29:20 with gcc 4.4.4
 configuration: --prefix=/usr --libdir=/usr/lib --shlibdir=/usr/lib --mandir=/usr/share/man --enable-static --enable-shared --cc=i686-pc-linux-gnu-gcc --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --enable-postproc --enable-avfilter --disable-stripping --disable-debug --disable-network --disable-vaapi --disable-ffplay --disable-static --disable-vdpau --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-libx264 --enable-libxvid --disable-indev=v4l --disable-indev=v4l2 --disable-indev=alsa --disable-indev=oss --disable-indev=jack --disable-outdev=alsa --disable-outdev=oss --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libschroedinger --disable-altivec --cpu=host --enable-hardcoded-tables
 libavutil     50.33. 0 / 50.33. 0
 libavcore      0.13. 0 /  0.13. 0
 libavcodec    52.96. 0 / 52.96. 0
 libavformat   52.84. 0 / 52.84. 0
 libavdevice   52. 2. 2 / 52. 2. 2
 libavfilter    1.62. 0 /  1.62. 0
 libswscale     0.12. 0 /  0.12. 0
 libpostproc   51. 2. 0 / 51. 2. 0
[flv @ 0x8b724c0] Estimating duration from bitrate, this may be inaccurate
Input #0, flv, from '/mnt/space/Media/BBC/Climbing_Great_Buildings_-_7._St_Pauls_Cathedral_b00tv973_default.partial.mp4.flv':
 Metadata:
   duration        : 1735
   moovPosition    : 32
   width           : 832
   height          : 468
   videocodecid    : avc1
   audiocodecid    : mp4a
   avcprofile      : 77
   avclevel        : 30
   aacaot          : 2
   videoframerate  : 25
   audiosamplerate : 24000
   audiochannels   : 2
 Duration: 00:28:55.12, start: 0.000000, bitrate: N/A
   Stream #0.0: Video: h264, yuv420p, 832x468 [PAR 117:117 DAR 16:9], 25 tbr, 1k tbn, 50 tbc
   Stream #0.1: Audio: aac, 48000 Hz, stereo, s16
Output #0, mp4, to '/mnt/space/Media/BBC/Climbing_Great_Buildings_-_7._St_Pauls_Cathedral_b00tv973_default.partial.mp4':
 Metadata:
   encoder         : Lavf52.84.0
   Stream #0.0: Video: libx264, yuv420p, 832x468 [PAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], q=2-31, 25 tbn, 25 tbc
   Stream #0.1: Audio: aac, 48000 Hz, stereo
Stream mapping:
 Stream #0.0 -> #0.0
 Stream #0.1 -> #0.1
Press [q] to stop encoding
frame= 2531 fps=  0 q=-1.0 size=   18458kB time=101.21 bitrate=1494.0kbits/s    
frame= 5026 fps=5025 q=-1.0 size=   36745kB time=201.00 bitrate=1497.6kbits/s    
frame= 7228 fps=4818 q=-1.0 size=   52937kB time=289.11 bitrate=1500.0kbits/s    
frame= 9757 fps=4878 q=-1.0 size=   71423kB time=390.28 bitrate=1499.2kbits/s    
...

If you add "--debug" to your get_iplayer arguments you'll see at least a little bit more - it should tell you, I think, exactly how get_iplayer is calling ffmpeg.

The purpose of ffmpeg (to get_iplayer) is explained in the last paragraph:
http://www.mail-archive.com/get_iplayer@lists.infradead.org/msg00158.html


> This is my command line and I don't refer to ffmpeg anywhere so I assuming
> that it is built into get_iplayer:
> 
> get_iplayer --type=tv --get 130 --modes=iphone,flashstd,flashnormal
> 
> When the file had downloaded, it still won't work on itunes !!!

I think you need to use "--tvmode" here, not "--modes". I.E. "--tvmode=iphone,flashstd,flashnormal".
Using "--modes=iphone,flashstd,flashnormal" is shown here to be ignored. 

You can see what modes get_iplayer is trying from this early part of get_iplayer's output:

INFO: Checking existence of default version
INFO: flashvhigh1,flashvhigh2,flashhigh1,flashhigh2,flashstd1,flashstd2 modes will be tried for version default
INFO: Trying flashvhigh1 mode to record tv: Climbing Great Buildings - 7. St Paul's Cathedral
INFO: File name prefix = Climbing_Great_Buildings_-_7._St_Pauls_Cathedral_b00tv973_default                 
RTMPDump v2.3

See the second line?

In my case (above) this is being taken from my preferences:
  $ get_iplayer --prefs-show | grep tvmode
        tvmode = flashhd,flashvhigh,flashhigh,flashstd,flashnormal
  $

As others have observed the iphone mode is no longer working. According to [1] flashstd & flashnormal both appear to be higher resolution than iphone mode, but lower bitrate. It's quite possible your iPod won't play them.

What mode have you actually downloaded that it's not playing? You need to look at the whole of get_iplayer's output in order to determine this. 

On a Linux system:
    get_iplayer --get 130 --tvmode=iphone,flashstd,flashnormal > output.txt

Then you can `tail -f output.txt` in another terminal window, and examine it long after the download has completed.

If there are no modes available for download that will play on your iPod then you'll need to transcode the video, as per your attempt to use ffmpeg documented in your post of 24 December 2010 10:43:53 am GMT. If you're on a Windows PC then you may find it easiest to use a GUI program for transcoding; I'm surprised VLC doesn't offer this option, but you'll probably find Handbrake worth a look, too. I'm sure there are a bunch of different Windows transcoders that offer iPod output presets.

aB.


[1] http://beebhack.wikia.com/wiki/IPlayer_TV