mov versus mp4 and mp3 as aac

[Andy Bircumshaw]

On 10 Oct 2010, at 22:35, Kevin Lynch wrote:
> ...
> I have get_iplayer working on both ubuntu and win xp (32 bit). I
> prefer my media as mp4 and mp3 occasionally material is saved as mov
> and aac (it's no big problem I re-wrap with mp4box/gpac on ubuntu)
> ...
> I use winff (windows/ubuntu) to transcode AAC as MP3
> 
> My question is what do I have to do to get_iplayer to save MP4/MP3 by default

Not sure why you'd be seeing .mov instead of .mp4. I'd be curious to see a PID, copy & paste from the terminal &/or output of `mplayer -vo null -ao null -identify -endpos 1`.

I'm *guessing* that the format / container choices that get_iplayer makes are based entirely upon the quality settings that you use. I'm never seeing any final output but h264 / AAC / .mp4 / .aac here.

So to get MP3, you can probably just choose a lower quality setting:
http://beebhack.wikia.com/wiki/IPlayer_TV#Comparison_Table

I want best quality, so:
$ get_iplayer --show-options 
...
Options from Files:
        radiomode = best
        tvmode = flashhd,flashvhigh,flashhigh
...

Thus I get programmes in h264 / AAC / .mp4 (.aac for radio).

It's relatively not-useful to talk about .mov vs .mp4 as these are merely container formats, and don't affect the quality. As you probably understand, remuxing them into a different container (gpac) is quick and lossless. The codec is more important, and your transcode (winff) is lossy. AAC is generally better quality than MP3.

aB.