[mdlug] Converting DVDs to play on a Palm

[Ingles, Raymond]

 I got a spare 512MB SD card and decided to try this out, since I'd heard of
people doing it. So, I did some googling and put together a script or two to
handle this.

 Basically, you use "mencoder" to read the DVD and convert it to DIVX format,
scaling the video to fit the 320x320 screen. I also compress the audio to
128Kbit MP3 format, since I don't need a Dolby soundtrack. :-> I've had very
good results with a 224Mbit/sec video rate. It looks quite good on the screen,
better than VHS (certainly richer color).

 Last night I converted the movie "Aliens". It's a 154-minute movie in 16x9
format. It converted down to a 320x180 image, and takes up 403MB on the card.
That took approximately an hour and twenty minutes on my dual-2GHz Athlon
system. (If I used one-pass encoding it would have been about half that.)

I let the movie run all the way through (two hours and 34 minutes) today as
the Treo 650 sat on my desk as I worked (with the sound muted) and my battery
went from 99% to 77%. Not bad.

 It's a toy, sure, but might be fun on a long trip. I could fit five or six
half-hour TV shows on my card easily. Anyway, if anyone's interested, the
script I use is below.

 Sincerely,

 Ray Ingles                                   (313) 227-2317
 
 "Computers let you make more mistakes faster than any other
 invention in human history, with the possible exception of
        handguns and tequila." - Mitch Radcliffe

---begin dvd2palm.sh---
#!/bin/sh

# Converts DVDs to AVI files suitable for viewing on a Palm w/TCPMP

# If you're skipping frames, increase FPS. If duplicating, decrease FPS.
# Usual values are 24000/1001 (23.976), 24, 25 (PAL), 30000/1001 (29.97), 30.
FPS=24000/1001

# My Palm has a 320x320 screen. If you have a 480x320 screen, try "480" here.
SCALEW=320

# Set audio mode - these are arranged in decreasing order of likelyhood
# to sync properly

# Full AC3 audio, takes up a fair amount of space.
#AUDIO=copy
# Constant bit rate MP3, the 'br' field sets the bit rate
AUDIO="mp3lame -lameopts cbr:br=128"
# Average bit rate MP3, the 'br' field sets the bit rate
#AUDIO="mp3lame -lameopts abr:br=128"
# Variable bit rate MP3, sometimes has sync problems
#AUDIO="mp3lame -lameopts vbr=3"

# Set crop, if needed
# Get these numbers by running the command: mplayer -ss 60 -vf scale=320:-2,cropdetect dvd://[track number]
#CROP=",crop=320:160:0:28"

# For mixed progressive/telecined content
#PULLUP=",pullup,softskip"

# Set video bit rate, feel free to experiment here to see what fits
VBITRATE=224
#VBITRATE=336
#VBITRATE=448

# Use DIVX
DIVX="-ffourcc divx"

# These are the key parameters we gotta have from the user.
# Spaces in the output file name are probably not a good idea.
DVDTITLE=$1
NEWNAME=$2.avi

# These are optional parameters that can be tweaked but have default values.
# You might want to change the default to match your system.
DVDDEV=${3:-"/dev/dvd"}
# 128 is the default audio track on a DVD, usually
AUDIOTRACK=${4:-128}

# Make sure we got the minimum info needed.
if [ -z "${DVDTITLE}" -o -z "$2" ]; then
 echo "Usage: " $0 " dvd-title output-name [dvd-device] [audio-track]"
 exit -1
fi

# Just in case one's left over from a previous encoding run.
rm -rf divx2pass.log

# Two-pass encoding, takes longer but produces best quality for a given bitrate
mencoder -dvd-device ${DVDDEV} dvd://${DVDTITLE} -aid ${AUDIOTRACK} -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:vpass=1:vbi
trate=${VBITRATE} -ofps ${FPS} ${DIVX} -oac ${AUDIO} -vf scale=${SCALEW}:-2${CROP}${PULLUP} -o /dev/null

mencoder -dvd-device ${DVDDEV} dvd://${DVDTITLE} -aid ${AUDIOTRACK} -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:vpass=2:vbi
trate=${VBITRATE} -ofps ${FPS} ${DIVX} -oac ${AUDIO} -vf scale=${SCALEW}:-2${CROP}${PULLUP} -o ${NEWNAME}

# Clean up after ourselves.
rm -rf divx2pass.log
----end dvd2palm.sh----

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