Sansa c240 c250 MPEGPlayer WinFF and VirtualDub

[PassinThru]

Me being a total newb to RockBox, after having read and searched all the info, was still having problems trying to convert a 1-hour documentary that I like to carry with me to show others. It was in an obscure codec (still on my machine) and I found out it even had some kind of audio offset that WinFF didn't like.

I thought some of you might like to know how I managed to salvage that video and make it play on my C250.

I first converted it into the required 132x80 size needed using VirtualDub with more standard video and audio codecs, and also used the "Resize" filter (it can keep proportion and add nice letter-boxing on it all in one). THEN I used that WinFF utility on it. I made 4 new C250 profiles for WinFF. I thought some of you might like this bit of info if you are a total RockBox newb like me.

C240/250 WinFF Profiles:

Preset Name: c200FS
Preset Label: RB Sandisk Sansa c200 4:3
Preset Command Line: -acodec libmp3lame -ab 128 -ar 44100 -vcodec mpeg2video -s 132x80 -b 320kb -strict -1
Output File Extension: mpg
Category: Rockbox

(I used the following on my repaired preformatted video file from VirtualDub.)

Preset Name: c200FSformatted
Preset Label: RB Sandisk Sansa c200 4:3 Pre-formatted
Preset Command Line: -acodec libmp3lame -ab 128 -ar 44100 -vcodec mpeg2video -b 320kb -strict -1
Output File Extension: mpg
Category: Rockbox

Preset Name: c200WS
Preset Label: RB Sandisk Sansa c200 16:9
Preset Command Line: -acodec libmp3lame -ab 128 -ar 44100 -vcodec mpeg2video -s 132x80 -b 320kb -strict -1
Output File Extension: mpg
Category: Rockbox

Preset Name: c200WSformatted
Preset Label: RB Sandisk Sansa c200 16:9 Pre-formatted
Preset Command Line: -acodec libmp3lame -ab 128 -ar 44100 -vcodec mpeg2video -b 320kb -strict -1
Output File Extension: mpg
Category: Rockbox


One thing that kept throwing me for a loop is that the resulting videos from WinFF in this format wouldn't play on my machine. Probably from the odd frame size or something. But I put it on my Sansa C250 and it worked great! Fast forward, rewind, the works. A 1-hour video only came out to 187megs. Putting "Lord of the Rings" on a 4GIG SD card would be a cinch! :-)

Anyway, there's a nice work-around for you wanting videos on your MP3 player. Use VirtualDub to preformat it in the right size and in codecs that WinFF will be happy with. THEN use WinFF on it. Goes fast and easy.

Thanks again folks for the fun and fine piece of programming!

[AlexP]

Thanks, but in a day or so this will get lost on the forums - it really isn't for static information.

What would be really good would be if you could add it to the wiki.

[saanaito]

I volunteer. One Wiki page, coming up!

EDIT: I put up a fairly basic Wiki page, but it should suffice for now. http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/WinFFVirtualDub

EDIT2: Added verbatim tags to preserve formatting (and then, ironically, messed with paragraphs to avoid horizontal scrolling.) Couldn't think of a better way, but then again, I'm new to the Wiki.

[MarcGuay]

Couldn't this have been summed up as "If your video is in a format that WinFF doesn't recognize, you can convert it before-hand using VirtualDub"?  I'm not so sure it's worth the wiki-bloat but I also know nothing about video conversion.

[soap]

Couldn't this have been summed up as "If your video is in a format that WinFF doesn't recognize, you can convert it before-hand using VirtualDub"?  I'm not so sure it's worth the wiki-bloat but I also know nothing about video conversion.

Indeed.
Not only that, but there is no need (that I can see) to do the resizing in VirtualDub.
I would also suggest that you export to a lossless (and large) codec as the intermediate step, if you must.
Not only does this appear, IMHO, to be wiki-bloat, but it appears to be dragging an already off-topic discussion even deeper off-topic.
WinFF information was provided as a polite way of saying "video conversion can be easy, here's how we did it, do the same if you like", but getting deeper and deeper into the nuances of fringe-cases is really not the job of Rockbox.
 

[AlexP]

I have to admit to not properly reading the post first.  My bad.

[saanaito]

And I barely read it at all, so I'm especially guilty.