Encoding Videos for a NWZ-E345 Sony Walkman (codecs already found)

isaaclw · 06-18-2010, 06:04 AM

I have a Sony Walkman NWZ-E345.
Right now I'm trying to figure out what kind of encoding I can use to watch videos on it.

From Amazon:
Supports MP3, WMA (DRM), AAC, and Linear PCM audio formats; AVC, MPEG-4, and WMV (DRM) video formats; JPEG image files

From Sony:
The E340 supports multiple high-quality video formats (AVC (H.264/AVC), MPEG-4, and WMV), as well as a variety of audio codecs (MP3, WMA, AAC-LC (.mp4), and L-PCM (.wav), giving you more freedom to download the kind of music and video that you want.
WMV playback limited to Simple Profile, QVGA resolution (320x240) at a bitrate no higher than 768 kpbs. MPEG-4 playback limited to Simple Profile, QVGA resolution (320x240), at a bitrate no higher than 1024 kpbs. AVC playback limited to Baseline Profile, QVGA resolution (320x240), at a bitrate no higher than 768 kpbs.

ok. So to summarize:
Video: wmv, mp4, avc
audio: wma, mp3, aac
Resolution: 320x240
bitrate< 768

From the example file that does work:
Video:
Dimensions: 320x240
Codec: Microsoft Windows Media 9
Framerate: 30
Bitrate: 774 kbps
Audio:
Codec: WMA version 8
Chanels: Stereo
Sample rate: 44100 Hz
Bitrate: 55 kbps

I found someplace that x264 = mp4, so I tried this:

Code:

mencoder in.avi -oac mp3lame -ovc x264 -vf scale=320:240 -ofps 30 -x264encopts vbv_maxrate=758 -o out.avi

The file didn't show up. I tried both the suffix avi, and mp4.
Checking the file with nautilus properties, showed that the video bitrate was "N/A". Maybe that's the problem?

I would be fine with encoding in anything that works.
Does anyone have any ideas on how to either encode in the DRM, Windows format? Or how to Properly encode in mp4?

Note: As this model has an "external" that allows copying any data onto it, the only way to know if the video is in the wrong format is copying it on, and searching for it. This is what I mean when I say the "file didn't show up."

irmin · 06-20-2010, 02:59 PM

In your example you create an AVI-file. This container format is not supported by your "Sony Walkman". Also just renaming avi to mp4 does not change the format!

Mencoder can create mpeg4-files in principle, but then you must set the output format to lavf and select mpeg4 for -lavfopts. But as far as I know the video files created by mencoder using lavf are not always standard conform, in the presence of b-frames. Most times they can be played back with mplayer or similar players, but devices like your walkman are very prone to litte errors. ffmpeg is able to create video files that can be played back on such devices (provided ffmpeg is built with aac and h264 support):

Code:

ffmpeg -i in.avi out.mp4

ffmpeg at least supports wmv7 and wmv8 video format for encoding. But I do not recommend using wmv/asf, since this is a proprietary video/audio/container format (similar to MPEG-4 though, but nevertheless different). Also MPEG* is patented, but is at least a standard.
While wmv supports drm I would not recommend to use it, unless you want to restrict yourself

isaaclw · 06-21-2010, 04:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by irmin

In your example you create an AVI-file. This container format is not supported by your "Sony Walkman". Also just renaming avi to mp4 does not change the format!

Yeah, I know. I was just confused because I was unsure if the foramt I used was mp4 (I don't recall where I was told that it was mp4... but then nautilus told me it was avi, so I thought I'd try both).

Quote:

Originally Posted by irmin

Mencoder can create mpeg4-files in principle, but then you must set the output format to lavf and select mpeg4 for -lavfopts. But as far as I know the video files created by mencoder using lavf are not always standard conform, in the presence of b-frames. Most times they can be played back with mplayer or similar players, but devices like your walkman are very prone to litte errors.

I tried

Code:

mencoder in.avi -of lavf -lavfopts format=mp4 -vf scale=320:240 -ofps 30 -oac mp3lame -ovc lavc -o out.mp4

And it didn't work. But as you said, it's prone to fail.

Quote:

Originally Posted by irmin

ffmpeg is able to create video files that can be played back on such devices (provided ffmpeg is built with aac and h264 support):

Code:

ffmpeg -i in.avi out.mp4

ffmpeg at least supports wmv7 and wmv8 video format for encoding. But I do not recommend using wmv/asf, since this is a proprietary video/audio/container format (similar to MPEG-4 though, but nevertheless different). Also MPEG* is patented, but is at least a standard.
While wmv supports drm I would not recommend to use it, unless you want to restrict yourself

Well, honestly, I'm all for open formats, but stuff like "ogg" doesn't work when I can't play it on my mp3 player (read: If it plays I'm happy).

Ok. So what you're advising is to build ffmpeg with aac and h264, and then run the command you listed?

Sorry, while I like to think I know what I'm talking about I couldn't really follow you...

isaaclw · 06-21-2010, 08:15 AM

I'm helpless...

I've managed to get ffmpeg with all the options required (it seems):

Code:

isaac@phaff:~$ ffmpeg -i /media/gamma/videos/fish_eagle2 -s 320x240 -b 128000 -r 30 -ab 128 /media/WALKMAN/VIDEO/test.mp4 
FFmpeg version SVN-r23591, Copyright (c) 2000-2010 the FFmpeg developers
  built on Jun 11 2010 23:13:48 with gcc 4.4.3
  configuration: --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-libfaad --disable-debug --enable-pthreads --enable-gpl --enable-libfaac --enable-libgsm --enable-libxvid --enable-nonfree
  libavutil     50.18. 0 / 50.18. 0
  libavcodec    52.76. 0 / 52.76. 0
  libavformat   52.68. 0 / 52.68. 0
  libavdevice   52. 2. 0 / 52. 2. 0
  libavfilter    1.20. 0 /  1.20. 0
  libswscale     0.11. 0 /  0.11. 0
Input #0, avi, from '/media/gamma/videos/fish_eagle2':
  Metadata:
    ISFT            : MEncoder SVN-r29237-4.4.1
  Duration: 00:00:06.84, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 820 kb/s
    Stream #0.0: Video: mpeg4, yuv420p, 320x240 [PAR 1:1 DAR 4:3], 15 tbr, 15 tbn, 15 tbc
    Stream #0.1: Audio: mp3, 8000 Hz, 1 channels, s16, 8 kb/s
WARNING: The bitrate parameter is set too low. It takes bits/s as argument, not kbits/s
Output #0, mp4, to '/media/WALKMAN/VIDEO/test.mp4':
  Metadata:
    encoder         : Lavf52.68.0
    Stream #0.0: Video: mpeg4, yuv420p, 320x240 [PAR 1:1 DAR 4:3], q=2-31, 128 kb/s, 30 tbn, 30 tbc
    Stream #0.1: Audio: libfaac, 8000 Hz, 1 channels, s16, 0 kb/s
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0.0 -> #0.0
  Stream #0.1 -> #0.1
Press [q] to stop encoding
frame=  102 fps= 71 q=20.9 Lsize=     110kB time=6.53 bitrate= 137.8kbits/s    
video:103kB audio:4kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead 2.231538%

So it finishes with these details:

Code:

Video
Dimensions: 320x240
Codec: MPEG-4 video
Framerate: 15 frames per second
Bitrate: N/A

Audio
Codec: MPEG-4 AAC audio
Channels: Stereo
Sample rate: 8000 Hz
Bitrate: N/A

I'm uneasy about the "N/A" though this might just be nautilus (I don't know of any other way to pull that info...)
Again, the video doesn't show up.

Hammett · 06-21-2010, 09:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by isaaclw

[code]
isaac@phaff:~$ ffmpeg -i /media/gamma/videos/fish_eagle2 -s 320x240 -b 128000 -r 30 -ab 128 /media/WALKMAN/VIDEO/test.mp4

With that ffmpeg instruction you are not changing the video format, hence it won't show up in you Sony Walkman.

Try to set up the video codec to use in the ffmpeg as follows (H264 codec)

Code:

fmpeg -i /media/gamma/videos/fish_eagle2 -vcodec libx264 -s 320x240 -b 128000 -r 30 -ab 128 -f mp4 /media/WALKMAN/VIDEO/test.mp4

or

Code:

fmpeg -i /media/gamma/videos/fish_eagle2 -vcodec libxvid -s 320x240 -b 128000 -r 30 -ab 128 -f mp4 /media/WALKMAN/VIDEO/test.mp4

If you want to use mp4 codec

Also keep in mind that ffmpeg has a lot of different options to tune the audio and video codification. Some of your options might not work on your device.

It took me a while to figure out what were the optimal options for an iPhone 3G ...

David the H. · 06-21-2010, 09:17 AM

The bitrate options -b and -ab in ffmpeg are now read as bits-per-second, so your values are too low, particularly the audio value. You can add "k" to the values for them to be read correctly.

Code:

fmpeg -i /media/gamma/videos/fish_eagle2 -vcodec libx264 -s 320x240 -b 1280k -r 30 -ab 128k -f mp4 /media/WALKMAN/VIDEO/test.mp4

Note that this changed only a couple of years ago, so there's still a lot of outdated information out there.

Watch the output carefully when you run the command. If you look at the output in the post above, you'll see that it gave you a warning about this.

Also, you can check that you're using the proper values for -f, -vcodec, and -acodec by using the commands "ffmpeg -formats" and ffmpeg -codecs". These will give you a list of all the formats and codecs available to you.

isaaclw · 06-21-2010, 10:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hammett

Code:

fmpeg -i /media/gamma/videos/fish_eagle2 -vcodec libx264 -s 320x240 -b 128000 -r 30 -ab 128 -f mp4 /media/WALKMAN/VIDEO/test.mp4

Ok. this didn't work (Unknown encoder 'libx264'), but 'libxvid' allowed ffmpeg to finish without errors.

But it still didn't show up...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hammett

Also keep in mind that ffmpeg has a lot of different options to tune the audio and video codification. Some of your options might not work on your device.

Are there any options I can cut out? or anything I missed?
requirements:
codecs: check
bitrate: check (-b 768000)
framerate: check (-r 30)
size: check

That leaves only the option for audio bitrate, which if I don't specify it throws the error:

Code:

[libfaac @ 0x9403140]libfaac doesn't support this output format!

I've tried dropping the bitrate...

These videos all seem to follow the requirements that sony outlined, and I'm honestly not sure what other options to try.

Any ideas on the wmv route? ffmpeg doesn't have options for wmv 9.

Hammett · 06-21-2010, 11:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by isaaclw

Ok. this didn't work (Unknown encoder 'libx264'), but 'libxvid' allowed ffmpeg to finish without errors.

That means that ffmpeg was built without H264 support. Try to get a version built with that codec or built it from source (enabling the option, of course)

Quote:

Originally Posted by isaaclw

Are there any options I can cut out? or anything I missed?
requirements:
codecs: check
bitrate: check (-b 768000)
framerate: check (-r 30)
size: check

There are numerous options, google around a bit for more specific options, but I can tell there are a lot of options. For example, these are the options I found to work best for iPhone:

Code:

-acodec libfaac -ab 192k -ar 48000 -vcodec libxvid -b 1200k -s 480x270 -r 26 -flags +loop -cmp +chroma -partitions +parti4x4+partp8x8+partb8x8 -f mp4

Some of them I have no idea what they do, but with trial and error, I found out these are the best.

Try to google for ffmpeg and your Sony devide to see if there are specific options for your device.

Quote:

Originally Posted by isaaclw

That leaves only the option for audio bitrate, which if I don't specify it throws the error:

Code:

[libfaac @ 0x9403140]libfaac doesn't support this output format!

Try out what David the H suggested.

Code:

fmpeg -i /media/gamma/videos/fish_eagle2 -vcodec libxvid -s 320x240 -b 1280k -r 30 -ab 128k -f mp4 /media/WALKMAN/VIDEO/test.mp4

mikeleko · 06-21-2010, 04:01 PM

I guess you guys are referring to Linux systems only. Can you use SONY's Content Transfer application on Linux? Apparently this application can convert any video to wmv format that will work on NWZ-E345.

H_TeXMeX_H · 06-22-2010, 06:09 AM

I say try a standard Dvix/Xvid + mp3, if it can't play that, throw it in the garbage.

2-pass

Code:

ffmpeg -i input.mkv -vcodec libxvid -qscale 5 -s 640x272 -r 23.976 -aspect 40:17 -g 240 -bf 2 -acodec libmp3lame -ab 160k -ar 48000 -async 48000 -ac 2 -pass 1 -an -f rawvideo -y /dev/null
ffmpeg -i input.mkv -vcodec libxvid -qscale 5 -s 640x272 -r 23.976 -aspect 40:17 -g 240 -bf 2 -acodec libmp3lame -ab 160k -ar 48000 -async 48000 -ac 2 -pass 2 -f avi output.avi

Adjust parameters are necessary, -g should be 10 times the frame rate. The lower the qscale the better the quality, but don't go too low because it will have too high bitrate, and the thing won't play it.

isaaclw · 06-22-2010, 10:01 AM

Ok. I'm gonna follow this: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=786095
to completion.

I had seen it before but for some strange reason I was under the impression that h264 wouldn't need separate installation.
Then I'll test h264 as a codec (since xvid is failing).

However, it'll take a while to actually download all the parts.

Thanks David the H, irmin and Hammett. I'll be back once I've tried.

mikeleko: that's something I've been very tempted to do. Unfortunately I have no windows computers to test on, and the Sony software isn't installing in wine.

H_TeXMeX_H: Unfortunately, I'm fairly certain that avi doesn't work :/

Anyway, thanks, and I'll be back. I'll get this working somehow...

isaaclw · 06-22-2010, 11:20 AM

I'm getting a broken ffmpeg error:

Code:

isaac@phaff:~$ ffmpeg -i /media/gamma/videos/fish_eagle2 -vcodec libx264 -s 320x240 -b 128k -r 30 -ab 128k -f mp4 /media/WALKMAN/VIDEO/test.mp4
FFmpeg version SVN-r23710, Copyright (c) 2000-2010 the FFmpeg developers
  built on Jun 22 2010 17:51:04 with gcc 4.4.3
  configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --enable-nonfree --enable-postproc --enable-pthreads --enable-libfaac --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libx264 --enable-libxvid --enable-x11grab
  libavutil     50.19. 0 / 50.19. 0
  libavcodec    52.77. 1 / 52.77. 1
  libavformat   52.71. 0 / 52.71. 0
  libavdevice   52. 2. 0 / 52. 2. 0
  libavfilter    1.20. 0 /  1.20. 0
  libswscale     0.11. 0 /  0.11. 0
  libpostproc   51. 2. 0 / 51. 2. 0
Input #0, avi, from '/media/gamma/videos/fish_eagle2':
  Metadata:
    ISFT            : MEncoder SVN-r29237-4.4.1
  Duration: 00:00:06.84, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 820 kb/s
    Stream #0.0: Video: mpeg4, yuv420p, 320x240 [PAR 1:1 DAR 4:3], 15 tbr, 15 tbn, 15 tbc
    Stream #0.1: Audio: mp3, 8000 Hz, 1 channels, s16, 8 kb/s
File '/media/WALKMAN/VIDEO/test.mp4' already exists. Overwrite ? [y/N] y
[libx264 @ 0xa2afb80]broken ffmpeg default settings detected
[libx264 @ 0xa2afb80]use an encoding preset (vpre)
Output #0, mp4, to '/media/WALKMAN/VIDEO/test.mp4':
    Stream #0.0: Video: libx264, yuv420p, 320x240 [PAR 1:1 DAR 4:3], q=2-31, 128 kb/s, 90k tbn, 30 tbc
    Stream #0.1: Audio: libfaac, 8000 Hz, 1 channels, s16, 128 kb/s
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0.0 -> #0.0
  Stream #0.1 -> #0.1
Error while opening encoder for output stream #0.0 - maybe incorrect parameters such as bit_rate, rate, width or height

Any hints on what that error means? Do I have to recompile? I'm certain I followed the directions exactly...

H_TeXMeX_H · 06-22-2010, 12:04 PM

Maybe add '-vpre hq'.

But, I can't believe it won't play avi, that's ridiculous, most DVD players that you can buy can play avi with mpeg4 + mp3, so that thing is quite lame (no pun intended).

Hammett · 06-22-2010, 06:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by isaaclw

I'm getting a broken ffmpeg error:

Code:

isaac@phaff:~$ ffmpeg -i /media/gamma/videos/fish_eagle2 -vcodec libx264 -s 320x240 -b 128k -r 30 -ab 128k -f mp4 /media/WALKMAN/VIDEO/test.mp4

I see your bitrate is very low (-b 128k). Try a bigger number such as 500k or 1200k

Alternatively you can try as well:

Code:

ffmpeg -i /media/gamma/videos/fish_eagle2 -vcodec libx264 -s 320x240 -vpre slow -crf 22 -f mp4 /media/WALKMAN/VIDEO/test.mp4

You can have a look at this website: http://rob.opendot.cl/index.php/usef...ncoding-guide/

As a side note, you're not encoding the audio. It should not be a problem because the audio input is the same as the audio output and ffmpeg does not complain about that, but just for you to take into consideration for further uses.

It could be as well that ffmpeg is not compiled properly. Those instructions you followed are 2 years old and on the same thread there are people with the same issues as you, i haven't found any straight solution though...

isaaclw · 06-23-2010, 07:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hammett

I see your bitrate is very low (-b 128k). Try a bigger number such as 500k or 1200k

Thanks, that was a commandline typo...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hammett

Alternatively you can try as well:

Code:

ffmpeg -i /media/gamma/videos/fish_eagle2 -vcodec libx264 -s 320x240 -vpre slow -crf 22 -f mp4 /media/WALKMAN/VIDEO/test.mp4

Nothing :/
It'd be nice if the mp3 player would actually give an error of some kind so I knew what was wrong...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hammett

As a side note, you're not encoding the audio. It should not be a problem because the audio input is the same as the audio output and ffmpeg does not complain about that, but just for you to take into consideration for further uses.

I threw audio in too. Didn't seem to do much, but that's a good point anyway. Who knows how many different things I'm missing... (I recall errors with libfaac before, so I think it defaults to that encoder?)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hammett

It could be as well that ffmpeg is not compiled properly. Those instructions you followed are 2 years old and on the same thread there are people with the same issues as you, i haven't found any straight solution though...

Well, actually it was initially posted then, but it's been updated since April this year since the current post is for Lucid Lynx (which is 10.04 meaning released April this year)

I think I might have to go two pass. I'm worried how after I encode it shows "N/A" for the bitrate...
At least I'm learning, sometimes I think that's what linux is for.

Code:

ffmpeg -i /media/gamma/videos/fish_eagle2 -an -pass 1 -vcodec libx264 -s 320x240 -r 30 -b 500k -maxrate 768k -bufsize 1M -vpre slow_firstpass -threads 0 /media/WALKMAN/VIDEO/test.mp4
ffmpeg -i /media/gamma/videos/fish_eagle2 -acodec libfaac -ar 44100 -ab 192k -pass 2 -vcodec libx264 -s 320x240 -r 30 -b 500k -maxrate 768k -bufsize 1M -vpre slow  -metadata "title=test" -threads 0 -f mp4 /media/WALKMAN/VIDEO/test.mp4

(^ not working yet btw)