Hi!

I have a problem converting my AVIs to MP4 format to be used in Ipod video playback. Before, I have Mepis 3.4.3 installed, I can do it without any problems. However, when I updated to Mepis 6.0 I get the following problems:

When I issue the command:

ffmpeg -vcodec xvid -b 300 -qmin 3 -qmax 5 -bufsize 4096 -g 300 -acodec aac -ab 96 -i input.avi -s 320x240 -aspect 4:3 ipod_output.mp4

The error is:

ffmpeg version CVS, build 3276800, Copyright (c) 2000-2004 Fabrice Bellard
configuration: --extra-cflags=-fomit-frame-pointer -DRUNTIME_CPUDETECT --build i486-linux-gnu --enable-gpl --enable-pp --enable-zlib --enable-vorbis --enable-libogg --enable-theora --enable-a52 --enable-dts --enable-dc1394 --enable-libgsm --disable-debug --prefix=/usr
built on Nov 24 2005 10:19:02, gcc: 4.0.3 20051121 (prerelease) (Ubuntu 4.0.2-4ubuntu3)
Unknown codec 'xvid'

I am thinking I should install xvid and aac codecs but I don't know which package. Can you help me out on this? And maybe if there is a easier way a GUI or something to make life easier converting AVI's to Ipod Videos. Thanks in advance.

Been checking out 6.0 on a spare computer recently. The move to the ubuntu repositories has a few downsides, ffmpeg being one of them. Was not to pleased to find out lame/mp3 was not built into ffmpeg for example.

Maybe this link helps?
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=114946

Wish I could be more help, still feeling my way around 6.0 myself.

muddywaters,

I've just browsed thru the website. I guess I really have to compile it from source.. Can Mepis 6.0 use the traditional debian reps? I think the debian reps use the ffmpeg precompiled with almost all the codecs I need.

depam

Sorry for the slow response.

In this case using the standard repositories will probably not work. AFAIK enabling the debian repos you used in 3.4.3 will mess up 6.0 . Did you spot this link inside the link provided earlier?
http://skulboxx.com/Ubuntu/sbx/
After removing the existing ffmpeg and installing this deb with Kpackage ffmpeg was now able to do mp3. Don't know what other consequences installing this package may have.

While LQ (imho of course) is the best general linux forum, Mepis specific questions go largely ignored. Have you considered taking this question to a Mepis forum (hint: mepislovers)? The folks there may well know a better way to get this done.

muddywaters,

Thanks for the response. I was able to solve the ffmpeg xvid issue. What I did was downloaded the ffmpeg and compiled from source. I then enabled the xvid options in ffmpeg. Its now working perfectly fine. Too bad that debian repos won't work on 6.0 anymore. Thanks so much.