ipod-encoder 0.1

Arjan Scherpenisse <arjan@scherpenisse.net>

The ipod-encoder is a commandline tool for convenient encoding of video files for use on the new iPod video. It uses the ffmpeg tool.

Features

Encoding of single files
Optional specification of a/v bitrates
Recursively encode all files in a directory
Generating a podcast.xml for convenient use in iTunes

The program can be used in a cronjob which periodically checks directories for new files and encodes them without user intervention.

Options

--version show program's version number and exit

-h, --help show this help message and exit

-R, --recursive Process directories recusively

-f, --force Force re-encode existing iPod videos

-t, --test Only encode first 10 seconds, to produce test videos

-e EXTENSIONS, --extensions=EXTENSIONS

Comma separated list of input extensions. Default: avi

-i IPODEXT, --ipodext=IPODEXT

iPod extension. Default: .ipod.mp4

-b VIDEO_RATE, --video-rate=VIDEO_RATE

Video bit rate, in kbps (default: 1024)

-a AUDIO_RATE, --audio-rate=AUDIO_RATE

Audio bit rate, in kbps (128)

-W WIDTH, --width=WIDTH

Video width, in pixels (default: 320)

-H HEIGHT, --height=HEIGHT

Video height, in pixels (default: 240)

-P, --pretend Do not really encode, just print out the ffmpeg

commands which would be executed

-v, --verbose Enable verbose output

Podcast options:

-p, --podcast Generate a podcast.xml file for each directory.

--podcast-documentroot=PODCAST_DOCUMENTROOT

Podcast document root; eg. /var/data/Movies/

--podcast-baseurl=PODCAST_BASEURL

Podcast base URL; eg. http://localhost/

If podcasting is enabled, the directory of the encoded files must be a subdirectory of the podcast documentroot. A web server is supposed to be running at the podcast base URL, serving files from the podcast document root.

So, the following command:

ipod-encoder -R -p --podcast-documentroot=/var/data/Movies --podcast-baseurl=http://localhost/ /var/data/Movies

would generate:

/var/data/Movies/Movie1.avi --> becomes /var/data/Movies/Movie1.ipod.mp4 /var/data/Movies/subdir/Movie2.avi --> becomes /var/data/Movies/subdir/Movie2.ipod.mp4 ...etc..

and /var/data/Movies/podcast.xml would contain references to:

http://localhost/Movie1.ipod.mp4
http://localhost/subdir/Movie2.ipod.mp4 ...

DEFAULT OPTIONS

At startup, the program tries to read the file $HOME/.ipod-encoder file, for parsing default options. In this file, default options can be specified which you want to have for all calls to ipod-encoder.

The .ipod-encoder options file is in standard Python dictionary format:

{ "key": "value"
[, "key": "value" [, "key": "value"]] ... }

The options you can use in this file are equal to the 'long' options on the commandline, only the dashes in the names are replaced by underscores. Note that numeric values (width, height, ...) should NOT contain quotes. An example .ipod-encoder file can contain the following:

{
"width": 480,
"height": 360,
"podcast_baseurl": "http://www.podcast.com/" }

Subsequent calls to ipod-encoder would produce 480x360 files instead of the default 320x240.

Windows users:

You have to set the HOME environment variable to the directory you store the .ipod-encoder file in, otherwise the .ipod-encoder file cannot be read.

To set the HOME variable in Windows, do the following: Right click on My Computer, choose 'properties'. Choose the Advanced tab, and click on the Environment Variables button. In the next dialog you see a list titled 'user variables for <username>'. Click 'new', and enter HOME as the variable name, and the directory you stored the .ipod-encoder file in as the variable value. Click OK. Open a command prompt, and type "echo %HOME%" to verify that the variable is set.