QICBoy - editing tag

Convert audio between Microsoft and Apple

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 14:00:00 GMT

Here are a couple scripts to convert an iTunes audio file (m4a) to the ubiquitous mp3 format. The first script converts the file to a wav, the second one converts the wav to an mp3. The supporting software are nice because they're portable, they don't require you to install them. The scripts should work on m4b files as well.

Download and extract mplayer.
Download and extract lame into the mplayer directory.
Download 1m4a2wav.bat and 2wav2mp3.bat into the mplayer directory.
Drop the mp4 onto the first script (1m4a2wav.bat).
Drop the resulting wav file onto the second script (2wav2mp3.bat).

@%~d1
@cd %~p1
"%~d0\%~p0mplayer" -ao pcm %1 -ao pcm:file="%~n1.wav" 
@pause

"%~d0\%~p0lame" --preset standard %1
@pause

Convert video between Microsoft and Apple

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 14:00:00 GMT

This is probably more information than anyone would care to know. I'm posting it in case anyone's interested in the geeky details of using MPlayer to convert to and from MOV files. It would be far easier to simply download either mov2avi.bat or wmv2mp4.bat and use them with the instructions in the "Editing mov files with Windows Movie Maker" or "Podcast primer" posts respectively.

This command converts from the QuickTime format into something that can be used by Windows Movie Maker.

mencoder -oac pcm -ovc lavc -ffourcc DIVX -o test.avi test.mov

This command converts from The Windows Movie Maker fromat into something that can be used by iTunes. It's useful if the file you're creating is to be used in a podcast.

mencoder -oac lavc -ovc lavc -lavcopts aglobal=1:vglobal=1:vcodec=mpeg4:acodec=aac -of lavf -lavfopts i_certify_that_my_video_stream_does_not_use_b_frames -o test.mp4 test.wmv

If you need more info on batch file parameters, you can find out more from the Microsoft site.

Podcast primer

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 14:00:00 GMT

In previous articles I've talked about converting QuickTime movies (mov files) so that they can be used in Windows Movie Maker (WMM). WMM creates ouputs Windows Media Video (WMV) files. You can upload the wmv to YouTube or blip.tv to share your video with other people. If you have a blog, you can then add the code to a post. Otherwise you can copy the URL and send it to friends in an email.

If you've subscribed to podcasts, you know that the video or audio files are delivered to your machine (and possibly your mp3 player) automatically whenever the author publishes a new episode. You can do the same things with your videos.

An easy way to manage your podcast is by creating a blip.tv account. YouTube wants you to watch movies using their player so you'll have a hard time trying to manage a podcast there. When you create an account at blip.tv you'll be given a "Show" page. This page contains a "Subscribe" section which publishes your videos as a podcast. Visitors will have 3 ways to subscribe, with iTunes, Windows Media Center and Democracy Player.

If you're uploading your videos as wmv files and you're concerned about making the video available to all 3 audiences (including iTunes) you need to convert your video to a format that iTunes understands.

To convert the wmv file, you're going to need third party software. I use MPlayer because its free, fast, powerful and it doesn't need to install itself on your system. Download MPlayer and extract the files onto your machine. I've written some scripts to make converting the files easier so you'll need to download those into the MPlayer folder as well. Take the files you want to convert and drag them one at a time onto wmv2mp4.bat. This will create a file with an mp4 extension. Upload that file to blip.tv. Blip.tv allows you to store the same file in more than one format. If you've already uploaded the file to blip.tv in another format, "Add additional format" from the edit page and upload the files from there. I usually use "Portable (iPod)" as the format.

Download MPlayer and extract the files.
Download mov2avi.bat and wmv2mp4.bat into the MPlayer directory.
Drop the wmv files (it can be located anywhere) one at a time onto wmv2mp4.bat
Upload the file to blip.tv.

Now that your podcast is ready, you can add it to your blog. You can let everyone know about your iTunes podcast by copying and pasting the following code. You'll need to change qicboy.blip.tv to the name of your show. You can find this by going to your show page and copying the URL from the address bar.

<a href="pcast://qicboy.blip.tv/?file_type=mov,mpeg4,mp4,m4v,mp3&skin=rss">
<img width="186px" height="47px" src="http://qicboy.blip.tv/skin/blipnew/icons/sub_itunes.gif"/>
</a>

Editing mov files with Windows Movie Maker

Sun, 10 Jun 2007 16:20:00 GMT

If you own a point and click camera that records video, there's a good chance that it saves the files as QuickTime Movies (mov files). Unfortunately, Windows Movie Maker (free) doesn't read that file format. If you want to edit the files (to add a watermark for example) then you're going to have to convert the files first before you can edit them. Here's what you have to do.

You're going to need a program called MPlayer. You can download it for free. It doesn't use an installer. Unzip the files and run it from the extracted folder.

Download MPlayer and extract the files.
Download mov2avi.bat and wmv2mp4.bat into the MPlayer directory.
Drop the mov files (it can be located anywhere) one at a time onto mov2avi.bat

Movie watermark

Fri, 08 Jun 2007 23:31:00 GMT

Did you know that you can add watermarks to your movies using Windows Movie Maker? Oh yes, it's true (see for yourself). You just need a minor hack to the program. All you have to do is add an xml file and an image file to your installation. The two files need to go into "C:\Program Files\Movie Maker\Shared\AddOnTFX". You'll find them in the AddOnTFX.zip file. You'll need to restart Windows Movie Maker for any changes to take effect. To add the watermark to your movie, follow these steps.

Start Windows Movie Maker.
Under the "Movie Tasks" pane, select "Make titles or credits". The pane is on the left hand side. If you don't see it, select "View | Task Pane".
Select "Add title on the selected clip in the timeline." This should be the third option in the list.
Enter a single space in one of the text boxes and select "Change the title animation".
Select "Watermark" from the list. This option is only in there if you've properly installed the AddOnTFX.zip files.
Select "Done, add title to movie".
In your storyboard you should now see a track in the "title Overlay" section. You will stretch this track for the length of your film. If the storyboard isn't visible, select "View | Storyboard".

To customize your watermark simply replace watermark.png. If something breaks when you're customizing your own watermark, replace the files with the ones from AddOnTFX.zip and try again.

If you're feeling truly bold and you want to resize the watermark, you'll need to change the value of LogoRec in the xml file. Here's a little program to calculate that value for you.

Podcasting 101

Mon, 11 Dec 2006 15:10:00 GMT

Podcasting is pretty straight forward. All you need is a web server to store your files, an mp3 files and a RSS file.

We have an instructor at Chabot who records his classes so he can publish them online. When I heard this I nearly fell over backwards. How cools is that! The mp3's are all available on his web site but he doesnt have any way of automatically notifying his students when a new mp3 is available. Podcasting is the perfect solution to this. I've written a simple RSS file to solve this problem. Now you can actually SUBSCRIBE to his podcast.

I'm not actually hosting the mp3s on my site, the RSS file I created points to the mp3s on his site. You can use this as a template and search online for additional tags to add to your own RSS file. I've added minimal information, just enough to be a valid file and populate iTunes with a little information on the podcast. The file breaks down something like this. The top of the file includes a description of the podcast, a link to more information about the podcast and a title for the podcast. Then there are a series of "items". Each item includes a title, a guid (to uniquely identify the item), a link to the mp3 file, and a description of that item.


<rss version="2.0">
  
  <channel>
    <description>Podcast for Chabot College's Photo 50</description>
    <link>http://lensvisions.glamorfun.com</link>
    <title>Photo 50 at Chabot</title>

    <item>
      <title>Class 1 lecture</title>
      <guid>http://lensvisions.glamorfun.com/Photo50_1/Archive/Photo50_Aug_29_2006.mp3</guid>
      <enclosure url="http://lensvisions.glamorfun.com/Photo50_1/Archive/Photo50_Aug_29_2006.mp3" length="10411569" type="audio/mpeg"/>
      <description> This is the class lecture for the first day of class.</description>
    </item>
    ...

  </channel>

</rss>

To create a link directly to itunes, use the pcast protocol.

<a href="pcast://www.qicboy.com/files/2006/12/11/20061211-1-1.xml">SUBSCRIBE</a>

You can use the online RSS validator to make sure your RSS file is well formed.