Welcome to sMooVePoD! ===================== What is it? ----------- sMooVePoD attempts to provide an easy method of converting your videos into mvpd files, which can be viewed using mv_player under iPod Linux. This program isn't a converter itself, but makes use of four separate console applications: mplayer, mencoder, sox, and mv_encoder. These applications are included in this package and do not need to be installed separately. How do I use it? ---------------- To use sMooVePoD, simply drag your video files into the main application window, click "Start Encoding!", and walk away. When you come back, you should have new mvpd files in the same folder as your original video files. If you wish to change any conversion settings, you should do so before you begin the encoding process. Several presets are provided for you, or you may manually enter specific options yourself. If you wish to enter options manually, choose "Custom..." from any of the popup menus. sMooVePoD requires Microsoft's .NET 2.0 framework. Visit www.microsoft.com to download it. Why should I use it? -------------------- Because it's a hell of a lot easier than doing the steps manually. And while the available python scripts to automate the process are nice and all, they generally only process a single file at a time. This is a "fire and forget" kind of thing. Click and walk away. When you come back, you have a bunch of video files suitable for viewing on your iPod. I don't have iPod Linux! How do I view these video files on my iPod? -------------------------------------------------------------------- You need iPod Linux and mv_player installed on your iPod. For information on getting iPod Linux installed, visit the iPod Linux website: http://www.ipodlinux.org I don't have mv_player! How do I view these video files? -------------------------------------------------------- You'll need mv_player for iPod Linux. The sMooVePoD package contains a zip file called "mv_player_preview_6_unzip_to_iPod_root.zip". Unzip this archive to the root of your iPod and you will be able to use the latest menu-driven version of mv_player (preview version 6) from within iPod Linux. DON'T do this if you already have your favorite version of mv_player installed. Then you'll need to copy your new mvpd files onto your iPod. Copy them to /mvpd/. For example, if I want to copy a bunch of TV Shows to my iPod, I copy them to K:/mvpd/tvshows. To run mv_player in Linux, use your File Browser and go to mnt/mvpd/mv_player_m OR hp/mvpd/mv_player_m. When you launch this, it will show you a menu of video categories. Choose a category, then choose a file, then click Play. Where can I get the latest version of everything used in this program? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mplayer and mencoder (sMooVePoD uses version 1.0rc1): http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/dload.html sox (sMooVePoD uses version 12.18.1): http://sox.sourceforge.net/ mv_encoder and mv_player (sMooVePoD uses preview version 6): http://www.justgeek.de/moviepod/ Release Notes: -------------- * Version 0.4 - - Fixed Tab Order so everything (I think) is accessible without using the mouse - Added sorting to the filelist, just because. Might become useful later. - Provide numeric feedback to the importance slider - Should no longer choke on MP4's with AAC audio (or anything with AAC audio for that matter) * Version 0.3 - 01.24.07 - Fixed(?) the Options dialog to behave as expected. There were some bad bugs. - Added options to run processes in low CPU priority so you can actually use your puter while you convert vids (this is awesome) - Added a Browse button on the main screen so you can browse for video files instead of dragging and dropping (Thanks for the suggestion, Hector) - Hide from alt-tab list when minimized to tray (Hector again) - Added Tooltips to help explain certain settings - MessageBoxes no longer spawn a separate taskbar button * Version 0.2 - 01.22.07 - Fixed a bug that prevented user from choosing sox or mv_encoder path with the file browser - Fixed a minor bug that might cause temp files to be created in the wrong directory - User can now choose output directory for mvpd files - User can now choose whether, and with what, to replace spaces in the mvpd filename - Added option (Tools -> Options -> Executables -> mv_encoder) to turn off Adaptive Mode (you should probably leave it on though) - Added option (Tools -> Options -> General) to minimize to tray - Importance slider now also adjusts size_cut and quality_cut (under the hood). Size_cut goes down as you slide toward "Smaller Files", and quality_cut goes down as you slide toward "Higher Quality". They range from 0 to 100. - MessageBoxes now have captions so they don't look so damn ugly on the taskbar - Main window updates its title with the current task so you can see it on the taskbar or in the tray tooltip - New icon * Version 0.1 - 01.20.07 - Initial release *2007, Joe Gores