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8.2
Using MPEG-4 Translator
8.2 Using
MPEG-4
Translator
Here you see the image of the main MPEG-4 Translator program.
When you fi rst run the program, if the required codec has not been
installed yet. You should download the codec and install it on your
computer. If the Virtual dub program has not been installed, you will
also be notifi ed, and you should install it (either with the ARCHOS
™
Installation Utility or the Virtual Dub website). If you have placed the
Virtual Dub program in a folder other than the installer default folder, it
will ask you to locate the fi le.
Select Source & Destination Files
In this example, a source fi le
24 hours of Lemans.avi
has been
selected as the source video. You can see on the bottom of the
window its original characteristics (width 720, height 576, frame
rate 30). Next, you must then tell the program where to place (Set
Destination fi le) the newly recoded version of the fi le (don’t worry, it
will not erase the original). You should give it a new descriptive name,
such as shown above
Lemans_AV 700 TV.avi
. Make sure you add
the .avi extension.
Change Settings
Next, you can change the parameters (Change Settings) of the
encoder to adjust the level of quality of the fi nal image. Like MP3
music, the higher the bit rate setting is made, the higher the quality of
the music, or video in this case, that you will get. However, this will also
take up more space on your hard drive. A setting of 900 kbps will give
you a nice looking image for viewing on a television. For near DVD
quality, you can set it up to 1200 kbps.
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Target & Priority
If the AV 700 TV device is not listed, select “ARCHOS
™
Default”. You
will see a Priority box appear. This control is to allow you to select
which feature of the video to be guarded. If for example you are re-
encoding a video fi le that is 800x600 in resolution and 30 frames per
second, this is beyond the maximum resolution that the AV 700 TV
can play. Thus, the MPEG-4 Translator program will have to decrease
the resolution. Choosing
LCD
optimizes the fi nal video format for viewing on the built in LCD screen. Choosing
the
TV
option will optimize the movie to keep the highest possible frame rate. You can see what the size and
frame rate will be by looking at the
Video Image Size : Destination
parameters. When choosing
TV
, it is
understood that the output will be optimized for a television, and not the built-in screen.
Start
Click on Start and the program will call Virtual Dub to start processing
the video. Depending on the power and speed of your computer, this
could take real time (a 60 minute long video re-encoded in about
60 minutes) or much longer. As shown to the left, you will see the
progress as it processes the video fi le. If the Start button is grayed
out, it would be for one of two reasons. 1) The source fi le is not a
true AVI fi le. Even if the fi le name ends with .avi, the internal fi le data
determines if it is truly an AVI fi le. 2) The Virtual Dub program was not
located when MPEG-4 Translator was started up. Close the program,
restart it, and make sure you locate the Virtual Dub program.