vepp - Versatile Encoder for Portable media Players

Overview

vepp is a frontend for ffmpeg. It's written in Python and should work with most Python installations. Tested only with Debian Linux. It comes with a variety of presets suitable for these portable media players:

Sony PSP
- with firmware 1.50 (and up) (mpeg4 SP)
- with firmware 2.00 (and up) (mpeg4 AVC)
- with firmwares which support the /video directory
- with custom firmwares which allow mpeg4 AVC with up to 480x272 pixels
Symbian mobile phones with Realplayer
Nokia 770, N800 and N810
Generic targets like avi, mp4 for PS3 or XBOX 360 (which are not really portable, I know)

Requirements

For vepp, you'll need

Python
mplayer (I'm still searching for a library which can identify the input videos. Most can't read the aspect ratio. If someone would recommend such a thing, the dependency on mplayer could be eliminated)
stock or patched ffmpeg

Download it and read the GPL license

here.

Then, make it executable:

chmod +x vepp-2.1.2.py

Install it into your $PATH, e.g.:

mv -i vepp-2.1.2.py ~/bin/

(change version as needed)

Using it

(for full options run vepp -h)

usage: vepp [option]... <FILE>...
  -f <fmt>    set target format
  -l          list target formats
  -a <id>     select audio substream
  --vbr       use variable bitrate
  --cbr       use constant bitrate
  --remove    remove files when they have been transfered
  --noremove  don't remove files when they have been transfered

vepp only has minimal error handling. If you can't figure out what that traceback means, ask me, I'll compile a FAQ. Or better yet: send patches!

vepp may create .pspenc/num in your home directory to keep track of the file number (only on PSP with /MP_ROOT as target directory).

When encoding for the PSP, vepp will try to mount the PSP (using pmount-hal) and copy the transcoded files into the appropriate directory.

vepp tries very hard to find a suitable resolution which doesn't distort your video while filling as much of the screen as possible. If it should get the aspect ratio wrong, please let me know.