NYC video posted on Google

This was the first video I created with my JVC HD10U, back in 2004. Got some good jazz keeping the action going in this one:
One Weekend In NYC

using ffmpeg to combine an audio and video file

In order to get my NYC video onto Google, I had to go through a number of steps to get it to a Google-acceptable MPEG2 format:
1) in XP, re-render the original Microsoft WMV file into an AVI using Adobe Premiere
2) again in XP, demux the AVI file (split apart into separate audio and video streams) using TMPGEnc into a DVD-ready, MPEG2 video stream (.m2v file) and a Windows waveform audio (.wav)
3) in Fedora, remux the video using ffmpeg:
ffmpeg -i OneWeekendInNYC.wav -i OneWeekendInNYC.m2v -target dvd -hq -minrate 8000000 -title "OneWeekendInNYC" -author "Crazed Mule Productions, Inc." -copyright "2005" -comment "Video of downtown NYC, summer 2005 with jazz accompaniment shot with JVC HD10U" OneWeekendInNYC.mpg

In the above example, ffmpeg has a number of inputs:
1) the audio file: -i OneWeekendInNYC.wav
2) the video file: -i OneWeekendInNYC.m2v
3) a target media type for the combined audio and video file: -target dvd
4) high quality transcode: -hq
5) a minimum bit rate for the compression: -minrate 8000000 (This doesn't seem to work based on the second to the last line of output which shows a lower average bitrate, below)
6) various descriptive metadata (-title "OneWeekendInNYC" -author "Crazed Mule Productions, Inc." -copyright "2005" -comment "Video of downtown NYC, summer 2005 with jazz accompaniment shot with JVC HD10U")
7) the filename of the combined audio and video streams: OneWeekendInNYC.mpg

Here is the output of that command. Note the input files, output filename and second to last line with the average bit rate. I believe the -target dvd overrides the -minrate option:
[root@computer video]# ffmpeg -i OneWeekendInNYC.wav -i OneWeekendInNYC.m2v -target dvd -hq -minrate 8000000 -title "OneWeekendInNYC" -author "Crazed Mule Productions, Inc." -copyright "2005" -comment "Video of downtown NYC, summer 2005 with jazz accompaniment shot with JVC HD10U" /root/OneWeekendInNYC.mpg
ffmpeg version 0.4.9-pre1, build 4753, Copyright (c) 2000-2004 Fabrice Bellard
Input #0, wav, from 'OneWeekendInNYC.wav':
Duration: 00:01:57.6, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 1536 kb/s
Stream #0.0: Audio: pcm_s16le, 48000 Hz, stereo, 1536 kb/s
Input #1, mpegvideo, from 'OneWeekendInNYC.m2v':
Duration: 00:01:57.6, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 7998 kb/s
Stream #1.0: Video: mpeg2video, yuv420p, 720x480, 29.97 fps, 7998 kb/s
Assuming NTSC for target.
Output #0, dvd, to '/root/OneWeekendInNYC.mpg':
Stream #0.0: Video: mpeg2video (hq), yuv420p, 720x480, 29.97 fps, q=2-31, 6000 kb/s
Stream #0.1: Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, stereo, 448 kb/s
Stream mapping:
Stream #1.0 -> #0.0
Stream #0.0 -> #0.1
[mpeg2video @ 0x7f6a330]Warning min_rate > 0 but min_rate != max_rate isn't recommended!
Press [q] to stop encoding
frame= 3526 q=0.0 Lsize= 91494kB time=117.6 bitrate=6373.5kbits/s
video:83347kB audio:6431kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead 1.911009%

Obviously, there will be some loss of quality with these many rendering steps, but quality is not of primary importance when posting to Google video.

Hope this helps!
mule

Reference
FFMPEG HowTo

working with the Google Video Uploader for Linux

One of the most irritating things about working with the Google Video Uploader for Linux is
1) knowing which Java tool you need to install to get the uploader to work and
2) the damn syntax for executing the JAR archive.

First, install the latest Java Runtime Environment, found here:
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/jre/install.html

Secondly, once you've got the latest JVM installed, use the following syntax to start the Google Video Uploader for Linux:
java -jar GoogleVideoUploader.jar

Finally, if you are so bold, you may install the entire Java JDK found here:
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/install.html

These few steps took me about four hours to figure out one day. Frustrating.

Hope this helps folks.

flowery video

Oh, a little Vivaldi is good for the soul! Enjoy this video, full of flowering, buzzing things:
One Weekend in Virginia

Finally. My first video is posted on Google Video!

Enjoy my Nags Head video people!

don't be in the drum section of a music store when your website is down

I had gone into the city to Manny's music yesterday to look at a Roland PD80R drum pad based on the fact that the guy on the phone at Manny's told me they had the pad in stock. Well, when I got there, the idjut who was at the desk couldn't find the pad in the system. Argh. Trip wasted. But just at this moment, I received a system down call. Double yarg!!

Word to the wise: when you're on a SEV 1 call, the worst place in the world is to be in the DRUM section of a music store.."What? The system card failed??! Site down??!! What??!" Truly frustrating and nerve racking. In the end, I bugged out of the city thinking they didn't have it. Also, I was more interested in getting back to Jersey to be available to help.

So today I call back to speak to the original guy to ask him "what the F happened?" This guys' name is Brian, and Brian indeed told me they had it; however, it is shared inventory with Sam Ash across the street. Apparently, the guy who helped me in the store when I got there didn't check. YARG!! So I went home, double-pissed, cause I didn't get to lighten my wallet with a new toy AND the fcking web site was down!! 16 hours later and I'm finally catch some zzz's. Harumph.

Well, today Brian was good enough to walk across the street to Sam's and verify they had the pads in stock. So I may or may not go.

how's that for a friggin weekend?