Bonum Certa Men Certa

Turning a Podcast Into Video Using Mencoder

Summary: A note and a tip about going from audio to video with Free/libre software

TECHBYTES, our audiocast as we call it, currently comes in two methods of delivery. One is purely audio and another is video plus audio. But YouTube is a large platform and many shows put their material in there. Turning 50 shows into video can be a tedious task with a graphical user interface, whereas with command line tools this process can be automated. After some exploration we found a way to turn audio into a slideshow and then split the files for uploading the resultant Ogg files (given the known upload limits). To encode using a command line utility or set thereof, the following chain of commands gets issued:



mencoder -ss 00:00:00 -endpos 00:10:10 mf://*.jpg -audiofile ~/TechBytes/48/techbytes0048.ogg -ovc lavc -oac mp3lame -fps 0.1 -o 48p1.ogg

mencoder -ss 00:10:00 -endpos 00:20:10 mf://*.jpg -audiofile ~/TechBytes/48/techbytes0048.ogg -ovc lavc -oac mp3lame -fps 0.1 -o 48p2.ogg

[...]

where -ss 00:00:00 means it starts at 0 seconds, -endpos 00:10:10 defines an endpoint using the same type of time format, mf://*.jpg takes all the images in the current directory -- images that are generated by duplication except for the first one. Files can be easily replicated (e.g. to serve as dummy sequence) with:

for file in *.jpg
  do
    `nice cp ${file} ${file}-dupe.jpg`
  done


The remainder of the arguments specify the -audiofile, encoders, frames per seconds (fps), and an output file at the very end. To split videos into smaller chunks, we have tried many different tools but eventually used mencoder to simplify the pipeline (thanks to all those who helped in IRC). This whole command basically turns a simple sound file into smaller ogg files that also contain images with transitions between them. Since it is scriptable, we can now apply this to all past episodes. YouTube is moving to WebM quite soon and in any case, making it a mere option using Ogg format and free software utilities simply broadens our reach.

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Linux.com Made Its First 'Article' in Over and Month, It Was 10 Words in Total, and It's Not About Linux
play some 'webapp' and maybe get some digital 'certificate' for a meme like 'clown computing'
The FSF Ought to Protest Against UEFI 'Secure Boot' (Like It Used To)
libreplanet-discuss stuff
GNU/Linux Reaches 6.5% in Canada (Including ChromeOS), Based on statCounter
Not many news sites are left to cover this, let alone advocate for GNU/Linux
The Only Thing the So-called 'Hey Hi Revolution' Gave Microsoft is More Debt
Microsoft bailouts
FUD Alert: 2024 is Not 2011 and Ebury is Not "Linux"
We've seen Microsofers (actual Microsoft employees) putting in a lot of effort to shift the heat to Linux
 
Ex-Red Hat CEO Paul Cormier Did Not Retire, He Just Left IBM/Red Hat a Month Ago (Ahead of Layoff Speculations)
Rather than retire he took a similar position at another company
[Meme] Never Appease the Occupiers
Freedom requires truth. Free speech emancipates.
Thorny Issues, Violent Response
They say protests (or strikes) that do not disrupt anything are simply not effective. The same can be said about reporting.
GNU/Linux in Malaysia: From 0.2 Percent to 6+ Percent
That's like 30-fold increase in relative share
Liberty in Liberia? Windows Falls Below 10% and Below iOS
This is clearly a problem for Microsoft
Techrights Congratulates Raspberry Pi (With Caution and Reservations)
Raspberry Pi will "make or break" based on the decisions made in its boardroom
OSI Makes a Killing for Bill Gates and Microsoft (Plagiarism and GPL Violations Whitewashed and Openwashed)
meme and more
People Who Defend Richard Stallman's Right to Deliver Talks About His Work Are Subjected to Online Abuse and Censorship
Stallman video removed
GNU/Linux Grows in Denmark, But Much of That is ChromeOS, Which Means No Freedom
Google never designs operating systems with freedom in mind
Links 16/05/2024: Vehicles Lasting Fewer Years, Habitat Fragmentation Concerns
Links for the day
Links 16/05/2024: Orangutans as Political Props, VMware Calls Proprietary 'Free'
Links for the day
TechTarget (and Computer Weekly et al): We Target 'Audiences' to Sell Your Products (Using Fake Articles and Surveillance)
It is a deeply rogue industry that's killing legitimate journalism by drowning out the signal (real journalism) with sponsored fodder
Links 15/05/2024: XBox Trouble, Slovakia PM Shot 5 Times
Links for the day
Windows in Times of Conflict
In pictures
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, May 15, 2024
IRC logs for Wednesday, May 15, 2024
Gemini Links 15/05/2024: 50 Years of Text Games
Links for the day
Ebury is Not "Linux", That's Just the Media Shifting Attention (Microsoft in the Hot Seat for Total Breach Right Now)
Seems like it may be a Trojan
Links 15/05/2024: Growing Tensions Between East and West, Anticlimax in Chatbot Space
Links for the day
[Video] 'Late Stage Capitalism': Microsoft as an Elaborate Ponzi Scheme (Faking 'Demand' While Portraying the Fraud as an Act of Generosity and Demanding Bailouts)
Being able to express or explain the facts isn't easy because of the buzzwords
Richard Stallman Talk 'Delayed'
"Repousé à une date ultérieur. Du au congé, il n'était pas possible de l'organiser bien dans le temps disponible."
Links 15/05/2024: Toll on Climate Change, Physical Assaults on Politicians
Links for the day
[Meme] Free Society Requires Free Press
The Assange decision is now less than a week away (after several delays and demand for shallow 'assurances')
CyberShow Goes "Live"
The CyberShow has a similar worldview (on technology and ethics) to ours
Latest Status of Site Archives (Static Pages)
article listings are reaching a near-final form
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, May 14, 2024
IRC logs for Tuesday, May 14, 2024
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
Today's Talk by Richard Stallman Going Ahead as Planned
That talk will be in French