Ubuntu 9.04 remote xdmcp on ctrl-alt-f9

See also http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Feisty/RemoteAccess#What_is_XDMCP.3F

Ctrl-Alt-F1
login
X :1 -query 192.168.1.12
Should get login prompt on remote machine
Ctrl-Alt-F7 to switch back to local login
Ctrl-Alt-F9 to switch to remote login

Convert various phone video to DVD in linux

Problem: Various .MOV and .AVI files in various small resolutions collected over the years. How do you to convert to dvd?

Solution:

Ubuntu 9.04

Used WinFF aka "Video Converter" front end to mpeg

In WinFF, I dragged and dropped all the avi and mov files to WinDD.

In WinFF,Then I selected the “Output Details” and picked “Convert to: DVD”. “Device Preset” PAL DVD HQ (16:9)

WinFF used this command
/usr/bin/ffmpeg -threads 2 -i "/media/2004-07-23/VideosFromCamera/2003-08-02_0845_100_0088.avi" -target pal-dvd -aspect 16:9 -b 8000k -mbd rd -trellis -mv0 -cmp 0 -subcmp 2 "/media/2004-07-23/VideosFromCameraConverted/2003-08-02_0845_100_0088.mpg"

(WinFF "Edit-Preferences-Multithreading for dual core" gives the "-threads 2" option)

Next step, create the DVD structure (see the end for an example dvd.xml file which you need to edit to list which movies to include on the DVD):

dvdauthor -o dvd -x dvd.xml

Check it worked with

mplayer dvd:// -dvd-device ./dvd

Burn the DVD with

growisofs -dvd-compat -Z /dev/dvdrw -dvd-video ./dvd/
Example dvd.xml file used by dvdauthor above:

<dvdauthor>
  <vmgm />
  <titleset>
    <titles>
      <video format="pal" aspect="4:3"/>
      <audio format="ac3" lang="en"/>
      <pgc>
        <vob file="00026.mpg"/>
        <vob file="00027.mpg"/>
        <vob file="00028.mpg"/>
      </pgc>
    </titles>
  </titleset>
</dvdauthor>

Note that I used an aspect ratio of 4:3 in the dvd.xml file above which suited the source video from the phones, but 16:9 can be used too. (But when using WinFF I had no success selecting the “Device Preset” PAL DVD HQ (4:3) option, only the (16:9) option worked ok. With the (4:3) preset, WinFF would work fine, but dvdauthor would generate lots of warnings and the final dvd would not play well)

HOWTO: Convert and write AVCHD (.mts) to DVD with Linux

Inspired by http://blog.mymediasystem.net/avchd/howto-convert-and-write-avchd-mts-to-dvd-on-linux/

Sucessfully converted video from my Panasonic HDC SD20 using these instructions:

Using ubuntu 9.04 jaunty.

Connected camera via usb.

Simply copied the AVCHD folder under the top level PRIVATE folder. You actually just need the MTS files in the AVCHD/BDMV/STREAM folder.

I Installed the WinFF (via ubuntu menu Applications/Add&Remove). WinFF is just a front end to ffmpeg.

In WinFF, I dragged and dropped all the MTS files to WinDD.

In WinFF,Then I selected the “Output Details” and picked “Convert to: DVD”. “Device Preset” PAL DVD HQ (16:9).

VERY IMPORTANT: I had to set “Additional Options/Audio Settings/Audio Channels: 2″. Otherwise I got an error on the console when trying to convert: “Error while opening codec for output stream #0.1 – maybe incorrect parameters such as bit_rate, rate, width or height”.

In WinFF, click Convert. Its very very slow: 8 hours per hour of video!

I ended up with one output mpg file per input MTS file.

Next step, create the DVD structure (see the end for an example dvd.xml file which you need to edit to list which movies to include on the DVD):

dvdauthor -o dvd -x dvd.xml

Check it worked with

mplayer dvd:// -dvd-device ./dvd

Burn the DVD with

growisofs -dvd-compat -Z /dev/dvdrw -dvd-video ./dvd/

Example dvd.xml file used by dvdauthor above:

<dvdauthor>
  <vmgm />
  <titleset>
    <titles>
      <video format="pal" aspect="16:9"/>
      <audio format="ac3" lang="en"/>
      <pgc>
        <vob file="00026.mpg"/>
        <vob file="00027.mpg"/>
        <vob file="00028.mpg"/>
        <vob file="00029.mpg"/>
        <vob file="00030.mpg"/>
        <vob file="00031.mpg"/>
        <vob file="00032.mpg"/>
        <vob file="00033.mpg"/>
        <vob file="00034.mpg"/>
        <vob file="00035.mpg"/>
      </pgc>
    </titles>
  </titleset>
</dvdauthor>

Convert video for nokia 5800 using ffmpeg in ubuntu

This gives outstanding results on nokia 5800:

ffmpeg -i input.avi -vcodec mpeg4 -b 512k -s 640x360 -acodec libfaac -ab 128k -ac 2 -threads 4 output512k640x360.mp4

The inputs can be in the many formats supported by ffmpeg.

Apparently you can play H264 on the nokia 5800 which is supposed to be better quality but supposedly the max resolution is 360x240 or something. But the mpeg4 codec gives fabulous results too.

See this link for some discussion on the subject http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1125181