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justin
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|  ipod nano video on linux
what I've tried so far.
1. handbrakeCLI - worked, in that it can produce an mp4 file from a dvd (is this the same as m4v?) with the right params
2. rhythmbox - didn't work for the video file
3. amarok - (pulls in whole kde stuff) doesn't understand uploading video files at all (they appear as music files)
4. gtkpod - refuses to process my mp4 file, (whether renamed to m4v or not) saying it needs to be recompiled from source
quote:
Import of 'blah.mp4' failed: m4a/m4p/m4b not supported without the mp4v2 library. You must compile the gtkpod source together with the mp4v2 library.
The following track could not be processed (filetype is known but analysis failed):
In an effort to fix gtkpod I got as far as finding out that libmp4v2 1.6.0 is currently not available as a tarball! I've no idea what version ubuntu has.
Argh!
Does anyone properly and fully use a current gen ipod under linux? (podcasts, photos, music, videos?) | |
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benyto
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| Is this the part where someone says "Well, that's what you get for trying to work with a purposely closed device that was designed to work only with its own proprietary software"?
I'm not attempting to discount your frustration; I understand that. However, I would think it wouldn't be too difficult to see these types of problems coming. Several years ago when I bought my first (and current) DAP I went out of my way to find one that supported what I wanted and operated as a USB mass storage device. That pretty much ensures I can use it with the vast majority of desktops or laptops in use today, regardless of the OS they use or the software they have installed.
But then you may have some perfectly legitimate reasons for wanting to use an Ipod, and my completely unhelpful post will only compound your frustration. :P | |
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justin
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| Re: ipod nano video on linux here is the thing though. The ipod isn't very complicated. It has a simple directory structure, acts as a disk when plugged into a usb port, it has an XML file for settings and a database file whose only tweak recently was for encryption with the ipod firewire address to tie the database to the device (a logical improvement, out there for some time now, that yet required me to download the recompile source for libgpod). It plays widely understood file formats (mp3s, mpeg-4) as well as the apple DRM encoded ones that originate from the apple store.
It appears that one of the reasons that amarok, which appears to be the most together interface for ipod integration, doesn't support video are simply that the developers don't have a video capable ipod! I mean, come on.. amarok has a music storefront!
meanwhile you can't even use itunes under wine because wine doesn't properly surface the USB interface? So is wine still being recommended for linux converts? I hope not..
There is no real competition for the current nano, or even the ipod touch.. and there is definitely good money in consumer linux. If the mozilla foundation can haul almost $100 million a year into a bank account for sticking a google search box on the default home page then there is plenty of money to be made from writing a linux interface that Just Works.
Yeah partly I blame apple - it would cost them the profit they make at the apple soho store in just a week to produce a linux itunes - but who really expects them to step up? they want an OSX world why should they help linux (it isn't clear to me that they are actively hindering it, though).
It sounds from jdong that this is just a temporary glitch but really even if gtkpod worked as it once did or is supposed to do, it still seems flaky. User forums (un-ending topics starting with 'help..') confirm my experience that reliable a/v under linux still requires skills of an "unstable release" source guru who can keep in their head the approx development state of about 15 separate sourceforge libraries. | |
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benyto
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| Re: ipod nano video on linux Right, but you're still using a device that requires the use of specialized software to function ('specialized' being a highly subjective term, of course). If the device vendor doesn't release a Linux version of its software then you are at the mercy of third-party developers to keep up with the current landscape so you don't have these problems.
Alternatively you can use a device which requires no external software whatsoever to operate and you'd have nothing to worry about. Copy your media files over and then use the player's OS to play them.
Certainly such usability issues should be a consideration when purchasing a device, no? And I'm not just talking about usability issues solely from the Linux user's perspective. A device which requires no external software for proper operation must have some appeal to users of other OSs, I'd imagine. | |
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JohnInSJ
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| Not yet - but my kid is getting one for xmas, so I expect I will have to bite the bullet...
Saw this in wikipedia »en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPod_classic
"iPods of the 6th generation (as well as the iPod nano and the iPod Touch) introduced an additional checksum in their song database, making it initially impossible (without reverse engineering) to use the iPod with 3rd party syncing programs.[6] This limitation was soon worked around by Gtkpod team.[7]"
As horrific as it sounds, you could try, er, a virtual machine that is capable of running itunes. MacOS or XP...
--
My place : »www.schettino.us | |
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benyto
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| Re: ipod nano video on linux said by jdong  :Justin, the new nanos expose a mass storage device interface?? I was curious about that point, as well. | |
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justin
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| Re: ipod nano video on linux When I plug in the ipod, I have /dev/sdb1 which is a directory tree and all the ipod manipulation programs do is manipulate files in that filesystem, so for instance new music files go in FXX sub-directories. Shrug. The ultimate low level utility is gnupod which is a bunch of perl that offers command line utilities for pushing files to the filesystem and updating gnutunes.db (made from itunes.db).
I thought it was always like that, and I have an old ipod mini that does the same thing? where is the super proprietary tricky code here?
The type of the filesystem is different for "windows" init ipod vs "mac" init ipod, thats about it? | |
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benyto
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| Re: ipod nano video on linux One of the points I'm trying to make is that the use of an Ipod requires external software to operate at all. Whether you see it as simplistic or not is largely irrelevant. Any upstream change has the potential to make your current software environment stop functioning, causing you to go through this again sometime in the future.
I suspect I'm in the minority here, but when I bought my player I made sure it absolutely required nothing else in order for me to use it. As long as computer's OS supports USB mass storage devices I am able to get media on to and off of the device, and the device can play it without any problems. No file structure limitations, no need to update a database.
Your beef is legitimate. I'd be frustrated, too.
As for the Ipod USB mass storage issue, I was under the impression that the units did not operate as a standard USB HDD. One that you could plug in to a computer without Ipod-specific software and use as a storage volume. Perhaps my impressions were incorrect. | |
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justin
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| Re: ipod nano video on linux this is an ipod nano, not a touch or an iphone..
The hash part is fine, I checked the XML file on the exported mass storage file-system. It isn't a problem of files getting loaded but not getting indexed (which would be the hash getting set incorrectly), it is that gtkpod doesn't work with video files (refuses to deal with the mp4/m4v file) and amarok doesn't even have the concept of video. | |
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justin
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1 edit | Re: ipod nano video on linuxIn case anyone else finds this topic, here is what I've done so far.
1. Despite the gtkpod being updated for video support at the end of 2005 .. ( see »www.hermann-uwe.de/blog/initial-···-libgpod ) the ubuntu gtkpod and gtkpod-aac programs do not understand video, and give a message normally associated with gtkpod being told to deal with an AAC file.
2. gtkpod is a bear to re-build manually from a normal ubuntu install. I had to google each configure failure to identify the missing packages. Several pulled in whole rafts of others. Here is the minimum path:
At this point you have a gtkpod that can handle m4v files.. at least the ones I am making using handbrakeCLI (there is no gui version of handbrake for linux, only windows and OSX). A guide to using handbrakeCLI is here »handbrake.m0k.org/trac/wiki/CLIGuide
I just set the width, height, encoding bit-rate, set two-pass. Converted the "longest title" of my DVD (another flag). mp4 is implied by an output file extension of .mp4, and I selected AAC as the audio with a bitrate of 128.
HandbrakeCLI pauses after two passes and looks like it hangs, but it eventually completes. This 40 whatever minute 200mb file paused for about 10 minutes at the end showing 0.0% complete, after about 30 minutes of processing (this is a slow laptop).
mp4info comes from the libmp4v2 library util directory, so a first check is that it can grok your video file..
plays great, appears in Video menu of ipod correctly.
Whew.
Now correct me if I'm wrong here but I think only the geekiest of ubuntu users are going to go through this to get their christmas ipod up and running under linux. | |
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justin
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| Re: ipod nano video on linux I did read your first post, but was waiting for the elaboration.
How long was it broken for, because gtkpod-aac supported aac (audio) files at some point, obviously.
There is/was a terminology confusion.. my problem was with video, not apple audio format. Should gtkpod-aac really be called gtkpod-aac-mp4? Would an mp4 video file with mp3 sound have been accepted by gtkpod-aac? Why doesn't vanilla gtkpod Just Work (with video). | |
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justin
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Brooklyn, NY | Re: ipod nano video on linux ok, I got it, thanks.
btw do you know how to tell ubuntu to not fire up rhythmbox when it automounts the ipod, and instead fire up gtkpod? | |
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justin
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| Re: ipod nano video on linux thanks, then I struck the next minor issue which is that gtkpod doesn't 'eject /media/IPOD', you can add this as a command to ~/.gtkpod/gtkpod.eject (a script) but this fails (as it does from the command line without sudo) because you didn't mount it in the first place, hal (root) did.
so I fixed that by adding the full mount to /etc/fstab (after hal mounts it, do 'mount' to see the filesystem type and options) and added the option "users" to this list.
finally gtkpod pops up when the ipod is attached, and gtkpod ejects the ipod (and underlying mount) when you order it to.
Of course one can use eject from the desktop icon, but that is unsatisfactory to me. | |
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Which gui toolkit should they use? Would this "Linux iTunes" run on ubuntu? Fedora? Gentoo? Bob's Linux? Joe Schmaltz Edgy Hoary Anal Wart Linux?
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