Lenny Domnitser’s
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explicit

HOWTO Move a One Minute Video Clip from my Phone to the Web in 58 Easy Steps

  1. Shoot video on phone. Easy.
  2. Ask roommate to use laptop with Bluetooth adapter.
  3. Try to send file to laptop, as I’ve done before with another computer.
  4. Fail.
  5. Add laptop to “my devices”.
  6. Allow laptop to probe phone.
  7. Allow laptop to enter video directory.
  8. Allow laptop to enter video/camera directory.
  9. Allow laptop to download video.
  10. E-mail video from roommate’s laptop to mine.
  11. Attempt to watch video. No sound.
  12. Learn that the camphone video uses the AMR audio codec, which isn’t in gstreamer, even with all the extra codecs installed.
  13. Try to convert AMR to AAC with ffmpeg.
  14. Fail.
  15. Learn that ffmpeg does not support AMR out of the box because of licensing issues.
  16. Learn that I have to build ffmpeg from source.
  17. Learn that I have to download some strange zip file from 3gpp.org and extract it into a particular place within the ffmpeg source.
  18. Pull ffmpeg source from Subversion repository.
  19. Download the zip file.
  20. Extract it.
  21. Try to build.
  22. Fail.
  23. Try again.
  24. Fail.
  25. Extract zip into the correct place in the source repository.
  26. Build.
  27. Try to convert audio stream.
  28. Fail.
  29. Install libfaac-dev.
  30. Build.
  31. Try to convert audio stream.
  32. Fail.
  33. Ask ffmpeg-user list why.
  34. Learn that libfaac doesn’t do 8000 Hz.
  35. Try again at 11025 Hz.
  36. Partial success. Can’t convert to mp4 container.
  37. Build with mp4 muxer enabled.
  38. Try again.
  39. Success, I think. Gstreamer and mplayer like it.
  40. Email to other roommate to try in Quicktime.
  41. Audio, no video.
  42. Slightly modify ffmpeg invocation.
  43. Email to roommate to try in Quicktime.
  44. Audio, no video.
  45. Email original 3GPP file to roommate.
  46. Success, except that’s the file that I can’t hear on my Ubuntu with all codecs.
  47. Slightly modify ffmpeg invocation.
  48. Email to roommate to try in Quicktime.
  49. Audio, no video.
  50. Slightly modify ffmpeg invocation.
  51. Email to roommate to try in Quicktime.
  52. Audio, no video.
  53. Ask ffmpeg-user why.
  54. Learn that maybe H.263 isn’t supposed to go in MP4.
  55. Transcode video to mpeg4, in addition to transcoding audio.
  56. Success.
  57. Upload.
  58. Share.

ffmpeg-user is awesome. 3GPP lawyers suck. Video is hard.

That’s the way it is

With today’s apathetic, iPod-impaired students, some old fashioned subversive public speech is a rare treat. That’s why whenever anything does happen here, I make sure to come watch for at least a short while, no matter what is being protested. Yesterday’s demonstration was the best kind: local, reasonable, and, above all else, entertaining.

(Quickie background: University runs exhibit of nude African women. Student criticizes exhibit by posting own exhibit on Web. Student’s counter-exhibit features university logo. University calls copyright infringement, threatens legal action.)

Clearly local, which means a petition is noticed.

Reasonable, since this sort of suit has a chilling effect on speech, whether that is the intent. Also, what a bogus, if common, misuse of copyright law.

But the reason I’m posting this is to share the entertaining video I shot. Cardboard hammers and overacting make for good politics.