[geeks] command line dvd to iPod?

[Geoffrey S. Mendelson]

With the summer coming up I'd like to be prepared for trips by
converting my DVD library to something that can be played "on the road".
While all I have at the moment is a Wallstreet (with two batteries, runs
five hours on a charge) and a Pismo, I hope to have some sort of
personal video player by then.

The DVDs are movies and TV shows for my kids. Since my kids would be
watching them, if I can get one, I think an iPod would do as it is
simple enough that my 10 year old could load it with files.

The video format for an iPod is very specific. I don't want to boot
Linux and run Mplayer, as it defeats the whole purpose of getting an
iPod as opposed to something already Linux based. Therefore I need to
know the exact format an iPod wants its files to be.

I've done many web searches and came up with several GUI front ends for
mencoder, covered on hundreds of web pages. My problem is that I don't
want a GUI. I have two computers, both relativly fast, that do nothing
at night. They are not easily accessable, but when I have time, I can
stick a DVD in their drives, and ssh in later.

So what I really need is the command line syntax, or at least the
specifications so that I can run mencoder from a command prompt. I'd
probably wrap it in a PERL program that reads the title of the disk and
encodes it to a file with the same title.

Since I don't have an iPod and am not likely to get one in the near
future, I don't want to guess at the format and hope I got it right, or
an updated version of the microcode supports what I choose.

Anyone have the specs, do what I want to do or have any advice?

Thanks,

Geoff.


-- 
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm at mendelson.com  N3OWJ/4X1GM
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