The AMV format - i think i can create a better converter

[alex2pb]

Hi guys! I am a sunday programmer and i want to ask you if anyone has any knowledge of the amv video format. What i want to do is to create a new amv converter, for example one that could let you choose any movie size . I think it would not be bad to try that but unfortunately i haven't found any papers about this format. If i stay up and try to hack it with a hex editor i would spend too much time with it and i don't have that much time on my hands. So is it a good idea to try or should i drop it ?? :wink:

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Hi man! Nice to see more Romanians here. (damn database crash removing my posts :lol

I don't think it would be that good of an idea, coz AMV players are getting out of fashion quickly, with AVI/DivX players replacing them, but it would be great seeing a converter with explicit image size, ratio and frame rate options. 8)

Unfortunately there really isn't any documentation on the AMV format around, but by the looks of it in a hex editor it's just an AVI with hacked headers. Try ripping the headers out of an AMV file and pasting them over the headers of a MJPEG compressed AVI resized to your player's screen size. If you're lucky it just might work, and you will have the starting point of coding your new converter.

[alex2pb]

Hi . I am glad that I'm not alone here . I digged up the internet and i think I found the header specifications. It seems that it's like you said a combination between 'avi' and the 'Apex Media Video' from the Nintendo Game Boy. So some chunks are removed from the avi format and some are modified. The audio codec seems to be MP3 (because this and wmv can be played natively on the chipset) and the video stream is MPEG4. I'll keep you informed about this issue. Also, if this works, I can create a Linux port of this too. Hope I can manage it, i never programmed multimedia stuff.

[booboo773]

Hi I think there are still plenty of people who would benefit from a better AMV converter. Rockchip players are definitely my first pick. The AVI files play so much better.

However, I do have a couple of Action chipsets and would love to improve the AMV.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Originally Posted by alex2pb

I digged up the internet and i think I found the header specifications. It seems that it's like you said a combination between 'avi' and the 'Apex Media Video' from the Nintendo Game Boy. So some chunks are removed from the avi format and some are modified. The audio codec seems to be MP3 (because this and wmv can be played natively on the chipset) and the video stream is MPEG4. I'll keep you informed about this issue. Also, if this works, I can create a Linux port of this too. Hope I can manage it, i never programmed multimedia stuff.

That's good news man. The audio is converted to 22KHz 8bit mono, but by the sound of it (and the pretty small size difference between image quality and framerate modes), i would say it's more like the mobile phone WAV format rather than MP3.

Well, keep us updated!

[alex2pb]

RO:
E nasol rau de tot... Are structura aia nemernica de la inceput si nu pot sa o rescriu ca sare din biti. Oricum, mai incerc.

ENG:
This is really hard... It's got that bloody structure at the beginning and i can't write over it because it gets to the wrong offset. Anyways, i'll still experiment.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

RO: Mai incearca, trebuie sa reusesti. Te-as ajuta si eu daca as putea dar nu prea am cum, cel putin acum. Hmm, pana la urma chinezii astia nu-s asa de prosti...

EN: Keep trying, you've got to succeed. I'd help you if i could but i'm not really able, at least now. Hmm, it seems these Chinese aren't that stupid...

[Buzzygirl]

Hi Alex2pb,

This is an older thread, but I found it while searching under "Linux" on the forums here. I would like to find an AMV converter for Linux, but I have had no luck at all. My main computer runs Ubuntu Linux. Since there are no AMV converters I know of for Linux, I am not able to watch videos on my MP4 player. I don't know much about Linux programming-- the last programming I did was 1996 in Visual Basic for Windows :-)

P.S. I like the Romanian language! Of all the "Romance" languages, it seems closest to classical Latin.

[alex2pb]

I use Ubuntu too (I have a dual boot with WinXP), but I kinda abandoned this project as I don't have enough infomation about the AMV format. There are some chinese guys that tried to make something like this but their work is incomplete.

You could try to use Wine with the Windows converter. The Wine HQ tested it and it seems to work.

More about it here
http://appdb.winehq.org/appview.php?iVersionId=4749
And the only tutorial I could find is here (in spanish unfortunately)
http://tozani.wordpress.com/2007/03/...-wine-por-fin/

Oh, and thanks for the kind words. All my foreign friends say that it's close to italian (thus latin) .

[mekako]

So whats happening with the AMV converter Alex? for which type of player did you intend to write the software for?

I'd like something to turn the whole picture on the screen 90 degrees to the right :arrow: :roll: :P