How do you use Theora Goodies?
by Nmuta Jones · in General Discussion · 02/06/2010 (12:26 pm) · 11 replies
I downloaded the Theora Goodies:
http://tdn.garagegames.com/wiki/Image:TheoraGoodies.zip
And its very strange.... its a tool that there is no documentation on anywhere, yet everyone already seems to know how to use it. I've done a lot of searches and the only Theora threads are saying things like: "I downloaded it, I used it, its great".
I unzip and found two executables.
ffmpeg2theora-0.13.exe, which runs a bunch of command line stuff what I can't see because its too fast, and
oggcodecs_0.69.8924.exe
which installed a useless start menu option which has a link to a dead web page and an uninstall link.
How do I use these tools??? I have an .avi that I dropped in my Theora Goodies folder that I need convereted to .ogg.
I tried doing a command line:
ffmpeg2theora myvideo.avi
in the folder where the stuff is located, but Windows says it cannot understand the command
ffmpeg2theora
so I'm totally lost.
Any help would be 'preciated.
Thanks.
http://tdn.garagegames.com/wiki/Image:TheoraGoodies.zip
And its very strange.... its a tool that there is no documentation on anywhere, yet everyone already seems to know how to use it. I've done a lot of searches and the only Theora threads are saying things like: "I downloaded it, I used it, its great".
I unzip and found two executables.
ffmpeg2theora-0.13.exe, which runs a bunch of command line stuff what I can't see because its too fast, and
oggcodecs_0.69.8924.exe
which installed a useless start menu option which has a link to a dead web page and an uninstall link.
How do I use these tools??? I have an .avi that I dropped in my Theora Goodies folder that I need convereted to .ogg.
I tried doing a command line:
ffmpeg2theora myvideo.avi
in the folder where the stuff is located, but Windows says it cannot understand the command
ffmpeg2theora
so I'm totally lost.
Any help would be 'preciated.
Thanks.
About the author
Lead Developer for MediaBreeze Multimedia
#2
I'll get the latest trial of ULead and let you know the results.
thanks for the help. Why can't they simply put instructions in the zip file? I don't get it. It probably took you 5 seconds to write those very clear instructions you have there.
02/06/2010 (12:58 pm)
Oh, in that case, I remember using ULead Studio to convert from .avi to mpeg and getting fairly good results. Then Vista came out and we had a hard time getting ULead to work on Vista. I'll get the latest trial of ULead and let you know the results.
thanks for the help. Why can't they simply put instructions in the zip file? I don't get it. It probably took you 5 seconds to write those very clear instructions you have there.
#3
I would strongly recommend VLC over ffmpeg2theora. If you are starting out with an AVI, it also saves you the extra step via MPEG. In general, there should be as few format changes as possible. Going from one lossy format to the next lossy format entails losing quality. Generally, one should go from uncompressed source directly to Theora.
02/06/2010 (1:00 pm)
I would strongly recommend VLC over ffmpeg2theora. If you are starting out with an AVI, it also saves you the extra step via MPEG. In general, there should be as few format changes as possible. Going from one lossy format to the next lossy format entails losing quality. Generally, one should go from uncompressed source directly to Theora.
#4
1. was able to do the drag and drop mpeg to .ogg with Theora Goodies, thanks. But its a sample, dummy file so its just a test
2. VLC media player has a conversion wizard, but it doesn't seem to be producing any output to the my designated output folder. But I'll work with it. thanks to both of you for the tips.
02/06/2010 (1:09 pm)
Great! Well 1. was able to do the drag and drop mpeg to .ogg with Theora Goodies, thanks. But its a sample, dummy file so its just a test
2. VLC media player has a conversion wizard, but it doesn't seem to be producing any output to the my designated output folder. But I'll work with it. thanks to both of you for the tips.
#5
02/11/2010 (12:52 am)
Is there a way to create Theora .ogg files on the Mac? Does Apple's QuickTime pro export to this with some sort of extension? Or any other program?
#6
02/11/2010 (2:16 am)
Okay, turns out VLC media player exists on the Mac too, and does the conversion on there just fine. Question though: should audio be re-encoded? If so, into what format?
#7
Audio must be encoded as Vorbis for the Theora player to be able to work with it.
02/11/2010 (4:05 am)
Audio must be encoded as Vorbis for the Theora player to be able to work with it.
#8
BTW, while I have you attention, you have a resource of TGB 1.7.4 modifications for Theora to work properly. But you mentioned it still had some issues you had resolved and were going to upload. Did those changes get into the current resource?
What exactly are some of the problems that were fixed? And, do your modifications add pause/unpause support, or is a separate resource needed for that? (Or is it built-in?)
02/11/2010 (4:19 am)
Awesome, thanks!BTW, while I have you attention, you have a resource of TGB 1.7.4 modifications for Theora to work properly. But you mentioned it still had some issues you had resolved and were going to upload. Did those changes get into the current resource?
What exactly are some of the problems that were fixed? And, do your modifications add pause/unpause support, or is a separate resource needed for that? (Or is it built-in?)
#9
I'll post an update early next week. Wanted to come back to this earlier, but other things have kept coming up.
Aside from the issues listed in the resource, the last batch of changes has been exclusively about getting this to work properly on the Mac for both PPC and x86 using a current OpenAL.
There have been no functional enhancements so pausing is still not supported.
02/11/2010 (4:27 am)
I'll post an update early next week. Wanted to come back to this earlier, but other things have kept coming up.
Aside from the issues listed in the resource, the last batch of changes has been exclusively about getting this to work properly on the Mac for both PPC and x86 using a current OpenAL.
There have been no functional enhancements so pausing is still not supported.
#10
02/11/2010 (4:32 am)
Well, I'm on a Mac, so those fixes would be welcome. :-) Thanks! 
Torque 3D Owner Marcus L
If anyone know of a program/tool that can convert .avi to .mpeg without a quality reduction please tell me!