As I wrote here (in Bulgarian), the phone LG Viewty is great for watching your favorite music clips and TV shows. That is why I wrote a short script that can easily convert a video file in the suitable format. As far as I know, it should also work with the other phones in the series, but I will be glad if someone is able to test it.

Българска версия / Bulgarian version

Usage

To convert a file, you should run this command:

ffviewty „input_video_filename“ „target_video_filename“ [-w1|-w2|-w3|-w4]

Each of the optional codes at the end correspond to a video format. This is necessary so that the clip is not stretched. By default, the script will assume that the input file is in 4/3 format and will crop it down to 16/10. This is usually the case with music videos. Here are the other options, where the video is not cropped:

-w1 – 16/10 – some TV series and old movies

-w2 – 16/9 – most TV series

-w3 – 2.5/1 – most movies

-w4 – 4/3 – some music videos and all TV recordings

Installation

The shell script requires mencoder. First, you should unpack the tar archive leaving the permissions intact.

tar xvf ffviewty_11.tar

The following like will copy the script to /usr/local/bin (for Ubuntu):

sudo cp ffviewty /usr/local/bin

If you are not on Ubuntu, then run this in a root console:

cp ffviewty /usr/local/bin

Download

The script can be downloaded here.

License

The script, as well as everything on this site, is under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 license. This loosely means that you can use, copy and distribute it freely, but I will love it if you put in a good word for me.

Ideas

Command on the drop-down menu of video files

Additional options and custom configuration of video formats

Automatic detection of the input video format

GUI with settings, info and progress bar

Automatic detection of pluged Viewty and copying of the encoded file to the Videos folder

If you have any other ideas, suggestions or comments, please share them here.