t@b Media Converter (linux/osx/win32)

t@b media converter is an audio and video converter / encoder utility which provides a graphical front end for Mencoder*, Sox* and potentially other non-t@b software like RealProducer*.

This utility will convert a great variety (see below) of video and audio formats into files which both zs3 and ZS4 can read/import.

It thus will convert most *.mov *.mpg and similar formats to either AVI/mjpg (for zs4) or to AVI/uncompressed for both zs3 and ZS4.
It can also encode the output of ZS4 into *.mpg files.

Download:

linux tar.gz file (linux download info)
os x tar.gz file (os x download info)
win32 installer exe (win32 download info)

* In the Windows version, Mencoder and Sox are included in the package. On Linux these programs must be already on the system. Download from the above links if not already installed. RealProducer must be installed separately on all systems.

Source Code:

This utility is a front end for mencoder, sox and potentially others. The source code for this utility and the source code for sox and mencoder, which it uses can be found at the following link:
download source code
(this program is licensed with the GNU General Public License).

Change History / Latest Changes

To keep track of program changes and revisions please visit our source, development and download site. There you will find a list of most recent program fixes and improvements.

Compatible file formats:

Video Input	Video Output
avi (mjpg, i420, DV, mpeg4 etc.) mov (quicktime) .dv mpeg/mpg (mpeg1, mpeg2, mpeg4) 3gp (nokia etc.) mp4 wmv (windows media formats) rm (real media - only on Linux)	mjpeg avi (for ZS4 import) i420 uncompressed avi (both ZS's) iyuv uncompressed avi "" mpeg1 (vcd format) mpeg2 mpeg4 real media (if real producer found on system)
Audio Input	Audio Output
wav mp3 ogg au snd voc vox prc sf sph smp txw	wav ogg au snd voc vox prc sf sph smp txw

Conversion Capabilities: quicktime to Video for Windows (mov2avi), MPEG to Video for Windows (mpg2avi), Nokia Video for Windows (3gp2avi), Video for Windows to MPEG (avi2mpg/avi2mpeg), Ogg Vorbis to MS Wave (ogg2wav), MS Wave to Ogg Vorbis (wav2ogg), mp3 to MS Wave (mp32wav). 3gp2avi (Nokia to Video for Windows), avi2mpeg2 etc... and many others...

The t@b encoder pages are at

The t@b encoder pages are at http://devel.zs4.net/tabencode.html. For all components) is on the link to the left of it called source code. Have fun and let us know what you come up with!

By countinn at 27 August, 2005 - 01:13 |

I used this to convert a .avi

I used this to convert a .avi file to MPEG-2 DVD with the encoder and when I pulled the file into TMPGEnc DVD Author 1.6 it complained that the file had an invalid bit rate (102789) which is over the maximum of around 9600 or so. However, when I play the file, it appears to be correct and doesn't have any issues. Any thoughts? chris

By random visitor at 1 September, 2005 - 01:03 |

thoughts yes. we have not tri

thoughts yes. we have not tried this yet with a great variety of DVD burning/making programs, so we're unsure right now where to problem might lie...

By countinn at 1 September, 2005 - 14:32 |

Any chance of adding .wma cap

Any chance of adding .wma capability?
Great programe.

By random visitor at 13 November, 2005 - 15:42 |

thanks there! it appears tha

thanks there!
it appears that the reading of wma files is supported. the writing is not.
The billyboy folks have a free encoder though (@Messy DOS).

By countinn at 19 November, 2005 - 14:48 |

Will you add .3g2 support? I

Will you add .3g2 support? I can get it to play, but will not convert.

By random visitor at 20 November, 2005 - 12:06 |

I'm trying to get a shell com

I'm trying to get a shell command for .rm > .mp4 conversion, it's video, not audio mp4. I'd like, also, to see source code so I can convert .rm to avi, and then .avi to .mp4 with ffmpeg.
(I like the program & all, but I'd prefer my custom shell program.)
Firewing1

By random visitor at 22 November, 2005 - 20:26 |

all source code for our conve

all source code for our converter (front end) as well as sox and mencoder is available from the above link.

Real Media (Helix) source code is available at the helix site.

By countinn at 23 November, 2005 - 07:17 |

you got a sample file.3g2 to

you got a sample file.3g2 to try with, before i answer this?

By countinn at 23 November, 2005 - 11:11 |

One of the first of its kind

One of the first of its kind application for GNU/Linux. Great work. Could you also add support for .ogg (Ogg Theora) output in the Video section. Ogg Theora at the Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogg and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theora

By random visitor at 29 November, 2005 - 05:48 |

thanks, looking into it. i l

thanks, looking into it.
i like the idea of ogg video a ton. only had good experiences with ogg vorbis...

By countinn at 29 November, 2005 - 10:26 |

Hi, it looks great and works

Hi, it looks great and works fine (fast too), but all my converted video files are upside down. What can I do to have the come out the right way up please? Did I miss something in the setup?

GerardV

By random visitor at 29 December, 2005 - 05:46 |

looking into this. We've had

looking into this. We've had similar problems with other pieces of software. Will VirtualDub/ZweiStein/ZS4 read the data upside down as well?

By countinn at 29 December, 2005 - 06:48 |

WinAmp and Jetaudio play upsi

WinAmp and Jetaudio play upside down. Windows Media player, zs4, roxio dvd builder, virtualdub play the right way up. So thats less of a problem than I thought. Though it would be nice to have it work properly in Winamp. I will look through the winamp site too. Thanks.

By random visitor at 29 December, 2005 - 16:42 |

upside down video issue has a

upside down video issue has a workaround with latest zs4 release (this is a windows only thing) check out http://www.zs4.net/upside-down-avi-work-around

By countinn at 24 January, 2006 - 11:34 |

os x video converter now.

as of now (v0.950), this program also runs under Mac OS X. We've tried it with Tiger and it does the job.

By countinn at 5 February, 2006 - 20:39 |

Is it possible to decompress

Is it possible to decompress the commandline version HelixProducer to a sub-folder under tabencoder and use it in tabencoder ? (like some producer GUI)

By whileloop at 21 February, 2006 - 15:33 |

It should likely work, if you

It should likely work, if you place the "producer(.exe)" executable into the same program folder as "tabencode(.exe)" and the associated producer directories (like "plugins", "common" and "codecs") as subdirectories of that same directory.

The tabencode(.exe) front end merely does the equivalent of a "where" or "locate" command to find the producer executable. If a discovered producer executable reports a bunch of valid audiences for encoding sessions, then the tabencode frontend allows/attempts conversion.

By countinn at 21 February, 2006 - 15:47 |

I'm having trouble converting

I'm having trouble converting MOV files to MPEG files.
Please give me some help.

Thanks,
Doug

By DougMc at 13 May, 2006 - 12:12 |

Hello. I'm very thankful for

Hello. I'm very thankful for this program! It's very easy to use. Are there currently any intentions to add Matroska video (.mkv) to the convert list? I think it would be fairly simple as the mkv container format is all open source, but what do I know... Anyways, thanks alot!

By Pumpkin Pie at 28 September, 2006 - 16:47 |

Hi, do i need a special libra

Hi, do i need a special library or anything else to convert .wav files to .sph files?
Regards Andre

By Andre Mueller at 19 October, 2006 - 03:22 |

Hey, I'm trying to install th

Hey, I'm trying to install the linux version on an ubuntu box but I'm not having any luck. Does anyone know what the precedure for installing would be?

Thanks a lot!

By splitsevin at 15 November, 2006 - 23:23 |

a bit late, but I only instal

a bit late, but I only installed on ubuntu today.
Extract, enter into filez, in a shell I did "sudo rxvt" (rxvt is a console), enter password, then as root "cp tabencode /usr/bin" then as user in a shell "tabencode" and it worked!!!

By miquelets at 20 January, 2007 - 08:13 |

Nice software, seems to work

Nice software, seems to work just fine, but windows being the bugging peace of crap that it is, is there a way to use the media converter without having to "install" it?

Is it possible to Batch convert files? For example converting all files in a folder to .mp4 format.

By Alcasar at 26 January, 2007 - 00:24 |

By marQ at 8 April, 2007 - 16:08 |

Apologies - my mistake! What

Apologies - my mistake! What I needed to do was install mencoder as well. This was available through the package manager (Adept or Synaptic) and now everything's fine. Sorry!

By marQ at 8 April, 2007 - 16:25 |

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