Encoding video for the iriver U10

I own an iriver U10. It’s a great device, that can play music and video. However, for some reason, none of the tutorials about encoding video for the iriver U10 worked. When I try to play the video, it just gives the message “This file format is not supported”. After a lot of trial and error I finally figured out the problem: the frame rate. According to every guide and manual I found, the U10 can handle 15 frames per second. However, things only started working when I encoded to 14.9 frames per second!

Here is the mencoder command I used:

/usr/bin/mencoder \
  flash_gordon.avi \
  -o flash_gordon-u10.avi \
  -ovc xvid -xvidencopts bitrate=384:max_bframes=0 \
  -oac mp3lame \
  -lameopts mode=0:cbr:br=128 \
  -ofps 14.9 \
  -af resample=44100:1:2 \
  -vf-add scale=320:240,expand=320:240 \
  -vf-add harddup \
  -quiet

I’m sure other encoders (GUI or otherwise) will also work, as long as you use the following settings:

• 14.9 frames per second (FPS)
• AVI output format
• XviD video codec at 384 kbit/sec
• No B-frames (just enter 0 for the number of B-frames)
• Video 320x240 pixels
• MP3 audio codec at 128 kbit/sec, 16 bit, stereo

I’ve verified these settings with Avidemux. And yes, they also work with clips from Youtube!