[FFmpeg-user] What video formats to support?

[Dotan Cohen]

On Wed, Jun 1, 2011 at 13:06, Andrew Berg <bahamutzero8825 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> However, that GUI app does not seem to be scriptable. I'd like to
>> script it as there are a few tens of files. It's not my computer, I
>> don't want to be there all day!
>
> There's a CLI version on the download page. I haven't used it myself,
> but I doubt it's difficult to wrap in a script.

Thanks, I will take a look.


>> So am I to understand that "avi" is the container and "mpeg4" is the
>> codec?
>
> Yes. Do take note that "mpeg4" means MPEG-4 Part 2 (its two most common
> implementations are DivX and Xvid). MPEG-4 Part 10 is called "h264"
> (implemented by x264 and others).

Here is the confusion! Reading the Wikipedia page for DivX is a
headache, there are so many things with that name apparently.

Let me see if I understand correctly: to play this file:
$ ffmpeg -i file.avi
Stream #0.0: Video: mpeg4
The player must support the avi container and the mpeg4 codec.
However, their are multiple implementations of the mpeg4 codec, and
the implementation is not specified here. So to ensure compatibility
the player should support all common implementations of mpeg4, two of
which are DivX and Xvid.

Futhermore, there exists differing mpeg4 "parts" which require codecs
different to the ones mentioned above.


>> Is the yuv420p information important?
>
> AFAIK, aside from a few very specialized codecs, everything can be
> decoded into a usable colorspace.

Thanks.

-- 
Dotan Cohen

http://gibberish.co.il
http://what-is-what.com