[FFmpeg-user] (serious) novice, in need of advice regarding format conversion

[Dave P]

On Jul 20, 2012 6:17 PM, "Ronald F. Guilmette" <rfg at tristatelogic.com>
wrote:
>
>
> In message <5007B041.7070302 at yahoo.com>,
> Tim Nicholson <nichot20 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> >On 17/07/12 21:30, Ronald F. Guilmette wrote:
> >>
> >> In message <20120717080949.GE9329 at arborea>,
> >> Stefano Sabatini <stefasab at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>> [...]
> >>>
> >>> The lowest common denominator for players will be the
> >>> mpeg2video+MP3+avi combination.
> >>
> >> As I said, I only have one target here, i.e. _anything_ that the LG
BD670
> >> can play (and I don't care which container/codec are used, as long as
the
> >> LG BD670 is happy).  In short, I have -zero- reason to care about
> >> ``portability''.
> >>
> >> Also, I think that for what I am doing, I will want to use whatever
format
> >> gives me the MOST quality and/or functionality... NOT the ``lowest
common
> >> denominator''.
> >>
> >
> >The most quality will be to avoid transcoding what you already have, so
> >a simple rewrap from .VOB to .mpg/avi would probably suffice.
>
> Please define "rewrap" in this context.
>
> As I previously mentioned, I tried just renaming the .vob file to a .mpg
> file.  The player (LG BD670) _would_ then play the file, but the
fast-forward
> and fast-reverse controls then failed entirely to operate as the file was
> playing.
>
> Do you have some solution for this problem?  Are you proposing that I use
> ffmpeg to transcode MPEG2 to (somehow slightly different) MPEG2?  If so,
> I'd love to see what you are suggesting in the way of a command line.

This works well for me (interlaced widescreen NTSC VOB source to
progressive MPEG-2 PS):

ffmpeg.exe -report -f vob -target ntsc-dvd -c:v mpeg2video -q:v 2 -g 18 -bf
2 -mbd 2 -trellis 1 -vf yadif=0,scale=720:480,setdar=16:9 -c:a mp2 -ac 2
-ar 48000 -b:a 384k -y output.mpg

I would be surprised if the above command doesn't get you in the ballpark.
Post the contents of the report if you need tweaks here or there.

The many other questions you asked are valid, but I can't answer them all
at once.  Many will be answered if you continue to subscribe to the list
and read posts and replies every day for a few years...