[FFmpeg-user] Problems encoding to DV25 .avi file

[Andy Wodfer]

On Fri, Mar 2, 2012 at 9:11 AM, Tim Nicholson <nichot20 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> On 01/03/12 22:36, Andy Wodfer wrote:
> > On Thu, Mar 1, 2012 at 12:51 PM, Andy Wodfer <wodfer at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> Hi,
> >> I need some input on a problem I have.
> >>
> >> I'm using the latest 0.10 version of ffmpeg compiled from source on a
> >> FreeBSD 8.2 machine.
> >>
>
> 0.10 is not the latest, use git HEAD if you want that.
>
> >> The source file is a Prores 422HQ file (1280x720 @ 50fps 720P).
> >>
> >> I want to make this into a DV25 .avi file that is playable in Windows
> >> Media Player and that will work in Ie. Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0 on a WinXP
> >> machine. Ie: A Windows compatible DV25 file.
> >>
> >> I've tried several options, but I can't make it work.
> >>
> >> "-target pal-dv" gives me a file that plays fine in VLC player, but not
> in
> >> Windows Media Player. Adobe Premiere reports unsupported format and
> won't
> >> import it.
> >>
> >> "-vcodec dvvideo  -s 720x576 -pix_fmt yuv420p -r 25 -acodec pcm_s16le
> -ac
> >> 2 -ar 48000" works if I choose .mov as a container. It opens in
> Quicktime
> >> and VLC and import to Adobe Premiere works fine. Aspect ratio is also
> fine.
> >>
> >> If I change the container to .avi it won't play back in Windows Media
> >> Player.
>
> [..]
>
> > I seem to be making some progress with these parameters:
> >
> > -vcodec dvvideo -s 720x576 -vtag dvsd -pix_fmt yuv420p -r 25 -f avi
> -acodec
> > pcm_s16le -ac 2 -ar 4
> > 8000
> >
> > However, when playing back in WMP (which finally works) the 16x9 image is
> > squeezed into a 4x3 frame.
> >
> > I need to make my parameters flexible so they can take either 4x3 or 16x9
> > and keep the aspect ratio on the output files, even if it's 16x9 HD
> > downscaled to PAL DV.
>
> Two thoughts.
>
> You may need to use the setdar filter to force the display aspect ratio.
> I'm not sure if WMP recognises this setting in AVI's. Première Pro seems
> to be
> OK with it.


Thanks for your input Tim!

I tested some more with the file I generated with the -vtag and it seems to
work perfectly in Premiere. Correct aspect and no error messages. I seem to
recollect that WMP has had problems playing back 16x9 DV material from a
DV25 .avi file before.

/Andy