[FFmpeg-user] Muxer Catch-22 with '-target pal-dvd'

[Francois Visagie]

Hi All,

 

Just a heads-up for the odd DVD being authored in SD resolution still,
there's a Catch-22 with the '-target pal-dvd' option.

 

When encoding without that option, the (grantedly intermediate) output
file's audio cannot be played by some DirectShow applications like Windows
Media Player (see ticket 1720 <https://ffmpeg.org/trac/ffmpeg/ticket/1720>
).

 

The work-around is to apply '-target pal-dvd'.

 

However, when encoding 704-wide Rec.601 source like DV (perfectly legal
resolution for DVD), this option causes distortion by forcing horizontal
resolution to 720 pixels (see ticket 2434
<https://ffmpeg.org/trac/ffmpeg/ticket/2434> ). Some background on Rec.601
sources and 704-pixel horizontal resolution at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_aspect_ratio.

 

The work-around in this case is _not_ to use '-target pal-dvd' but to
specify the DVD-compliant encode using individual options, e.g.

'-codec:a ac3 -b:a 128000 -codec:v mpeg2video -g 15 -bf 2 -bufsize 1835000
-b:v 6090000 -maxrate 9800000 -muxrate 10080000'.

 

In this case the output file's audio won't be playable by Windows Media
Player and similar and can't be demuxed by e.g. Avidemux for authoring.
Work-arounds are remuxing the output in another application, and/or using
another player like Media Player Classic, and/or demuxing for authoring with
ffmpeg itself or another application.

 

Cheers,

Francois

 

Francois Visagie

 

 

T: +27 (83) 326-4358

F: +27 (86) 511-3490

E: francois.visagie at gmail.com