[FFmpeg-user] FFmpeg-user] VOB, DV, AVI, TS...

[Toerless Eckert]

I am trying to encode TV recordings into the "best" container format,
where "best" means that the video has changing aspect ratio, eg:
some segments 16:3 then 4:3, then back to 16:9.

Seems the only container formats supporting this and/or that ffmpeg
can encode in a working fashion are TS, VOB / DVD (MPEG2 PS) and MPEG2 TS.

Only mplayer can correctly play back aspect changes with AVI,
kodi, ffplay, vlc all just play back with the initial aspect ratio.

TS plays back correctly with all players - ffplay, kodi, vlic, mplayer,
but TS has aout 10% overhead over all the other containers in my experience.

The PS files created with "-f vob" or "-f dvd" in ffmpeg have about the
same size as avi and are correctly played back with AR changes by
ffplay, vlc, kodi. The versions of mplayer i tried only plays back mpeg2
video in PS, not h264. Alas, i have some important apps that leverage
mplayer.

So i am wondering:
  - Whats the difference between "-f vob" and "-f dvd" in ffmpeg ?
  - how "standards" compliant is it actually to encode h264 into vob/PS
    files. As in: i'd feel a lot safer if i'd know that my encoding
    was standard compliant and mplayer has a bug than if mplayer is right,
    and all the other players are just very forgiving.
    After all, h264 seems to only exist in Blu Ray and those seem to use TS,
    not PS...

Any other format idea i could try ? The most widely used ones,
mp4,mkv seemingly do not support AR changes.

Cheers
    Toerless