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

[Carl Eugen Hoyos]

2016-12-04 5:15 GMT+01:00 Toerless Eckert <tte at cs.fau.de>:
> 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.

Then simply keep your ts recordings, they are for sure the "best"
recordings by all means.
(Feel free to cut them to your needs with mpegts-specific tools,
once upon a time, I used ProjectX).

> 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.

(TS and MPEG2 TS are the same.)
This seems to imply that you know of other formats supporting
aspect change that are not supported by FFmpeg.

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

The reason may be that aspect ratio change in avi is not well
specified.

> 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.

Of course, it is meant for lossy transmission.

> 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.

This should work with -demuxer lavf but it seems that the usual h264
timestamp problem hits us.

> So i am wondering:
>   - Whats the difference between "-f vob" and "-f dvd" in ffmpeg ?

-f dvd contains nav packets that you need if you plan to produce
dvds.

>   - 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...

This question makes no sense imo (you already forgot dvdhd) but
in any case, keep your recordings.

Carl Eugen