[FFmpeg-user] Convert mkv video with 2 audio and 2 subtitle in format (e.g. avi) for playing in a dvd home player.

[Moritz Barsnick]

On Thu, Sep 22, 2016 at 17:14:23 +0200, arkkimede wrote:
> ffmpeg version 2.6.9 Copyright (c) 2000-2016 the FFmpeg developers
>   built with gcc 4.9.2 (Debian 4.9.2-10)

In case of issues, please use latest git master, or 3.1.x. If you don't
have a repository for that and can't build ffmpeg yourself, you can try
these binary builds (the "git" version):
https://www.johnvansickle.com/ffmpeg/

>     Stream #0:0: Video: h264 (High), yuv420p(tv, bt709), 1280x720 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 25 fps, 25 tbr, 1k tbn, 47.95 tbc (default)
>     Stream #0:1(ita): Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 192 kb/s (default) (forced)
>     Stream #0:2(eng): Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, 5.1(side), fltp, 384 kb/s
>     Stream #0:3(ita): Subtitle: subrip (default) (forced)
>     Stream #0:4(ita): Subtitle: subrip
>     Stream #0:5(eng): Subtitle: subrip

> Related to the output I can provide a sequence of preferences:
> 1 Video with good resolution and Italian and English languages and subtitle

As mentioned, I don't know a method (within ffmpeg) of converting these
text based subtitles to DVD subtitles. There do exist other tools out
there for creating the bitmap based DVD subtitle streams, but you can
google just as much as I.

> 2 Video with good resolution and Italian and English languages

"Good resolution" is very fuzzy. The best resolution a standard PAL DVD
can support is 720x576 (displayed as 1024x576 or 768x576, depending on
aspect ratio setting). If you want something better, don't use DVDs.
;-)

$ ffmpeg -i input.mkv -map 0:0 -map 0:1 -map 0:2 -target pal-dvd dvd.vob

"-target pal-dvd" will magically choose the proper resolution
(720x576), codecs (mpeg2video and ac3 audio), bit rates and so on. If
you don't like the defaults, you can still manipulate them with the
proper parameters. E.g. you may want MP2 audio instead of AC3, you may
want a lower bitrate.

If your input video content happens to be interlaced, I'm totally lost.
;-) I don't know whether this "just works". Sorry.

I don't know whether ffmpeg preserves the "forced" property either, or
whether it has a way of setting it.

HTH,
Moritz

P.S.:
http://todayiwantedtoprogram.tumblr.com/post/15142587796/what-does-ffmpegs-target-pal-dvd-actually-do