[MEncoder-users] Encoding Pal DVD to AVI or SVCD for NTSC

[Rich Felker]

On Thu, Dec 01, 2005 at 12:57:56PM -0500, Trevor Nightingale wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> My problem is that I have received a DVD from the UK (Region 2)
> which is a DVD+RW disc. My DVD players at home cannot play Region 2
> (and there is no hack), my DVD ROM drive on my computer only plays
> DVD-R discs. My machine at work can play the disc,however I cannot
> sit a work watching rugby :-)
> 
> If I rip the DVD and create an AVI that I could watch on my computer
> at home, it is >800mb which it too large and also the aspect ratio
> was messed up.

The size depends on the bitrate you use. Aspect can be configured with
lavcopts, or using autoaspect, or by rescaling to square pixels.

> mencoder dvd://2 -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:vpass=1 -oac mp3lame -lameopts vbr=3 -o movie.avi
> mencoder dvd://2 -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:vpass=2 -oac mp3lame -lameopts vbr=3 -o movie.avi

I don't see any options to set bitrate, really hardly any options at all.

> So I thought I would try to create as svcd that I could play on my
> DVD player at home, using this link
> http://www.mplayerhq.hu/DOCS/HTML/en/menc-feat-vcd-dvd.html I used
> the command:

> NTSC SVCD
> 
> 
>   mencoder -oac lavc -ovc lavc -of mpeg -mpegopts format=xsvcd  -vf \
>   scale=480:480,harddup -srate 44100 -af lavcresample=44100 -lavcopts \
>   vcodec=mpeg2video:mbd=2:keyint=18:vrc_buf_size=917:vrc_minrate=600:\
>   vbitrate=2500:vrc_maxrate=2500:acodec=mp2:abitrate=224 -ofps 30000/1001 \
>   -o movie.mpg dvd://1
>   
> 
> However, the generated file was >1Gb

Yes because svcd bitrate is 2500. Max length for an svcd is around 45
minutes to an hour, iirc. If you want to make it longer you make
multiple discs which involves finding a good place to split it.

> All I have so far is an AVI that I created that I could potentially
> watch on my pda (and computer) which is about 130Mb using the
> following command:
> 
> C:\mplayer>mencoder dvd://1 -ofps 15 -srate 24000 -oac mp3lame -lameopts cbr:br=
> 32:vol=5:mode=3 -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:vbitrate=96:vhq:keyint=300 -vop
>  scale=160:120 -o rugbysmall.avi

LOL, 96kbit? :)

> Ideally, I would love to be able to watch this on my TV using my DVD
> to play an SVCD, but I would settle for a reasonable quality AVI
> that I can watch on the computer. Any suggestions would be
> appreciated.

Choose an intermediate bitrate appropriately. Also please learn how to
make your mailer wrap lines or else use the enter key. It's a lot of
work manually rewrapping your lines so that they're readable..

Rich