[MEncoder-users] mplayer vs mencoder -chapter recognition

[Giacomo Comes]

On Thu, Nov 16, 2006 at 10:59:06AM -0600, GROG! (Jeff Howie) wrote:
> Hi all. I'm using mplayer/mencoder 1.0_rc1 on a gentoo x86.
> 
> I've got a problem trying to encode the chapters off of a dvd to play
> on my handheld (a zaurus). While mplayer recognizes the chapters
> properly, mencoder doesn't see the chapters at all.
> 
> For example:
> 
>     $ midentify dvd://1
>     ID_DVD_TITLES=1
>     ID_DVD_TITLE_1_CHAPTERS=11
>     [...snip...]
> 
> and while:
> 
>     $ mplayer dvd://1 -chapter 3
> 
> will correctly play only chapter 3, while with:

That's incorrect. MPlayer will play the whole movie starting from chapter 3.
     $ mplayer dvd://1 -chapter 3-3
will play only chapter 3

> 
>     $ mencoder dvd://1 -chapter 3 -ovc lavc -lavcopts qpel:vhq=2 -vop
>             expand=320:240,pp=hb/vb/dr,eq=15,scale=320:-2,hqdn3d=8:6:12
>             -sws 2 -ofps 15 -oac mp3lame -lameopts vbr=3:br=64:mode=3
>             -af volume=10:1 -o chapter-3.avi
> 
> the resulting avi contains all chapters with no chapter information,

That's normal. The avi container does not provide chapters information.
And correct sentence should be: the resulting avi contains chapters 3 and following.

> so:
> 
>     $ mplayer -chapter 3 chapter-3.avi
> 
> shows that the entire title 1 has been saved as one big chapter.
> 
> Any ideas on what I'm doing wrong? thks

You are using the wrong container if you need chapters.

DVD/SVCD/VCD can have chapters, as well as the matroska container.

Giacomo