[MEncoder-users] Problems with hardware DVD player

[John Bovey]

I have been trying to use mencoder to convert avi files to mpg files to make into DVDs. The problem is that the generated DVDs' video and sound freezes after about 40 seconds when played on our DVD player (a Bush 2048). The DVD player is fine with other DVDs, including those generated using other software, downloads and, of course, commercial DVDs. After freezing, the time display on the DVD player continues to update and the DVD will restart playing if you skip forward or back. Needless to say, the generated DVDs play ok using mplayer.

The command I have used to create the mpg files is taken straight from the documentation:

#!/bin/bash
mencoder -oac lavc -ovc lavc -of mpeg -mpegopts format=dvd -vf scale=720:576,\
harddup -srate 48000 -af lavcresample=48000 -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg2video:\
vrc_buf_size=1835:vrc_maxrate=9600:vbitrate=5000:keyint=12:acodec=ac3:\
abitrate=192:aspect=16/9 -ofps 25 \
-o $1.mpg $1.avi

This is on debian Etch using the debian packaged version of Mencoder. The DVDs were authored using dvdstyler, which uses DVDauthor.  I have tried several times so it is not a problem with the media.

Can anybody suggest anything I could do to diagnose the problem, or try and fix it it.

John Bovey