[MEncoder-users] Video from JPG Files Problem

[Matt Malone]

My goal is to produce a video from a sequence of jpg files, where the video 
is in any format that is so common that any basic windows user anywhere can 
just click on it and it will show without having to go download some 
(better) codec.   I would like it to be like 99% of videos/animations on the 
web.

This would seem to be the very first thing anyone who has written an 
analytical program would want to do to show their results as a video.   I am 
astounded by how impossible it seems to be to accomplish my goal.  At this 
point I would be happy to hear it is something simple I have forgotten.

I have downloaded and built MPlayer1.0pre8-3.3.6.  I am running on Slackware 
Linux 10.4? using kernel 2.4.31.  The hardware is an old Pentium III.

My jpgs were generated by sprintf(buf,'import -window framewindow 
%05d.jpg\0',i); system(buf); -- hence numbered 00000.jpg, 00001.jpg etc -- 
where framewindow is the name of the window that rendered the video frame by 
frame and displayed it.  The frames are black lines on a white background 
line drawings with a lot of white space.  The jpg files view just fine in 
both irfanview (windows) and xv (linux).

I have been using a number of pre-written command lines posted on the web 
for mencoder advertiizing that they do what I want.  I have also tried over 
100 variations.  Virtually all examples show how to make an mpeg4 file.  See 
my goal for why I want to use something far more universal than mpeg4.   So 
I have been trying to vary the command line to achive my goals.

I had 500 frames of 1190x739 pixels, black and white.  Mencoder was seg 
faulting, as did an ffmpeg binary I downloaded in desparation from the web.  
Then I noticed it was seg faulting in the 400's so I chopped out the last 
100 frames and it runs to completion now (one problem at a time).

The best (choke) files I get result from a command line like:

mencoder "mf://*.jpg" -mf type=jpg:fps=10 -o mov.mpg -ovc lavc -lavcopts 
vcodec=mpeg1video -nosound

When I ftp it back to windows (binary of course), Windows Media Player shows 
it with the lower half of the screen solid green and the upper half bears 
only a small resemblance to a single frame with some clutter that appears to 
change as the video "runs".

If someone could e-mail me a fool-proof command line that will produce a 
video that is definitely viewable on any windows platform without 
downloading a codec, that would be ideal.  If it does not work, there must 
be something wrong with the way I built mencoder -- any thoughts would be 
appreciated.

If someone wants a few frames to try it, see 
http://209.151.133.226/video/00000.jpg etc for the first 10 frames.

Thank you,

Matt

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