[MEncoder-users] Problems with output file size

[Joey Parrish]

On 4/30/07, Drew Burchett <DrewB at united-systems.com> wrote:
> I am using mencoder to convert a group of AVIs into MPG format suitable
> for burning onto DVD.  To accomplish this, I am using the following
> command line:
>
> mencoder -channels 6 -oac lavc -ovc lavc -of mpeg -mpegopts format=dvd
> -vf scale=720:480,harddup -srate 48000 -af lavcresample=48000 -lavcopts
> vcodec=mpeg2video:vrc_buf_size=1835:vrc_maxrate=9800:vbitrate=5000:vstri
> ct=0:keyint=15:acodec=ac3:abitrate=384:aspect=4/3 -ofps 30000/1001
> "$inputFile" -o "$outputFile"
>
> The problem is that the resulting file is huge.  Two one-hour shows will
> completely fill a normal sized DVD.  When I run the same file through
> AVIDemux, the output is much smaller with no noticeable drop in quality.
> However, I don't know what parameters AVIDemux is changing.  Could
> anyone tell me what to adjust in the above command line to considerably
> reduce my output file size?

The video bitrate option.  vbitrate=5000 is huge.  Try 1200-2500.

--Joey