[MEncoder-users] Formatting video for DVD

[Ross Clement]

Dear all,

I am not yet anywhere near "pushing the boundaries" of mencoder usage. And
given that mencoder is a complex system, and I wish to understand what I'm
doing, I'm not going to try for some "ideal" set of parameter settings just
yet.

But can people look at my current "typical" parameters for taking DV and
converting it to dvd-compatible MPEG-2, and suggest what I might try next?

This seems to produce a reasonable result, but I'd like it better, or the
same or similar results for a lower bit rate.

In particular, I've read somewhere that having more than four passes does
not give noticeable improvements in quality. But I'm only using two passes.
Would using four passes give me a better result?

#!/bin/bash

echo "encoding " $1

mencoder "$1" -of mpeg -mpegopts format=dvd:tsaf -ovc lavc -oac lavc
-lavcopts
vcodec=mpeg2video:vrc_buf_size=1835:vrc_maxrate=9800:vbitrate=5000:keyint=15:vstrict=0:trell:mbd=2:acodec=ac3:vpass=1:aspect=4/3:ildct:ilme:top=0
-srate 48000 -af lavcresample=48000 -vf hqdn3d=3:2:3:3 -o /dev/null

mencoder "$1" -of mpeg -mpegopts format=dvd:tsaf -ovc lavc -oac lavc
-lavcopts
vcodec=mpeg2video:vrc_buf_size=1835:vrc_maxrate=9800:vbitrate=5000:keyint=15:vstrict=0:trell:mbd=2:acodec=ac3:vpass=2:aspect=4/3:ildct:ilme:top=0
-srate 48000 -af lavcresample=48000 -vf hqdn3d=3:2:3:3 -o "$2"