[MPlayer-users] mplayer/mencoder and dvgrab

[Mikhail Ramendik]

Hello,

Mark box said:

> Is it possible to use mplayer/mencoder with dvgrab to capture from a
> firewire IEEE1394 card and encoding (mpeg2, divx, etc.) in real time?
> Which are the right settings?
> Thanks in advance!

Unfortunately, the "stock" version of MPlayer/Mencoder can't do it. Its DV
demuxer is not capable of correctly handling input from stdin.

I have made a hacked version that does handle stdin, but at this moment it
breaks type autodetection in MPlayer in some cases, and does not support
seeking (even when playing a regular file).

If you want, I can give you the hacked file and the settings that I use
for realtime encoding with dvgrab. On a Celeron 2400 MHz, I successfully
encode in realtime to 1200 kbps mpeg4 (with ffmpeg). But I use quickest
settings, including a quick de-interlacing method (actually I just take
one field and resize it to 768x576, getting both square pixels and
deinterlacing in one run).

I am planning to make the hack into a real enhancement. The dv demuxer
will then take an option to use stdin, and when run without this option,
will not break anything and will support seeking. However, I do not yet
have time to implement this. For now, I can just give you what I have - if
you want it, please email me.

Yours, Mikhail Ramendik