[MPlayer-users] encode2mpeg question

[Giacomo Comes]

On Fri, Nov 26, 2004 at 03:35:27PM -0500, Erick Perez wrote:
> Hi people. I was just reading the documentation for encode2mpeg at it
> suggests to post my questions in this forum.
> 
> So here it is....
> 
>  I have a dvd (9gb) ripped to my hard disk. It has all languages and
> subtitles as well as special features and so on.
> 1- So, how do I transform it into a dvd5 so i can burn it into a DVDR
> and watch it on my home dvd player (i am not interested in watching it
> on the computer)

I will answer this at the end.

> 2- how do i select the subtitles i want and the audio i want? is there
> a command that can list me which ones can i select?

There isn't an explicit command, but when you run encode2mpeg and the
video source is a DVD you will see in the log file a list of all the 
audio streams and subtitles present in the DVD.
Example:
	encode2mpeg -o TEST dvd://1 -dvd-device <path> -chapter 2-2 -encode 0:0:1 -avi 

the log will show you something like:
   INFO: [mencoder] MEncoder 1.0pre5-3.3.1 (C) 2000-2004 MPlayer Team
   INFO: [mencoder] There are 12 titles on this DVD.
   INFO: [mencoder] There are 27 chapters in this DVD title.
   INFO: [mencoder] There are 1 angles in this DVD title.
   INFO: [mencoder] [open] audio stream: 0 audio format: ac3 (5.1) language: en aid: 128
   INFO: [mencoder] [open] audio stream: 1 audio format: ac3 (5.1) language: fr aid: 129
   INFO: [mencoder] [open] number of audio channels on disk: 2.
   INFO: [mencoder] [open] subtitle ( sid ): 0 language: en
   INFO: [mencoder] [open] subtitle ( sid ): 1 language: fr
   INFO: [mencoder] [open] subtitle ( sid ): 2 language: es
   INFO: [mencoder] [open] number of subtitles on disk: 3
   INFO: [mencoder] ==> Found video stream: 0
   INFO: [mencoder] ==> Found audio stream: 129
   INFO: [mencoder] ==> Found audio stream: 128
   INFO: [mencoder] ==> Found subtitle: 2
   INFO: [mencoder] ==> Found subtitle: 1
   INFO: [mencoder] ==> Found subtitle: 0

The information in the lines with the word [open] is taken from the IFO file.
The information in the lines with the arrow ==> is taken from the VOB file.
In case of conflict always trust what the VOB file says.
To select a specific audio stream add:
    -aid 129
if you want more than one audio stream add:
    -multiaudio "128 129"

With the current version (0.3.0) you cannot add subtitles to the DVD
This feature is planned for relase 0.3.2

> 3- the burning itself, all my movies are NTSC so what are command line
> parameters. I am very confused about the myriad transofmation
> parameters....so my best guess is:
> encode2mpeg -a 2 -vbr dvd -mp2 mp2enc  -o dvd5  
> 
> so far i am stuck as to what other parameters to use.

just:

	encode2mpeg -n n -dvd -o dvd5 dvd://1

will produce a NTSC DVD.
In the log file you will see what are the defauls of many other parameters.
If you need a different setting then add it to your command line.
Concerning your guess: 
-a 2 is the default so you can omit it
-vbr dvd is wrong. The argument of vbr is the video bit rate, usually a value between 
7000 and 9500, the default is 7500 and it is normally fine
-mp2 mp2enc is the default too. mp2 is the default audio format and mp2enc is the default
encoder for mp2.
You can add:
-mp2 toolame (toolame is a lot faster than mp2enc)
-asr 48000 (the default is 44100 and DVD requires 48000)
           (mmmm.... I think I should change this and put 48000 as default audio sample rate for DVD)
-addchapter copy (to put the same chapters of the source DVD in the new one)
        (WARNING -addchapter requires version 0.3.1 availabe in 3/4 days)
if you have sync problems (due to telecine issues) add -encode 2

Generally you have to experiment a little bit until you get used to the program.
I suggest you to use the options:
	-mpegonly -frames 500 -ss 5:00
to encode few seconds of video in the middle of the movie and to check with mplayer 
the resulting mpeg stream.

Now your first question.

> 1- So, how do I transform it into a dvd5 so i can burn it into a DVDR
> and watch it on my home dvd player (i am not interested in watching it
> on the computer)

If you intend to keep all the menu and extras probably you have to find
a windows program.
May be I will be able in the future to add this feature to encode2mpeg,
but before that there are still other things that has to be done.
encode2mpeg was born to encode video from non mpeg to mpeg format.


If you want to put only the movie on a DVD5 then there are to examples
that show how to do it in doc/html/mpeg.html
Only video and audio stream(s). For chapters you need 0.3.1 and for
subtitles you have to wait for 0.3.2


If you have still questions, just aks.

Giacomo