August 2008 - MEncoder-users - lists.mplayerhq.hu

Help with MPG video encoding
by Walter Belhaven 20 Apr '13

20 Apr '13

Hi, I've got a question on how to get the best possible MPG encoding of a movie source, "at any price" so to speak -- i.e., as many bits as the encoder needs to get the highest possible video quality. It appears to me that the MPG encoding process is introducing artifacts that are present regardless of the amount of "free reign" I give to the encoder with respect to quantization, bitrate, and the like. My bottom line question is thus: "Are these artifacts inherent in MPG encoding, or am I just not twiddling the knobs and dials on the encoder correctly?" Here's all the details ... My source is a mixed hard- and soft-telecined "movie" at 1080/60i that I'm trying to tanscode to 480/24p, soft telecined to 480/60i, for ultimate burning to an NTSC DVD-Video. When I use mencoder to inverse telecine, crop out the crud, expand back to the original letterbox ratio (it's 2.35:1, not 16/9), and 'encode' the video with HUFFYUV (422P), the resulting video looks stunning, with no 'blocking' artifacts to speak of. This, of course, is as expected. But when I encode the video in MPG2 or MPG4, even with vqscale=1 or vqscale=2, I see sometimes severe blocking in the resulting video. Is this because the chroma is being subsampled vertically and horizontally (4:2:0), or is it because 'vqscale' is (perhaps necessary but) not sufficient to get "maximum quality at any price" encoding? Thanks, WB ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a PS3 game guru. Get your game face on with the latest PS3 news and previews at Yahoo! Games. http://videogames.yahoo.com/platform?platform=120121

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B-frames and GOP with MPEG-2 for DVD
by Nicolas Hesler 16 Apr '11

16 Apr '11

Can anyone offer any input to the following command line? I've been trying to refine for the highest possible quality of MPEG-2 while staying DVD compliant. The source is 24fps. (Note: format=mpeg2, because format=dvd does not work with Adobe Encore 2.0). From what I understand, keeping GOP open, improves quality. Is this true? Is it 100% DVD compliant? Do I want to introduce B frames in my encoding? (The vb_strategy part of my command line is currently useless, right?) If parts of my video are reaching into 9-10 Mbs bitrate, would it beneficial to introduce B-Frames? Will it improve quality? (This is probably a stupid question) Are the sync issues with bframes only relevant to mpeg4 or lavf? mencoder -oac lavc -ovc lavc -of mpeg -mpegopts format=mpeg2:tsaf:telecine / -vf scale=720:480,harddup -mc 0 -noskip -srate 48000 -af lavcresample=48000:0:2 -lavcopts / vcodec=mpeg2video:vrc_buf_size=1835:vrc_maxrate=7000:vbitrate=6000:keyint=12 / :trell:mbd=2:precmp=2:subcmp=2:cmp=2:dia=-10:predia=-10:cbp:mv0:vqmin=1:lmin=1 / :dc=10:vpass=1:vb_strategy=2:acodec=ac3:abitrate=224:aspect=16/9:vstrict=0 -ofps 24000/1001 -o $output $input

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2 pass encoding failed witg VP6 codec
by guillaume montard 26 Mar '09

26 Mar '09

Hi, I m trying to encode a .mov video to flv using the great VP6 codec. I m able to encode it in 1-pass, but i would like to make a 2-pass. I googled for like day and i m still stuck.... Here is my code line : mencoder testmencoder.mov -o test.flv -ovc vfw -xvfwopts codec=vp6vfw.dll:compdata=1passvodeclic.mcf -nosound -vf yadif,scale,flip -of lavf mencoder testmencoder.mov -o test.flv -ovc vfw -xvfwopts codec=vp6vfw.dll:compdata=2passvodeclic.mcf -nosound -vf yadif,scale,flip -of lavf My problem is that mencoder fail doing the 2 pass. Mencoder simply stop doing nothing : VDec: vo config request - 1024 x 768 (preferred colorspace: Planar YV12) VDec: using Planar YV12 as output csp (no 0) Opening video filter: [flip] Movie-Aspect is undefined - no prescaling applied. [swscaler @ 0x6622f0]SwScaler: using unscaled yuv420p -> bgr24 special converter Opening video filter: [expand] Expand: -1 x -1, -1 ; -1, osd: 0, aspect: 0.000000, round: 1 Starting compression: Input format: biSize 40 biWidth 1024 biHeight 768 biPlanes 1 biBitCount 24 biCompression 0x0 ('') biSizeImage 2359296 Output format: biSize 40 biWidth 1024 biHeight 768 biPlanes 1 biBitCount 24 biCompression 0x32365056 ('VP62') biSizeImage 1576960 Does any one have an hint ? Thanks -- Guillaume MONTARD guillaume.montard(a)gmail.com

2 1

sstep with cropdetect
by Micah Chambers 28 Nov '08

28 Nov '08

For some reason I can't get cropdetect to work with sstep. I found a previous message where someone had an issue, but that wasn't really resolved. I am using the latest version of mplayer in svn: here is my configuration flags: Install prefix: ~/bin/mplayer Data directory: ~/bin/mplayer/share/mplayer Config direct.: ~/bin/mplayer/etc/mplayer Byte order: little-endian Optimizing for: Languages: Messages/GUI: en Manual pages: en Enabled optional drivers: Input: ftp pvr tv-teletext tv-v4l2 tv-v4l tv cddb cdda libdvdcss(internal) dvdread(internal) vcd dvb smb network Codecs: x264 xvid libavcodec real xanim faad2 faac libmpeg2 liba52 mp3lib libtheora tremor(internal) libmad liblzo gif Audio output: alsa oss v4l2 sdl mpegpes(dvb) Video output: v4l2 sdl gif89a pnm jpeg png mpegpes(dvb) fbdev aa xvidix cvidix opengl dga xv x11 xover md5sum tga Disabled optional drivers: Input: dvdnav vstream radio tv-dshow live555 nemesi Codecs: libdv libamr_wb libamr_nb qtx win32 musepack libdca speex toolame twolame Audio output: sun openal jack pulse esd arts ivtv dxr2 nas Video output: zr zr2 ivtv dxr3 dxr2 vesa svga caca ggi xmga mga winvidix 3dfx xvmc dfbmga directfb bl xvr100 tdfx_vid s3fb tdfxfb so here is what happens: $ ~/mplayer/mplayer -vf cropdetect -vo null -nosound -sstep 100 -frames 10 Judge\ Dredd.vob MPlayer dev-SVN-r26916-4.2.4 (C) 2000-2008 MPlayer Team CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz (Family: 6, Model: 15, Stepping: 11) CPUflags: MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 1 SSE2: 1 Compiled for x86 CPU with extensions: MMX MMX2 SSE SSE2 Cannot load bitmap font: /home/osmo/.fonts/microsoft-vista/calibri.ttf Playing Judge Dredd.vob. MPEG-PS file format detected. VIDEO: MPEG2 720x480 (aspect 2) 29.970 fps 9800.0 kbps (1225.0 kbyte/s) dvdsublang...judge dredd fi fin en eng dvdsublang...judge dredd fi fin en eng Opening video filter: [cropdetect] ========================================================================== Opening video decoder: [mpegpes] MPEG 1/2 Video passthrough VDec: vo config request - 720 x 480 (preferred colorspace: Mpeg PES) Could not find matching colorspace - retrying with -vf scale... Opening video filter: [scale] Opening video filter: [lavc] Could not find matching colorspace - retrying with -vf scale... Opening video filter: [scale] The selected video_out device is incompatible with this codec. Try appending the scale filter to your filter list, e.g. -vf spp,scale instead of -vf spp. VDecoder init failed :( Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family Selected video codec: [ffmpeg2] vfm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg MPEG-2) ========================================================================== Audio: no sound Starting playback... VDec: vo config request - 720 x 480 (preferred colorspace: Planar YV12) VDec: using Planar YV12 as output csp (no 0) Movie-Aspect is 1.33:1 - prescaling to correct movie aspect. [mpeg1video @ 0xb50d60]removing common factors from framerate VO: [null] 720x480 => 720x540 Mpeg PES V: 208.9 9/ 7 ??% ??% ??,?% 0 0 demux_mpg: 24000/1001fps progressive NTSC content detected, switching framerate. V: 0.0 51/ 48 ??% ??% ??,?% 0 0 Could it be a compile flag I have left out or something? Thanks

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2pass: auto-calculation of bitrate?
by Ilya Zakharevich 25 Nov '08

25 Nov '08

I'm looking for a way to let mencoder (I use xvid) to automatically select the 2-pass average video bitrate based on the contents. I'm pretty sure that most (if not the all) of the logic to do it is already there, but I can't find the UI to trigger this behaviour. A) For example: suppose I have 100 videos; now a) append them all together; b) do 2-pass encoding of them all with, e.g., 1200kb/sec bitrate; c) split the result into 100 video files. This way, mencoder will automatically assign some "appropriate" average bitrate to each video. B) Now suppose that I have only 1 video, but I have all 100 logs of pass=1 for all 100 videos. Theoretically, this is all which is needed to do an equivalent of a/b/c for this particular video. How to convince mencoder to use these extra log files? C) Now suppose that I have only 1 video, and only 1 log of pass=1 for this video. It is more or less obvious that all I need from the remaining 99 logs is very short "summaries". How to create the summaries, and how to "feed" them to mencoder? D) And now the last logical step: If of these 99 remaining videos 40% is "action-like", 40% is "arthouse-like", and 20% is animation, then law of big numbers starts to be applicable. Essentially, I won't need to have summaries of the particular videos; I could feed in 40 copies of "average action-like summary", 40 copies of "average arthouse-like summary", and 20 copies of "average animation summary". So if I keep these summaries in ~/.mplayer in action.sum arthouse.sum animation.sum, then I could ask mencoder to do bitrate_from=1200,40*action+40*arthouse+20*animation and it could choose the appropriate bitrate. Is it possible to do now (possibly, with some pre-processing)? Any plans to have this? Thanks, Ilya

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dark vobsub subtitles
by Everett Carmody 04 Sep '08

04 Sep '08

hello-- I wrote recently inquiring about an issue with dark vobsub subtitles, ripped from a dvd, which were supposed to be light. (using -vobsubout in mencoder.) I resolved the problem myself, and I thought it was because I upgraded to the latest svn of mplayer. Now I think that the reason the problem was resolved was that the second time I ripped the subtitles directly from the dvd, and the first time I had dumped the dvd stream to my hard drive using mplayer's -dumpstream option, and ripped the subtitles from that. I got dark subtitles again, from a different dvd, with mplayer's stream dump. So I tried ripping direct from the dvd, and the subtitles were perfect. Maybe this can be addressed by the mplayer development team? I thought I would pass on my experience, in case it's never come up.

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HDTV transcode loses 5.1 ac3 Audio
by Dan Shoup 01 Sep '08

01 Sep '08

I have a PC tuner card that records ATSC HDTV programs. I’m trying to transcode these using MEncoder to save disk space, but I keep losing the 5.1 audio. I use ffmpeg to convert the originally recorded .dvr-ms file to an .mpg file…this works fine and I still have 5.1 audio. I then use mencoder with a string like: Mencoder.exe -i "E:\Dir\filename.mpg” -of avi -oac copy -ovc xvid -xvidencopts fixed_quant=4 -vf scale=1024:576 -o “E:\Dir\filename.avi” This works, but I only get 2-channel audio. I have also tried adding "–channels 6" between the "–of..." and "–oac..." arguments in the above string, but I still get 2-channel audio and an error message stating “unimplemented resampler for mode 0xA ->6 channel conversion – Contact MPlayer developers!" Is there any way to transcode my file without losing the 5.1 ac3 audio? I’ve included some output below showing the –channels 6 error code. MEncoder dev-SVN-rUNKNOWN-4.2.1-sjlj (C) 2000-2007 MPlayer Team CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 4400 @ 2.00GHz (Family: 6, Model: 15, Step ping: 2) CPUflags: Type: 6 MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 0 SSE2: 0 Compiled with runtime CPU detection. success: format: 0 data: 0x0 - 0xbfb17800 MPEG-PS file format detected. VIDEO: MPEG2 1280x720 (aspect 3) 59.940 fps 15500.0 kbps (1937.5 kbyte/s) [V] filefmt:2 fourcc:0x10000002 size:1280x720 fps:59.94 ftime:=0.0167 ========================================================================== Opening audio decoder: [liba52] AC3 decoding with liba52 No accelerated IMDCT transform found Unimplemented resampler for mode 0xA -> 6 channels conversion - Contact MPlayer developers! Unimplemented resampler for mode 0xA -> 5 channels conversion - Contact MPlayer developers! Unimplemented resampler for mode 0xA -> 4 channels conversion - Contact MPlayer developers! Unimplemented resampler for mode 0xA -> 3 channels conversion - Contact MPlayer developers! Using MMX optimized resampler AUDIO: 48000 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 384.0 kbit/25.00% (ratio: 48000->192000) Selected audio codec: [a52] afm: liba52 (AC3-liba52) ========================================================================== xvid: using library version 1.2.-127 (build xvid-1.2.0-dev) Opening video filter: [expand osd=1] Expand: -1 x -1, -1 ; -1, osd: 1, aspect: 0.000000, round: 1 Opening video filter: [scale w=1024 h=576] ========================================================================== Opening video decoder: [mpegpes] MPEG 1/2 Video passthrough VDec: vo config request - 1280 x 720 (preferred colorspace: Mpeg PES) The selected video_out device is incompatible with this codec. Try appending the scale filter to your filter list, e.g. -vf spp,scale instead of -vf spp. VDecoder init failed :( Opening video decoder: [libmpeg2] MPEG 1/2 Video decoder libmpeg2-v0.4.0b Selected video codec: [mpeg12] vfm: libmpeg2 (MPEG-1 or 2 (libmpeg2)) ========================================================================== audiocodec: framecopy (format=2000 chans=2 rate=48000 bits=16 B/s=48000 sample-1 ) VDec: vo config request - 1280 x 720 (preferred colorspace: Planar YV12) VDec: using Planar YV12 as output csp (no 0) Movie-Aspect is 1.78:1 - prescaling to correct movie aspect. SwScaler: reducing / aligning filtersize 6 -> 8 SwScaler: reducing / aligning filtersize 6 -> 8 SwScaler: reducing / aligning filtersize 6 -> 5 SwScaler: reducing / aligning filtersize 6 -> 5 [swscaler @ 00ADA840]SwScaler: BICUBIC scaler, from yuv420p to yuv420p using MMX 2 [swscaler @ 00ADA840]SwScaler: using 8-tap MMX scaler for horizontal luminance s caling [swscaler @ 00ADA840]SwScaler: using 8-tap MMX scaler for horizontal chrominance scaling [swscaler @ 00ADA840]SwScaler: using n-tap MMX scaler for vertical scaling (YV12 like) [swscaler @ 00ADA840]SwScaler: 1280x720 -> 1024x576 videocodec: XviD (1024x576 fourcc=44495658 [XVID]) xvid: par=0/0 (vga11), displayed=1024x576, sampled=1024x576 xvid: CBR Rate Control -- bitrate=1500kbit/s Writing header...1f (28%) 0.00fps Trem: 0min 0mb A-V:0.000 [0:0] ODML: vprp aspect is 16:9. Setting audio delay to 0.017s. Writing header... ODML: vprp aspect is 16:9. Setting audio delay to 0.017s. Writing header...2f (28%) 0.00fps Trem: 0min 0mb A-V:0.002 [0:0] ODML: vprp aspect is 16:9. Setting audio delay to 0.017s. Pos: 30.0s 1807f (29%) 26.71fps Trem: 2min 22mb A-V:-0.008 [1463:384] Flushing video frames. Writing index... Writing header... ODML: vprp aspect is 16:9. Setting audio delay to 0.017s. Video stream: 1462.060 kbit/s (182757 B/s) size: 5491256 bytes 30.047 secs 1 807 frames Audio stream: 384.000 kbit/s (48000 B/s) size: 1440000 bytes 30.000 secs _________________________________________________________________ Talk to your Yahoo! Friends via Windows Live Messenger. Find out how. http://www.windowslive.com/explore/messenger?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_messenger_ya…

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Recording a video from a ivtv tv-card (Hauppauge PVR 150)
by Saedelaere 31 Aug '08

31 Aug '08

Hi, I'am using the following command to record videos from a ivtv tv-vard (Hauppauge PVR 150) on openSUSE 10.3. mencoder /dev/video0 -of mpeg -mpegopts format=dvd:tsaf:vaspect=4/3 -oac copy -ovc copy -endpos 00:10:00 -o ~/test.mpeg Now I got one question. Is mencoder using a software encoder to recode the video or is it using only the build in hardware mpeg encoder. The problem is when recording a video via mencoder the process has an approximate cpu load of 4%. Using a simple cat command (cat /de/video0 > test.mpeg) causes a cpu load of less than 1%. I got a quite fast cpu so on a system with less power this could be a serious problem. Is this because mencoder uses a software encoder in this case? Best Regards Christian

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Mencoder tv recording dropping frames
by Carl Beech 29 Aug '08

29 Aug '08

Hi All, I've been working on a personal video recorder program, with the idea of using mencoder as the main program to record from the tv. Only trouble is, when I use the setting: mencoder tv:///1 -o mentest2.avi -tv driver=v4l2:width=720:height=576:amode=1:adevice=/dev/dsp -oac mp3lame -lameopts cbr:br=96 -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:vbitrate=4000 I get: Pos: 0.2s 6f ( 0%) 0.00fps Trem: 0min 0mb A-V:0.000 [0:0] video buffer full - dropping frame Pos: 0.3s 8f ( 0%) 0.00fps Trem: 0min 0mb A-V:0.000 [0:0] 1 duplicate frame(s)! Pos: 0.5s 12f ( 0%) 0.00fps Trem: 0min 0mb A-V:0.000 [0:0] video buffer full - dropping frame Pos: 0.6s 14f ( 0%) 0.00fps Trem: 0min 0mb A-V:0.000 [0:0] 1 duplicate frame(s)! Pos: 0.7s 15f ( 0%) 0.00fps Trem: 0min 0mb A-V:0.000 [0:0] video buffer full - dropping frame Pos: 0.8s 17f ( 0%) 0.00fps Trem: 0min 0mb A-V:0.000 [0:0] video buffer full - dropping frame - I've got a 2Ghz dual core system with 2Gb of memory - looking at the system stats, the processor is around about 20 - 30% used and about 500Mb free memory. (I'm running SuSE 11.0, and MPlayer rpm MPlayer-1.0rc2-4.pm.8). I've done some experimentation and entering the extra option buffersize=256 in the driver options appears to cure the problem, trouble is, I don't know if this is the best way to do this? Can anyone comment? Many thanks Carl.

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Need AVI 2.0
by Heiner, Aaron J 29 Aug '08

29 Aug '08

I am still having issues with AVI and ODML. I have discovered through GSpot that my AVI files are type 2 but follow the AVI 1.0 standard. I need to get my files to AVI 2.0 standard. Does anyone know how I can do that with mencoder? Aaron

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