September 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

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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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rip dvd to mkv, ogm, mp4 script
by Federico Pistono 12 Oct '08

12 Oct '08

Hi, a couple of years ago I made a little script to do the job. It worked, kinda. :) Then handbrake came out, and I left it there for a while, until recently I decided to take it back and try to make it a little bit more usable: Here's the SVN: svn co https://dvdriptools.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/dvdriptools dvdriptools And here's the project page: http://www.federicopistono.org/DVD_ripping_with_Linux_BSD_OS_X This the todolist: http://dvdriptools.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/dvdriptools/trunk/0.6/todo?vi… Suggestions and improvements are very welcome ^_^ Bye! -- Federico Pistono - Department of Computer Science - Verona, Italy http://www.federicopistono.org :: Personal Blog (EN) http://federicopistono.altervista.org :: Blog Personale (IT) http://eigakyou.blogspot.com/ :: Recensioni film asiatici e indipendenti http://www.unicinema.org/blog/q?=1 :: Cinema Reviews http://www.grillibiellesi.org :: Associazione di volontariato http://studentiunivr.wordpress.com :: Blog rappresentanti Studenti 42:72:6f:6b:65:6e:20:53:61:69:6e:74:73

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Why can't the PS3 play the mp4s produced by this mencoder command?
by Stroller 30 Sep '08

30 Sep '08

Hi there, I'm using the "undvd" wrapper script [1][2] to convert DVDs to .mp4 files. The results play fine under Linux, Windows & Mac, but not on my PS3 which describes them merely as "unrecognised data". I can find loads of "recipes" online which use mencoder (or more commonly ffmpeg) to convert video to PS3-playable mp4, but none of them do the whole job as conveniently as undvd. So I'd prefer not to rewrite this conversion script from scratch, but instead make the minimum changes to undvd in order to add PS3 compatibility. The command lines passed from undvd: $ head -n 1 logs/* ==> logs/07.log.pass1 <== time /usr/bin/nice -n20 /usr/bin/mencoder -v dvd://07 -dvd-device "disc.iso" -alang en -slang off -vf crop=704:304:8:86,scale=704:304,harddup -ovc x264 -x264encopts pass =1:subq=1:frameref=1:partitions=all:weight_b:bitrate=939:threads=auto - oac faac -faacopts br=192:mpeg=4:object=2 -channels 2 -of avi -o /dev/ null ==> logs/07.log.pass2 <== time /usr/bin/nice -n20 /usr/bin/mencoder -v dvd://07 -dvd-device "disc.iso" -alang en -slang off -vf crop=704:304:8:86,scale=704:304,harddup -ovc x264 -x264encopts pass =2:subq=5:frameref=2:partitions=all:weight_b:bitrate=939:threads=auto - oac faac -faacopts br=192:mpeg=4:object=2 -channels 2 -of avi -o "07.avi.partial" ==> logs/07.remuxlog <== if [[ -e "07.mp4" ]]; then /bin/rm "07.mp4"; fi && /usr/bin/mplayer "07.avi" -dumpaudio -dumpfile "07.aac" && /usr/bin/mplayer "07.avi" - dumpvideo -dumpfile "07.h264" && /usr/bin/mp4creator -create="07.aac" "07.mp4" && /usr/bin/mp4creator -create="07.h264" -rate=29.970 "07.mp4" && /usr/bin/mp4creator -hint=1 "07.mp4" && /usr/bin/ mp4creator -hint=2 "07.mp4" && /usr/bin/mp4creator -optimize "07.mp4" && /bin/rm "07.aac" && /bin/rm "07.h264" && /bin/rm "07.avi" $ Resultant video file: $ mplayer -really-quiet -ao null -vo null -frames 0 -identify 07.mp4 ID_AUDIO_ID=0 ID_VIDEO_ID=1 ID_FILENAME=07.mp4 ID_DEMUXER=lavfpref ID_VIDEO_FORMAT=avc1 ID_VIDEO_BITRATE=0 ID_VIDEO_WIDTH=704 ID_VIDEO_HEIGHT=304 ID_VIDEO_FPS=29.970 ID_VIDEO_ASPECT=0.0000 ID_AUDIO_FORMAT=255 ID_AUDIO_BITRATE=0 ID_AUDIO_RATE=48000 ID_AUDIO_NCH=2 ID_LENGTH=147.52 ID_SEEKABLE=1 ID_VIDEO_CODEC=ffh264 ID_AUDIO_BITRATE=128000 ID_AUDIO_RATE=48000 ID_AUDIO_NCH=2 ID_AUDIO_CODEC=faad $ If I compare this with a trailer I downloaded from the Playstation Store I find the only substantial & obvious differences to be the FPS & dimensions: $ mplayer -really-quiet -ao null -vo null -frames 0 -identify ELEFUNK\ English.mp4 [mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 @ 0x87642d4]edit list not starting at 0, a/v desync might occur, patch welcome ID_AUDIO_ID=0 ID_VIDEO_ID=1 ID_FILENAME=ELEFUNK English.mp4 ID_DEMUXER=lavfpref ID_VIDEO_FORMAT=avc1 ID_VIDEO_BITRATE=0 ID_VIDEO_WIDTH=1280 ID_VIDEO_HEIGHT=720 ID_VIDEO_FPS=59.940 ID_VIDEO_ASPECT=0.0000 ID_AUDIO_FORMAT=255 ID_AUDIO_BITRATE=0 ID_AUDIO_RATE=48000 ID_AUDIO_NCH=2 ID_LENGTH=88.34 ID_SEEKABLE=1 ID_VIDEO_CODEC=ffh264 ID_AUDIO_BITRATE=128000 ID_AUDIO_RATE=48000 ID_AUDIO_NCH=2 ID_AUDIO_CODEC=faad $ mplayer -really-quiet -ao null -vo null -frames 0 -identify 07.mp4 > 07.mp4.txt $ mplayer -really-quiet -ao null -vo null -frames 0 -identify ELEFUNK\ English.mp4 > ELEFUNK\ English.mp4.txt [mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 @ 0x87642d4]edit list not starting at 0, a/v desync might occur, patch welcome $ diff ELEFUNK\ English.mp4.txt 07.mp4.txt 3c3 < ID_FILENAME=ELEFUNK English.mp4 --- > ID_FILENAME=07.mp4 7,9c7,9 < ID_VIDEO_WIDTH=1280 < ID_VIDEO_HEIGHT=720 < ID_VIDEO_FPS=59.940 --- > ID_VIDEO_WIDTH=704 > ID_VIDEO_HEIGHT=304 > ID_VIDEO_FPS=29.970 15c15 < ID_LENGTH=88.34 --- > ID_LENGTH=147.52 $ I'd read that the PS3 can be fussy about mp4 framerates, and I'm kinda hoping the problem isn't the video dimensions, so I had a quick hack of undvd to do everything the same, but double the framerate to match that of the Sony download: $ head -n 1 logs/* ==> logs/07.log.pass1 <== time /usr/bin/nice -n20 /usr/bin/mencoder -v dvd://07 -dvd-device "disc.iso" -alang en -slang off -vf crop=704:304:8:86,scale=704:304,harddup -ofps 59.94 -ovc x264 - x264encopts pass =1:subq=1:frameref=1:partitions=all:weight_b:bitrate=939:threads=auto - oac faac -faacopts br=192:mpeg=4:object=2 -channels 2 -of avi -o /dev/ null ==> logs/07.log.pass2 <== time /usr/bin/nice -n20 /usr/bin/mencoder -v dvd://07 -dvd-device "disc.iso" -alang en -slang off -vf crop=704:304:8:86,scale=704:304,harddup -ofps 59.94 -ovc x264 - x264encopts pass =2:subq=5:frameref=2:partitions=all:weight_b:bitrate=939:threads=auto - oac faac -faacopts br=192:mpeg=4:object=2 -channels 2 -of avi -o "07.avi.partial" ==> logs/07.remuxlog <== if [[ -e "07.mp4" ]]; then /bin/rm "07.mp4"; fi && /usr/bin/mplayer "07.avi" -dumpaudio -dumpfile "07.aac" && /usr/bin/mplayer "07.avi" - dumpvideo -dumpfile "07.h264" && /usr/bin/mp4creator -create="07.aac" "07.mp4" && /usr/bin/mp4creator -create="07.h264" -rate=59.94 "07.mp4" && /usr/bin/mp4creator -hint=1 "07.mp4" && /usr/bin/mp4creator -hint=2 "07.mp4" && /usr/bin/mp4creator -optimize "07.mp4" && /bin/rm "07.aac" && /bin/rm "07.h264" && /bin/rm "07.avi" $ (in the above the only changes are the addition of "-ofps 59.94" and "- rate=59.94", I think) This seems to have been successful, now the framerates are the same: $ mplayer -really-quiet -ao null -vo null -frames 0 -identify 07.mp4 > 07.mp4.txt $ diff ELEFUNK\ English.mp4.txt 07.mp4.txt 3c3 < ID_FILENAME=ELEFUNK English.mp4 --- > ID_FILENAME=07.mp4 7,8c7,8 < ID_VIDEO_WIDTH=1280 < ID_VIDEO_HEIGHT=720 --- > ID_VIDEO_WIDTH=704 > ID_VIDEO_HEIGHT=304 15c15 < ID_LENGTH=88.34 --- > ID_LENGTH=147.52 $ Unfortunately, I still get the same problem of the Playstation refusing to recognise the video. Any suggestions as to how I can fix this, please? Am I being dumb in overlooking the dimensions of my MP4 file? Is that somehow important? Hopefully if I can make only one or two changes to the command passed to mencoder - if I can make the changes to undvd minimal then hopefully I can pass them upstream & get someone else to maintain them. :) Thanks in advance for any suggestions, Stroller. [1] http://www.matusiak.eu/numerodix/blog/index.php/2007/01/30/undvd-dvd-rippin… [2] http://sourceforge.net/projects/undvd/

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losing 5.1 audio on -oac copy transcode
by Dan Shoup 29 Sep '08

29 Sep '08

I have an mpg file that uses AC3 5.1 surround sound. I am trying to transcode, but having a difficult time getting 5.1 sound in the output file. My transcoding settings are: Mencoder.exe -i "E:\GBPVR\Dir\filename.mpg” -of avi -oac copy -ovc xvid -xvidencopts fixed_quant=4 -vf scale=1024:576 -o “E:\GBPVR\Dir\filename.avi” This workes (file transcodes and is playable play), but the file plays with 2-channel audio in most players. If I play it with mplayer, it also plays with 2-channel audio by default, but I can get 5.1 if I force it with -afm hwac3 -channels 6. The original file does not have any problems playing in 5.1 on any audio player (except mplayer, but will work if I specify -afm hwac3 -channels 6), so it seems something in the transcoding process is causing this problem. I’m guessing it simply has the wrong header information (Mencoder identifies the original file as AC3 2 channel when it starts transcoding despite the fact that the 6 channels are actually there…so it is probably passing this misinformation to the transcoded file). Can anyone suggest a way to solve this problem (e.g., is there a way to force mencoder to identify the audio stream as 6-channel ac3)? _________________________________________________________________ Get more out of the Web. Learn 10 hidden secrets of Windows Live. http://windowslive.com/connect/post/jamiethomson.spaces.live.com-Blog-cns!5…

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Recommended way to correct field order?
by Francois Visagie 28 Sep '08

28 Sep '08

Hi All, I'm fairly new to using MEncoder for making DVD-compliant encodes on Windows. The source material is DV AVI. Authored DVDs look stunning on the PC (with e.g. PowerDVD) but look terrible with shuddering motion on the stand-alone player. Obviously the PC players deinterlace and the DVD player not, which lead me to suspect a field order problem. Currently my MEncoder command line does not address field order. GSpot reports that the MEncoder source DV AVI is BFF, and that the ouput MPEG-2 file is TFF. What is the recommended way of correcting field order, and are there any things I should watch out for? Thanks kindly, Francois

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Build help - Defeating autodetection for x264 on Mac OS X !0.5
by Laine Lee 25 Sep '08

25 Sep '08

I seem to have successfully built and installed x264 on my system using the git method described in the mplayer docs. Please tell me how to include it for my mplayer configuration (today's svn). I see this in the configure output. Checking for x264 ... no (in libavcodec: no) Thanks. -- Laine Lee

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