How fast is your system? CPU etc (looks like the mencoder output was clipped, as mencoder should aways print it (along with version number) so PLEASE don't clip the output.

Sorry about that, below is the missing output. It is a 900Mhz VIA C3 processor. The FPU is running slower in this C3 processor, the next version of this processor is suppose to enable the FPU to run twice as fast. I think the solution will be to encode audio as PCM (no compression). And then make a 2nd pass later to compress the audio and reduce the file size. -- missing mencoder output ---- MEncoder 0.90rc4-RPM-3.1 (C) 2000-2003 Arpad Gereoffy (see DOCS) CPU: IDT/Centaur/VIA (Family: 6, Stepping: 9) Detected cache-line size is 32 bytes CPUflags: Type: 6 MMX: 1 MMX2: 0 3DNow: 1 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 0 SSE2: 0 Reading /root/.mplayer/codecs.conf: can't open '/root/.mplayer/codecs.conf': No such file or directory Reading /etc/mplayer/codecs.conf: 50 audio & 135 video codecs File not found: 'frameno.avi' Reading config file /root/.mplayer/mencoder: No such file or directory success: format: 0 data: 0x0 - 0x0 TV detected! ;-)

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[Automatic answer: RTFM (read DOCS, FAQ), also read DOCS/bugreports.html] In general mencoder is working fine with no frame drops, for the bitrates and parameters set, but after approximately 4-5 minutes of recording it starts reporting that the "video buffer full - dropping frame". I am recording from v4l using mpeg4 and mp3 (see mencoder arguments below).

This will happen if your system is just a bit too slow to encode it. it records to memory, but doesn't get encoded fast enough.

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Mencoder continues reporting this message and no additional frames are encoded. The video/audio recorded to that point plays perfectly with no frame drops. I included the output of mencoder which shows when this happens.

I am trying to figure out what is causing this, if there was an overall performance problem I would expect more spurious frame drops. I realize mencoder takes up half of the memory and that I can specify a maximum framebuffer size. Any comments on why this is happening...I would love to use mencoder to record longer video programs ;)

mencoder arguments:

mencoder -tv on:driver=v4l:device=/dev/video2:chanlist=us-cable:channel=3:forcechan=2:no rm=NTSC:width=320:height=240 \ -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:vbitrate=750:v4mv:vqmax=31:keyint=300 \ -oac mp3lame -lameopts cbr:br=64 -o output.avi

Output of mencoder:

Selected device: BT878(Hauppauge (bt878)) Capabilites: capture tuner overlay clipping frameram scales Device type: 235 Supported sizes: 48x32 => 768x480 Inputs: 4 0: Television: tuner audio tv camera (tuner:1, norm:ntsc) 1: Composite1: audio camera (tuner:0, norm:ntsc) 2: S-Video: audio camera (tuner:0, norm:ntsc) 3: Composite3: audio camera (tuner:0, norm:ntsc) Using input 'Television' Selected channel: 3 (freq: 61.250) [V] filefmt:9 fourcc:0x32315659 size:320x240 fps:29.00 ftime:=0.0345 ========================================================================== Opening audio decoder: [pcm] Uncompressed PCM audio decoder AUDIO: 44100 Hz, 2 ch, 16 bit (0x10), ratio: 176400->176400 (1411.2 kbit) Selected audio codec: [pcm] afm:pcm (Uncompressed PCM) ========================================================================== Opening video filter: [expand=-1:-1:-1:-1:1] Expand: -1 x -1, -1 ; -1 (-1=autodetect) osd: 1 ========================================================================== Opening video decoder: [raw] RAW Uncompressed Video VDec: vo config request - 320 x 240 (preferred csp: Planar YV12) VDec: using Planar YV12 as output csp (no 0) Movie-Aspect is undefined - no prescaling applied. videocodec: libavcodec (320x240 fourcc=58564944 [DIVX]) Selected video codec: [rawyv12] vfm:raw (RAW YV12) ========================================================================== MP3 audio selected Building audio filter chain for 44100Hz/2ch/16bit -> 44100Hz/2ch/16bit... Writing AVI header... Forcing audio preload to 0, max pts correction to 0 Pos: 263.5s 7892f ( 0%) 27fps Trem: 0min 0mb A-V:0.000 [755:63]] video buffer full - dropping frame CBR audio: 8000 bytes/sec, 209 bytes/block

Writing AVI index... Fixing AVI header...

Video stream: 752.184 kbit/s (94022 bps) size: 26183782 bytes 278.483 secs 8341 frames

Audio stream: 64.000 kbit/s (7999 bps) size: 2227722 bytes 278.465 secs