[MPlayer-dev-eng] [PATCH] add "level" as option to lavc (aka Mencoder generating PS3 playable h264 videos)

[Robert Swain]

On 4 May 2007, at 20:26, Gustavo Sverzut Barbieri wrote:
> On 5/4/07, Robert Swain <robert.swain at gmail.com> wrote:
>> A while ago I added Profile/Level support to the XviD interface in
>> mencoder. I realise now that I did it in a stupid way and I don't
>> know why I did it that way. MPEG codecs specify profiles (feature
>> sets) and levels (rate and resolution restrictions, and sometimes
>> motion vector length restrictions, all things that are quantifiable)
>> as I guess you know. It would probably be useful to be able to
>> specify profiles and levels and use some recommended combination of
>> features within that profile unless overridden and also apply the
>> restrictions that pertain to the level.
>
> I don't get your suggestion, is it to have a top-level, codec
> independent profile/level option, to use mencoder's profile (defined
> in conf-file), ...?

I mean having high level codec independent profile and level options  
used by those codecs that specify profiles and levels or analogous  
restrictions.

> Also, do you know where AVCodecContext->level is used? Simple cscope
> overview leds me to believe it's used in:
>    h263.c
>    mpeg12.c
>    x264.c

I don't know in which it _is_ used but if someone were to implement  
the suggestion above I think it would be in all MPEG et al codecs  
(MPEG-1/-2/-4, H.263/H.264) in whatever implementations (Xvid and  
libavcodec MPEG-4 for example) and maybe a few others too. Before  
approaching this, some research would have to be conducted to this  
effect to obtain most if not all codecs to which these options would  
be applicable.

Does anyone else think this would be a good idea?

Regards,
Rob

PS - Sorry for partially hijacking and redirecting your thread. :)