Help with FFMPEG command lines

[ricardouk]

Hi everyone!

Ive been "playing" with ffmpeg, and i'm starting to make "presets" for the kinds of video i use.
1-Can someone verify the values in the examples and if possible writte the values for SVCD?
2- I compared the ffmpeg vcd output with tmpgenc 2.5 vcd one and tmpgenc video is better, is there anything i can add to the bat to make vcd quality better in ffmpeg?

PALVCD_1.78- ffmpeg -i 123.avi -target pal-vcd -s 352x180 -padtop 54 -padbottom 54 -aspect 4:3 out.mpg

PALVCD_2.35- ffmpeg -i 123.avi -target pal-vcd -s 352x126 -padtop 80 -padbottom 80  -aspect 4:3out.mpg

PALSVCD_1.78-  
PALSVCD_2.35-

PALDVD_1.78-  ffmpeg -i 123.avi -target pal-dvd -aspect 16:9 out.mpg

PALDVD_2.35-  ffmpeg -i 123.avi -target pal-dvd -s 720x440 -padtop 68 -padbottom 68 -aspect 16:9 out.mpg

Thanks

[halsboss]

Just an enquiry, with DVD blanks being so cheap and plenty of free DVD software around... WHY would one go for svcd ?

[ricardouk]

Who said i wasnt going to use DVDS? A far as i know vcd/svcd streams can be stored on dvds.

my question wasnt about dvdblanks, free dvd sofware(where did that came from), or why i use vcd/svcd.

My question was about ffmpeg! Why i use or not a certain format is of my own corncern!

Thanks for your help in solving the problem........

[guns1inger]

Don't know enough about ffmpeg commandline to help with 1, but my personal opinion on 2 is that you can't. While ffmpeg is undoubtedly a very flexible and powerful tool, it's mpeg encoding (1 and 2) is only good, and not great. The image quality of tmpgenc 2.5 is still very good when correctly used. Tmpgenc's biggest failing was it's reliance on working in RGB, and the huge performance hit that caused. I don't believe that ffmpeg can match up yet - which is why I prefer FAVC with HCEnc over DVD Flick whenever possible.

[ricardouk]

Hi Guns1inger!

Thanks i also use FAVC or AVS2DVD, im only learning ffmpeg/mencoder, im not going to make dvds with ffmpeg, im just learning how to use it.

but sometimes i need to see something where quality is not important, these litle "presets" come in "handy". i use dvdrw and mpg files those times.

[ricardouk]

it seems that with ffmpeg i need to have a different "preset" for each aspect ratio, so i turned to Mencoder and with some examples on the web and here, the following "preset" takes in consideration the source aspect ratio and tries outputs the same aspect ratio on the final video. tried it with different aspect ratios and it works.

The only one that doesnt work is the SVCD the final aspect ratio doesnt atch the original, any ideas what might cause that?

PALVCD: mencoder -oac lavc -ovc lavc -of mpeg -mpegopts format=xvcd -vf scale=352:-3,expand=352:288,harddup -srate 44100 -af lavcresample=44100 -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg1video:keyint=15:vrc_buf_size=327:vrc_minrate=1152:vbitrate=1152:vrc_maxrate=1152:acodec=mp2:abitrate=224 -ofps 25 -o movie.mpg 123.avi"

PALSVCD: mencoder -oac lavc -ovc lavc -of mpeg -mpegopts format=xsvcd -vf scale=480:-3,expand=480:576 -srate 44100 -af lavcresample=44100 -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg2video:mbd=2:keyint=15:vrc_buf_size=917:vrc_minrate=600:vbitrate=2500:vrc_maxrate=2500:acodec=mp2:abitrate=224 -ofps 25 -o movie.mpg 123.avi

PALDVD: mencoder -oac lavc -ovc lavc -of mpeg -mpegopts format=dvd:tsaf -vf scale=720:-3,expand=720:576,harddup -srate 48000 -af lavcresample=48000 -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg2video:vrc_buf_size=1835:vrc_maxrate=9800:vbitrate=5000:keyint=15:vstrict=0:acodec=ac3:abitrate=192:aspect=16/9 -ofps 25 -o movie.mpg 123.avi

[Midzuki]

[ edit ]

[Midzuki]

The only one that doesnt work is the SVCD the final aspect ratio doesnt match the original,
any ideas what might cause that?

Possibly a design flaw in Mencoder: "because" in the SVCD framesize,
the height is greater than the width (just a hypothesis, bien entendu).
\\\\\
P.S.: Just created a short NTSC-SVCD clip according to your recipe above,
this time the AR was 4:3 instead of 1:1, however the image went distorted

[halsboss]

Don't get your knickers in a knot.

Was wondering why you'd go for a less-quality format in most terms when better ones are quite standard and readily doable and media isn't an issue. Just seemed like wasting your time in this day and age, and so wondered if there was a specific reason which might apply for me too.

[ricardouk]

Don't get your knickers in a knot.
Was wondering why you'd go for a less-quality format in most terms when better ones are quite standard and readily doable and media isn't an issue.

We both know that, you've been a videohelp member since 2004 i joined one year later, so we pretty much know the disavantages of using vcd...

Like i said on the very first post:

Ive been "playing" with ffmpeg

[45tripp]

they're all wrong.

mplayer is not magic.

you can force it's hand,
like so, taking the svcd example:

mencoder -oac lavc -ovc lavc -of mpeg -mpegopts format=xsvcd -vf scale=768:-10,scale=480:-1,expand=480:576 -srate 44100 -af lavcresample=44100 -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg2video:aspect=4/3:mbd=2:trell:keyint=15:vrc_buf_size=917:vbitrate=2500:\
vrc_maxrate=2500:acodec=mp2:abitrate=224 -ofps 25 -o "0.mpg" input.avi

but i'd say it better to do external calc.

i created some batch files for the above.
it should manage fine, as long as mediainfo can detect the dar properly.
it doesn't for DV,
so if you want DV either assume,
or setup gspot to handle the DV files, in a rather ugly manner,
cause as far as i can see the 'commandline' export doesn't work.
looked at dvdate too, but i didn't see anything to help me get the dar to txt.

anyway as you're testing,
you might find the batch files useful.
smack the files in a working folder,
start a batch (or all three simultaneously),
and check back on your testing.

http://www.mediafire.com/?dcym2umn9mx
edit: a fix

probably crude,
but i thought i'd try a bit of batching,
thanks to soopafresh for all the batch files he's posted

[45tripp]

it should manage fine, as long as mediainfo can detect the dar properly.
it doesn't for DV,

thanks to Jerome,
mediainfo v0.7.7.0 detects dv dar's just fine.