DVD to DV AVI conversion headaches

[lmundy]

I've been trying for a few days now to convert a DVD to a DV AVI file so that I can edit it in Premiere Pro using mencoder and ffmpeg.

ffmpeg was the only method I could get to work, using -target pal-dv, however this does not preserve the aspect ratio of the video properly. The DVD is in 16:9 but ffmpeg outputs the file as 4:3 (which I assume is part of the pal-dv preset). I've been trying various methods to change it back to 16:9 but I have no luck.

Supplying ffmpeg with -aspect 16:9 or a combination of -padtop -padbotom etc doesnt seem to help at all (i think they're just getting overwritten by the preset options). I tried just doing a second encode with ffmpeg after the inital conversion with an -aspect option, which didnt work, I also tried just scaling it to a 16:9 resolution which didn't work either , it gives the following error:

[dv @ 0xb7f3daf0]Can't initialize DV format!
Make sure that you supply exactly two streams:
     video: 25fps or 29.97fps, audio: 2ch/48Khz/PCM
     (50Mbps allows an optional second audio stream)
Could not write header for output file #0 (incorrect codec parameters ?)

Can anyone help me out with this?

[45tripp]

use dvdate to change the aspect

aspect works fine for me btw.
get ffmpeg here:
tripp.arrozcru.com

[lmundy]

I downloaded dvdate but it only seems to support .avi files.

ffmpeg is outputting the files in .dv format, I havent yet been able to get it to output into an .avi

any ideas?

[45tripp]

aha, interesting.
i never use presets.
i'd assumed avi,
and that you could force format..

anyway, you could mux that to avi with ffmpeg.
then dvdate.

in future
use Avanti, it's a gui, it has a dv template ready.

i.e this:

ffmpeg -i input.avi -vcodec dvvideo -aspect 4:3 -s 720x576 -r 25.000 -acodec pcm_s16le -ab 1536k -ar 48000 output.avi

works fine

[lmundy]

It does work fine, but if I change the -aspect to 16:9, nothing happens.

When I play the file in VLC it's still in 4:3

If i change the -s option to a 16:9 resolution, I get sound but no video when played back.

Does the dvvideo codec require a 4:3 resolution?

[lmundy]

Actually i just realised its in 5:4 not 4:3.

does dvvideo require 5:4?

[45tripp]

5:4 is it's natural dimensions
720x576, and yes it has to be at that resolution.

but then it can either display aspect, dar

did i mention it works for me...