Introducing vgmpeg , an ffmpeg distribution with DVD support and more

[concalma]

Hello, I am releasing today vgtmpeg, a Versed Generalist Transcoder.

vgtmpeg is a ffmpeg/avconv clone that adds a number of additional features to the stock ffmpeg and libavformat/libavcodec libraries augmenting its functionality. One of the most important ones being support for DVD folders/ISO input.

DVD support has been added into ffmpeg by retrofitting a subset of Handbrake DVD reading and parsing libraries into libavformat and by adding a new protocol to libavformat, the 'dvdurl' protocol. You can open DVD folders and DVD ISO files by using dvd urls like this:

> vgtmpeg -i dvd://path_to_dvd outfile

Actually the use of the 'dvd://' prefix is not strictly necessary as vgtmpeg will detect if what you are trying to open is a DVD, but if you want to specify specific titles to be opened for converion you have to use dvd://. Read more on the homepage to know how to use DVDs. This is powerful, as it adds a very common use case, DVD to something, to ffmpeg. Because vgtmpeg is a strict superset of ffmpeg, all the features and APIs of ffmpeg are conserved.

vgtmpeg comes with precompiled binaries for all popular platforms. Windows, MacOS X and Linux in 32 and 64bits. That's a total of 6 different binary releases. My time is limited, and I haven't been able to do exhaustive testing on all platforms so it would be great if you find problems to report them to me. The easiest way to do so is by filing bugs in the issue tracker for the project on GitHub. If anything, this is a great way to obtain ffmpeg for your platform of choice. The precompiled binaries are a static executable and don't require any external libraries. I've added the most common encoders x264,libfaac to the distro. Let me know if you would like to see additional ones.

vgtmpeg doesn't plan to be a fork of ffmpeg, rather, an ffmpeg with additional features. I'd like to sync up with ffmpeg master from time to time to slurp in whatever improvements ffmpeg acquires. Maybe some of vgtmpeg mods will make it back into ffmpeg. If time permits, I'd like to add Blu-ray support too.

Thanks for reading, comments and specially you using vgtmpeg and finding problems with it would be greatly appreciated!

Learn more and download vgtmpeg here
vgtmpeg is fully open sourced. Get the source at GitHub

[Baldrick]

Looks very good.

I just tried to a stream copy to a mpg but didn't get any sound in vlc,

E:\temp>vgtmpeg.exe -i dvd://finaldvd -vcodec copy -acodec copy test2.mpg
libdvdread: Encrypted DVD support unavailable.
libdvdread: Device (null) inaccessible, CSS authentication not available.
libdvdread: Encrypted DVD support unavailable.
libdvdread: Device (null) inaccessible, CSS authentication not available.
[mpeg2video @ 0000000000353260] end mismatch left=566840 68D1A3
[mpeg2video @ 0000000000353260] end mismatch left=565794 68D1A3
[mpeg2video @ 0000000000353260] Warning MVs not available
[mpeg2video @ 0000000000353260] concealing 792 DC, 792 AC, 792 MV errors
[mpeg @ 0000000001A9F400] max_analyze_duration 5000000 reached at 5000000
Input #0, mpeg, from 'dvd://finaldvd?title=1':
  Metadata:
    source_type     : dvd
  Duration: 01:34:01.01, start: 0.350633, bitrate: 5498 kb/s
  Program 1
    Stream #0:0[0x100e0]: Video: mpeg2video (Main), yuv420p, 352x576 [SAR 24:11
DAR 4:3], 8000 kb/s, 25 fps, 25 tbr, 90k tbn, 50 tbc
    Stream #0:1[0x10080](und): Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, stereo, s16, 192 kb/s
    Metadata:
      language-iso639_2: und
      language-simple : Unknown
      language-description: Unknown
vgtmpeg version 1.2.9, Copyright (c) 2000-2011 Alberto Vigata and the FFmpeg dev
elopers
  built on Dec 20 2011 14:42:01 with gcc 4.6.1
  configuration: --prefix=/home/dromo/buildbot/ffgmt/slave/release_windows-x86_6
4_nb/build/gstbuilds/ffgmt/windows-x86_64/build --enable-doc --arch=x86_64 --ena
ble-cross-compile --target-os=mingw32 --cross-prefix=x86_64-w64-mingw32- --enabl
e-memalign-hack --enable-gpl --enable-nonfree --disable-network --enable-libvpx
--enable-encoder=libvpx --enable-libfaac --enable-encoder=libfaac --enable-libx2
64 --enable-encoder=libx264 --enable-libvorbis --enable-encoder=libvorbis --disa
ble-encoder=vorbis --enable-encoder=mpeg4 --enable-libmp3lame --enable-encoder=l
ibmp3lame
  libavutil    51. 30. 0 / 51. 30. 0
  libavcodec   53. 40. 0 / 53. 40. 0
  libavformat  53. 24. 0 / 53. 24. 0
  libavdevice  53.  4. 0 / 53.  4. 0
  libavfilter   2. 50. 0 /  2. 50. 0
  libswscale    2.  1. 0 /  2.  1. 0
  libpostproc  51.  2. 0 / 51.  2. 0
Output #0, mpeg, to 'test2.mpg':
  Metadata:
    source_type     : dvd
    encoder         : Lavf53.24.0
    Stream #0:0: Video: mpeg2video, yuv420p, 352x576 [SAR 24:11 DAR 4:3], q=2-31
, 8000 kb/s, 25 fps, 90k tbn, 25 tbc
    Stream #0:1(und): Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, stereo, 192 kb/s
    Metadata:
      language-iso639_2: und
      language-simple : Unknown
      language-description: Unknown
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (copy)
  Stream #0:1 -> #0:1 (copy)

Blu-ray support would be great too!

[concalma]

Looks very good.
Blu-ray support would be great too!

Hello, that should definitely work and I don't see any problems with your command line. Let me check to see if I can reproduce the problem. Thanks for testing.

I'm really interested in Blu-ray support too, so I guess chances are high I'll code it in

[Baldrick]

And in VLC under Audio->Tracks it first lists 4 audio tracks, next time I go there some more tracks and finally 71 audio tracks.


I have also tried extract with vob2mpg to be sure to that my dvd source is not corrupt.

[concalma]

And in VLC under Audio->Tracks it first lists 4 audio tracks, next time I go there some more tracks and finally 71 audio tracks.


I have also tried extract with vob2mpg to be sure to that my dvd source is not corrupt.

I've been able to reproduce the exact same behavior with a dvd folder of mine. VLCs behavior is really odd. Time for some debugging...

[concalma]

Looks very good.

I just tried to a stream copy to a mpg but didn't get any sound in vlc,

E:\temp>vgtmpeg.exe -i dvd://finaldvd -vcodec copy -acodec copy test2.mpg

Blu-ray support would be great too!

Could you please try this?

E:\temp>vgtmpeg.exe -i dvd://finaldvd -vcodec copy -acodec copy test2.vob

notice the .vob of the output file. If you really want a .mpg extension you can force the format with the -f switch like shown below. vgtmpeg/ffmpeg infers the output mux format from the file extension if not specified.

E:\temp>vgtmpeg.exe -i dvd://finaldvd -vcodec copy -acodec copy -f vob test2.mpg

Both options generate a MPEG2 program stream but of DVD flavor. If you just specify '.mpg' a vanilla MPEG2 PS is created and it seems to confuse VLC for some reason. I tried other players and it played ok.

[concalma]

Looks very good.

I just tried to a stream copy to a mpg but didn't get any sound in vlc,

E:\temp>vgtmpeg.exe -i dvd://finaldvd -vcodec copy -acodec copy test2.mpg

A followup on this. I looked into the mpeg muxer and if you just specify *.mpg as your output in vgtmpeg/ffmpeg you are forcing your mux to be an MPEG1 system stream. I am not sure there is a standard way to stuff ac3 audio into MPEG1 system streams, but vgtmpeg is adding the audio track as a private stream as it would with MPEG2 anyway. This may not play nice with lots of folks out there.

I think the way to go is using MPEG2 program streams. This is achieved either using the '.vob' extension or forcing the format with "-f vob" or "-f dvd".

[Baldrick]

OKey. I try tomorrow.

[Chris K]

Looks very promissing, thanks!

I tried it on a few dvd's with 4-6 small titles. When I simply point to the IFO, I can map out any desired title with the -map command (only tried video and audio, not subs).

When I use this syntax; -i dvd://e:/video_ts?title=1 -vcodec copy -acodec copy, only the video is by default mapped out. When I add -map commands, I can get them both.

It also would be nice if you could make the libdvdread messages more ffmpeg compatible like...

[libdvdread @ 000000] Encrypted DVD support unavailable.

[concalma]

Looks very promissing, thanks!

I tried it on a few dvd's with 4-6 small titles. When I simply point to the IFO, I can map out any desired title with the -map command (only tried video and audio, not subs).

When I use this syntax; -i dvd://e:/video_ts?title=1 -vcodec copy -acodec copy, only the video is by default mapped out. When I add -map commands, I can get them both.

It also would be nice if you could make the libdvdread messages more ffmpeg compatible like...

[libdvdread @ 000000] Encrypted DVD support unavailable.

I just released a new version of vgtmpeg today. It fixes the way DVD duration was being reported. The DVD title duration is now mapped to libav streams correctly, but I don't think it would fix your mapping problem.

vgtmpeg/ffmpeg automatic mapping can be flaky sometimes, and as you found out. The sure way to get the streams you want is by using the -map switch.

Thanks for the suggestion about libdvdread. Getting those messages handled in a better way is definitely on the todo list!