1080p MPEG-2, H264 in general, and non-square pixel issues

[csdesigns]

A few issues I have come across in the past few days (ffmpegX is still a great app though):

1.) When using a 1080p Uncompressed source, and trying to encode to 1080p MPEG-2, the resulting file is a letterboxed 1440x1080 movie. Is the max resolution for the ffmpeg engine 1440x1080? If so, how would I enable anamorphic 1080p MPEG-2 encoding? And, will the mpeg2enc engine ever support resolutions above 720x480 for MPEG-2?

2.) When using a 720x480 Uncompressed 4:3 IAR source movie, and encoding to 720x480 4:3 MPEG-2, the resulting playback of the movie is 3:2. 640x480 square pixel source must be used for proper desktop playback of encoded movie.

3.) Encoding to H264 causes ffmpegX to immediately stop and finish encoding. I have installed the new binaries (twice) and even went back to 0.0.9s (reinstalled appropriate binaries as well) and same issue appeared. The thing is, I could have sworn I did a successful test encode with 0.0.9s and H264 in the past. Here are the logs:

From BlacMagic 8bit 640x480 source and 0.0.9t:

• Encoding started on Mon Sep 5 03:01:40 EDT 2005
  MEncoder dev-CVS-050814-13:46-3.3 (C) 2000-2005 MPlayer Team
  Mac OSX static build for ffmpegX
  AltiVec found
  CPU: PowerPC
  success: format: 0 data: 0x0 - 0x2783b3e5
  ISO: File Type Major Brand: Original QuickTime
  Quicktime/MOV file format detected.
  --------------
  Cannot find codec matching selected -vo and video format 0x79755632.
  MOV track #0: 1079 chunks, 0 samples
  Image size: 640 x 480 (24 bpp)
  Display size: 640 x 480
  Fourcc: yuV2 Codec: ''
  --------------
  VIDEO: [yuV2] 640x480 24bpp 23.980 fps 0.0 kbps ( 0.0 kbyte/s)
  [V] filefmt:7 fourcc:0x79755632 size:640x480 fps:23.98 ftime:=0.0417
  Opening video filter: [expand osd=1]
  Expand: -1 x -1, -1 ; -1, osd: 1, aspect: 0.000000, round: 1
  Opening video filter: [scale w=640 h=480]
  Opening video filter: [pp=0x33]
  =======================
  Read DOCS/HTML/en/codecs.html!
  =======================
  Exiting...

From BlackMagic 10bit 640x480 source and 0.0.9t:

• Encoding started on Mon Sep 5 03:00:48 EDT 2005
  MEncoder dev-CVS-050814-13:46-3.3 (C) 2000-2005 MPlayer Team
  Mac OSX static build for ffmpegX
  AltiVec found
  CPU: PowerPC
  success: format: 0 data: 0x0 - 0x3751f3e5
  Cannot find codec matching selected -vo and video format 0x30313276.
  ISO: File Type Major Brand: Original QuickTime
  Quicktime/MOV file format detected.
  --------------
  MOV track #0: 1079 chunks, 0 samples
  Image size: 640 x 480 (24 bpp)
  Display size: 640 x 480
  Fourcc: 012v Codec: ''
  --------------
  VIDEO: [012v] 640x480 24bpp 23.980 fps 0.0 kbps ( 0.0 kbyte/s)
  [V] filefmt:7 fourcc:0x30313276 size:640x480 fps:23.98 ftime:=0.0417
  Opening video filter: [expand osd=1]
  Expand: -1 x -1, -1 ; -1, osd: 1, aspect: 0.000000, round: 1
  Opening video filter: [scale w=640 h=480]
  Opening video filter: [pp=0x33]
  =======================
  Read DOCS/HTML/en/codecs.html!
  =======================
  Exiting...

From BlacMagic 8bit 640x480 source and 0.0.9s:

• Encoding started on Mon Sep 5 03:09:02 EDT 2005
  MEncoder dev-CVS-050123-19:55-3.3 (C) 2000-2005 MPlayer Team
  Mac OSX static build for ffmpegX
  AltiVec found
  CPU: PowerPC
  success: format: 0 data: 0x0 - 0x2783b3e5
  ISO: File Type Major Brand: Original QuickTime
  QuickTime/MOV file format detected.
  --------------
  MOV track #0: 1079 chunks, 0 samples
  Image size: 640 x 480 (24 bpp)
  Display size: 640 x 480
  Fourcc: yuV2 Codec: ''
  --------------
  MOV: longest streams: A: #-1 (0 samples) V: #0 (1079 samples)
  VIDEO: [yuV2] 640x480 24bpp 23.980 fps 0.0 kbps ( 0.0 kbyte/s)
  [V] filefmt:7 fourcc:0x79755632 size:640x480 fps:23.98 ftime:=0.0417
  Opening video filter: [expand osd=1]
  MOV: selected audio stream (0) does not exists
  Cannot find codec matching selected -vo and video format 0x79755632.
  Exiting...
  ct) osd: 1
  Opening video filter: [scale w=640 h=480]
  Opening video filter: [pp=0x33]
  =======================
  Read DOCS/HTML/en/codecs.html!
  =======================

From BlackMagic 10bit 640x480 source and 0.0.9s:

• Encoding started on Mon Sep 5 03:10:08 EDT 2005
  MEncoder dev-CVS-050123-19:55-3.3 (C) 2000-2005 MPlayer Team
  Mac OSX static build for ffmpegX
  AltiVec found
  CPU: PowerPC
  success: format: 0 data: 0x0 - 0x3751f3e5
  ISO: File Type Major Brand: Original QuickTime
  MOV: selected audio stream (0) does not exists
  Cannot find codec matching selected -vo and video format 0x30313276.
  Exiting...
  QuickTime/MOV file format detected.
  --------------
  MOV track #0: 1079 chunks, 0 samples
  Image size: 640 x 480 (24 bpp)
  Display size: 640 x 480
  Fourcc: 012v Codec: ''
  --------------
  MOV: longest streams: A: #-1 (0 samples) V: #0 (1079 samples)
  VIDEO: [012v] 640x480 24bpp 23.980 fps 0.0 kbps ( 0.0 kbyte/s)
  [V] filefmt:7 fourcc:0x30313276 size:640x480 fps:23.98 ftime:=0.0417
  Opening video filter: [expand osd=1]
  Expand: -1 x -1, -1 ; -1 (-1=autodetect) osd: 1
  Opening video filter: [scale w=640 h=480]
  Opening video filter: [pp=0x33]
  =======================
  Read DOCS/HTML/en/codecs.html!
  =======================

[csdesigns]

OK, I was able to use a MPEG-2 and an AVC source file for the H.264 encoding, and it seems those will work (did not complete encoding). So, is the issue just with using an uncompressed source (v210 and 2Vuy)?

[major]

Yes, the uncompressed codec was not supported.

[csdesigns]

Any chance either will be? Are there any uncompressed or less-lossy codecs or formats that the H264 encoder will support? What about the other issues? Thanks.

[major]

New codecs are added at each new version of the binaries. Currently, try Apple Animation (which is a lossless codec). About 1/ I will test, about 2/ the DVD standard does not use square pixels.