DV to MPEG-2

[johnnylonghair1]

hey, I am having all kinds of problems converting the files I have to anything remotely close to what I want.

I am starting out with a 720x480, dvvideo, .mov file with pcm_s16be audio. this comes from my SD, miniDV camcorder, & is then edited in Final Cut Express and output to the desktop as a self contained quicktime movie.

What I want is an MPEG-2, 720x480, .mpg file with any usable audio, preferably with a bitrate of 224 Kbps & frequency of 48Khz, in a single mpeg-2 clip with audio and video together, that will be burned on a data DVD only to deliver the files, not intended to be played in standalone DVD players.

I am able to convert the video to mpeg-2, although it usually comes out 640x480 instead of the desired 720x480, & I often have to change the .ff or .m2v to .mpg on the file name manually.

I am not able to get any audio when using mpeg2enc or ffmpeg for video conversion. I have tried .ac3, .mp3, passthrough, and tried troubleshooting with suggestions such as checking Invert Mapping, checking Convert with QT, and deselecting Keep Elementary Streams & deselecting Author As DVD.

I am able to get audio with my video clip if I use a smaller video codec, such as H.264, but not when using the MPEG-2 video codecs. I have tried as many possible combinations of options as possible, but coming up with nothing that improves the situation.

Please help, thank you.

john

[Case]

I often have to change the .ff or .m2v to .mpg on the file name manually.

The .m2v file is a video only file. Renaming it won't give you audio.
The way mpeg2enc works, is that it first encodes the video (.m2v), then the audio (.wav, .mp2, .ac3), then those are multiplexed into one .mpg file.
If for some reason the audio is not encoded, then you should post/attach the Process Information (), so that whatever happened can be diagnosed.

MPEG-2 can have PCM, MP2 or AC3 audio. ffmpegX supports MP2 and AC3 audio in MPEG-2 files. AFAIK, Passthrough is only supported for conversions to AVI.

[johnnylonghair1]

Thanks for responding, here's is some more info on my problem.

I ran 2 different tests.

Trial #1-

selected DVD mpeg2enc, left video & audio tabs alone, under ffmpegX unchecked Keep Elementary Streams, under OPTIONS changed profile to generic mpeg-2, deselected author as: DVD(Video_TS), deselected Letterbox, decode with QT is checked.
here is the Process Information:

INFO: [yuvscaler] yuvscaler 1.9.0 (15-02-2004) is a general scaling utility for yuv frames
Thu Mar 27 13:10:54 HST 2008
INFO: [yuvscaler] (C) 2001-2004 Xavier Biquard <xbiquard@free.fr>, yuvscaler -h for help, or man yuvscaler
INFO: [mpeg2enc] SETTING AltiVec for MOTION!
INFO: [mpeg2enc] SETTING AltiVec for TRANSFORM!
INFO: [mpeg2enc] SETTING AltiVec for PREDICTION!
movtoy4m
Copyright 2002-2006 Johan Lindstr??m
All rights reserved..
INFO: [yuvscaler] input: frame size: 720x480 pixels (518400 bytes)
INFO: [yuvscaler] input: chroma: 4:2:0 JPEG/MPEG-1 (interstitial)
INFO: [yuvscaler] input: frame rate: 30000/1001 fps (~29.970030)
INFO: [yuvscaler] input: interlace: none/progressive
INFO: [yuvscaler] input: sample aspect ratio: 1:1
INFO: [yuvscaler] from 720x480, take 720x480+0+0, NOT_INTERLACED/PROGRESSIVE
INFO: [yuvscaler] scale to 720x480, 720x480 being displayed
INFO: [yuvscaler] Scaling uses the RESAMPLE algorithm,
INFO: [yuvscaler] frame rate: 29.970 fps
INFO: [yuvscaler] Scaling ratio for width is 1 to 1
INFO: [yuvscaler] and is 1 to 1 for height
INFO: [yuvscaler] Specific downscaling routing number 4
INFO: [yuvscaler] output: frame size: 720x480 pixels (518400 bytes)
INFO: [yuvscaler] output: chroma: 4:2:0 JPEG/MPEG-1 (interstitial)
INFO: [yuvscaler] output: frame rate: 30000/1001 fps (~29.970030)
INFO: [yuvscaler] output: interlace: none/progressive
INFO: [yuvscaler] output: sample aspect ratio: 1:1
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Selecting Generic MPEG2 output profile
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Assuming norm NTSC
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Encoding MPEG-2 video to /Users/johnmillar/Desktop/selfcontainedquicktime.ff.m2v
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Horizontal size: 720 pel
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Vertical size: 480 pel
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Aspect ratio code: 2 = 4:3 display
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Frame rate code: 4 = 30000.0/1001.0 (NTSC VIDEO)
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Bitrate: 4000 KBit/s
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Quality factor: 3 (Quantisation = 3) (1=best, 31=worst)
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Field order for input: none/progressive
INFO: [mpeg2enc] New Sequence every 9999 Mbytes
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Assuming non-video stream of 0 Kbps
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Search radius: 16
INFO: [mpeg2enc] DualPrime: no
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Using one-pass rate control
INFO: [mpeg2enc] GOP SIZE RANGE 7 TO 15
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Setting colour/gamma parameters to "NTSC"
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Progressive format frames = 1
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Using default unmodified quantization matrices
INFO: [mpeg2enc] SETTING AltiVec for QUANTIZER!
INFO: [mpeg2enc] PAR = 1
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Creating worker thread 0
INFO: [mpeg2enc] NEW GOP INIT length 15
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Worker: getting
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Working: stripe 0/1 1
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Worker: stripe 0 done
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Worker: getting
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Enc1 0 0( 0) I q=10.44 [100% Intra]
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Working: stripe 0/1 1
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Worker: stripe 0 done
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Worker: getting
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Enc1 1 1( 1) P q=8.19 [0% Intra]
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Working: stripe 0/1 1
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Worker: stripe 0 done
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Worker: getting

leaving out the lengthy middle which seems entirely repetitive

INFO: [mpeg2enc] Enc1 1848 1848(11) P q=3.00 [0% Intra]
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Sequence end inserted
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Guesstimated final muxed size = 30604777
INFO: [mpeg2enc] SHUTDOWN worker
FFmpeg version CVS, Copyright (c) 2000-2004 Fabrice Bellard
Mac OSX universal build for ffmpegX
configuration: --enable-mp3lame --enable-gpl --disable-vhook --disable-ffplay --disable-ffserver --enable-a52 --enable-xvid --enable-faac --enable-faad --enable-amr_nb --enable-pthreads --enable-x264
libavutil version: 49.0.0
libavcodec version: 51.9.0
libavformat version: 50.4.0
built on Apr 15 2006 08:41:02, gcc: 3.3 20030304 (Apple Computer, Inc. build 1666)
Input #0, wav, from '/Users/johnmillar/Desktop/selfcontainedquicktime.ff.wav':
Duration: 00:01:01.6, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 1535 kb/s
Stream #0.0: Audio: pcm_s16le, 48000 Hz, stereo, 1536 kb/s
Output #0, ac3, to '/Users/johnmillar/Desktop/selfcontainedquicktime.ff.ac3':
Stream #0.0: Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, 5:1, 448 kb/s
Stream mapping:
Stream #0.0 -> #0.0
Press [q] to stop encoding
size= 332kB time=6.1 bitrate= 448.0kbits/s
size= 672kB time=12.3 bitrate= 448.0kbits/s
size= 1006kB time=18.4 bitrate= 448.0kbits/s
size= 1342kB time=24.5 bitrate= 448.0kbits/s
size= 1676kB time=30.7 bitrate= 448.0kbits/s
size= 2018kB time=36.9 bitrate= 448.0kbits/s
size= 2357kB time=43.1 bitrate= 448.0kbits/s
size= 2686kB time=49.1 bitrate= 448.0kbits/s
size= 3024kB time=55.3 bitrate= 448.0kbits/s
size= 3306kB time=60.4 bitrate= 448.0kbits/s
size= 3372kB time=61.7 bitrate= 448.0kbits/s
video:0kB audio:3372kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead 0.000000%
INFO: [mplex] mplex version 1.9.0 (2.2.7 $Date: 2006/02/01 22:23:01 $)
INFO: [mplex] File /Users/johnmillar/Desktop/selfcontainedquicktime.ff.m2v looks like an MPEG Video stream.
INFO: [mplex] File /Users/johnmillar/Desktop/selfcontainedquicktime.ff.ac3 looks like an AC3 Audio stream.
INFO: [mplex] Found 1 audio streams and 1 video streams
INFO: [mplex] Selecting generic MPEG2 output profile
INFO: [mplex] Multiplexing video program stream!
INFO: [mplex] Scanning for header info: Video stream e0 (/Users/johnmillar/Desktop/selfcontainedquicktime.ff.m2v)
INFO: [mplex] VIDEO STREAM: e0
INFO: [mplex] Frame width : 720
INFO: [mplex] Frame height : 480
INFO: [mplex] Aspect ratio : 4:3 display
INFO: [mplex] Picture rate : 29.970 frames/sec
INFO: [mplex] Bit rate : 4000000 bits/sec
INFO: [mplex] Vbv buffer size : 229376 bytes
INFO: [mplex] CSPF : 0
INFO: [mplex] Scanning for header info: AC3 Audio stream 00 (/Users/johnmillar/Desktop/selfcontainedquicktime.ff.ac3)
INFO: [mplex] AC3 frame size = 1792
INFO: [mplex] AC3 AUDIO STREAM:
INFO: [mplex] Bit rate : 57344 bytes/sec (448 kbit/sec)
INFO: [mplex] Frequency : 48000 Hz
INFO: [mplex] SYSTEMS/PROGRAM stream:
INFO: [mplex] rough-guess multiplexed stream data rate : 4551400
INFO: [mplex] Setting best-guess data rate.
INFO: [mplex] Run-in delay = 21021 Video delay = 21021 Audio delay = 24024
INFO: [mplex] New sequence commences...
INFO: [mplex] Video e0: buf= 0 frame=000000 sector=00000000
INFO: [mplex] Audio bd: buf= 0 frame=000000 sector=00000000
INFO: [mplex] Scanned to end AU 1848
INFO: [mplex] STREAM e0 completed @ frame 1848.
INFO: [mplex] STREAM bd completed @ frame 1926.
INFO: [mplex] Multiplex completion at SCR=5548471.
INFO: [mplex] Video e0: buf= 2382 frame=001923 sector=00015181
INFO: [mplex] Audio bd: buf= 14336 frame=001926 sector=00001716
INFO: [mplex] VIDEO_STATISTICS: e0
INFO: [mplex] Video Stream length: 30604777 bytes
INFO: [mplex] Sequence headers: 1
INFO: [mplex] Sequence ends : 1
INFO: [mplex] No. Pictures : 1849
INFO: [mplex] No. Groups : 125
INFO: [mplex] No. I Frames : 125 avg. size 40695 bytes
INFO: [mplex] No. P Frames : 1724 avg. size 14801 bytes
INFO: [mplex] No. B Frames : 0 avg. size 0 bytes
INFO: [mplex] Average bit-rate : 3968400 bits/sec
INFO: [mplex] Peak bit-rate : 4494400 bits/sec
INFO: [mplex] BUFFERING min 42 Buf max 155981
INFO: [mplex] AUDIO_STATISTICS: bd
INFO: [mplex] Audio stream length 3453184 bytes.
lex] Frames : 1927
INFO: [mplex] BUFFERING min 22 Buf max 3566
INFO: [mplex] MUX STATUS: no under-runs detected.
Thu Mar 27 13:12:01 HST 2008

This gives me a file named .ff.mpg that doesn't play audio in Quicktime. If I select Get Info, it says that the dimensions are 640x480 and not 720x480 that I am hoping for, and lists the codecs as MPEG2 Muxed.

Hopefully this will help you help me,

and thank you for your help!

[johnnylonghair1]

The second test I tried this:

Trial #2-

I selected DVD ffmpeg, under the ffmpegX heading I unchecked Keep Elementary Streams, I left the Video & Audio tabs unchanged, under OPTIONS: I changed the encoding profile to no profile, I deselected author as: DVD(Video_TS), I selected decode with QT, deselected Letterbox.

this game me a file saved as .mpg, with the following process information:


Encoding started on Thu Mar 27 13:19:23 HST 2008
movtoy4m
Copyright 2002-2006 Johan Lindstr??m
All rights reserved..
Input #0, yuv4mpegpipe, from 'pipe:':
Duration: N/A, bitrate: N/A
Stream #0.0: Video: rawvideo, yuv420p, 720x480, 29.97 fps
Output #0, rawvideo, to '/Users/johnmillar/Desktop/selfcontainedquicktim.mpv':
Stream #0.0: Video: mpeg2video, 720x480, 29.97 fps, q=2-20, 4000 kb/s
Stream mapping:
Stream #0.0 -> #0.0
video:30184kB audio:0kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead 0.000000%
bench: utime=21.217s
FFmpeg version CVS, Copyright (c) 2000-2004 Fabrice Bellard
Mac OSX universal build for ffmpegX
libavutil version: 49.0.0
libavcodec version: 51.9.0
libavformat version: 50.4.0
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from '/Users/johnmillar/Desktop/selfcontainedquicktime':
Duration: 00:01:01.6, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 30314 kb/s
Stream #0.0(eng), 29.97 fps(r): Video: dvvideo, yuv411p, 720x480
Stream #0.1(eng): Audio: pcm_s16be, 48000 Hz, stereo, 1536 kb/s
Output #0, ac3, to '/Users/johnmillar/Desktop/selfcontainedquicktim.ac3':
Stream #0.0: Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, 5:1, 448 kb/s
Stream mapping:
Stream #0.1 -> #0.0 [sync #0.0]
video:0kB audio:312kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead 0.000000%
Encoding completed on Thu Mar 27 13:20:03 HST 2008


The file plays video, but has no audio, and under File: Get Info it shows the codecs MPEG2 Muxed, with the dimenions as 640x480 instead of the desired 720x480.

any light you can shed on this situation would be greatly appreciated. I just want to convert my .mov to a .mpg with video and audio together that I can burn those files onto a DVD to mail the information to a company, the DVD does not need to play in a DVD player.

Thanks again, I appreciate your patience!

[Case]

here is the Process Information:

No errors, everything looks good.

This gives me a file named .ff.mpg that doesn't play audio in Quicktime.

This is a known limitation of QuickTime Player: it won't play audio in AC3 format from within muxed MPEG-2 streams. Other software players, like VLC and MPlayer will let you hear audio from the same file.
If you read between the lines, Apple acknowledges this limitation on the MPEG-2 Playback Component web page, saying only video is fully supported (thus not all audio). MPEG 1 Layer II (MP2) audio is supported, though.

If I select Get Info, it says that the dimensions are 640x480 and not 720x480 that I am hoping for.

Another QuickTime quirk: For MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 files, QuickTime Player's Info window lists the 'normal' display size as video size. IMHO, Apple could and should have done it like QTP 7.4.x does it for DV files, clearly stating both.
Drop your output file back on ffmpegX to read the dimensions in the Summary, to confirm 720x480.