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  1. As the topic says: are there any "gray areas" where you just won't be able to encode videos with *nix?
    Are there any specific "issues" that cant yet be overcome?

    Think of my question like this: i work in an organisation where we use Autodesk Cleaner to code most of our videos.

    I'm curious if this software could be replaced with a somewhat more automatic video server running under *nix, perhaps using tools such as mencoder and ffmpeg.

    I know this question is kind of vague before you know exactly what formats we normally deliver, but i just wanted to throw the question out before i investigate this further.
    I know we do some quicktime (DV) and some WMV9.

    Are there perhaps any copyright issues, generally speaking?
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  2. Video Restorer lordsmurf's Avatar
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    Cleaner quit being one of the best encoders about 5 or more years ago (and it's been sold or gobbled up by mergers more times that I care to recall). When I started with it, it was either Discreet, or had just started to be Discreet. So matching it, or even surpassing it, is not a big issue.

    MainConcept is now the favorite amongst quality encodes. The MainActor software has an export feature, and it has a Linux version ($200). http://www.mainconcept.com/site/?id=954

    Seriously, as the marketing says "Using MainActor 5, video editing is no longer a problem in Linux." It's true.

    Cleaner did okay at WMV, but it was really nothing special. I don't see that FFMPEG would be any worse at non-MPEG encodes.

    I generally use Windows for all of my work, but I'm no stranger to Mac use or the on-and-off Linux use (mostly playing around, testing what's current, for Linux).

    Disturbed1 on this site has delved into the Linux beast in recent years. Consider a PM to him, asking kindly that he help answer this post. So have some others, but he seems to have the most experience in this area.
    Want my help? Ask here! (not via PM!)
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  3. Member GMaq's Avatar
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    Hello,
    Although I have not personally used "Cleaner" I can tell you Linux has certainly come a long way. For MPEG-2 Work HCbatchGUI has just been optimized for use in Linux under WINE, WinFF and any recent complete build of ffmpeg will handle most everything else (flv,avi,mp4,mov,wmv) very well. Avidemux is also worth a look, although I personally don't really like how it handles MPEG-2 sources. Cinelerra edits DVD and MJPEG sources well but requires third party export for best results. Avoid KDenlive it currently has terrible A/V Sync issues on export.
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  4. Get Slack disturbed1's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by sybariten


    Are there perhaps any copyright issues, generally speaking?
    Yes. Many copyright issues. It depends on what codecs you plan on using, and if this is for commercial use, and/or if you plan on legally redistributing your creations.

    For web distribution, I would offer you to look firstly into Theora. Theora is a totally patent free video format supported by all OS's, created by Xiph (Ogg Vorbis). Honestly, the quality is not on par with WMV, but you won't have issues with patents, system compatibility, nor expensive software encoding packages, nor specialized servers. I've used Ogg Vorbis audio for some years now, and recently started testing Theora Video. Theora uses the On2 VP3's compression. http://www.theora.org/
    List of streaming Theora sites http://wiki.xiph.org/index.php/List_of_Theora_videos

    Secondly there's RealNetworks. They (Real) also offer encoding and playback clients for all OS's. There are patents and licenses with this format. Real has spun off Helix which offers opensource encoding and playback, though not as feature rich as RealPlayer nor RealProducer. http://www.real.com/ http://www.realnetworks.com/products/encoding.html

    Of course there is also flv encoding, which will use flash for playback. Which is widely available also on all platforms. I'm not sure of the patent issues on this. I do know that both youtube and google video accept Theora video uploads

    Lordsmurf posted probably the best link for pro-sumer production, this will also cover any concerns over DVD encoding (MPEG2) patents. DVD Authoring is well documented with many applications to suite your needs. DVDStyler which allows you create basic to somewhat more than basic DVDs. The underlying package to all DVD authoring on Linux is the dvdauthor package. Which is xml based, only limited by your ability to script.

    What is your current work flow, and end product use?
    Linux _is_ user-friendly. It is not ignorant-friendly and idiot-friendly.
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  5. IMHO for QT videos Cleaner is hard to beat. I have used, and continue to use Terran Media Cleaner (pre-Discreet) for all my QT projects (along with Sorensen Pro). Have tried Procoder but quality suffers. It may take longer with Cleaner but quality is tops for me.
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  6. Lordsmurf, GMaq, disturbed1, noki:
    thank you for your answers!

    Here's a recent example, to get me started:
    A client wants me to deliver

    Image : 25 fps, 720x576 widescreen, non-square pixels
    Sound (IF there is sound) : stereo 48khz
    QuicktimeDV25 codec or, preferably, the Matrox-codec
    (He has supplied me with the matrox codec, but i'm pretty sure that archive is a windows-only installation. Havent checked very well yet.)
    Is there anything one could do?

    Our production chain is something like
    In-house 3D rendering system --> Autodesk Cleaner OR Sony Vegas --> FTP

    The things that need sound go directly to Vegas, and thats gonna stay the same... but i'm curious whether one really needs to use Cleaner, for our purposes. It does FTP for us, but that could be programmed rather easily on *nix i think.
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  7. Get Slack disturbed1's Avatar
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    If you where to use the Matrox codec, I'm pretty sure that's a copy write violation. But.... Matrox uses a couple of codecs, DV, MJPEG, and MPEG2 I frame only.

    QuicktimeDV25 is just plain DV in a .mov container. DV is a patent free codec, so that would be easy enough.

    You can also export uncompressed quicktime movies https://forum.videohelp.com/posting.php?mode=reply&t=344617


    What format does your "In-house 3D rendering system" export to? RAW yuy2/RGB/Y4M/TIFF/TGA/PPM/PGM?

    Considering DV is pretty much a universal format, it would probably be best to refine the script to export to this format. Quasar DV Codec http://libdv.sourceforge.net/

    Autodesk Cleaner may not be needed, as there are many ways to skin a cat.

    Simple ffmpeg scripts to test for compatibility.
    ffmpeg -i video.avi -target ntsc-dv video.dv
    ffmpeg -i video.avi -target pal-dv video.dv
    Linux _is_ user-friendly. It is not ignorant-friendly and idiot-friendly.
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