MKV to Avi 700mb xvid via cli

[badblood]

Hey guys, just trying to figure whats the best way to encode a 720p mkv file to a 700mb xvid avi via command line. I have used mencoder in the past and it works only problem is the filesize is not always 700mb. So is there anything better than mencoder? Thanks

[Selur]

I have used mencoder in the past and it works only problem is the filesize is not always 700mb.

Don't think that not hitting the file size is a problem in mencoder, but rather a problem with your command lines,...
ffmpeg, handbrake and avidemux all have command line interfaced, but will still need you to define the xvid parameters.

Assuming you did calculate the target bit rate properly and xvid (through mencoder) simply doesn't hit the desired bit rate:
Did you use 2pass encoding and try to modify the overflow treatment settings?
in example to:

overflow_control_strength=10:max_overflow_improvement=10:max_overflow_degradation=10

Cu Selur

[badblood]

Thanks for the reply Selur, I dont know how to calculate the target bit rate with mencoder, what i basically do it i set the "bitrate=-716800" and it should automatically set the bit rate, if I'm not wrong. And yes, i do use the 2 pass encoding method but never messed with any overflow treatment settings. I use this two lines of code, setting the desired source file and output file, hoping it would encode within 700mb, but that's not always the case (Some time above, some times below):

mencoder <source file/device> -ovc xvid -oac mp3lame -xvidencopts pass=1 -o /dev/null
mencoder <source file/device> -ovc xvid -oac mp3lame -xvidencopts pass=2:bitrate=-716800 -o <file.avi>

Could you please give me a bit more info on how to calculate the bit rate through mencoder? and if i do mess with any of the overflow settings, would there be any loss in quality?

[Selur]

bitrate=-716800 tells mencoder to do the bitrate calculation for you, it might still not be able to hit the desired file size with that based on the default settings mencoder is using

Personally I would probalby use xvidenc (http://xvidenc.sourceforge.net/) or a gui.

and if i do mess with any of the overflow settings, would there be any loss in quality?

may be, but it might also help with the quality, always depends on the content you encode.

-> try:

mencoder <source file/device> -ovc xvid -oac mp3lame -xvidencopts pass=1:bitrate=-716800:turbo:overflow_control_strength=10:max_overflow_improvement=10:max_overflow_degradation=10::min_iquant=1:max_iquant=31:min_pquant=1:max_pquant=31:min_bquant=1:max_bquant=31: -o /dev/null
mencoder <source file/device> -ovc xvid -oac mp3lame -xvidencopts pass=2:bitrate=-716800:overflow_control_strength=10:max_overflow_improvement=10:max_overflow_degradation=10::min_iquant=1:max_iquant=31:min_pquant=1:max_pquant=31:min_bquant=1:max_bquant=31: -o <file.avi>

Cu Selur