need to choose a output codec for my software

[ilovecables]

Hi,

I hope this is the right place for this - great site, frequent reader - I need your knowledge!

I am developing a CD-ROM application for creating movies from a template into AVIs or QuickTimes to put to DVD-video.
I was looking to save out movies as mpeg2 but the license from mpegla.com is $2.50 per unit and would cripple my project.
There for I need an alternative codec that will work with as many consumer authoring programs as possible with the usual factors of speed and quality. MP4 and H.264 both have more managable costs.

So far I have tried AVI:
Microsoft MPEG4v2 - not bad
H.264 - seems very slow

Does anyone have any recomendations of what would work best for a home user with a basic machine?

I am also looking at using an installed version of quicktime to encode but need to work out how this affects the licensing.

many thanks for any help on this!

[guns1inger]

I am developing a CD-ROM application for creating movies from a template into AVIs or QuickTimes to put to DVD-video

Can you expand a little on this. What exactly are you trying to create ? There is a mile of difference between an avi, and a DVD.

[ilovecables]

The application will encode a movie file and then the user can import that movie file into their own DVD authoring tool and burn a DVD for viewing on their DVD set-top player.

eg. If I encode mpeg1 codec and the user saves it to their hard drive - then they import it into their software which transcodes it to mpeg2 and puts it to DVD-video.

I cant encode directly to DVD mpeg2 as the license of the technology is too expensive so I can encode to mpeg1 (relatively patent free) and encur the quality cost or I can encode to MSmpeg2v2 with a more resonable license cost and this would then go to mpeg2 in the author software. I can export as many AVI and quicktime formats but I need to choose the right one that will import into most of the consumer DVD authoring solutions so that they can be converted to DVD files.

I hope this explains further? Thanks for the help

[jagabo]

MPEG1? That can be burned to DVD without reencoding.

[ilovecables]

would mpeg1 look awful on DVD? has anyone some suggested settings in terms of bitrate and audio to get the highest quality?

[jagabo]

TMPGEnc lets you create MPEG1 with a full D1 frame and VBR just like MPEG2. I believe that's still legal for DVD.

[ilovecables]

I have played around with ffmpeg and I have so far got only one pass encoding working and the quality is ok but not brilliant. Exported full PAL resolution size.
Will check out TMPGEnc as suggested, thanks.

[ilovecables]

Excuse my ignorance but I thought that only MPEG-2 could be put to DVD. I thought all DVD palyers decode MPEG2. Could I create a DVD-legal mpeg-1 and create a DVD ISO with DVDauthor and burn it without ever having to touch MPEG-2? Would these DVDs play in old basic set-top players?

[jagabo]

The DVD spec allows MPEG1 but it may not include resolutions over quarter D1 (352x288 PAL).

According to this:

http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html

Allowable picture resolutions are:
MPEG-2, 525/60 (NTSC): 720x480, 704x480, 352x480, 352x240
MPEG-2, 625/50 (PAL): 720x576, 704x576, 352x576, 352x288
MPEG-1, 525/60 (NTSC): 352x240
MPEG-1, 625/50 (PAL): 352x288

So full D1 MPEG1 may not work. Or it would have to be reencoded by your users.

[jman98]

Jagabo - You are, of course, completely correct that MPEG-1 is valid for DVD. However, most authoring applications will NOT accept it. DVD-Lab will. Based on what you said, TMPGenc will. Scenarist will, but I was only able to get it to work with version 3.0. Version 2.7 would let you try, but it always failed in the mux. Scenarist also demands that you use AC3 audio if you are going to use MPEG-1. Anyway, Joe Consumer just goes to his local ACME Chain Software Store and buys whatever crap Roxio DVD burning program they have. Will Roxio let him use MPEG-1 on his DVD? I don't think so. While you are right that MPEG-1 is legal, I see a world of problems here, not to mention that MPEG-1 for DVD can't have a video bit rate over something like 1700 Kbps. I would not recommend MPEG-1 for this project. I'm sure you will have to pay a license for QuickTime, by the way.

Good luck ilovecables. I see too many problems with what you want to do, well intentioned as you are, and I guarantee you that you will quickly get real tired of getting angry emails from morons who bought Roxio crapware or something similar and it can't make a DVD from your files. You'll also love the people who use Nero and then bitch about it taking 10+ hours to re-encode what they downloaded to DVD format.

My suggestion would be to use Xvid or Divx (your choice) and create AVI files and let people try to download those and convert them and hope for the best.

[ilovecables]

thank you both for your replies. From your information and further reading I agree that mpeg1 on DVD with the resolution constraints is not the solution for me.

With ffmpeg I created a 4369kB/s mpeg1 at full PAL 720x576 resolution which looks pretty good in terms of quality. Please correct me if I am wrong but Roxio and their ilk would all import these mpeg1 files and encode them to DVD compliant mpeg2 and put them to disc.

I wish to avoid Xvid or Divx as they are both not for commercial use. The mpeg4 alternative I am looking at is MSmpeg4v2 but so far my tests show a 3x longer render time and not a great quality difference to the mpeg1.

Will be testing authoring software encoding times today but I assume that the mpeg1 and mpeg4 would take as long as eack other to make DVD compliant in Nero, Roxio etc?