MPEG conversion with FFMPEG and fit to disc

[Sharc]

I used ffmpeg also for h.262 encoding in live broadcast scenario (ip cast to tandberg multiplexer and later to DVB-C modulator) - did you tried to read this (already provided) thread https://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=174620 - there are examples and feedback form people - why ffmpeg works for them?

^^^ this.
@ spapakons: And always use 2-pass encoding for hitting the bitrate (target size) more precisely. 1-pass VBR encoding is never "accurate", given by its principle of operation. This is the same for all VBR encoders I am aware of.
Secondly, if an encoder is configured improperly (e.g. by setting a too high minimum quantizer) it may run into "saturation". Means whatever bitrate you specify it will never reach that bitrate (unless the encoder would just pad the bitrate).
With GUIs you have limited or no control over this.

[pandy]

@Sharc - there is possibility to stabilize bitrate and to prevent buffer from starvation by adding noise to video (low level so it is practically invisible).

[Sharc]

@Sharc - there is possibility to stabilize bitrate and to prevent buffer from starvation by adding noise to video (low level so it is practically invisible).

True, thanks.

[spapakons]

I didn't say FFMPEG cannot encode MPEG 2 video, I said that it completely ignores my bitrate setting resulting in a ridiculously small file with average bitrate of less than 3000K which is crap by MPEG 2 standards. I don't want to mess with command line FFMPEG just to make it work. Thankfully AVS2DVD and AVS Video Converter do an excellent job respecting my settings and output a perfect result every time.

[ProWo]

I didn't say FFMPEG cannot encode MPEG 2 video, I said that it completely ignores my bitrate setting resulting in a ridiculously small file with average bitrate of less than 3000K which is crap by MPEG 2 standards. I don't want to mess with command line FFMPEG just to make it work. Thankfully AVS2DVD and AVS Video Converter do an excellent job respecting my settings and output a perfect result every time.

You can also use the clever FFmpeg-GUI.
You can use this to specify the target size of your mpeg2 stream and it will be adhered to exactly.
Download it here: https://files.videohelp.com/u/292773/clever_ffmpeg_gui_328.zip
extract everything into a folder where you want and start the exe file.
Follow the instructions, then load your video, click main, click encode videostream, select resize or keep size, select the mpeg encoder, select the desired file size, select all other settings as desired (see attached picture for a conversion to DVD-NTSC) and click encode.
The generated m2v file will have exactly your desired target size.


[Attachment 81685 - Click to enlarge]

[spapakons]

This worked OK, but according to MediaInfo it is CBR encoded. The same as setting minimum, average and maximum bitrate to the same value in other applications. For bitrates over 7000K, this will have negligible difference in image quality, but for long movies with bitrate less than 5000K it is not desirable, VBR is preferred. Thank you anyway.

[ProWo]

...but for long movies with bitrate less than 5000K it is not desirable, VBR is preferred.

If you think so...

[spapakons]

...but for long movies with bitrate less than 5000K it is not desirable, VBR is preferred.

If you think so...

Of course I do! That's the whole point of using VBR over CBR, to use more bitrate to fast scenes and less in slow scenes so overall image quality is better than CBR with the same bitrate. As I said over 7000K you won't notice any difference, but less than 5000K the difference is visible.