Does mencoder work for anyone? It makes only (ultra)low quality videos for me - it seems the "vbitrate" option is not working. Everything else is ok... Or am I alone again? :)

Hi!

Mencoder is working very good here. But the usage is a bit
difficult, because there are many switches and options to look for.
Best thing is to download a documentation of
Mencoder. ;)

Bo

The documentation is included.
Look at encoding.html and man.txt

Here are some simple examples to start with.

Input, Videotrack 1, Audiotrack 129:
mencoder -dvd-device ide.device:3 -dvd 1 -aid 129

MP3 Sound VBR quality 6, volumeboost:
-oac mp3lame -lameopts vbr=2:q=6:vol=4

DivX5 Video VBR quality 5:
-ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:vqscale=5:vqmin=2:vmax_b_frames=4:v4mv:vhq:trell:autoaspect

Videofilters: deinterlacing, scaling, cinemascope cropping:
-vop pp=fd,scale=528:320,crop=720:432:0:74

Output:
-o movie.avi

Look here! :)
http://www.mplayerhq.hu/DOCS/HTML/hu/encoding.html

Here's the link, if you don't read hungarian :

http://www.mplayerhq.hu/DOCS/HTML/

Choose your language and there you go ;)

Fred

Damn those are command lines from hell!!! Screw all that. They need to make a GUI for that thing.

@ Wishmaster

Hi there!

Yesterday night (at around 2h30am) I started to encode a movie from a DVD, which length is about the usual average 90 min. Now it's 9h30 am and it's still encoding.

How much time do you think it should usually take for a 16/9 movie with the below options you proposed (arranged the scale & crop values as well) ?

Are those options (that you suggested) for really high quality divx? Since this is the first time I ever encode divx, I don't know what to expect.

I'm on a Pegasos 1 @ 600 MHz

Here's the command line I typed:
mencoder -dvd 2 -dvd-device ide.device:0 -aid 128 -mc 0 -oac mp3lame -lameopts vbr=2:q=6 -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:vqscale=5:vqmin=2:vmax_b_frames=4:v4mv:vhq:trell:mbd=2:vlelim=-4:vcelim=9:lumi_mask=0.05:dark_mask=0.01:aspect=16/9 -af volume=+10dB -srate 44100 -vop pp=fd,scale=576:380:0:2,crop=702:464:0:8 -o movie.avi

Thanks a lot!

Fred

Took me about 15/16 hours on my peg1/600 !

it'S recommend for proper encodings to do at least a 2-pass encoding (better a 3-pass). And yes that will need a lot more time. Better upgrade to G4.

Until MorphOS 1.5 is released with AltiVec support I recommend that you encode stuff from GNU/Linux where you can make use of AltiVec. Otherwise you will just waste a lot of time. If you intend to save or redistribute your encodings using anything other than a 3-pass is a waste of time and quality.
In order to avoid any unnecessary discussions (like the one I had with some windiot who had never used mencoder, and who had no idea what 3-pass was even though he was certain he did), 3-pass means that the first pass will tell you what quality to use in order to make the movie fit exactly onto 1 or 2 CDs.

Hi tokai,

How do I know if I'm doing a 2 or 3 pass ?

I'm actually reading the docs, but I'm quite puzzled with some options!

The G4 upgrade is tempting, but it needs $$ which is quite rare for me at the moment.

Unless there's a G4 Peg 2 summer sale hyper ultra promo? ;)

Thanks

Fred

@ChatDEau:
When doing a 3-pass you use "-ovc frameno -o frameno.avi" on the first run. During the first pass, all you do is to encode the audio (or copy if it's a DVD with AC3). At the end of that pass mencoder will tell you what options to use in order to make the movie fit on exactly one or two 650MB or 700MB CDs. The next two passes are exactly the same as a 2-pass encoding, except that you must use -oac copy, mencoder will read and copy the audio from frameno.avi created during the first pass.

@dholm

Oh oky ..! Well, does it mean, with the options I specified, that I'm screwed if I wanted to do a 3-pass or does it mean it'll just be longer?

Will mencoder still tell me what options I should use for the next pass(es)?

Coz if I'm waiting for *nothing*, I better break the task and start over again (ARGH!).

Thanks

Fred

Well, yes, I'm afraid so. To even do a 2-pass encoding you have to include :vpass=1 (and :vpass=2 for the second pass) to -lavcopts. And during the first run you MUST use -ovc frameno -o frameno.avi (and no -lavcopts at all) if you want to do a 3-pass.
I also suggest you use -oac copy and never -oac mp3lame when encoding from DVD, otherwise you will lose the surround sound. Unless it's an old movie without surround, in which case it would be better to reencode the audio to make it smaller.

@dholm

What if I do other 2 passes on the output file? Or does it have to read the original source for that to be possible?

That would be useless. If doing 3-pass you have to do the frameno pass first, otherwise it won't work. And when doing 2-pass you must supply :vpass=1 during the first pass, otherwise mencoder won't produce the log-file which will tell it during the second pass which codec to use and when.
Sorry :(

@dholm

Ok, what a shame! argh! Well, I'll redo it I guess. Could you give an exemple of how I should modify my command line for a 3-pass to be OK?

Thanks

Fred

Why not make a good MUI gui for mencoder? ;)

I'm no expert on lavc options, so my suggestion of flags might not be the best choice. But, if were to dump a DVD I would use:
mencoder -oac copy -ovc frameno -o frameno.avi dvd://
mencoder -oac copy -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:vhq:vbitrate=<as suggested by the first pass for 2x700MB CD>:vpass=1 -o mymovie.avi dvd://
vcodec=mpeg4:vhq:vbitrate=<as suggested by the first pass for 2x700MB CD>:vpass=2 -o mymovie.avi dvd://

That would create a file that is 1400MB in size than can be split using avisplit.

Add ":trell:mdb=2" to the above line to increase qualitz (and rendering time).

It depends on what zou want to do.
Regarding qualitz dholm is right. Use 3 pass mode.

Mz approach is geared towards one CD one pass processing.
I put a whole bunch of DVDs on hd and let it churn out the avis without anz interaction.

Regards

@dholm & Wishmaster

Ok great, so if I need to crop & scale, should I do it in each pass? or only at the 2nd & 3rd pass?

Thanks to you both!

Fred

Mencoder needs a good MUI gui. Its a ####ty mess of complex options!