Mercurial > mplayer.hg
changeset 17592:8af70af65e97
Remove all the sections that are now merged in the XML doc
| author | gpoirier |
|---|---|
| date | Sat, 11 Feb 2006 22:11:11 +0000 |
| parents | 455d1aef7d97 |
| children | 7c700dc8e37d |
| files | DOCS/tech/encoding-guide.txt |
| diffstat | 1 files changed, 0 insertions(+), 681 deletions(-) [+] |
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--- a/DOCS/tech/encoding-guide.txt Sat Feb 11 21:45:42 2006 +0000 +++ b/DOCS/tech/encoding-guide.txt Sat Feb 11 22:11:11 2006 +0000 @@ -37,303 +37,6 @@ -I. Preparing to encode - -Before you even think about encoding a movie, you need to take several -preliminary steps to - - -I.1. Identifying source material and framerate - -The first and most important step before you encode should be -determining what type of content you're dealing with. If your source -material comes from DVD or broadcast/cable/satellite TV, it will be -stored in one of two formats: NTSC for North America and Japan, and -PAL for Europe, etc. But it's important to realize that this is just -the formatting for presentation on a television, and often does NOT -correspond to the original format of the movie. In order to produce a -suitable encode, you need to know the original format. Failure to take -this into account will result in ugly combing (interlacing) artifacts -in your encode, and will greatly reduce the quality/bitrate ratio of -the encoder! - -Here is a list of common types of source material, where you're likely -to find them, and their properties: - -Standard Film: Produced for theatrical display at 24fps. - -PAL video: Recorded with a PAL video camera at 50 fields per second. A -field consists of just the even or odd numbered lines of a frame. -Television was designed to refresh these in alternation as a cheap -form of analog compression. The human eye supposedly compensates for -this, but once you understand interlacing you'll learn to see it on TV -too and never enjoy TV again. Two fields do NOT make a complete frame, -because they are captured 1/50 of a second apart in time, and thus -they do not line up unless there is no motion. - -NTSC Video: Recorded with an NTSC video camera at 59.94 fields per -second, or 60 fields per second in the pre-color era. Otherwise -similar to PAL. - -Animation: Usually drawn at 24fps, but animation also comes in -mixed-framerate varieties. - -Computer Graphics (CG): Can be any framerate, but 24 and 30 fps are -the most frequently encountered in NTSC regions, and 25 fps in PAL -regions. - -Old Film: Various lower framerates. - -Movies consisting of frames are referred to as progressive, while -those consisting of independent fields are called interlaced, or -sometimes video, although this latter term is ambiguous. - -To further complicate matters, some movies will be a mix of several of -the above. - -The most important distinction to make between all of these formats is -that some are frame-based, while others are field-based. WHENEVER a -movie is prepared for display on television (including DVD), it is -converted to a field-based format. The various methods by which this -can be done are collectively referred to as "pulldown", of which the -infamous NTSC "3:2 telecine" is one variety. Unless the original -material was also field-based (and the same fieldrate), you are -getting the movie in a format other than the original. - -There are several common types of pulldown: - -PAL 2:2 pulldown: The nicest of them all. Each frame is shown for two -fields duration, by extracting the even and odd lines and showing them -in alternation. If the original material is 24fps, this process speeds -up the movie by 4%. - -PAL 2:2:2:2:2:2:2:2:2:2:2:3 pulldown: Every 12th frame is shown for -three fields duration, instead of just two. This avoids the 4% speedup -issue, but makes the process much more difficult to reverse. It is -usually seen in musical productions where adjusting the speed by 4% -would seriously damage the musical score. - -NTSC 3:2 telecine: Frames are shown alternatively for 3 fields or 2 -fields duration. This gives a fieldrate 5/2 times the original -framerate. The result is also slowed down very slightly from 60 fields -per second to 59.94 fields per second to maintain NTSC fieldrate. - -NTSC 2:2 pulldown: Used for showing 30fps material on NTSC. Nice, just -like 2:2 PAL pulldown. - -There are also methods for converting between NTSC and PAL video. Such -topics are beyond the scope of this guide. If you encounter such a -movie and want to encode it, your best bet is to find a copy in the -original format. NTSC/PAL conversion is highly destructive and cannot -be reversed cleanly, so your encode will greatly suffer if it is made -from a converted source. - -When video is stored on DVD, consecutive pairs of fields are grouped -as a frame, even though they are not intended to be shown at the same -moment in time. The MPEG2 standard used on DVD and digital TV provides -a way to encode the original progressive frames, and store the number -of fields for which each should be shown in the frame headers. If this -method has been used, the term "soft telecine" will often be used to -describe the movie, since the process only directs the DVD player to -apply pulldown to the movie rather than altering the movie itself. -This case is highly preferable since it can easily be reversed -(actually ignored) by the encoder, and since it preserves maximal -quality. However, many DVD and broadcast production studios do not use -proper encoding techniques, and instead produce movies with "hard -telecine", where fields are actually duplicated in the encoded MPEG2. - -The procedures for dealing with these cases will be covered later in -this guide. For now, we leave you with some guides to identifying -which type of material you're dealing with: - -NTSC regions: - -- If MPlayer prints that the framerate has changed to 23.976 when - watching your movie, and never changes back, it's almost certainly - 24fps content that has been "soft telecined". - -- If MPlayer shows the framerate switching back and forth between - 23.976 and 29.97, and you see "combing" at times, then there are - several possibilities. The 23.976 fps segments are almost certainly - 24fps progressive content, "soft telecined", but the 29.97 fps parts - could be either hard-telecined 24fps content or NTSC video content. - Use the same guidelines as the following two cases to determine - which. - -- If MPlayer never shows the framerate change, and every single frame - with motion appears combed, your movie is NTSC video at 59.94 fields - per second. - -- If MPlayer never shows the framerate change, and two frames out of - every five appear combed, your movie is "hard telecined" 24fps - content. - -PAL regions: - -- If you never see any combing, your movie is 2:2 pulldown. - -- If you see combing alternating in and out every half second, then - your movie is 2:2:2:2:2:2:2:2:2:2:2:3 pulldown. - -- If you always seem combing during motion, then your movie is PAL - video at 50 fields per second. - -Hint: MPlayer can slow down movie playback with the -speed option. Try -using -speed 0.2 to watch the movie very slowly and identify the -pattern, if you can't see it at full speed. - - -I.2. Selecting the quality you want - -It's possible to encode your movie at a wide range of qualities. With -modern video encoders and a bit of pre-codec compression (downscaling -and denoising), it's possible to achieve very good quality at 700 MB, -for a 90-110 minute widescreen movie. And all but the longest movies -can be encoded with near-perfect quality at 1400 MB. - -If you do not plan to store your movies on CD or other size-limited -media, and you want maximal quality at all costs, you can encode in -constant quantizer mode, which will not aim to meet a specific target -bitrate or filesize but instead use the maximal accuracy encoding for -all frames. This is not recommended in most cases, because you can -achieve significantly smaller file sizes without noticeable loss. -However, it may be desirable for the hardcore archivists out there. - - -I.4. Cropping and scaling - -Recall from the previous section that the final picture size you -encode should be a multiple of 16 (in both width and height). This can -be achieved by cropping, scaling, or a combination of both. - -When cropping, there are a few guidelines that must be followed to -avoid damaging your movie. The normal YUV format, 4:2:0, stores chroma -(color) information subsampled, i.e. chroma is only sampled half as -often in each direction as luma (intensity) information. Observe this -diagram, where L indicates luma sampling points and C chroma. - - L L L L L L L L - C C C C - L L L L L L L L - - L L L L L L L L - C C C C - L L L L L L L L - -As you can see, rows and columns of the image naturally come in pairs. -Thus your crop offsets and dimensions MUST be even numbers. If they -are not, the chroma will no longer line up correctly with the luma. In -theory, it's possible to crop with odd offsets, but it requires -resampling the chroma which is potentially a lossy operation and not -supported by the crop filter. - -Further, interlaced video is sampled as follows: - - TOP FIELD BOTTOM FIELD - - L L L L L L L L - C C C C - L L L L L L L L - - L L L L L L L L - C C C C - L L L L L L L L - - L L L L L L L L - C C C C - L L L L L L L L - - L L L L L L L L - C C C C - L L L L L L L L - -As you can see, the pattern does not repeat until after 4 lines. So -for interlaced video, your y-offset and height for cropping must be -multiples of 4. - -So how do you determine a crop rectangle to begin with? Sometimes you -can guess, but the cropdetect filter in MPlayer can make it easy. Run -MPlayer with -vf cropdetect and it will print out the crop settings to -remove the borders. You should let the movie run long enough that the -whole picture area is used, in order to get accurate crop values. -Then, test the values you get with MPlayer, using the command line -cropdetect printed, and adjust the rectangle as needed. The rectangle -filter can help by allowing you to interactively position the crop -rectangle over your movie. Remember to follow the above divisibility -guidelines so that you do not misalign the chroma planes. - -If you will be scaling your movie, it's usually best to crop only the -black borders and noise, then scale so that the resulting dimensions -are multiples of 16. This can slightly distort the aspect ratio of -your movie, but in practice the error cannot be seen. It's certainly -much less visible than the MPEG artifacts you will see from failing to -crop & scale well. - -In certain cases, scaling may be undesirable. Scaling in the vertical -direction is difficult with interlaced video, and if you wish to -preserve the interlacing, you should usually refrain from scaling. If -you will not be scaling but you still want to use multiple-of-16 -dimensions, you will have to overcrop. Do not undercrop, since black -borders are very bad for encoding! - - - - -I.5. Choosing resolution and bitrate - -If you will not be encoding in constant quantizer mode, you need to -select a bitrate. The concept of bitrate is quite simple. It's the -(average) number of bits that will be consumed to store your movie, -per second. Normally bitrate is measured in kilobits (1000 bits) per -second. The size of your movie on disk is the bitrate times the length -of the movie in time, plus a small amount of "overhead" (see the -section on codecs and containers). Other parameters such as scaling, -cropping, etc. will NOT alter the file size unless you change the -bitrate as well! - -Bitrate does NOT scale proportional to resolution. That is to say, a -320x240 file at 200 kbit/sec will not be the same quality as the same -movie at 640x480 and 800 kbit/sec! There are two reasons for this: - -1. Perceptual: You notice MPEG artifacts more if they're scaled up - bigger! Artifacts appear on the scale of blocks (8x8). Your eye - will not see errors in 4800 small blocks as easily as it sees - errors in 1200 large blocks (assuming you'll be scaling both to - fullscreen). - -2. Theoretical: When you scale down an image but still use the same - size (8x8) blocks for the frequency space transform, you move more - data to the high frequency bands. Roughly speaking, each pixel - contains more of the detail than it did before. So even though your - scaled-down picture contains 1/4 the information in the spacial - directions, it could still contain a large portion of the - information in the frequency domain (assuming that the high - frequencies were underutilized in the original 640x480 image). - -Past guides have recommended choosing a bitrate and resolution based -on a "bits per pixel" approach, but this is usually not valid due to -the above reasons. A better estimate seems to be that bitrates scale -proportional to the square root of resolution, so that 320x240 and 400 -kbit/sec would be comparable to 640x480 at 800 kbit/sec. However this -has not been verified with theoretical or empirical rigor. Further, -given that movies vary greatly with regard to noise, detail, degree of -motion, etc., it's futile to make general recommendations for bits per -length-of-diagonal (the analogue of bits per pixel, using the square -root). - -So far we have discussed the difficulty of choosing a bitrate and -resolution. - -................. - - - - - - - - - II. Containers and codecs @@ -364,353 +67,6 @@ ratio encoding stored in MPEG-4 avi files. -II.2. Constraints of DVD, SVCD, and VCD - -Unfortunately, the DVD, SVCD, and VCD formats are subject to heavy -constraints. Only a small selection of encoded picture sizes & aspect -ratios are available. If your movie does not meet one of these, you -must scale and crop or add black borders (which are bad for quality!) -to make it compliant. - -Format Resolution V.Codec A.Codec FPS Aspect -NTSC DVD 720x480 MPEG-2 AC3,PCM 24,30 4:3,16:9 -NTSC DVD 352x240 * MPEG-1 AC3,PCM 24,30 4:3 -NTSC SVCD 480x480 MPEG-2 MP2 30 4:3 -NTSC VCD 352x240 MPEG-1 MP2 24,30 4:3 -PAL DVD 720x576 MPEG-2 MP2,AC3,PCM 25 4:3,16:9 -PAL DVD 352x288 * MPEG-1 MP2,AC3,PCM 25 4:3 -PAL SVCD 480x576 MPEG-2 MP2 25 4:3 -PAL VCD 352x288 MPEG-1 MP2 25 4:3 - -* These resolutions are rarely used in DVD because they are fairly low - quality. - -DVD, VCD, and SVCD also constrain you to relatively low GOP sizes. 18 is -supposed to be the largest allowed GOP size for 30 fps NTSCP material; -for 25 or 24 fps, the GOP size should be 15. - -VCD video is required to be CBR at 1152 kbps. This highly limiting -constraint also comes along with an extremly low vbv buffer size of -327 kilobits. SVCD allows varying video bitrates up to 2500 kbps, and -a somewhat less insane vbv buffer size of 917 kilobits is allowed. DVD -video bitrates may range anywhere up to 9800 kbps (though typical bitrates -are about half that), and the vbv buffer size is 1835 kilobits. - -Here is a list of fields in lavcopts that you may be required to change -in order to make usable video for VCD, SVCD, or DVD: - -acodec: mp2 for VCD, SVCD, or PAL DVD; ac3 is most commonly used for DVD. - PCM audio may also be used for DVD, but this is mostly a big - waste of space. Note that mp3 audio isn't spec-compliant for - any of these formats, but players often have no problem playing - it anyway. - -abitrate: 224 for VCD; user-selectable for DVD and SVCD, but commonly used - values range from 192 to 384 kbps. - -vcodec: mpeg1video for VCD; mpeg2video for SVCD; mpeg2video is usually - used for DVD but you may also use mpeg1video for CIF resolutions. - -keyint: 18 for 30fps material, or 15 for 25/24 fps material. Commercial - producers seem to prefer keyframe intervals of 12. - -vrc_buf_size: 327 for VCD, 917 for SVCD, and 1835 for DVD. - -vrc_minrate: 1152, for VCD. May be left alone for SVCD and DVD. - -vrc_maxrate: 1152 for VCD; 2500 for SVCD; 9800 for DVD. For SVCD and DVD, - you might wish to use lower values depending on your own - personal preferences and requirements. - -vbitrate: 1152 for vcd; up to 2500 for SVCD; up to 9800 for DVD. For the - latter two formats, vbitrate should be set based on personal - preference. For instance, if you insist on fitting 20 or so - hours on a DVD, you could use vbitrate=400. The resulting - video quality would probably be quite bad. If you are trying - to squeeze out the maximum possible quality on a DVD, use - vbitrate=9800, but be warned that this could constrain you to - less than an hour of video on a single-layer DVD. - -Here is a typical minimum set of lavcopts for encoding video for a VCD: - --lavcopts vcodec=mpeg1video:vrc_buf_size=327:vrc_minrate=1152:\ -vrc_maxrate=1152:vbitrate=1152:keyint=15:acodec=mp2 - -SVCD: - --lavcopts vcodec=mpeg2video:vrc_buf_size=917:vrc_maxrate=2500:vbitrate=1800:\ -keyint=15:acodec=mp2 - -DVD: - --lavcopts vcodec=mpeg2video:vrc_buf_size=1835:vrc_maxrate=9800:\ -vbitrate=5000:keyint=15:acodec=ac3 - -For higher quality encoding, you may also wish to add quality-enhancing -options to lavcopts, such as trell, mbd=2, and others. Note that qpel -and v4mv, while often useful with MPEG-4, are not usable in MPEG-1 or -MPEG-2. Also, if you are trying to make a very high quality DVD encode, -it may be useful to add dc=10 to lavcopts. Doing so may help reduce the -appearance of blocks in flat-colored areas. Putting it all together, -here is an example of a set of lavcopts for a higher quality DVD: - --lavcopts vcodec=mpeg2video:vrc_buf_size=1835:vrc_maxrate=9800:\ -vbitrate=8000:keyint=15:trell:mbd=2:precmp=2:subcmp=2:cmp=2:dia=-10:\ -predia=-10:cbp:mv0:vqmin=1:lmin=1:dc=10 - -If your movie has 2.35:1 aspect (most recent action movies), you will -have to add black borders or crop the movie down to 16:9 to make a DVD -or VCD. If you add black borders, try to align them at 16-pixel -boundaries in order to minimize the impact on encoding performance. -Thankfully DVD has sufficiently excessive bitrate that you do not have -to worry too much about encoding efficiency, but SVCD and VCD are -highly bitrate-starved and require effort to obtain acceptable -quality. - - - - - -II.3. Limitations of the AVI container - -Although it's the most widely-supported format after MPEG-1, AVI also -has some major drawbacks. Perhaps the most obvious is the overhead. -For each chunk of the AVI file, 24 bytes are wasted on headers and -index. This translates into a little over 5 MB per hour, or 1-2.5% -overhead for a 700 MB movie. This may not seem like much, but it could -mean the difference between being able to use 700 kbit/sec video or -714 kbit/sec, and every bit of quality counts. - -In addition to gross inefficiency, AVI also has the following major -limitations: - -1. Only fixed-fps content can be stored. This is particularly limiting - if the original material you want to encode is mixed content, for - example a mix of NTSC video and film material. Actually there are - hacks that can be used to store mixed-framerate content in AVI, but - they increase the (already huge) overhead fivefold or more so they - are not practical. - -2. Audio in AVI files must be either constant-bitrate (CBR) or - constant-framesize (i.e. all frames decode to the same number of - samples). Unfortunately, the most efficient codec, Vorbis, does not - meet either of these requirements. Therefore, if you plan to store - your movie in AVI, you'll have to use a less efficient codec such - as MP3 or AC3. - -With all of that said, MEncoder does not support variable-fps output -or Vorbis encoding. Therefore, you may not see these as limitations if -MEncoder is the only tool you will be using to produce your encodes. -However, it is possible to use MEncoder only for the video encoding, -and then use external tools to encode the audio and mux it into -another container format. - - - - - - - -III. Basic MEncoder usage - -III.1. Selecting codecs & format - -Audio and video codecs for encoding are selected with the -oac and --ovc options, respectively. The following choices are available, -although some may not have been enabled at compiletime: - -Audio Codecs -mp3lame Encode VBR or CBR MP3 with LAME -lavc Use one of libavcodec's audio encoders -pcm Uncompressed PCM audio -copy Do not reencode, just copy compressed frames - -Video codecs -lavc Use one of libavcodec's video encoders -xvid XviD -raw Uncompressed video frames -copy Do not reencode, just copy compressed frames -frameno Used for 3-pass encoding (not recommended) - -Several other video codecs are available, but not recommended. The -lavc audio and video encoders have additional suboptions to select -which codec to use within lavc. The syntax is: - - -lavcopts acodec=audio_codec_name - -lavcopts vcodec=video_codec_name - -Your choices for lavc audio are mp2, ac3, and various adpcm formats -(low efficiency). For lavc video, you have many more choices: - -mpeg1video MPEG-1 video -mpeg2video MPEG-2 video -mpeg4 MPEG-4 video, standards-compliant -msmpeg4 Pre-standard MPEG-4 used by MS (aka DivX3) -msmpeg4v2 Pre-standard MPEG-4 used by MS (low quality) -msmpeg4v1 Pre-standard MPEG-4 used by MS (low quality) -wmv1 Windows Media Video, V1 (aka WMV7) -wmv2 Windows Media Video, V2 (aka WMV8) -dvvideo DV video (used by DV cameras) -mjpeg Motion JPEG -ljpeg Lossless JPEG -ffv1 Lossless FFmpeg video codec #1 (slow) -huffyuv A standard lossless codec - -...and lots more that aren't worth mentioning for most people. - - - -III.2. Selecting input file or device - -MEncoder can encode from files or directly from a DVD or VCD disc. -Simply include the filename on the command line to encode from a file, -or dvd://titlenumber or vcd://tracknumber to encode from a DVD title -or VCD track. If you have already copied a DVD to your hard drive and -wish to encode from the copy, you should still use the dvd:// syntax, -along with -dvd-device followed by the path to the copied DVD root. -The -dvd-device and -cdrom-device options can also be used to override -the paths to the device nodes for reading directly from disc, if the -defaults of /dev/dvd and /dev/cdrom do not work on your system. - -When encoding from DVD, it is often desirable to select a chapter or -range of chapters to encode. You can use the -chapter option for this -purpose. For example, -chapter 1-4 will only encode chapters 1 through -4 from the DVD. This is especially useful if you will be making a 1400 -MB encode targetted for two CDs, since you can ensure the split occurs -exactly at a chapter boundary rather than in the middle of a scene. - -If you have a supported TV capture card, you can also encode from the -TV-in device. Use tv://channelnumber as the filename, and -tv to -configure various capture settings. DVB input works similarly. - - -III.3. Loading video filters - -Learning how to use MEncoder's video filters is essential to producing -good encodes. All video processing is performed through the filters -- -cropping, scaling, color adjustment, noise removal, sharpening, -deinterlacing, telecine, inverse telecine, and deblocking, just to -name a few. Along with the vast number of supported input formats, the -variety of filters available in MEncoder is one of its main advantages -over other similar programs. - -Filters are loaded in a chain using the -vf option: - - -vf filter1=options,filter2=options,... - -Most filters take several numeric options separated by colons, but the -syntax for options varies from filter to filter, so read the man page -for details on the filters you wish to use. - -Filters operate on the video in the order they are loaded. For -example, the following chain: - - -vf crop=688:464:12:4,scale=640:464 - -will first crop the 688x464 region of the picture with upper-left -corner at (12,4), and then scale the result down to 640x464. - -Certain filters need to be loaded at or near the beginning of the -filter chain, in order to take advantage of information from the video -decoder that will be lost or invalidated by other filters. The -principal examples are pp (postprocessing, only when it is performing -deblock or dering operations), spp (another postprocessor to remove -MPEG artifacts), pullup (inverse telecine), and softpulldown (for -converting soft telecine to hard telecine). - -Advanced topics in filter chains and usage information for specific -filters will follow in chapters IV and V, as they are needed for the -topics covered. - - - -III.4. Notes on A/V sync - -MEncoder's audio/video synchronization algorithms were designed with -the intention of recovering files with broken sync. However they seem -to cause unnecessary skipping and duplication of frames, and possibly -slight A/V desync, when used with proper input. It is therefore -recommended that you switch to basic A/V sync with the -mc 0 option, -or put this in your ~/.mplayer/mencoder config file, as long as you -are only working with good sources (DVD, TV capture, high quality -MPEG-4 rips, etc) and not broken ASF/RM/MOV files. - -If you want to further guard against strange frame skips and -duplication, you can use both -mc 0 and -noskip. This will prevent ALL -A/V sync, and copy frames one-to-one, so you cannot use it if you will -be using any filters that unpredictably add or drop frames, or if your -input file has variable framerate! Therefore, using -noskip is not in -general recommended. - -The so-called "three-pass" encoding which MEncoder supports has been -reported to cause A/V desync. This will definitely happen if it is -used in conjunction with certain filters, therefore, it is now -recommended NOT to use three-pass mode. This feature is only left for -compatibility purposes and for expert users who understand when it is -safe to use and when it is not. If you have never heard of three-pass -mode before, forget that we even mentioned it! - -There have also been reports of A/V desync when encoding from stdin -with MEncoder. Do not do this! Always use a file or CD/DVD/etc device -as input. - - - - - -IV.1. Encoding progressive video - -As long as your input video is progressive (see section I.1), - - -Let's finally see a few examples: - - Encoding from 2:2 pulldown PAL DVD, title 1 - 2.35:1 picture aspect - 1200 kbit/sec MPEG-4 video - 128 kbit/sec average-bitrate MP3 audio - - mencoder dvd://1 -vf crop=712:432,scale=640:288 -mc 0 -oac mp3lame\ - -lameopts abr:br=128 -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:vbitrate=1200 - -The crop size was presumably obtained by using the cropdetect filter -in MPlayer, or experimenting first with crop rectangles in MPlayer. -The output framerate will be 25 fps, the same as the original DVD. It -would be preferable to adjust the playback speed to match the original -24 fps theatrical rate, but this is not yet possible with MEncoder. -The options we pass to libavcodec are the bare minimum, and will yield -relatively poor quality. We will refine then in subsequent sections. - -Now, a second example: - - Encoding from soft-telecined NTSC DVD, title 3 - 2.35:1 picture aspect - 900 kbit/sec MPEG-4 video - Keeping the original AC3 audio - - mencoder dvd://1 -vf crop=708:360,scale=640:288 -mc 0 -oac copy \ - -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:vbitrate=900 -ofps 23.976023976 - -This example is very similar to the first example, except for the --ofps option to adjust the output framerate. Unless you tell it -otherwise, MEncoder takes its output framerate from the input -framerate. This is reported as 29.97 fps (actually 30000/1001), or -rather, 29.97 pairs of fields per second. But since the DVD is -soft-telecined, 1/5 of these fields are not actually present, but -intended to be added by the player when it telecines the movie in -realtime. There are actually only 23.976 (24000/1001) frames per -second. If you leave the framerate at the default, 29.97, it will -still work, but every 4th frame will get encoded in duplicate, making -the motion appear choppy. - -Finally, a comment on the number 23.976023976. You'll often see -recommendations to use -ofps 23.976, but this is wrong. MEncoder will -reduce 23.976 to 2997/125, which is not the same as 24000/1001. So in -order to get the right framerate written in the output file's header, -always use plenty of precision. - - - IV.2. Two-pass encoding @@ -780,40 +136,3 @@ The options used are slightly different, but the process is otherwise the same. - - - - -IV.3. Encoding interlaced video - -If the movie you want to encode is interlaced (NTSC video or PAL -video), you will need to choose whether you want to deinterlace or -not. While deinterlacing will make your movie usable on progressive -scan displays such a computer monitors and projectors, it comes at a -cost: the field rate of 50 or 59.94 fields per second is halved to 25 -or 29.97 frames per second, and roughly half the information in your -movie will be lost during scenes with significant motion. - -Therefore, if you are encoding for high quality archival purposes, it -is recommended not to deinterlace. You can always deinterlace the -movie at playback time when displaying it on progressive scan devices, -and future players will be able to deinterlace to full fieldrate, -interpolating 50 or 59.94 entire frames per second from the interlaced -video. - -Special care must be taken when working with interlaced video: - -1. Crop height and y-offset must be multiples of 4. - -2. Any vertical scaling must be performed in interlaced mode. - -3. Postprocessing and denoising filters may not work as expected - unless you take special care to operate them a field at a time, and - they may damage the video if used incorrectly. - -With these things in mind, here is our first example: - - mencoder capture.avi -mc 0 -oac lavc -ovc lavc -lavcopts \ - vcodec=mpeg2video:vbitrate=6000:ilme:ildct:acodec=mp2:abitrate=224 - -Note the ilme and ildct options.