On Fri, 2005-09-09 at 19:08 +0900, Joe Friedrichsen wrote: > I've started to make films recently using linux and I've been trying to > find the best mpeg2 encoder for making DVD compliant video.
Very controversial issue, you'll probably get one different opinion from each person you ask. > First, to find the possible encoder candidates. A few months ago, I > thought the main encoding utilities were mjpegtools, ffmpeg, transcode, > and mencoder (please tell me if I missed any leading ones). Yup, you got'em all. But the only truly different ones are mjpegtools and ffmpeg. transcode is just a framework that utilizes many different backends to achieve its means. At least that was the intent of the original author, Thomas Ostreich, and it's "lieutenant" (and successor to maintainership) Tilmann Bitterberg. The new transcode crew has a slight bias towards ffmpeg. In any case, transcode can use either ffmpeg or mjpegtools to generate DVD-compliant MPEG2. It doesn't convert anything itself. mencoder should not be too different from ffmpeg. If I'm not mistaken, it uses ffmpeg code internally. In any case, the mplayer project (of which mencoder is a less utilized part) and ffmpeg started out in tight cooperation. > Given that ffmpeg has admitted having bitrate > problems with mpeg-2, does that hold true for mencoder? I have no proof but I believe it's a reasonable assumption that mencoder and ffmpeg have the same basic behaviour. > I found a basic comparison between ffmpeg and mpeg2enc here: > http://www.transcoding.org/cgi-bin/transcode?FFmpeg_Vs._Mpeg2enc > that confirms ffmpeg's bitrate control problem Quote: "The answer, of course, depends on your particular needs, but in general: ffmpeg is faster while mpeg2enc is higher quality." That pretty much sums it up. > Yet, transcode lists neither as a dependency (from what > I've seen)... Does it include its own libraries from these utilities? If > so, which versions? transcode's documentation issues are long-standing. The situation improved a lot recently, but still they have a long way to go. It's a very complex tool, no wonder it's hard to document it properly. > So, if I'm reading this correctly, the truly 'base' utilities/libraries > are ffmpeg and mpeg2enc, while transcode and mencoder are > front-ends/re-branders of sorts. Is this accurate? mencoder is pretty much a ffmpeg wrapper. transcode aims (or used to aim) to be a universal framework. > Do you know any sites that have done any comparisons? What are your > personal experiences with the two? The quote above says it all. Speed: ffmpeg. Quality and compliance: mjpegtools. > If comparisons haven't been made, then I should do some. Which are good > video types to test? What content do I want? I like tecoltd.com's choice > of fast motion, edges, and details. What types of video will show how > encoders differ? I'd say, grab your camcorder, shoot a few different types of scenes (lots of motion / no motion, lots of noise / no noise, lots of texture / no texture) then transcode to DVD MPEG2. A proper comparison is _very_hard_to_do_! No wonder you couldn't find any. You must have an intimate knowledge of all config parameters of all encoders you're testing, what are the effects of tweaking each parameter, what are the cross-relations between them, etc. Good luck, you'll need tons of it. Anyway... My way of converting DV (digital camcorder) to DVD, focused on image quality and standards compliance: http://www.transcoding.org/cgi-bin/transcode?DVtoDVD Scroll half-way down until you find my HOWTO on that page. It's not "very out of date", it's still pretty usable. Only the conv-dvd file needs some small updates, see the attached file to this message. I just sent an email to the person who maintains that page and asked for permission to make updates to the HOWTO. -- Florin Andrei http://florin.myip.org/
conv-dvd
Description: application/shellscript
