Orchid XP v8 wrote:

> I did originally try MPEG, but Mencoder just complains that lavc doesn't 
> exist.

Wait - I was wrong. Turns out the correct option is "mpeg1video", not 
just "mpeg1". Now it works...

-- 
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The following [huge] command line generates an MPEG-1 file which is 
actually playable:

mencoder mf://*.png -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg1video:vbitrate=5000 
-ofps 12 -vf scale=720:576 -of lavf -lavfopts format=mpg -o out.mpg

(As a nice bonus, since it's compressed it doesn't take up my entire 
harddrive! The bitrate shown seems to produce pretty good results.)

I'm curios... why is it so damned hard to do this??

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> The following [huge] command line generates an MPEG-1 file which is 
> actually playable:

Weeeeee.... Windoze Media Player can't handle any MPEG file that has a 
framerate other than 25 FPS. Yay. :-S

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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Orchid XP v8 wrote:

> Weeeeee.... Windoze Media Player can't handle any MPEG file that has a 
> framerate other than 25 FPS. Yay. :-S

OMG... It's worse than I thought:

** MUXER_LAVF 
*****************************************************************
REMEMBER: MEncoder's libavformat muxing is presently broken and can generate
INCORRECT files in the presence of B frames. Moreover, due to bugs MPlayer
will play these INCORRECT files as if nothing were wrong!
*******************************************************************************

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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Am Sun, 15 Jun 2008 17:33:27 +0100 schrieb Orchid XP v8:

> The following [huge] command line generates an MPEG-1 file which is
> actually playable:
> 
> mencoder mf://*.png -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg1video:vbitrate=5000
> -ofps 12 -vf scale=720:576 -of lavf -lavfopts format=mpg -o out.mpg

It has been some time since I used it, but for that reason I liked 
transcode better. It provided some standard settings - such as for VCD 
and DVD. Don't know what the current stage of that program is though.


> 
> I'm curios... why is it so damned hard to do this??

I wonder myself. If you tried to compile it - there seems to be a dozen 
of dependencies and different libraries which partly do the same. I 
wonder, why there is not one big library - or maybe two for competition. 
Would simplify things a lot.

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Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> 
> I'm curios... why is it so damned hard to do this??
> 

Because there's so many options to choose from and no GUI (feel free to 
write one;).

-- 
Eero "Aero" Ahonen
    http://www.zbxt.net
       aer### [at] removethiszbxtnetinvalid

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Orchid XP v8 <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> mencoder mf://*.png -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg1video:vbitrate=5000 
> -ofps 12 -vf scale=720:576 -of lavf -lavfopts format=mpg -o out.mpg

  Nowadays you might want to use mpeg4 instead of mpeg1. The former can
compress to less than one fourth the size of the latter, while retaining
the same image quality (or even better).

  mpeg1 is just old and obsolete nowadays.

> I'm curios... why is it so damned hard to do this??

  mencoder is a tool from hackers to hackers.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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Warp wrote:

>   Nowadays you might want to use mpeg4 instead of mpeg1. The former can
> compress to less than one fourth the size of the latter, while retaining
> the same image quality (or even better).
> 
>   mpeg1 is just old and obsolete nowadays.

Yes, but... does any program known to Man actually *play* MPEG-4?

I'd use AVI, except that the AVI files Mencoder produces won't play 
properly. MPEG-1 may be old and stuff, but it _works_ everywhere. (Also, 
sometimes large AVI files won't play properly because my HD isn't fast 
enough. MPEG easily fixes this.)

>> I'm curios... why is it so damned hard to do this??
> 
>   mencoder is a tool from hackers to hackers.

*sigh* Yes, from reading the "documentation" you do get that 
impression... :-(

Personally I think Virtual Dub is a fine tool, but I'm looking for 
something that can *programatically* build and play animations. 
Mencoder/MPlayer can do this - although it seems to be horribly 
difficult to get right. (E.g., I just discovered that the filename used 
for the output file can actually affect the transcoding process - WTF?)

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> 
> Yes, but... does any program known to Man actually *play* MPEG-4?
> 

MPlayer does :).

-- 
Eero "Aero" Ahonen
    http://www.zbxt.net
       aer### [at] removethiszbxtnetinvalid

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Orchid XP v8 <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> Warp wrote:

> >   Nowadays you might want to use mpeg4 instead of mpeg1. The former can
> > compress to less than one fourth the size of the latter, while retaining
> > the same image quality (or even better).
> > 
> >   mpeg1 is just old and obsolete nowadays.

> Yes, but... does any program known to Man actually *play* MPEG-4?

> I'd use AVI, except that the AVI files Mencoder produces won't play 
> properly.

  You are confusing the AVI format, which is a *container* format, with
a video format, which for example MPEG4 is.

  AVI doesn't specify the format of the video. You can have an MPEG4 video
inside an AVI file just fine.

  Most current players will play MPEG4 just fine if you have the proper
codec installed, and a few will play it even if you don't (such as eg.
vlcplayer).

> MPEG-1 may be old and stuff, but it _works_ everywhere.

  At the cost of looking like crap or being humongous.

> >> I'm curios... why is it so damned hard to do this??
> > 
> >   mencoder is a tool from hackers to hackers.

> *sigh* Yes, from reading the "documentation" you do get that 
> impression... :-(

  I see nothing wrong with the documentation. You just have to learn to
read it.

> Personally I think Virtual Dub is a fine tool, but I'm looking for 
> something that can *programatically* build and play animations. 

  I don't understand what you mean by that.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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