Anyone using MENCODER instead of FFMPEG for transcoding AVI for MVP

[dazza139]

I have been having lonstanding troubles with ffmpeg and AV sync issues when trasncoding AVI on the fly for MVP. Today I found that this occurs when I use ffmpeg to make mpg files not on the fly as well.

As an experiment I used mencoder to transcode AVI to mpg (not on the fly) with no AV sync problems at all.

I would now like to replace the ffmpeg commands in the config.xml with ones that are suitable for mencoder so that I can use mencoder on the fly. I will rename mencoder to ffmpeg to fool GBPVR.

Has anyone done this and do they have examples of the commandline parameters they used/

[jc8472]

Have you tried searching GBPVR.com's wiki page?

[dazza139]

Here's my own answer to my problem which for the first time has produced DIVX transcoding without AV sync issues.

1) Install mplayer and mencoder into ffmpeg directory
2) rename mencoder to ffmpeg.exe
3) used the following line in config.xml

<MVPFFmpegTranscodeCmdLinePAL>-of mpeg -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg2video:mbd=2:keyint=25:vrc_minrate=600:vbitrate=2500 -oac lavc -af lavcresample=44100 -srate 44100 -mpegopts format=mpeg2 -vf scale=352:288 -vf harddup "{SOURCE_FILE}" -o "{DEST_FILE}"</MVPFFmpegTranscodeCmdLinePAL>

My PC is an Athlon XP2800+ with 1 GB ram. It easily handles the transcoding on the fly. The result is MVP playback with no av sync issues EXCEPT that when I use ff, rw, or skip, AV sync is lost. I'm not sure what the answer is to this problem? ?remuxing on the fly?

Anyway I can live with that for now.

[HtV]

My PC is an Athlon XP2800+ with 1 GB ram. It easily handles the transcoding on the fly. The result is MVP playback with no av sync issues EXCEPT that when I use ff, rw, or skip, AV sync is lost. I'm not sure what the answer is to this problem? ?remuxing on the fly?

Anyway I can live with that for now.

FF or skip is always a problem when playing avi's, because of the on the fly transcoding. I've read a while back that it should work with avisynth, thus playing avs-scripts, but that's not an easy way. I kind of got it to work but I don't remember about the FF/skip. There will always be the problem of the mvp getting no data for a while and therefore closing the connection, I think.

[dazza139]

Avisynth frameserving and transcoding on the fly appeared to be too much for my processot and caused process to halt after only 2 minutes of transcoded file. Oh well, for now I'm just happy that I can finally transcode XVID/DIVX.

[HtV]

I'm sorry i think I mis-understood your post. You clearly mentioned that you lost av-sync (with mencoder too) I thought you lost connection.
I used avisynth for (not on the fly) transcoding, I was very pleased with it. It took some practice but then I was very happy with it's possibilities.
Specially with subtitles, probably of no interest to you.
But at the end of the day (literally) all I can/should say is: I'm happy when you're happy

[dazza139]

If I play an avi without using ff, rw, or skip, then there is no AV sync issue when using mencoder on the fly. If I use any of these keys AV sync is lost. With FFMPEG I had AV sync problems regardless of whether I pressed any of these keys.

[fvfv]

HTV. I am very interested on the Subtitles support of avisynth.

Can you share with us the actual script that you use in avisynth ?

[pBS]

it's all about the framerates...are you in PAL land?
what framerate are the avi's? and what was your line for ffmpeg?
the gbpvr built in line isn't that great,i had problems with it too..
order of params with ffmpeg is VERY important..
you can adjust the input fraterate with -r xxxx and also adjust output to PAL as ffmpeg defaults to NTSC if not told...
i usually use dvd output format '-target ntsc-dvd' tho for you it would be '-target pal-dvd' and also i use '-f dvd' to set output format to dvd compatible..
[seems to be more stable,and can be burnt to dvd directly]
you probably have to specify '-r 25' or '-r 24.97' for output framerate and also try '-re' as that willl read input file at native framerate..
[that one may be all you need]
ffmpeg puts out better looking pics than mencoder, even tho they are based on same codecs...tho mencoder is faster...
avi as a container isn't very good and isn't very standardized so lots of avi that come from the web aren't encoded properly...
hope that helps...

[HtV]

Well I'll try to give some info.
This is a script I use a lot:

Code:

# Name     : Default ABatchScript Template
# Author    : Steven van Cauter
Clip="Tobit Sportgala"                                      # Store parameter in variable named "Clip"
DirectShowSource(Clip+".avi") # Set clip as AviSource
LanczosResize(720, 390)       # Resize to PAL square-pixel frame size
AddBorders(0, 0, 0, 0)                  
TextSub(Clip+".ssa", 25, 23.976)                 # TextSub("path\filename.ext"[, charset[, fps]])
AssumeFPS(25, 1, true)                 # Convert frame rate to PAL, also adjust audio
SSRC(44100)                                     # Restore audio sample

Some notes:
For the subs you have to install the vsfilter-plugin to avisynth:
http://www.avisynth.org/warpenterprises/

I found out I have to use ssa-subs, to be able to change the font-size.
Mostly you download srt-subs, I open them in Subtitleworkshop, save them in ssa format, then open the ssa-sub in Sub Station Alpha where you can adjust the font-size. If you don't need to change the fontsize you can also let vsfilter load srt-subs. The fps in the textsubline is the fps of the sub-file it has nothing to do with the resulting fps.

The LanczosResize(720, 390) line gives the output resolution. You have to do some math to get it. The resolution from an avi is always the display-resolution. I want to scale it to mvp-resolution:720x576 for me.

You can add borders to the movie if you want but I don't really need that because I choose aspect ratio adjustment on my tv.
however it can be nice to have a black border where the subs are blended in.

It's not a very userfriendly way to do it, but when you get the hack of it it's quite easy. And it works very well.
Afaik the mvp can play avs-scripts but as I recall only with the ffmpeg-option in config turned off and without trans2mvp.bat. That means it will use the mainconcept-decoder that is being installed by the hauppauge mvp appl. Although I've read posts from people who got it to work with ffmpeg aswell.

I found the ABatchScript: http://www.designfoto.nl/ABatchScript.htm quite handy.

Good luck, if you have questions just ask.

cya Hans

edit: I just want to add that I'm really an amateur at this, there will be a lot of things in my little routine that can be done better.