fastest avi to mpeg2 command line encoder?

[reven]

im trying to reduce the speed it takes to convert files in the "my videos" burning feature, so far ive been using ffmpeg to do the converting from non mpeg files, but it takes about an hour on my 2.6 ghz machine (1280mb ram) to convert a 2 hour movie.

thats fine if your watching it while you encode, but is mencoder faster?

is there another app that is faster?

i want the quality to still be good (since burning to dvd).

also can you supply the command line/params if you know them (saving me from having to find them )

oh and it would be good if you could specify the filesize, or if there was an option like -dvd that would convert a file to the correct single layer size (so you dont get a 8gb file to burn to a 4.7gb disc).

TIA

[pBS]

in my experience mencoder is faster...but usually with less quality....seems like they're not doing some filtering that ffmpeg is...for same exact options,ffmpeg would spit out better looking files.tho slower [approx same size files]
the roots are so similar the command options are exactly the same in some instances.. mencoder has more options tho...! so you can make tradeoffs in quality better... [and filters galore]
by far the fastest i've seen is the ATI avivo...but it's not controllable from commandline as far as i know...[tho i made a cheap little proggy that uses it with graphedit,just have to create your profile graph first..]
using a profile, allowed 'command input.file output.file'
i'm thinking that would be a little cheasey for your app tho...
if you could automate the real gui with auto-it or something similar that might work.. [have it control the interface]
it's about twice as fast as any i've seen..tho it has limits on bitrates etc,it does have built in profiles and fit-to-dvd..
[and does avi,psp,ipod,etc]
if not, mencoder is the way to go...
p.s. i got my dvd menus from the comand line working just polishing up and will post soon..

[reven]

how much faster do you think mencoder is?

like how long on your machine does ffmpeg take per hour of divx video and how long does mencoder take?

also how large is the mencoder.exe file? i think i read somewhere its part of mplayer, which is about 7megs, and i want to include it in the my vids installer (7megs might kill my monthly bandwidth).

[reven]

p.s. i got my dvd menus from the comand line working just polishing up and will post soon..

cool that will save some time aswell (didnt know you were the one looking in on this, you have a different display name on my forum )

[pBS]

i remember there was a re-quantizer out there somewhere...it works just like the dvdshrink compressor..and only on video..[but audio isn't a problem with other stuff] extremely fast...but requires de-muxed sources...
search for 'quantizer' or 'requantizer' and you should be able to find something..or 'compressed domain'..
i know there's a linux one that might be able to be ported...

it's really your best bet...completely command line...if you can find..
i'll give it a shot since i should be able to pipe that one also..
let me know if you find it tho...

[pBS]

mencoder is about 4 megs...if you get the whole mplayer mencoder package it's huge! it can be had seperately tho..for speed in fps i get about 40fps so that's about....the same...lol maybe 5-10 mins less at best..and much less quality/size..
if all you're using mplayer for is thumbnails,use ffmpeg instead..
i have an ffmpeg thumbs line if you want...

Code:

fmpeg -i %1 -y -sameq -f image2 -vframes 1 -ss 30 -s 360x240 "%~n1.jpg"

the program i use to add menus to completed dvd compilation is Titlewriter..
originally made to re-title [label] dvd's for changer use..
works liike a charm and i use dvdauthor to build the dummymenu and add that to the comand line made dvd.. dvdauthorgui makes a nice template..lol
chapters and all... tho very simple menus..no audio/extras...just thumbnails and titles...wish i could get the show info to add... any ideas?

[reven]

what does "titlewriter" create? (i found your friend with angel whatever on google during my searching )
does it alter the .ifo file? (or whatever file it is).

also what command do you then use with dvdauthor?

ill try the ffmpeg thumbnail command but last time i tried ffmpeg it took forever to generate a thumbnail for example 1:30:00 (1 hour 30 mins), since it had to manually seek to that point.

[reven]

yeah that ffmpeg thumb command is already for small -ss values, but if you want to get a thumbnail for 5400 (1hour 30 mins) it takes about that long to grab it

[pBS]

hmm,the -ss option should work for that...tho i noticed that too...
[it's supposed to skip...not play till then]
mencoder probably could do it too...[thumbs]
hey,i found a re-quantizer...does whole dvd's in 15-20 mins!
sifting thru the older versions till i have one that rocks..
seems it may be the same thing in Rejig..[same guy]
and i think Rejig has command line options...[also has mux/demux,ifo edit..]
still only works on m2v but should be nicest quality..
like dvdshrink,it has limitations on compression strength,as it's only compressing dct...[usually around 60-70% of orig. file] but Blazing fast! and pretty much perfect quality..i think it's like 64k .exe too...lol

for dvdauthor i just use it the way i told you before to make regular title only from command line, dvdauthor -o -t title.mpg then dvdauthor -o -T to make toc...resulting in a playable menuless dvd...then i make a regular dvd structure with menu,and tiny dummy vob titles with the .xml method..
then i use titlewriter to inject that menu into the original large movie dvd structure...yes,it looks at the original and edits the structure accordingly..
just allows me to make menu seperately from titles..both with dvdauthor..
menus with the .xml method as it's easier.. [like you]
i make the dummy vob's about 5 secs long with chapters every .2 secs..lol
and make the large movies with chapters where i want them..then titlewriter matches them up...
all graphics and thumbs done with gm and muxing with regular stuff...
i'll post a config.xml [main] and menu1.xml that i use to make seperate titleset titles with the xml..
you'd have to adjust to your background..
will post the compressor soon as i make sure it works and check out rejig..
oh,and have source for re-quant and rejig...

[reven]

that method sounds messy, and putting me off trying to do a hack for it....

i really want to do the piping from encoder straight to dvdauthor since it saves time and space (mostly time i care about, 200gbs hdd with always 30 gbs free on my end).

dvdauthor doesnt have a forum or anything so i cant really ask the developer about this, and there hasnt be any development on it in over a year...

it would be nice if there was a
dvdauthor -M menu.xml
switch, would make life easier.....