[MPlayer-users] How to use mencoder

[SMuelas]

Hello people of this great team,

I have a couple of questions related with mencoder. If I can find the
answer in DOCS, please tell me where and I will try to disturb no more.
(I have read the man page from Gabucino and the html page in DOCS.)
First I would say that in some testing I have done, mencoder is very
good (2pass, surely...). Now, from a practical point of view I don't
know how to do some simple things; for example:
I am trying to encode "The Godfather". The film is 168 min. long. How
must I encode it to be able to burn it in a couple of CD's. Must I
encode the film in its totality and then cut it by the middle (how!) or
is better to encode from the beginning to a certain point, and then from
this point to the end. In this last case, how to do: use the total
number of frames and separate "by frames" or by "time" and how. To know
the total number of frames, I must make a first pass and look at the
divx2pass.log (the one for The Godfather is 17993728). Is there any
other way to know the number of frames. Can it be approximated as 25fps
multiplied by the number of seconds of the film?. In "man" page, it
seems that there is a way of encoding a certain number of frames, with
the option "-frames <number>" but how to tell mencoder where to begin?

Last question: if I encode with a relation from X to Y of 16:9 a film
that is DVD'recorded with this relation, will it maintain the original
relation without putting any black bands ? (It seems logical, but...) 

The line to launch mencoder that I am using (with great results) is

mencoder -dvd $1 -ovc divx4 -oac mp3lame -divx4opts br=1300 -x 512 -y
288 -sws 2 -o godfather$1.avi -pass 1 (and "-pass 2" when finished).

Is this correct? Do you suggest anything to improve the already
excellent results?

If you have answered this same questions one thousand times, I apologize
and ask only for a hint about where to find the answers.

Have a nice time and be good boys. Life is something more than mplayer
(Not very much, but something...) 
-- 
Santiago Muelas (Depto. de Mecánica)         
http://w3.mecanica.upm.es/~smuelas
ETSI de Caminos, Canales y Puertos (U.P.M)    smuelas at mecanica.upm.es
Dr.Aranguren s/n - Ciudad Universitaria       Tf. 91 336 6659
MADRID 28040