[MPlayer-users] advice on mencoder options

[HR]

> [mailto:mplayer-users-bounces at mplayerhq.hu] On Behalf Of anton
[...]
> I have been trying to get an "optimal" setting for most of my dvd 
> backups (not really interested in trying 5 different settings 
> with every 
[...]
> mencoder -ovc frameno -o frameno.avi -oac mp3lame -lameopts 
> abr:br=128 
> -aid 128 -endpos ??? movie???
Consider using vbr=4 for better sound. Then tune the quality with q= and
aq= to get an average of 128, since that's your preference. I'd guess
something like q=6 and aq=2 gets you close. q=5 might overshoot 128, but
this ofcourse depends on the input. Just add/subtract any spare/overshot
bits to vbitrate.

> mencoder -oac copy -o /dev/null -ovc lavc -lavcopts 
> vcodec=mpeg4:vbitrate=???:vhq:vpass=1:autoaspect -vf 
> crop=???:???:???:??? -endpos ??? movie???
> mencoder -oac copy -o ???.avi -ovc lavc -lavcopts 
> vcodec=mpeg4:vbitrate=???:vhq:vpass=2:autoaspect -vf 
> crop=???:???:???:?? 
> -endpos ??? movie???
Consider using some of the below options;
mbd=2 instead of vhq (mbd=1)
v4mv
precmp=2:cmp=2:subcmp=2
trell:cbp
mv0
tcplx_mask and/or scplx_mask along with naq

Rich also tipped me off to use hqdn3d in the filter chain, which was
indeed a very good advice. Thanks Rich!

[...]
> Most howtos seem to scale, but the mplayer documentation says 
> not to. I 
The documentation is incorrect, at least for DVD ripping purposes, as
has been pointed out before. You should propably -always- scale, for a
number of reasons, including but not limited to:
* You want the bpp above some sane value, which is impossible to control
w/o scaling unless you dont care about the size of your encodings and
use whatever bitrate is neccecary. In that case, you're better off
storing uncompressed .vobs, and even do some additional work and author
DVD replicas
* The aspect ratio cannot be stored in a mpeg4 encoding (mplayer can,
for it's own purposes, so I guess this claim can be argued over), ie. it
is propably wise to scale for a correct AR

Unless your encodings are only meant to be played with mplayer, ever,
scaling for AR is better than aspect/autoaspect option.

Just my opinions and ideas.

HR