[MPlayer-users] mencoder pal-m

[Paulo Cavalcanti]

Hi,

I have been copying some VHS tapes using mencoder (or watching
them with mplayer). My system is PAL-M.

If I use an NTSC tape, which is transformed to PAL-M at the output of my
VCR,
the image is fantastic. However, if the tape has been already recorded in
PAL-M,
the colors "blink" (every other frame is black and white, and some colors
like red or pink
are too strong).  Nonetheless to say that on a real TV the image is perfect.
Using either
xawtv or tvtime the colors do not "blink".

Is there anything I can do to use mencoder/mplayer with good colors in this
case?
I am using mplayer cvs version (March 25, 2006) on a Fedora core 4, and the
option below to capture (pixelview card - bttv driver):

-ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:vbitrate=1800

Another question. If I try to use xvid or divx, I get a lot of frame drops,
and buffer overflow after a few minutes:

-ovc xvid -xvidencopts bitrate=1800:me_quality=4:pass=1
or
-ovc divx4 -divx4opts br=1800 -ofps $FPS -sws 2

With lavc the result is pretty good, though (pentium 4, 2.8 HT, 2GB ram).

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

/Paulo Roma.