[MPlayer-users] portable video format?

[Steve Kleene]

> I've been trying with mencoder 1.0-rc1-4.1.2 to make a widely compatible
> video for my web site and have struck out.

On Mon, 12 Feb 2007 10:09:19 +0100, Reimar Doeffinger replied:
> You really should have given the command-lines you used.

and on Mon, 12 Feb 2007 01:59:46 -0800, RC <rcooley at spamcop.net> replied:

> If it's video-only, you need to use -of rawvideo. Muxing to a PS with no
> audio track usually isn't playable.
> ... the command-lines you used would be the bare minumum to
> even guess what's wrong.

I'll try the rawvideo suggestion tonight.

Meanwhile, below are all 7 command lines I tried.

  test0.avi:  MPEG-4 codec, AVI container
  mencoder /dev/dvd -nosound -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4 \
    -endpos 10 -o test0.avi

  test1.mpg:  MPEG-1 codec, MPG container
  mencoder /dev/dvd -nosound -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg1video \
    -of mpeg -mpegopts format=mpeg1 -endpos 10 -o test1.mpg

  test2.flv:  FLV codec, FLV container (Flash video)
  mencoder /dev/dvd -nosound -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=flv \
    -of lavf -lavfopts i_certify_that_my_video_stream_does_not_use_b_frames\
    -endpos 10 -o test2.flv

  test3.asf:  WMV1 codec in an ASF container (Windows Media Video, v1)
  mencoder /dev/dvd -nosound -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=wmv1 \
    -of lavf -lavfopts i_certify_that_my_video_stream_does_not_use_b_frames\
    -endpos 10 -o test3.asf

  test4.asf:  WMV2 codec in an ASF container (Windows Media Video, v2)
  mencoder /dev/dvd -nosound -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=wmv2 \
    -of lavf -lavfopts i_certify_that_my_video_stream_does_not_use_b_frames\
    -endpos 10 -o test4.asf

  test5.rm:  RV20 codec in an RM container (RealVideo 2.0)
  mencoder /dev/dvd -nosound -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=rv20 \
    -of lavf -lavfopts i_certify_that_my_video_stream_does_not_use_b_frames\
    -endpos 10 -o test5.rm

  test6.avi:  raw stream (no encoding) in an AVI container
  mencoder /dev/dvd -nosound -ovc copy -endpos 10 -o test6.avi

These were all read raw from a DVD-RW recorded in VR mode.  There was no DVD
menu, so I couldn't select titles or chapters.  I did not specify any
encoding parameters other than the video codecs themselves.  In the last 4
cases, I included the option
  -lavfopts i_certify_that_my_video_stream_does_not_use_b_frames
because mencoder wouldn't run without it.  As I mentioned, all 7 output files
played fine with mplayer, but none played on all XP systems tested.

Thanks for your help.