Ubuntu Manpage: lavpipe - creates raw YUV streams from pipe list scripts

Provided by: mjpegtools_2.1.0+debian-6build1_amd64

NAME

       lavpipe - creates raw YUV streams from pipe list scripts

SYNOPSIS

       lavpipe [-o num] [-n num] pipe-list

DESCRIPTION

       lavpipe  reads a script file called 'pipe list' that is of a similar structure as the edit lists that can
       be fed into lav2yuv.  For info about the pipe list format see below.

       The pipe list defines several video sources and filters that are combined by lavpipe to produce a  single
       output  YUV  stream  on stdout (which for example can be compressed and stored to disk via mpeg2enc(1) or
       yuv2lav(1)).

OPTIONS

       The command line options are used to output a specific part of the resulting video  stream.   That  means
       you can tell lavpipe how many frames to skip and how many frames to deliver from that point on.

       -o num This  is  the frame offset of the output video. The first num frames of the resulting video simply
              are neither calculated nor written to stdout. This value defaults to 0.

       -n num This is the frame count. If the input files or streams defined in the pipe list  script  are  long
              enough,  the output will be of exactly num frames length. A value of 0 means that all frames until
              the last one as defined in the pipe list will be written out, as long as there's some input (0  is
              the default).

       pipe-list
              This is name of the pipe list file that lavpipe will 'execute'.  For information about this file's
              format see below.

       -?     Display a synopsis of the command syntax.

EXAMPLES

       lavpipe -o 100 -n 25 film.pli
              would calculate and output to stdout frames 100 to 124 as defined in film.pli (in PAL  this  would
              be the 5th second of the film).

       lavpipe input.pli | yuv2lav -q80 output.avi
              would save the movie assembled by lavpipe as a single AVI file.

USAGE

In this section the format of lavpipe's input files the pipe list scripts is explained. If you need some
examples or a more detailed tutorial, please read the mjpegtools(1) manpage's section about CREATING
MOVIE TRANSITIONS. and the file README.lavpipe that should be included in the distribution. Also feel
free to contact us via the mailing list (see below).

A pipe list contains of two parts: the YUV source list and after this, as many sequence descriptions as
wanted. It always begins with the following two lines:

LAV Pipe List
This is the first line in every pipe list script. It is used as a simple test if lavpipe really
was given a pipe list script and not your PhD thesis as input.

NTSC|PAL
This is the second line in every pipe list and can be either PAL or NTSC, depending on what video
standard you use. I don't remember if this is used at the moment.

Now follows the source list:

num This is the number of input commands. lavpipe will read the next num lines and interpret them as
input stream commands.

command (num times)
This is a valid command line with two variables $o and $n that will be replaced by lavpipe with
the offset and number of frames that the program has to output. Example:
lav2yuv -o $o -f $n input.avi

Thus, an example source list could look like this:
2
lav2yuv -o $o -f $n scene1.avi
lav2yuv -o $o -f $n scene2.avi

after this you can append as many sequence descriptions as needed. Each of them is built up as follows:

num The number of frames that this sequence will last.

num The number of inputs that will be used in this sequence. This number must of course be less than
or equal to the number of inputs that are defined above.

idx [ofs] (num times)
These are the indices to the sources that are defined at the beginning of the file (first source
is 0) with an optional frame offset (i.e. sequence starts with frame number ofs of this input.) -
this value defaults to 0. Example:
0 150

command
This is a valid command line to a YUV filter tool that reads num input streams and writes one
output stream, combining its inputs. Optionally, the filter tool can be given the two $o and $n
variables that will be replaced by lavpipe as in the source commands (see above). For further info
read README.lavpipe or the documentation for the filter programs (if available). An example filter
could look like this:
transist.flt -o 0 -O 255 -s $o -n $n -d 50
And if the sequence only has one input that simply should be copied to the output, you can use a
dash instead of a command line:
-

And here's an example for a complete pipe list that implements a transistion from scene1.avi to
scene2.avi

REMOVE THE COMMENTS AFTER The #

LAV Pipe List
PAL
2
lav2yuv -o $o -f $n scene1.avi
lav2yuv -o $o -f $n scene2.avi
50 # first sequence: 50 frames
1 # contains one input:
0 0 # scene1.avi, offset 0
- # simple output
25 # second sequence: 25 frames
2 # contains two inputs:
0 50 # scene1.avi, offset 50
1 # scene2.avi, offset 0
transist.flt -o 0 -O 255 -s $o -n $n -d 50 # transistion
50 # third sequence: 50 frames
1 # contains one input:
1 25 # scene2.avi, offset 25
- # simple output

BUGS

       I'm sure there are enough of them. lavpipe often accepts malformed pipe lists and then writes out a video
       that was all but intended - without warning.

       The  mention  of $n above is wrong. At one time there were two parameters but now a program is allowed to
       produce as many frames as it wants. THe author of the program hard coded, for reasons unknown, $n  to  be
       0.

NOTES

       There are also some serious limitations in the system, such as frame-by-frame processing. But as the goal
       when writing lavpipe was the simplicity of the pipeline, other tools will have to be written to  do  more
       interesting tasks.
       But  I  want  to note that it is very well possible to write a pipe list that combines several files, and
       then use that pipe list as an input for another pipe list by simply using  the  lavpipe  command  in  the
       source list (see above) - this can be already used to do some nice things, if you have some nice filters.

       Comments are NOT allowed in pipelist files. The comments (text after #) above are for illustration only.

AUTHOR

       This man page was written by Philipp Zabel.
       If  you  have  questions,  remarks, problems or you just want to contact the developers, the main mailing
       list for the MJPEG-tools is:
         mjpeg-users@lists.sourceforge.net

       For more info, see our website at
              http://mjpeg.sourceforge.net