h264enc

h264enc [-1p | -2p | -3p | -qp | -crf | -b | -e | -r | -sc | -scan | -iso | -spr | -mfr | -bpp | -bpb | -v | -help] [-p <preset>] [preset_file]

h264enc is an advanced and powerful interactive menu-driven shell script which uses the encoding utility MEncoder from the MPlayer project. The script can be used to encode DVDs, (S)VCDs or regular video files to the high-quality H.264 video format (also known as AVC (Advanced Video Coding) or MPEG-4 Part 10). At the moment, the script supports virtually all options of the libx264 library and a variety of audio codecs, including support for up to three DVD audio tracks muxed into the MKV/MP4/OGM/TS containers. h264enc is targeted primarily at power users or users who understand the process of video encoding and want to tweak their settings in order to achieve the best possible quality/file size of their encodes. For more information and a FAQ, visit http://h264enc.sourceforge.net

h264enc uses a configuration file stored in the user's home directory inside a hidden directory named as .h264enc where the user can enable or disable many of the supported audio/video filters and containers. This can reduce the time it takes to pass through the script when the user disables filters and/or containers he never intends to use. Further, the configuration file stores the paths to the required programs and a few other things like some script options, MPlayer flags and email support.

- MPlayer/MEncoder >= 1.0rc2 compiled with libx264 support (SVN highly recommended)
- libx264
- lsdvd
- dvdxchap from 'ogmtools' (for DVD chapter export)
- LAME (for MP3 audio encoding)
- FAAC (for AAC audio encoding)
- neroAacEnc (for AAC/AAC+ audio encoding)
- aacplusenc (for AAC+ audio encoding)
- oggenc (for Vorbis audio encoding)
- flac (for FLAC audio encoding)
- MP4Box from 'gpac' (for AVI -> MP4 container conversion)
- mkvtoolnix (for AVI -> MKV container conversion)
- ogmtools (for AVI -> OGM container conversion)
- tsMuxeR (for AVI -> TS container conversion)

-1p

Encode in 1-pass mode

-2p

Encode in 2-pass mode

-3p

Encode in 3-pass mode

-qp

Encode in fixed-quant mode

-crf

Encode in constant rate factor mode

<passmode> -p <preset> [-t <tune>] [-pf <profile>]

Use a predefined H.264 quality preset, where <passmode> is the desired encoding mode (-1p or -2p or -3p or -qp or -crf) and <preset> is the desired quality preset to use (see below). Note that the -t and -pf options only work with the x264 presets below! See examples at the end of this option.

-b /path/to/file/batchfile

Load a batch file generated by this script. This option can be useful for testing or debugging the MEncoder parameters and for batch encoding.

-e

Edit the config file from within the terminal. This option defaults to using the 'nano' text editor but one can manually set his preferred editor in the EDITOR variable of the config file. The config file is located in /home/username/.h264enc

-r

Reset configuration file. As of version 8.5.7, h264enc uses a configuration file which contains the paths to the programs needed for its correct operation. This option tells the script to remove and recreate the config file using the default values. It can be used to restore the original values of the config file in case the user has modified it and wants to get rid of those modifications. It is also used for resetting the config file in case the user has installed a required program after h264enc has generated its config file. If this is the case, the config file will not contain the path to the newly installed program so one has to reset the file in order to find it. This is because the config file is generated/updated only once: if it's not available on the user's system and during config version updates. The configuration file is located in /home/username/.h264enc/config

-sc

Perform a sanity check. This will check for the programs which are required for the correct operation of this script and it will print the status in a list. It will also display which audio codecs are supported by MEncoder.

-scan

Scan the DVD disc and display extensive information about it. With this option, one can display or export the information to a file on disk in text, perl, python, ruby or xml format.

-iso

Create an ISO image of the DVD disc. Note that this option does no do any stripping of specific titles, audio languages and/or subtitles. It dumps the DVD content 1:1 to an ISO image.

-spr

Calculate the Storage and Pixel Aspect Ratios (SAR/PAR) for various resolutions.

-mfr

Calculate the maximum allowed frame references within DPB (Decoded Picture Buffer) limits for different H.264 levels and resolutions.

-bpp

This is an informative option which lets you calculate the Bits Per Pixel (bpp) values for various resolutions. The bpp value represents how much bits each pixel gets. The higher the bpp value is, the more distinct colors the pixels will have which leads to a higher overall picture quality. Note that these values are not absolute! For video content with a lot of black in it, a bpp value of 0.14 may look very good. Video content with a lot of high motion scenes may still look bad with a bpp value of 0.20, so this really depends on the content you are willing to encode and the resolution you choose when scaling down.

-bpb

This option is similar to the -bpp one, except it calculates the Bits Per Block (bpb) values for various resolutions. The bpb value expresses how many bits each 16x16 macroblock gets. Good bpb values are between 37-52. As is the case with Bits Per Pixel, the bpb values are not absolute and depend on the video content you are willing to encode and the resolution you choose when scaling down.

-help

Display built-in help of the h264enc script and exit

-v

Display version of the h264enc script and exit

mencoder(1), lsdvd(1), dvdxchap(1), lame(1), oggenc(1), flac(1), mkvmerge(1), ogmmerge(1), mp4box(1)

h264enc was written by Grozdan Nikolov <neutrino8@gmail.com>

This manual page was written by the author of h264enc

Please send all bug reports and/or questions/suggestions to <neutrino8@gmail.com>

http://h264enc.sourceforge.net