Provided by: mjpegtools_2.1.0+debian-4_amd64 bug

NAME

       mjpegtools - An introduction to the MJPEG-tools

       Introduction

       I  wrote  this  things down, because I had many sheets with notes on them.  This should be
       some kind of summary of collected knowledge over a long period of  time.   Andrew  Stevens
       helped with encoding and VCD knowledge and hints.

       Mjpegtools is a set of programs that can do recording, playback, editing and eventual MPEG
       compression of audio and video under Linux.

       Although primarily intended for use with capture / playback  boards  based  on  the  Zoran
       ZR36067 MJPEG codec chip mjpegtools can easily be used to process and compress MJPEG video
       streams captured using xawtv using simple frame-buffer devices.

       The HOWTO for the tools intended to give an an introduction to  the  MJPEG-tools  and  the
       creation  of  MPEG  1/2  videos.  VCD,  SVCD  and DVD and the transcoding of existing mpeg
       streams.

       For more information about the programs read the corresponding man-page.

       Achtung es gibt auch eine deutsche Version bei:

       There is also a manpage of this text. You can read it with ”man mjpegtools” if  installed.
       We also have a info version you should be able to read it with info

       The  text version of this text is available via cvs. You should get it with the tarball or
       the precompiled package (RPM and deb).

       In the following picture you see the typical workflow when you  record  a  video,  cut  it
       afterwards  and  encode it. In the picture you also see the connections to other programs.
       These parts are in grey. The parts in blue can be done with the mjpegtools.

       Video encoding workflow

       Unsorted list of useful Hints

       You have to compile and install the  mjpeg_play  package,  for  this  read  the  README  &
       INSTALL.real an follow the hints from the configure script.  If you do not want to compile
       it, you can download the mjpeg .RPM or .DEB package at Sourceforge, or  if  available  use
       the one that comes with your distribution.

       There is a script in the scripts/ directory. This script is something that shows you a way
       it can be done. It also creates (under certain circumstances) videos that look quite good.
       Better videos you will only get by tuning the parameters.

       If  you  use  a Linux kernel from the 2.4 series you will usually have to load the drivers
       for the Buz or DC10 or LML33 cards. You have to run the update script providing as  option
       the  name  of  your  card  you have. The script is usually in /usr/src/driver-zoran/.  The
       zoran kernel driver below the kernel 2.4.4 do not  work.   You  have  to  use  the  driver
       available from:

       In the 2.6. Linux kernel is the driver for the zoran cards included, you just need to make
       sure that it is loaded correct. If you have a x64 machine and an kernel that is newer than
       2.6.30  we'd  be  happy to hear that you are able to record from the zoran based card. I'm
       not soure if that combination works.

       The driver for the Matrox Marvel card also works, more information about it:

       If you compile the tools on a P6 based computer (PPro,  P-II,  P-III,  P-4,  Athlon,Duron)
       then  never  try  to  let them run on a P5 based computer (Pentium, Pentium-MMX, K6, K6-x,
       Cyrix, Via, Winchip). You'll get a ”illegal instruction” and the program won't work.  That
       is the same for the newer CPU as well. If you use specific optimizations be aware of them.

       If  lav2yuv dumps core then one possible cause is no dv support was included. To enable it
       make sure that libdv is installed on the system.  This will be necessary if you are  using
       a digital camera (or analog to DV converter such as the Canopus ADVC100 and converting the
       dv avi format into the MPEG format.

       Start xawtv to see if you get an picture. If you want to use HW-playback of  the  recorded
       streams  you have to start xawtv (any TV application works) once to get the streams played
       back. You should also check the settings of your mixer in the sound card. If you use  v4l2
       you should give mplayer a try to watch the picture

       If  you  compile  the  tools  on  a  platform  other  than  Linux not all tools will work.
       Mjpegtools on a OS/X system for example will not have V4L (video4linux) capability.

       Never try to stop or start the TV application when lavrec runs. If you start or  stop  the
       TV  application lavrec will stop recording, or your computer could get ”frozen”. This is a
       problem of v4l (video4linux).

       This problem is solved with v4l2. If you use v4l2 you can record the video  and  stop  and
       start  the  tv  application  whenever you want.  But v4l2 is currently (7. Jan. 2003) only
       supported for the zoran based cards (BUZ, DC10, DC10+, LML33) if you use  the  CVS  driver
       from  mjpeg.sf.net  tagged  with  ZORAN_VIDEODEV_2.   And  this driver only works with the
       2.4.20 kernel and the 2.5.* development kernel.

       One last thing about the data you get before we start:

       Audio: ( Samplerate * Channels * Bitsize ) / (8 * 1024)
       CD Quality:(44100 Samples/sec * 2 Chanels * 16 Bit) / (8 * 1024)=172,2 kB/sec

       The 8 * 1024 convert the value from bit/sec to kByte/sec

       Video: (width * height * framerate * quality ) / (200 * 1024)
       PAL HALF Size : (352 * 288 * 25 * 80) / (200 * 1024) = 990 kB/sec
       PAL FULL size : (720 * 576 * 25 * 80) / (200 * 1024) = 4050 kB/sec
       NTSC HALF size: (352 * 240 * 30 * 80) / (200 * 1024) = 990 kB/sec
       NTSC FULL size: (720 * 480 * 30 * 80) / (200 * 1024) = 4050 kB/sec

       The 1024 converts the Bytes to kBytes. Not every card can record the size  mentioned.  The
       Buz  and  Marvel  G400  for example can only record a size of 720x576 when using -d 1, the
       DC10 records a size of 384x288 when using -d 2.

       When you add audio and video datarate this is what your hard disk has to be able to  write
       constantly streaming, else you will have lost frames.

       If  you  want  to play with the --mjpeg-buffer-size. Remember the value should be at least
       big enough that one frame fits in it. The size of one frame is: (width * height *  quality
       )  /  (200  * 1024) = kB If the buffer is too small the rate calculation doesn't match any
       more and buffer overflows can happen. The maximum value is 512kB.

       How video works and the difference between the video types is explained here:

       There you also find how to create MPEG Still Images for VCD/SVCD.

       A good description of DV (Digital Video) can be found here:

Some books we found usefull

       written in English:

       Digital Video and HDTV by Charles Poyton (ISBN 1-55860-792-7)

       Digital Video Compression by Peter Symes (ISBN 0-07-142487-3)

       Video Demystified by Keith Jack (ISBN 1-878707-56-6)

       written in German:

       Fernsehtechnik von Rudolf Maeusl (ISBN 3-7785-2374-0)

       Professionelle Videotechnik -  analoge  und  digitale  Grundlagen  von  U.  Schmidt  (ISBN
       3-540-43974-9)

       Digitale Film- und Videotechnik von U. Schmidt (ISBN 3-446-21827-0)

       If you know some other really good book about that, write us!

       Recording videos

lavrec examples

       Recording with lavrec looks like this:

       > lavrec -f a -i P -d 2 record.avi

       Should start recording now,

       -f a

       use AVI as output format,

       -i P

       use as input source the SVHS-In with PAL format,

       -d 2

       the size of the pictures are half size (352x288)

       record.avi

       name of the created file.

       Recording  is  finished by pressing Ctrl-C (on German Keyboards: Strg-C).  Sometimes using
       -f A instead of -f a might be necessary

       Other example:

       > lavrec -f q -i n -d 1 -q 80 -s -l 80 -R l -U record.avi

       Should start recording now,

       -f q

       use Quicktime as output format,

       -i n

       use Composite-In with NTSC format,

       -d 1

       record pictures with full size (640x480)

       -q 80

       set the quality to 80% of the captured image

       -s

       use stereo mode (default mono)

       -l 80

       set the recording level to 80% of the max during recording

       -R l

       set the recording source to Line-In

       -U

       With this lavrec uses the read instead of mmap for recording this is needed if your  sound
       card does not support the mmap for recording.

       Setting  the  mixer  does  not work with every sound card.  If you record with 2 different
       settings and both recordings are equally loud you should setup  the  mixer  with  a  mixer
       program.  After that you should use the -l -1 option when you record using lavrec

       The  size  of  the  image  depends on the card you use.  At full size (-d 1) you get these
       image sizes: BUZ and LML33: 720x576, the DC10 and DC30: 768x576

       Other example:

       > lavrec -w -f a -i S -d 2 -l -1 record%02d.avi

       Should start recording,

       -w

       Waits for user confirmation to start (press enter)

       -f a

       use AVI as output format,

       -i S

       use SECAM SVHS-Input (SECAM Composite recording is also possible: -i s)

       -d 2

       the size of the pictures are half size

       -l -1

       do not touch the mixer settings

       record%02d.avi

       Here lavrec creates the first file named record00.avi after the file has reached a size of
       1.6GB  (after  about 20 Minutes recording) it starts a new sequence named record01.avi and
       so on till the recording is stopped or the disk is full.  With the release  of  the  1.9.0
       Version  mjpegtools is able to handle AVI files larger than 2GB. So that option is present
       for compatibility.

       Other example:

       > lavrec -f a -i t -q 80 -d 2 -C europe-west:SE20 test.avi

       Should start recording now,

       -f a

       use AVI as output format,

       -i t

       use tuner input,

       -q 80

       set the quality to 80% of the captured image

       -d 2

       the size of the pictures are half size (352x288)

       -C

       choose TV channels, and the corresponding  -it  and  -iT  (video  source:  TV  tuner)  can
       currently  be used on the Marvel G200/G400 and the Matrox Millenium G200/G400 with Rainbow
       Runner extension (BTTV-Support is under construction). For more information on how to make
       the TV tuner parts of these cards work, see the Marvel/Linux project on:

       Last example:

       > lavrec -f a -i p -g 352x288 -q 80 -s -l 70 -R l --software-encoding test03.avi

       The  two  new options are -g 352x288, which sets the size of the video to be recorded when
       using --software-encoding, this enables the software encoding of the recorded images. With
       this  option  you can also record from a bttv based card. The processor load is high. This
       option only works for generic video4linux  cards  (such  as  the  brooktree-848/878  based
       cards), it doesn't work for zoran-based cards.

Other recording hints

       All lavtools accept a file description like file*.avi so you do not have to name each file
       but that is a posibility.

       Note: More options are described in the man-page, but with this you should be able to  get
       started.

       Here  are  some  hints  for  sensible  settings.  Turn the quality to 80% or more for -d 2
       capture. At full resolution as low as 40% seems to be visually ”perfect”. -d 2 is  already
       better  than VHS video (a *lot*!). For a Marvel you should not set the quality higher than
       50 when you record at full size (-d 1). If you use higher settings  (-q  60)  it  is  more
       likely  that  you  will encounter problems. Higher settings will result in framedrops.  If
       you're aiming to create VCD's then  there  is  little  to  be  gained  recording  at  full
       resolution as you need to reduce to -d 2 resolution later anyway.

       you  can  record  at other sizes than the obvious -d 1/2/4. You can use combinations where
       you use halve horizontal size and full vertical size: -d 21.  This would record  for  NTSC
       at  a  size of 352x480. This helps if you want to create SVCDs, scaling the 352 Pixles put
       to 480 is not that visible for the eye as if you would use the other  combination  -d  12.
       Where  you  have  the full horzontal resolution and half vertical this Version will have a
       size of 720x288 for NTSC

Some information about the typical lavrec output while recording

       0.06.14:22 int: 00040 lst:0 ins:0 del:0 ae:0 td1=0.014 td2=0.029

       The first part shows the time lavrec is recording.  int: the interval between two  frames.
       lst: the number of lost frames. ins and del: are the number of frames inserted and deleted
       for sync correction. ae: number of audio errors.  td1 and td2 are  the  audio/video  time-
       difference.

       (int)  frame  interval  should  be  around  33  (NTSC)  or  40  (PAL/SECAM). If it is very
       different, you'll likely get a bad recording and/or many lost frames

       (lst) lost frames are bad and  mean  that  something  is  not  working  very  well  during
       recording  (too  slow HD, too high CPU usage, ...) Try recording with a greater decimation
       and possibly a lower quality.

       (ins, del) inserted OR deleted frames of them are normal → sync. If you have many lost AND
       inserted  frames,  you're  asking too much of your machine.  Use less demanding options or
       try a different sound card.

       (ae) audio errors are never good. Should be 0

       (td1, td2) time differenceis always floating around 0, unless sync correction is  disabled
       (--synchronization!=2, 2 is default).

Notes about ”interlace field order - what can go wrong and how to fix it”

       Firstly, what does it mean for interlace field order to be wrong?

       The  mjpegtools  image processing chain is frame-oriented. Since it is video material that
       is captured each frame comprised of a top field (the 0th, 2nd, 4th and  so  lines)  and  a
       bottom field (the 1st, 3rd, 5th and so on lines).

       There are three bad things that can happen with fields

       This  is  really  only an issue for movies in PAL video where each film frame is sent as a
       pair of fields. These can be sent top or bottom field first and sadly it's not always  the
       same,  though  bottom-first appears to be usual. If you capture with the wrong field order
       (you start capturing each frame with a bottom rather than a top or vice versa) the  frames
       of  the  movie  get  split  *between* frames in the stream. Played back on a TV where each
       field is displayed on its own this is harmless. The sequence  of  fields  played  back  is
       exactly  the  same  as  the sequence of fields broadcast. Unfortunately, playing back on a
       Computer monitor where both fields of a frame appear at once it looks  *terrible*  because
       each frame is effectively mixing two moments 1/25sec apart in time.

       The  two  fields can simply be swapped somehow so that top gets treat as bottom and bottom
       treat as top. Juddering and ”slicing” is the result. This occasionally seems to happen due
       to hardware glitches in the capture card.

       Somewhere  in capturing/processing the *order* in time of the two fields in each frame can
       get mislabeled somehow. This is not good as it means that when playback  eventually  takes
       place  a  field  containing  an image sampled earlier in time comes after an image sampled
       later.  Weird ”juddering” effects are the results.

       How can I recognize if I have one of these Problems ?

       This can be hard to spot. If you have mysteriously flickery pictures during  playback  try
       encoding  a snippet with the reverse field-order forced (see below). If things improve you
       know what the problem was and what the solution is!

       The two fields can simply be swapped somehow so that top gets treat as bottom  and  bottom
       treat as top. Juddering and ”slicing” is the result. This occasionally seems to happen due
       to hardware glitches in the capture card. That problem looks like that:

       Interlacing problem

       Somewhere in capturing/processing the *order* in time of the two fields in each frame  can
       get  mislabeled  somehow. This is not good as it means that when playback eventually takes
       place a field containing an image sampled earlier in time comes  after  an  image  sampled
       later. Weird ”juddering” effects are the result.

       If  you  use  glav  or  lavplay  be  sure  that you also use the -F/--flicker option. This
       disables some things that improve the picture.

       If you want to look at the video you can also use yuvplay:

       > lav2yuv  ...  yuvplay

       If there is a field order problem you should see it with yuvplay.

       How can you fix it?

       To fix this one the fields need to be ”shifted” through the frames.  Use  yuvcorrect's  -T
       BOTT_FORWARD/TOP_FORWARD to shift the way fields are allocated to frames. You can find out
       the current field order for an MJPEG file by looking at  the  first  few  lines  of  debug
       output from: > lav2yuv -v 2 the_mjpeg_file > /dev/null Or re-record exchanging -f a for -F
       A or vice-versa.

       This isn't too bad either. Use a tool that simply swaps the top and bottom fields a second
       time. yuvcorrect can do this use the -T LINE_SWITCH.

       Is  easy  to  fix.  Either  tell a tool someplace to relabel the fields or simply tell the
       player to play back in swapped order (the latter  can  be  done  ”indirectly”  by  telling
       mpeg2enc  when  encoding  to  reverse the flag (-z b│t) that tells the decoder which field
       order to use.

       In order to determine exactly what type of interlacing  problem  you  have,  you  need  to
       extract some frames from the recorded stream and take a look at them:

       > mkdir pnm
       > lav2yuv -f 40 video.avi │ y4mtoppm │ pnmsplit - pnm/image%d.pnm
       > rm pnm/image?.pnm
       > cd pnm
       > xv

       First  we  create a directory where we store the images. The lav2yuv -f 40 writes only the
       first 40 frames to stdout. The program y4mtoppm converts the frames to pnm images and  the
       pnmsplit splits the picture into two frames in the picture to two single pictures. Then we
       remove the first 10 images because pnmsplit does not support the %0xd numbering. Without a
       leading  zero  in  the  number,  the  files  will be sorted in the wrong order, leading to
       confusing playback.

       Use your favorite graphic program (xv for example) to view the pictures. As  each  picture
       only  contain  one field out of two they will appear scaled vertically. If you look at the
       pictures you should see the movie slowly advancing.

       If you have a film you should always see 2 pictures that are nearly the same (because  the
       film  frame  is  split into two field for broadcasting) after each other.  You can observe
       this easily if you have comb effects when you pause the film because both fields  will  be
       displayed  at  the  same  time.  The two pictures that belong together should have an even
       number and the following odd number. So if you take a look on pictures: 4 and 5 are nearly
       identical, 5 and 6 differ (have movement), 6 and 7 identical, 7 and 8 differ , ....

       To  fix  this problem you have to use yuvcorrect's -T BOTT_FORWARD or TOP_FORWARD. You can
       also have the problem that the field order (top/bottom) is still wrong. You  may  have  to
       use yuvcorrect a second time with -M LINE_SWITCH, or use the mpeg2enc -z (b│t) option.

       To  see  if  you  guessed  correctly  extract  the  frames  again  and  reorder them using
       yuvcorrect:

       > lav2yuv -f 40 video.avi  yuvcorrect -T OPTION  y4mtoppm  pnmsplit - pnm/image%d.pnm

       Where ”OPTION” is what you think will correct the problem.  This is for material converted
       from film. Material produced directly for TV is addressed below.

       Hey, what about NTSC movies ?

       Movies are broadcast in NTSC using ”3:2” pulldown which means that half the capture frames
       contain fields from 1 movie frame and half fields from 2 frames. To undo this  effect  for
       efficient MPEG encoding you need to use yuvkineco.

       If  you have an interlaced source like a TV camera you have a frame consists of two fields
       that are recorded at different points in time.  Spotting the problem here is  harder.  You
       need  to  find  something moving horizontally from the left to the right. When you extract
       the fields, the thing should move in small steps from the left to the right, not one large
       step  forward,  small step back, large forward, small back......  You have to use the same
       options mentioned aboth to correct the problem.

       Do not expect that the field order is always the same (top- or bottom-first) It may change
       between  the  channels,  between  the  films,  and it may even change within a film. If it
       changes constant you may have to encode with the mpeg2enc -I 1 or even -I 2.

       You can only have this problems if you record at full size !!!

       Creating videos from other sources

       Here are some hints and descriptions of how to create the videos from other  sources  like
       images and other video types.

       You  might  also  be  interested  in  taking  a look at the Transcoding of existing MPEG-2
       section.

Creating videos from images

       You can use jpeg2yuv to create a yuv stream from separate JPEG images. This stream is sent
       to  stdout,  so  that it can either be saved into a file, encoded directly to a mpeg video
       using mpeg2enc or used for anything else.

       Saving an yuv stream can be done like this:

       > jpeg2yuv -f 25 -I p -j image%05d.jpg > result.yuv

       Creates the file result.yuv containing the yuv video data with 25 FPS. The  -f  option  is
       used  to  set  the frame rate. Note that image%05d.jpg means that the jpeg files are named
       image00000.jpg, image00001.jpg and so on. (05 means five digits,  04  means  four  digits,
       etc.)  The  -I p is needed for specifing the interlacing. You have to check which type you
       have.  If you don't have interlacing just choose p for progressive

       If you want to encode a mpeg video directly from jpeg images  without  saving  a  separate
       video file type:

       > jpeg2yuv -f 25 -I p -j image%05d.jpg  mpeg2enc -o mpegfile.m1v

       Does  the  same  as  above  but  saves  a mpeg video rather than a yuv video. See mpeg2enc
       section for details on how to use mpeg2enc.

       You can also use yuvscaler between jpeg2yuv and mpeg2enc. If you want  to  create  a  SVCD
       from your source images:

       > jpeg2yuv -f 25 -I p -j image%05d.jpg  yuvscaler -O SVCD   mpeg2enc -f 4 -o video.m2v

       You  can  use  the  -b  option to set the number of the image to start with. The number of
       images to be processed can be specified with the -n number. For  example,  if  your  first
       image  is  image01.jpg rather than image00.jpg and you only want 60 images to be processed
       type:

       >jpeg2yuv -b 1 -f 25 -I p -n 60 -j image*.jpg  yuv2lav -o stream_without_sound.avi

       Adding the sound to the stream then:

       > lavaddwav stream_without_sound.avi sound.wav stream_with_sound.avi

       For ppm input there is the ppmtoy4m util. There is a manpage for ppmtoy4m that  should  be
       consulted for additional information.

       To create a mpeg video try this:

       >cat *.ppm  ppmtoy4m -o 75 -n 60 -F 25:1  mpeg2enc -o output.m1v

       cat each *.ppm file to ppmtoy4m. There the first 75 frames (pictures) are ignored and next
       60 are encoded by mpeg2enc to output.m1v. You can run it without the -o and -n option. The
       -F   options sets the frame rate, default is NTSC (30000:1001), for PAL you have to use -F
       25:1.

       Other picture formats can also be used if there is a converter to ppm.

       >ls *.tga  xargs -n1 tgatoppm  ppmtoy4m  yuvplay

       A list of filenames (ls *.tga) is given to xargs that executes the tgatoppm with  one  (-n
       1)  argument  per  call,  and feeds the output into ppmtoy4m.  This time the video is only
       shown on the screen. The xargs is only needed if the converter (tgatoppm) can only operate
       on a single image at a time.

       If you want to use the ImageMagick 'convert' tool (a Swiss Army Knife) try:

       >convert *.gif ppm:-  ppmtoy4m  yuvplay

       That  means  take  all  '.jpg' images in directory, convert to PPM format, pipe to stdout,
       then to ppmtoy4m for conversion to y4m ....

Decoding streams with mplayer

       Decoding the streams with mplayer is a nice way of bringing every video that  mplayer  can
       play  back  to  something  you can edit or encode to mpeg with mjpegtools. This method has
       been tested with mplayer 1.0rc2 and should work with newer versions

       >mkfifo stream.yuv

       >cat stream.yuv  yuv2lav -o mjpeg_wo.avi &

       >mplayer -nosound -noframedrop -vo yuv4mpeg anyfile.mpg

       >mplayer -vo null -ao pcm:file=anyfile.wav anyfile.mpg

       Now you have an example of a mjpeg encoded  AVI  without  sound.  The  sound  will  be  in
       anyfile.wav.  You  can  choose  if you want to add the sound to the AVI with lavaddwav and
       edit the file before encoding.

       You can also use instead of yuv2lav, mpeg2enc or any other tool from the  mjpeg  tools  so
       your command might also look like that:

       > cat stream.yuv  yuvdenoise  yuvscaler -O SVCD  mpeg2enc -f 4 -o video_svcd.m2v

       cat the wav file into mp2enc to encode it to MP2 audio. The -vo yuv4mpeg option works well
       with other input types mentioned in the mplayer documentation.

Decoding MPEG-2 streams with mpeg2dec

       You can decode mpeg2 streams with the patched mpeg2dec version which creates yuv  streams.
       You  can  pipe  that  into  any  other  mjpegtools program.  Or you use a mpeg2dec version
       directly from the libmpeg2  project and use the output mode  pgmpipe.  With  the  pgmtoy4m
       program you can convert that pgm output back to yuv.

       If  you  ask yourself why there is a patched version and pgmtoy4m.  The answer is that the
       patch for yuv output was sent several times to  the  libmpeg2  developers  but  was  never
       included.  Now we have two ways around that problem. Decoding looks like this:

       >  mpeg2dec -s -o pgmpipe ANYTS.VOB  pgmtoy4m -i t -a 10:11 -r 30000:1001  mpeg2enc -f 8
       newvideo.m2v

       You can decode the audio as described in the Transcoding of existing MPEG-2 Section.

Other things to know

       If you have Transport streams from your DVB card, or Satelite Receiver you might  want  to
       demultiplex or cut them. A nice tool for that is Project X available from:

       You  can  process  the  streams  afterwards  as  you  would  do  with  any  mpeg  movie or
       demultiplexed audio video. So the Transcoding of existing MPEG-2 section of this  document
       will be of interest.Checking if recording was successful

       You  can  use  lavplay or glav. IMPORTANT: NEVER try to run xawtv and lavplay or glav with
       hardware playback, it will not work. For software playback it works fine.

       >lavplay -p S record.avi

       You should see the recorded video and hear the sound. But the decoding  of  the  video  is
       done by the CPU which will place a heavy load on the system.  The advantage of this method
       is you don't need xawtv.

       The better way:

       >lavplay -p H record.avi

       The video is decoded and played by the hardware. The system load is very low.   This  will
       play it back on-screen using the hardware rather than software decoding.

       You might also try:

       > lavply -p C record.avi

       Which will play it back using the hardware but to the video output of the card.

       > glav record.avi

       Does  the  same  as lavplay but you have an nice GUI. The options for glav and lavplay are
       nearly the same. Using no option SW playback is used.

       Using hardware playback a signal for the Composite and SVHS OUT is generated  so  you  can
       view the movie on your TV.

       > lav2yuv test.eli  yuvplay

       Is  a  other  way to get the video without sound. You can use yuvplay once in the encoding
       command. When you use yuvplay in the encoding command you see the changes made by  filters
       and scaling. You can also use it for slow-motion debugging.

       NOTE: After loading the driver's you have to start xawtv to set up some things lavplay and
       glav do not, but they are needed for HW-Playback. Don't forget to close xawtv !!

       NOTE2: Do not try to send glav an lavplay into background, wont work correct !!!

       NOTE3: SECAM playback is now (12.3.2001) only in monochrome but the recording and encoding
       is done right.

       NOTE4:Bad cables may reduce the quality of the image. Normally you can't see this but when
       there is text you might notice a small shadow. When you see this  you  should  change  the
       cable.

       Coming  soon:  There  is a tool which makes recoding videos very simple: Linux Studio. You
       can download it at:

       Edit the video

Edit with glav

       Most tasks can be easily done by glav. Like deleting parts of the  video,  cut  paste  and
       copy parts of the videos.

       glav button description

       The modifications should be saved because glav does not destructively edit the video. This
       means that the original video is left untouched and the modifications are kept in an extra
       ”Edit  List”  file readable with a text editor. These files can be used as an input to the
       other lavtools programs such as lav2wav, lav2yuv, lavtrans.

       If you want to cut off the beginning and the end of the stream mark the beginning and  the
       and,  and  use  the ”save select” button. The edit list file is than used as input for the
       lavtools. If you want to split a recorded video to some smaller parts  simply  select  the
       parts and then save each part to a different listfile.

       You  can  see  all  changes  to the video and sound NOW and you do not need to recalculate
       anything.

       If you want to get a "destructive" version of your edited video use:

       > lavtrans -o short_version.avi -f a editlist.eli

       -o

       specifies the output name

       -f a

       specifies the output format (AVI for example)

       editlist.eli

       is the list file where the modifications are described.  You generate the list  file  with
       the "save all" or ”save select” buttons in glav.

Unify videos

       > lavtrans -o stream.qt -f q record_1.avi record_2.avi ... record_n.avi

       -o

       specifies the outputfile name

       -f q

       specifies the output format, quicktime in this case

       This is usually not needed. Keep in your mind that there is a 2GB file-size-limit on 32Bit
       systems with an older glibc. Usually not a problem these days

Separate sound

       > lavtrans -o sound.wav -f w stream.avi

       Creates a wav file with the sound of the stream.avi Maybe needed if  you  want  to  remove
       noise or if you want to convert it to another sound format.

       Another way to split the sound is:

       > lav2wav editlist.eli >sound.wav

Separate images

       >mkdir jpg; lavtrans -o jpg/image%05d.jpg -f i stream.avi

       First  create  the directory ”jpg”. Then lavtrans will create single JPG images in the jpg
       directory  from  the  stream.avi  file.  The  files   will   be   named:   image00000.jpg,
       image00001.jpg ....

       The  jpg  images  created contain the whole picture. But if you have recorded at full size
       the images are stored interlaced. Usually the picture viewers show only the first field in
       the jpg file.

       If you want to have the image in a single file you can use that version

       > lav2yuv -f 1 stream.avi  y4mtoppm -L >file.pnm

       If you want to split the fields into single files use that:

       >  lav2yuv -f 5 ../stream.avi  y4mtoppm  pnmsplit - image%d.pnm

       Maybe interesting if you need sample images and do not want to play around with grabbing a
       single image.

Creating movie transitions

       Thanks to Philipp Zabel's lavpipe we can now make simple  transitions  between  movies  or
       combine multiple layers of movies.

       Philipp wrote this HOWTO on how to make transitions:

       Let's  assume  simple  this scene: We have two input videos intro.avi and epilogue.mov and
       want to make intro.avi transition into epilogue.mov with a duration of one second (that is
       25 frames for PAL or 30 frames for NTSC).

       Intro.avi  and  epiloque.mov  have  to  be  of  the  same  format (the same frame rate and
       resolution). In this example they are both  352x288  PAL  files.  intro.avi  contains  250
       frames and epilogue.mov is 1000 frames long.

       Therefore our output file will contain:

       the first 225 frames of intro.avi

       a  25  frame transition containing the last 25 frames of intro.avi and the first 25 frames
       of epilogue.mov

       the last 975 frames of epilogue.mov

       We could get the last 25 frames of intro.avi by calling:

       >lav2yuv -o 225 -f 25 intro.avi

       -o 255, the offset, tells lav2yuv to begin with frame # 225 and
        -f 25 makes it output 25 frames from there on.

       Another possibility (because negative offsets are counted from the end)is:

       > lav2yuv -o -25 intro.avi

       And the first 25 frames of epilogue.mov:

       > lav2yuv -f 25 epilogue.mov

       -o defaults to an offset of zero

       But we need to combine the two streams with lavpipe. So the call would be:

       > lavpipe ”lav2yuv -o 255 -f 25 intro.avi” ”lav2yuv -f 25 epilogue.mov”

       The output of this is a raw yuv stream that can be fed into transist.flt.

       transist.flt needs to be informed about the duration of the transition and the opacity  of
       the second stream at the beginning and at the end of the transition:

       -o num

       opacity of second input at the beginning [0-255]

       -O num

       opacity of second input at the end [0-255]

       -d num

       duration of transition in frames

       An  opacity  of  0  means  that  the  second  stream is fully transparent (only stream one
       visible), at 255 stream two is fully opaque.

       In our case the correct call (transition from stream 1 to stream 2) would be:

       > transist.flt -o 0 -O 255 -d 25

       The -s and -n parameters equate to the -o and -f parameters of lav2yuv and are only needed
       if  anybody  wants  to render only a portion of the transition for whatever reason. Please
       note that this only affects the weighting calculations -  none  of  the  input  is  really
       skipped.   If  you  use  the skip parameter (-s 30, for example) you also need to skip the
       first 30 frames in lav2yuv (-o 30) in order to get the  expected  result.  If  you  didn't
       understand  this  send  an  email  to  the  authors  or simply ignore -s and -n. The whole
       procedure will eventually be automated.

       Now we want to compress the yuv stream with yuv2lav:

       > yuv2lav -f a -q 80 -o transition.avi

       Reads the yuv stream from stdin and outputs an avi file (-f a) with compressed jpeg frames
       of quality 80.

       Now we have the whole command for creating a transition:

       >  ypipe ”lav2yuv -o 255 -f 25 intro.avi” ”lav2yuv -f 25 epilogue.mov”  transist.flt -o 0
       -O 255 -d 25  yuv2lav -f a -q 80 -o transition.avi

       The resulting video can be written as a LAV Edit List (a plain text file)  containing  the
       following lines:

       LAV Edit List
       PAL
       3
       intro.avi
       transition.avi
       epilogue.mov
       0 0 224
       1 0 24
       2 25 999

       This  file  can be fed into glav or lavplay, or you can pipe it into mpeg2enc with lav2yuv
       or combine the whole stuff into one single mjpeg file with lavtrans or lav2yuv│yuv2lav.

       Converting the stream to MPEG or DIVx videos

       First there is some general description in the encoding process and afterwards there is  a
       detailed description of some commonly used output formats.

       If  you  want  a  one  command  conversation  to  mpeg  videos try lav2mpeg in the scripts
       directory

       The encoding with the lav2mpeg script looks like this for mpeg1 output:

       >lav2mpeg -a 160 -b 2110 -d 320x240 -m mpeg1 -o output.mpg file.eli

       Will create a mpeg1 with videobitrate of 2110kBit/sec and audiobitrate of 160 kBit/sec

       at a resolution of 320x240

       Or for the generation of mpeg2 output:

       lav2mpeg -o mpeg2 -O output.mpg file.eli

       Will create a mpeg2 with default bitrate in same resolution as the input resolution

       Better results can be accomplished, however, by trying various options and find out  which
       ones work best for you. These are discussed below.

       The  creation  of  MPEG-1  movies  is  explained  with more examples and in greater detail
       because most of the things that can be used for MPEG-1 also  work  for  the  other  output
       formats

       For the creation of of VCD/SVCD Stills sequences (-f 6 / -f 7 in mpeg2enc) you should see:

       Still sequences are needed for the creation of menus in VCD/SVCD. The creation of menus is
       described in the doku of vcdimager.

Creating sound

       MPEG-1 videos need MPEG-1-Layer2  (MP2)  sound  files.  For  MPEG-2  videos  you  can  use
       MPEG-1-Layer2 and MPEG1-Layer3 (MP3). MP3 audio is not an offically valid audio format but
       many VCD players will recognize it.   MP3 audio is not valid for DVDs.  You  should  stick
       to  MP2  because  many  of the MPEG-2 players (DVD Player for example, usually the Windows
       Versions have great problems with this too) are not  able  to  play  MPEG2-Video  and  MP3
       sound.

       mp2enc  is  a  MP2 Audio encoder. The toolame encoder is also able to produce an MP2 file.
       Toolame is much faster than mp2enc but toolame does not peform resampling (48000 to  44100
       samples/second).   Many  hardware players will play SVCDs using 48000 rate audio.  For MP3
       creation I'm be sure you have an encoder.

       Example:

       > lav2wav stream.avi  mp2enc -o sound.mp2

       This creates a mpeg sound file out of the stream.avi with 224kBit/sec bitrate and a sample
       rate  of 48kHz. If you audio file has 44.1kHz mp2enc resamples the audio to create a 48kHz
       output. If you want a 44.1kHz output sample rate you have to add -r 44100  to  the  mp2enc
       command

       Example

       > cat sound.wav  mp2enc -v 2 -V -o sound.mp2

       This  creates  a  VCD (-V bitrate=224, stereo, sampling rate:44100) compatible output from
       the wav file.

       With -v 2 mp2enc is more verbose, while encoding you  see  the  number  of  sec  of  audio
       already encoded.

       You can test the output with:

       > plaympeg sound.mp2

       NOTE: plaympeg is a MPEG-1 Player for Linux, you can use other players as wellr. For audio
       testing you can also use mpg123. For both audio and video playing there are the  universal
       player like VLC mplayer and others.

Converting video

       Creating MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 videos.

       Normally  the first video you create is not the best. For optimal quality/size you need to
       play with the bitrate, search radius, noise  filter  ....  The  options  of  mpeg2enc  are
       described in the manpage of mpeg2enc.

       Example:

       lav2yuv stream.avi stream1.avi  mpeg2enc -o video.m1v

       This creates an video file with the default constant bitrate of 1152kBit/sec.  This is the
       bitrate you need if you want to create VCDs. You can specify more files and also  use  the
       placeholder  %nd.  Where n describes the number. By default mpeg2enc assumes that you want
       to encode a not interlaced video to Mpeg-1. If you want to encode a full size  video  with
       interlacing that command above will fail.

       Example:

       > lav2yuv streami%02d.avi  mpeg2enc -b 1500 -r 16 -o video.m1v

       mpeg2enc  creates  a  video with a bitrate of 1500kBit/s uses an search radius of 16. That
       means when trying to find similar 16*16 macroblocks of pixels between frames  the  encoder
       looks  up to 16 pixels away from the current position of each block. It looks twice as far
       when comparing frames 1 frame apart and so on. Reasonable values are 16 or 24. The default
       is  16  so  adding  the option here is useless.  Lower values (0, 8), improve the encoding
       speed but you get lower quality (more visible artifacts)  while  higher  values  (24,  32)
       improve  the quality at the cost of the speed. With the file description of stream%02d.avi
       all files are processed that match this pattern with 00, 01....

       Scaling

       Using yuvscaler one can now also scale the video before encoding it.  This can  be  useful
       for  users  with  a  DC10  or  DC10+  cards which captures at -d 1 768x576 or -d 2 384x288
       (PAL/SECAM) or -d 1 640x480 (NTSC).

       You get a full description of all commands by reading the manpage or running:

       >yuvscaler -h

       Example:

       > lav2yuv stream.avi  yuvscaler -O VCD  mpeg2enc -o video.m1v

       This will scale the stream to VCD size which for PAL/SECAM is  352x288  and  for  NTSC  is
       352x240. The scaled yuvstream is encoded to MPEG-1.

       It can also do SVCD scaling to 480x480 (NTSC) or 480x576 (PAL/SECAM):

       > lav2yuv stream.avi  yuvscaler -O SVCD -M BICUBIC  mpeg2enc -o video.m1v

       The  mode  keyword  (-M) forces yuvscaler to use the higher quality bicubic algorithms for
       downscaling and not the default resample algorithms. Upscaling is always  done  using  the
       bicubic algorithm.

       Example:

       >  lav2yuv  stream.avi    yuvscaler  -I  USE_450x340+20+30  -O SIZE_320x200  mpeg2enc -o
       video.m1v

       Here we only use a part of the input and specify a nonstandard output resolution.

       NOTE: yuvscaler can set a active  area,  and  set  everything  else  to  black  using:  -I
       ACTIVE_WidthxHeight+WidthOffset+HeightOffset High quality scaling: y4mscaler

       y4mscaler  has  been arround for quite some time. But it was for a quite long time a extra
       tool you needed to compile. There is a comprehensive manpage explaining all  the  details,
       there also a lot fo helpful information on the website:

       One  unique feature is that is it able to change the subsampling, and Choma Modes. And you
       can choose the scaler kernels, depending on the source that can help a lot.

       Example:

       > cat raw.yuv  y4mscaler -O infer=CLIP -O preset=DVD -O sar=PAL_Wide  mpeg2enc video.m1v

       In this example y4mscaler will take the input stream and scale it to the coresponding  PAL
       size. The sar option tell to scale is to a wide format (16:9).  The infer=clip option will
       tells y4mscaler that it can clip the top and bottom bars away to scale it to the resulting
       size.

       Example:

       >  mpeg2dec  -o  pgmpipe  deluxe.m2v     pgmtoy4m  -x 420jpeg -r 25:1 -i t  y4mscaler -I
       sar=64:36 -I active=344x476+100+48 -O preset=DVD  mpeg2enc -f 8 video.m1v

       This is a more the job for y4mscaler.  We have a weird PAL MPEG source format with 544x576
       pixels  in  a  wide  screen 16:9 format, that makes black bars all around the original 4:3
       image.  This command scales the image up to a  original  4:3  size,  and  takes  just  the
       interesting  center.   The SAR is the sample aspect ratio get lost somewhere so we specify
       it in the beginning.  So it is specified again, than you tell y4mscaller the  active  size
       of  the  picture  it  shall  use  to  scale up. The active keyword is treated different in
       y4mscaler and yuvscaler.  The DVD is a preset for the output format  you  want.  From  the
       stream  parameters  y4mscaler  knows that it is a PAL stream and the output parameters. If
       you wanted a 16:9 output you would have to use the keyword: DVD_WIDE.

       Testing is done by:

       > mplayer video.m1v

       NOTE:These are only examples. There are more options you can use. You can use most of them
       together to create high quality videos with the lowest possible bitrate.

       NOTE2:The higher you set the search radius the longer the conversion will take. In general
       the more options used the longer encoding takes.

       NOTE3:MPEG-1 was not designed to be a VBR (variable bitrate stream) !!  So if  you  encode
       with -q 15 mpeg2enc sets the maximal bitrate -b to 1152. If you want a VBR MPEG-1 you have
       to set -b very high (2500).

       NOTE4:Maybe you should give better names than video.mpg. A good idea is to use the options
       as  part of the filename (for example: video_b1500_r16_41_21.m1v).  Another possibility is
       to call all the layer 2 audio files ”.mp2” all the  MPEG-1  video  files  ”.m1v”  and  all
       MPEG-2  video files ”.m2v” Easy to see what's happening then. Reserve .mpg for multiplexed
       MPEG-1/2 streams.

Putting the streams together

       Example:

       > mplex sound.mp2 video.m1v -o my_video.m1v

       Puts the sound.mp2 and the video.m1v stream together to my_video.mpg

       Now you can use your preferred MPEG player and watch it. All  players  (gtv  for  example)
       based  on  the SMPEG library work well for MPEG-1. Other players (which can play MPEG-2 as
       well as MPEG-1 movies) are: xmovie, xine, and MPlayer VLC, to name some.

       NOTE: If you have specified the -S option for mpeg2enc mplex will automatically split  the
       files  if  there  is  in  the  output  filename a %d (looks like: -o test%d.mpg) The files
       generated this way are separate stand-alone MPEG steams!

       NOTE2: xine might have a problem with seeking through videos.  mplayer has a problem  with
       the  ”seek  backward/forward” with variable bitrate streams because it goes forward in the
       file the amount of data for a constant bitrate stream. That amount might be  significantly
       more  than  10 seconds or one minute (those are the amount mplayer seeks for each press of
       the arrow keys). So don't wonder if it seeks much more time forward or backward  than  you
       expect.

       Variable  bit-rate multiplexing: Remember to tell mplex you're encoding VBR (-V option) as
       well as mpeg2enc (see the example scripts). It *could* auto-detect but it is  not  working
       yet.  You should tell mplex a video buffer size at least as large as the one you specified
       to ”mpeg2enc” Sensible numbers for MPEG-1 might be  a  ceiling  bit-rate  of  2800Kbps,  a
       quality ceiling (quantization floor) of 6 and a buffer size of 400K.

       Example:

       > mplex -V -r 1740 audio.mp2 video_vbr.m1v -o vbr_stream.mpg

       Here  we  multiplex  a  variable  bitrate stream. mplex is a single pass multiplexer so it
       can't detect the maximal bitrate and we have to specify it. The data rate for  the  output
       stream  is:  audio  bitrate + peak videobitrate + 1-2% for mplex information. If audio (-b
       224) is 224kBit and the video is 1500kBit (encoded with -b 1500 -q 9) then we have 1724  *
       1.01 or about 1740kBit.

       Example:

       > plaympeg my_video.mpg

       or

       > mplayer my_video.mpg

Creating MPEG-1 Videos

       For  MPEG-1  videos  you can use MP2 audio and MPEG-1 video. A subset of MPEG-1 movies are
       VCD's. You can use VBR (Variable BitRate) for the Video (although VCDs are  almost  always
       use CBR video) but the Audio has to be CBR (Constant BitRate).

       MPEG-1  is  recommended  for  picture sizes up to 352x288 for PAL and 352x240 for NTSC for
       larger sizes MPEG-2 is the better choice.  There is no exact resolution  where  MPEG-1  is
       better  than  MPEG-2.   Just to make soure, MPEG-1 can't handle interlaced sources. If you
       video is interlaced you need MPEG-2 to get it proper encoded.

       MPEG-1 Audio creation Example

       > lav2wav editlist.eli  mp2enc -r 44100 -o sound.mp2

       You can save some bits by telling mp2enc to use a lower bitrate (-b option)  like  160  or
       192 kBit/s.  The -r 44100 option forces mp2enc to generate a 44.1kHz audio file.

       > lav2wav editlist.eli  mp2enc -b 128 -m -o sound.mp2

       This creates a mono output with an bitrate of 128kBit/sec bitrate.  The input this time is
       the editlistfile (can have any name) created with glav so all changes you made in glav are
       direct  processed  and  handed over to mp2enc.  You do NOT have to create an edited stream
       with lavtrans to get it converted properly.

       MPEG-1 Video creation example

       > lav2yuv editlist.eli  mpeg2enc -b 2000 -r 24 -q 6 -o video.m1v

       mpeg2enc creates an video with an bitrate of 2000kBit/s (or 2048000Bit/s) but the -q  flag
       activates the variable bitrate and a quality factor of 6. It uses a search radius of 24.

       Explanation:when  mpeg2enc  is  invoked without the 'q' flag it creates ”constantbit-rate”
       MPEG streams. Where (loosely speaking) the strength  of  compression  (and  hence  picture
       quality)  is  adjusted  to  ensure  that  on  average  each frame of video has exactly the
       specified number of bits. Such constant bit-rate streams are needed for  broadcasting  and
       for low-cost hardware like DVD and VCD players which use slow fixed-speed player hardware.

       Obviously  this  is  fairly inefficient as it means inactive scenes use up bits that could
       better be ”spent” on rapidly changing scenes.  Setting the  'q'  flag  tells  mpeg2enc  to
       generate  variable bit-rate streams. For such streams the bit-rate specified is simply the
       maximum permissible. The 'q' parameter specifies the minimum degree of compression  to  be
       applied  by specifying how exactly picture information is recorded. Typically 'q' would be
       set so that quiet scenes would use less than the specified maximum (around  6  or  8)  but
       fast  moving  scenes  would  still  be  bit-rate  limited. For archival purposes setting a
       maximum bit-rate high enough never to be reached (e.g. 10Mbps) and a  q  of  2  or  3  are
       reasonable choices.

       Example:

       > lav2yuv stream.avi  yuvscaler -I ACTIVE_352x240+0+24  mpeg2enc -b 1152 -r 16 -4 1 -2 1
       -o video.m1v

       Usually there is at the top and at the bottom a nearly black border and a lot of bandwidth
       is used for something you do not like. The yuvscaler -I ACTIVE option sets everything that
       is not in the described area to black but the imagesize (352x288) is not changed.  So  you
       have a real black border the encoder only uses a few bits for encoding them. You are still
       compatible with the VCD's format in this example.  To determine the active window  extract
       one frame to the jpeg format:

       > lavtrans -f i -i 100 -o frame.jpg test.avi

       Than use your favorite graphic display program to determine the active size.  The -4 1 and
       -2 1 options improves the quality about 10% but conversion is slower.

       At the size of 352x288 (1/2 PAL size created when using the -d 2  option  when  recording)
       the needed bitrate is/should be between 1000 - 1500kBit/s. For NTSC it should be about the
       same, because the image is smaller but there are more frames per second than in PAL.

       Anyways, the major factor is quality of the original and the  degree  of  filtering.  Poor
       quality  unfiltered material typically needs a higher rate to avoid visible artifacts.  If
       you want to reduce bit-rate without annoying artifacts when compressing broadcast material
       you should try one (or more) of the noise filters.

       Example:

       > lav2yuv stream.avi  mpeg2enc -b 1500 -n s -g 6 -G 20 -P -o video.m1v

       Here the stream.avi will be encoded with:

       -b 1500

       a Bitrate of 1500kBit/sec

       -n s

       the input Video norm is forced to SECAM

       -P

       This  ensures  that  2  B frames appear between adjacent I/P frames. Several common MPEG-1
       decoders can't handle streams that do not have 2 B-frames between I/P frames

       -g 6 -G 20

       the encoder can dynamically change the group-of-pictures size to  reflect  scene  changes.
       This  is  done  by setting a maximum GOP (-G flag) size larger than the minimum (-g flag).
       For VCDs sensible values might be a minimum of 9 and a maximum of 15.  For SVCD 9  and  15
       would be good values. If you only want to play it back on SW player you can use other min-
       max values.

       Example:

       >  lav2yuv  stream*.avi    mpeg2enc  -b  1500  -r  16  -4  1  -2  1  -S  630  -B  260  -o
       video_n1_1500_r16_41_21_S630_B240.m1v

       lav2yuv  processes all the stream files. Then mpeg2enc is given some options that make the
       encoded stream look nicer. Using -S 630 means that mpeg2enc marks the stream so that mplex
       generates  a new stream every 630MB. One important thing is the use of the -B option which
       specifies the non-video (audio and mplex information) bitrate. The -B value of 260  should
       be  fine for audio with 224kBit and mplex information. For further information take a look
       at the encoding scripts in the scripts directory.

       MPEG-1 Multiplexing Example

       Example:

        >mplex sound.mp2 video.m1v -o my_video.mpg

       Puts the sound.mp2 and the video.m1v stream together to my_video.mpg.  It only works  that
       easy if you have CBR (the -q option was not used with mpeg2enc).

       Example:

       mplex -V -r 1740 audio.mp2 video_vbr.m1v -o vbr_stream.mpg

       Here  we multiplex a variable bitrate stream. mplex is now a single pass multiplexer so it
       can't detect the maximal bitrate and we have to specify it. The data rate for  the  output
       stream  is:  audio  bitrate + peak videobitrate + 1-2% for mplex information. If audio (-b
       224) has 224kBit, video has 1500kBit (was encoded with -b 1500 -q 9) then we have  1724  *
       1.01 or about 1740kBit.

Creating MPEG-2 Videos

       MPEG-2 is recommended for sources with a greater picture than 352x240 for NTSC and 352x288
       for PAL. MPEG-2 can also  handle  interlaced  sources  like  recording  from  TV  at  full
       resolution.

       MPEG-2  allows  the  usage  of  mpeg  layer  3  (mp3)  sound. So you can use your favorite
       mp3encoder for the creation of the sound.  However, MP3 audio is not valid for  DVDs.   It
       is best to use MP2 (Layer 2) audio.  The audio can also be a VBR stream.

       MPEG-2  is  usually  a VBR stream. MPEG-2 creation with optimization requires a lot of CPU
       power.  A film with the double resolution is NOT 4 times larger  than  an  MPEG-1  stream.
       Depending  on  your  quality  settings  it will be about 1.5 up to 3 times larger than the
       MPEG-1 stream at its lower resolution.MPEG-2 audio creation example

       > lav2wav editlist.eli  mp2enc -o sound.mp2

       You can save some bits by telling mp2enc to use a lower bitrate (-b option)  like  160  or
       192  kBit/s.  You  might  want to add -r 44100 so that mpeg2enc generates 44.1kHz sampling
       rate audio.  I hope I don't need to explain the usage of an MP3 Encoder.  But  you  should
       not use all the fancy options that are available.MPEG-2 Video creation example

       > lav2yuv editlist.eli  mpeg2enc -f 3 -b 3000 -q 9 -o video.m2v

       A very simple example for MPEG-2 Video.  The most important option is the -f 3. That tells
       mpeg2enc that it should create a MPEG-2 stream. Because it is a generic MPEG-2 you have to
       use  the -b bitrate options. And should use the -q option because you usually want a space
       saving VBR stream. When using VBR streams the -b option tells mpeg2enc the maximum bitrate
       that  can  be used. The -q option tell mpeg2enc what quality the streams should have.  The
       bitrate has an upper bound of the value specified by -b.

       > lav2yuv editlist.eli  mpeg2enc -f 3 -4 1 -2 1 -q7 -b 4500 -V 300 -P -g 6 -G 18 -I 1  -o
       video.m2v

       This  will  generate a higher quality MPEG-2 stream because the -4 1 and -2 1 options were
       used.  With -b 4500 -q 7 you tell mpeg2enc the maximal bitrate and the quality factor.  -V
       is  the  video  buffer  size  used for decoding the stream. For SW playback it can be much
       higher than the default. Dynamic GOP is set with -g and -G.  A larger GOP  size  can  help
       reduce  the  bit-rate  required  for  a  given  quality but very large sizes can introduce
       artifacts due to DCT/iDCT accumulated rounding errors.  The -P option also ensures that  2
       B  frames  appear  between  adjacent  I/P  frames. The -I 1 option tells mpeg2enc that the
       source is a interlaced material like videos. There is (time consuming)  interlaced  motion
       compensation  logic  present in mpeg2enc.  Mpeg2enc will use that logic if the size of the
       frames you encode is larger than the VCD size for your TV Norm.

       If you deinterlacing the movie with yuvdeinterlace you should tell mpeg2enc that  it  does
       not  need to do motion estimation for interlaced material. You have to use the -I 0 option
       of mpeg2enc to say that the frames are already deinterlaced.  This will save a lot of time
       when  encoding.  If  you don't use -I 0 it will not cause problems, the encoding will just
       take longer.

       You can also use scaling an options that optimize (denoise)  the  images  to  get  smaller
       streams.   These  options  are  explained in detail in the following sections.Which values
       should be used for VBR Encoding?

       The -q option controls the  minimum  quantization  of  the  output  stream.   Quantization
       controls  the  precision  with which image information is encoded. The lower the value the
       better the image quality.  Values below 4 are extremes and should only be used if you know
       what you are doing

       Usually  you  have  to set up a maximum bitrate with the -b option.  The tricky task is to
       set a value for the -q option and the -b option that produces a nice movie  without  using
       too much bandwidth and does not introduce too many artifacts.

       A  quality  factor  should  be  chosen that way that the mplex output of Peak bit-rate and
       average bit-rate differ by about 20-25%.  If the difference is very  small  (less  than  <
       10%)  it  is  likely that you will begin to see artifacts in high motion scenes.  The most
       common cause of the average rate being too close (or equal) to the maximum rate  is  wrong
       value for the maximal bitrate or a quality factor that is too high.

       A combination that will produce more artifacts than you can count is a SVCD with a maximal
       video bitrate of 2500kBit and a quality factor of 1 or 2.  For SVCD with a video limit  of
       2500kBit  a  quality  factor of 7-11 fits quite good (8 is the default). If you use filter
       programs or have a very good source  like  digital  TV,  DVD  like  material  or  rendered
       pictures  you  can use a quality factor of 6 when creating SVCDs.  If your SVCD/DVD player
       supports non-standard bitrates  you can increase the bitrate above the standard maximum of
       2788  kBit/sec  (video plus audio).  When using a higher bitrate and quality factor action
       scenes will look much better but of course the playing time of the disc will be less.

       The same (7-11) quality factor for a full size picture and a top bitrate of 3500  to  4000
       kBit will produce few artifacts.

       For  SVCD/DVD you can expect a result like the one described if the maximal bitrate is not
       set too low:

          q <= 6 real sharp pictures, and good quality
          q <= 8 good quality
          q >= 10 average quality
          q >= 11 not that good
          q >= 13 here even still sequences might look blocky

       Encoding destination TV (interlaced) or Monitor (progressive)

       MPEG-2 supports interlaced data in addition to the progressive format.  A MPEG-2 movie can
       be  interlaced  or  progressive.  It  depends on the source (film or broadcast) and on the
       viewing device.

       If you encode a film  both  fields  should  be  the  same.  Deinterlace  the  stream  with
       yuvdeinterlace,  or  if you have a high quality source, and don't need to use the denoiser
       with yuvcorrect -T NOT_INTERLACED. Also set the mpeg2enc interlace-mode (-I) option to  0.
       This means that there is no interlacing.  We do not really need deinterlacing here because
       there is no motion between the fields of the frame. We only need to unite the  two  fields
       into a single progressive frame.

       This movie should play back an any device (TV or Monitor) without problems.

       If  you  have  an interlaced source (broadcast) you can encode it as interlaced stream. Or
       deinterlace the stream and encode it as progressive stream. If  you  deinterlace  it  with
       yuvdeinterlace you will lose details.  But if you plan to play the recorded stream on your
       DVD player and your TV it would not be wise to perform deinterlacing.  If you only want to
       play it back on the Monitor (progressive display) the picture looks better when playing it
       back if it is deinterlaced. If the player you use can do deinterlacing it does not  matter
       if your encoded video has interlaced frames or progressive frames.

       If you plan to deinterlace the stream you can only do this with yuvdeinterlace and set the
       mpeg2enc -I 0. If you do not want to deinterlace the stream you do not  need  to  set  any
       special option (do not use yuvdeinterlace and mpeg2enc -I 0)

       If you like to pause the stream and look on the still you should deinterlace. Because then
       the image is flicker free when pausing.

       If you have a film (progressive) with parts from a broadcast (interlaced)  mixed  together
       (like  in  a documentary where some parts from a speaker are recorded interlaced and other
       parts are filmed) you have to choose between good film sequences with average still images
       or average looking film sequences with good still images.

       For  good  film  with  average stills do not deinterlace.  For average film sequences with
       good stills then deinterlace (using yuvdeinterlace and mpeg2enc -I 0).MPEG-2  Multiplexing
       example

       > mplex -f 3 -b 300 -r 4750 -V audio.mp3 video.m2v -o final.mpg

       Now  both  streams  (a  mp3  audio  and  a mpeg2 video) are multiplex into a single stream
       (final.mpg). You have to use the -f 3 option to tell mplex the  output  format.  You  also
       have  to add the -b decoder buffers size option with the same value used when encoding the
       video. -r is that rate of video + audio +1-2% of mplex information.

       The -Voption tells that your source for mplexing is a VBR stream. If you  don't  use  this
       option  mplex  creates  something like a CBR stream with the bitrate you have told it with
       the -r option.  These streams  are usually get BIG.

Creating Video CDs (VCDs)

       VCD is a constrained version of MPEG-1 video.  VCD format was defined by Philips. The goal
       was to use a single speed CD-drive and other cheap hardware (not flexible) to have a cheap
       HW-Player. Because of that there are limitations for video and audio used to make  a  VCD.
       The  bitrate  for video is 1152kBit and 224kBit/sec MP2 audio.  You are not allowed to use
       the -q option, dynamic GOP sizes and the video buffer is limited to 46kB.  The image  size
       is limited to 352x240 for NTSC, an to 352x288 for PAL.

       If  you  have  no  VCD  (only) player and you plan to use your DVD player then it is quite
       possible that the DVD player will be flexible enough to allow higher bitrates, dynamic GOP
       sizes, larger video buffer and so onVCD Audio creation Example

       > lav2wav stream.avi  mp2enc -V -o sound.mp2

       -V  force  VCD 2.0 compatible output.  There the audio samplerate is fixed to 44.1kHz. And
       you can choose the audio bitrate for mono audio to be 64, 96 or 192kBit/sec. If  you  have
       stereo  audio  you  can  choose  128,  192, 224 or 384kBit/sec.  For hardware players, you
       should stick to 44.1 224kBps Stereo layer 2 Audio.VCD Video creation Example

       > lav2yuv stream.avi  yuvscaler -O VCD  mpeg2enc -f 1 -r 16 -o video.mpg

       For VCD compatible output the -f 1 sets all options in mpeg2enc as needed. It  seems  that
       many  VCD  players  (Avex  for example) are not able to play MPEG streams that are encoded
       with a search radius greater than 16 so do not use the -r option to override  the  default
       of 16.

       > lav2yuv streams.eli  mpeg2enc -f 1 -4 1 -2 1 -S 630 -B 260 -P -o video.m1v

       Using  '-S  630' means that mpeg2enc marks the stream so that mplex generates a new stream
       every 630MB. One important thing is the use of the -B option which specifies the non-video
       (audio  and  mplex information) bitrate. The -B value of 260 should be fine for audio with
       224kBit and mplex information. For further information take a look at the encoding scripts
       in the scripts directory. The multiplexed streams should easily fit on a 650MB CD.

       The  default  value (-B) is 700MB for the video. mpeg2enc marks automatically every stream
       at that size if the -B option is not used to set a different value.   If  you  have  a  CD
       where  you can write more data (perhaps as much as 800MB) you have to set the -S option or
       otherwise mpeg2enc will mark the stream at 700 MB, and mplex will split the stream  there.
       Which is almost certainly not what you want.

       VCD Multiplexing Example

       > mplex -f 1 sound.mp2 video.mpg -o vcd_out.mpg

       The -f 1 option turns on a lot of weird stuff that otherwise has no place in a respectable
       multiplexer!Creating the CD

       The multiplexed streams have to be converted to  an  VCD  compatible.   This  is  done  by
       vcdimager

       > vcdimager testvideo.mpg

       Creates  a videocd.bin, the data file, and a videocd.cue which is used as control file for
       cdrdao.

       You use cdrdao to burn the image. Cdrdao is yet another fine Sourceforge project which  is
       found at: Notes

       For MPEG-1 encoding a typical (45 minute running time) show or 90 odd minute movie from an
       analog broadcast a constant  bit-rate  of  around  1800  kBit/sec  should  be  ideal.  The
       resulting  files  are  around 700M for 45 minutes which fits nicely as a raw XA MODE2 data
       track on a CD-R.  For pure digital sources (DTV or DVD streams and similar) VCD 1152 works
       fine.

       Note:  If you encode VBR MPEG-1 (-q) remember the Hardware was probably not designed to do
       the playback because it is not in the specifications. If it  works  be  very  happy.  I've
       noticed that it helps when you have an MPEG-1 stream to tell vcdimager that it is an SVCD.
       vcdimager complains (but only with a warning and not a fatal error) but you should be able
       to  burn  it. This could convince the player to use different routines in its firmware and
       play it back correct but there is no guarantee of that.Storing MPEGs

       If you record the data as XA mode 2 tracks you can fit appreciably more on a  CD  (at  the
       expense of error correction/detection). You can use vcdimager to do this and vcdxrip (part
       of the vcdimager package) to extract (”rip”) the resulting files. For better Quality there
       are SVCD and XVCD and DVD.

       Currently  SVCD  is  fully  supported  with  a pre-set format in mplex and tools to create
       disks. MPEG streams that can be played by DVD player hardware  and  software  can  readily
       produced using mpeg2enc/mplex

       If  your player doesn't support SVCD you may well find it can handle VCD streams that have
       much higher than standard bit-rates. Often  as  much  as  2500kBit/sec  is  possible.  The
       several  brands  of DVD players can also play wildly out of spec SVCD and VCD discs.  With
       higher bit-rates and good quality source material it is worth trying  mpeg2enc's  -h  flag
       which produce a stream that is as sharp as the limits of the VCD standard permits.

       However,  if  your  player  supports  it and you have the patience for the longer encoding
       times SVCD is a much better alternative. Using a more efficient MPEG format SVCD more than
       doubles VCD's resolution while typically producing files that are less than twice as big.

Creating SVCD

       Super  Video  CD  (SVCD)  is  an  enhancement  to Video CD that was developed by a Chinese
       government-backed committee of manufacturers and researchers.  The  final  SVCD  spec  was
       announced  in  September  1998.  A good explanation of the SVCD format from Philips can be
       found here: .

       Record at full TV resolution (means: -d 1 for PAL this is 720x576) The resolution  is  for
       NTSC  is 480x480 of PAL 480x576, so you know why you should record at full size.SVCD Audio
       creation Example

       > lav2wav stream.avi  mp2enc -V -e -o sound.mp2

       The SVCD specifications permit a much wider choice of audio rates, it is not necessary  to
       use  224  kBit/sec. Any audio rate between 32 and 384 kBit/sec is permitted. The audio may
       be VBR (Variable Bit Rate). The -e enables the CRC error protection for the audio. The CRC
       has  to  be enabled to be SVCD standard compliant but it seems that most players don't pay
       attention to the CRC information. The CRC information need 2 bytes per Audio frame

       The approximate frame length formula for MPEG-1 layer-II is:

       (frame length in bytes) = 144 * (byte rate) / (sample rate)

       If you have the typical VCD settings the CRC data needs about 0,27% of the whole data.  In
       the  worst  case  where  you  have a MONO 32k Bitrate stream the CRC data needs 1,92%.SVCD
       Video creation example

       > lav2yuv stream.avi  yuvscaler -O SVCD  mpeg2enc -f 4 -q 7 -I 1 -V 200 -o video.m2v

       -f 4

       sets the options for mpeg2enc to SVCD

       -q 7

       tell mpeg2enc to generate a variable bitrate stream

       -I 1

       tell mpeg2enc to assume that the original signal is field interlaced video where  the  odd
       rows of pixels are sampled a half frame interval after the even ones in each frame. The -I
       0 (progressive output (no field pictures)) option will also work for PAL

       You can use lower bitrates but the SVCD standard limits total bit-rate (audio  and  video)
       to  2788800 Bit/sec. So with 224Kbps audio and overhead 2550 may already be marginally too
       tight. Since the SVCD format permits any audio rate between 32 and 384  kBit/sec  you  can
       save a few bits/sec by using 192k audio (or for non-musical material 160k).

       SVCD  supports  variable  bitrate  (VBR),  because MPEG-2 is usually VBR, but with the top
       video bitrate limit of 2500kBit/sec. With the -f 4 flag the encoder also sets dynamic  GOP
       with a low limit of -g 6 and a high limit of -G 18. This saves a few bits/sec and improves
       the picture quality during scene changes.  When encoding with -f 4  mpeg2enc  ignores  the
       video bitrate (-b) and search radius (-r) options. If you use -f 5 you have to specify the
       bitrate and other options to mpeg2enc.

       Another possibility for movies in PAL (European style 25 frames/50 fields per  sec)  video
       is:

       > lav2yuv stream.avi  yuvscaler -O SVCD  mpeg2enc -f 4 -I 0 -V 300 -o video.m2v

       Movies  are  shot  on  film  at  24 frames/sec. For PAL broadcast the film is simply shown
       slightly ”too fast” at 25 frame/sec (much to the pain of people  with  an  absolute  pitch
       sense of pitch). The -I 0 flag turns off the tedious calculations needed to compensate for
       field interlacing giving much faster encoding.

       Unfortunately, movies broadcast in NTSC (US style 30 frames/60 fields sec) video this will
       produce  very poor compression. The ”pulldown” sampling used to produce 60 fields a second
       from a 24 frame a second movie means half the frames in an NTSC *are* field interlaced.

       Don't forget the -S and -B options mentioned above. You want the stream to  fit  on  a  CD
       don't you ?SVCD multiplexing example

       > mplex -f 4 -b 300 -r 2750 sound.mp2 video.m2v -o svcd_out.mpg

       -f 4

       tells mplex to mplex a SVCD

       -r 2750

       is the calculated Audio + Video Bitrate + 1-2% multiplex information

       -b 300

       is  the  buffer  available  on  the  playback device (the same value as used for the video
       encoding (mpeg2enc's -V option).  SVCD creating the CD

       Example:

       > vcdimager -t svcd testvideo.mpg

       Creates a videocd.bin, the data file, and a videocd.cue which is used as control file  for
       cdrdao.

       Use cdrdao to burn the image as mentioned earlier.

       NOTE:If  you  want to build ”custom” VCD/SVCD you will need to use the mplex -f 2 and -f 5
       switches.

       NOTE:The VCD and SVCD stuff may work on your HW player or not. There are many reports that
       it  works  quite  well.  Don't  be  worried  if it does not work. Nor am I responsible for
       unusable CDs. (”coasters”)

Creating DVD's

       This statement was correct a few years ago:  Everything  in  this  section  is  new.   The
       limitations  I mention here might not exist in the current version.  Currently (Dec. 2007)
       DVD creating is working.

       You need obviously a DVD writer. I did own a Ricoh DVD+RW that works, and I know of a DVD-
       RAM writer that is able to to burn DVD-R. That disks also work with a DVD-Player. Now most
       DVD writers ar able to burn both media + and -, so that should not be a problem any  more.
       Which programs you use for burning depends on the DVD writer drive.

       For  the creation and writing of the VOB, IFO and BUP files we use dvdauthor. Aviable from
       Sourceforge (you might have guessed it) .DVD Audio creation example

       > lav2wav stream.eli  mp2enc -o sound.mp2

       The sample rate has to be 48kHz. The mp2enc does create by default a sample rate of 48kHz.
       If  it is not a 48kHz mp2enc will resample the audio to get the sample rate.  If the audio
       is recorded at 48kHz then no resampling is needed and toolame can be used for the encoding
       (it is faster than mp2enc).  DVD Video creation example

       > lav2yuv stream.eli  mpeg2enc -f 8 -o video.m2v

       -f 8

       This  sets  the  options  correctly  for  a  MPEG-2  video  that is compliant with the DVD
       standard.  The maximum bitrate is set to 7500kBps and the video  buffer  size  is  set  to
       230KB.  The  default  quality  factor  is  set  to 8.  mpeg2enc sets currenty no automatic
       sequence length as it does for VCD/SVCD.

       The other options to get a low bitrate and  high  quality  stream  can  also  be  used  to
       override  the  default  settings mentioned above.  You can also use yuvdenoise to increase
       the picture quality if the input data is noisy (from a VHS tape for example).   A  typical
       command will look like this:

       lav2yuv  moby.eli    yuvdenoise    mpeg2enc  -f  8  -q  7  -4  1  -2  1  -P  -I  0 -N -o
       video_DVD.m2vDVD multiplexing example

       > mplex -f 8 sound.mp2 video.m2v -o my_dvdlikestream.mpg

       -f 8

       Here again we specify that we want to have DVD like MPEG stream.  mplex cannot do all  the
       fancy things allowed for a DVD, but it is close enough that the HW-DVD players accept it.

       -o

       there we specify the output filename.  DVD creation example

       This  topic  will be covered by the documentation of the dvdauthor program.  For questions
       please see In general it will work like this:

       > dvdauthor -o output/ stream1.mpg stream2.mpg ... my_dvdlikestream.mpg; dvdauthor  -T  -o
       output/

       You  will  get  a directory with AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS directories.  Burning the data from
       the disk to a DVD+-R/+-RW writer would be done like this:

       growisofs -Z /dev/scd2 -dvd-video mydvd/

       If you own a DVD+RW/+R drive a good place for more information is:

       page. You also need a version of  the  cdrtools  with  dvd-video  support.   The  cdrtools
       1.11a27 is known to work but newer versions already exist.

       For  other  writers  the  commands to write a DVD will be different. You can get some more
       information in the dvdauthor package. There is no guarantee that it will work at all !!!

Creating DIVX Videos

       lav2avi.sh

       Another way of creating DIVX is the program mencoder which is from the mplayer project.  .
       For  more  information  about  mencoder please read mencoder/mplayer help and documents. A
       first and a second pass give at the end of pass hints for bitrate which can  be  used  for
       encoding  to  specific  size  (650 MB, 700 MB and 800 MB). The script lav2avi.sh uses this
       information if provided (for short streams it is omitted by mencoder).  Look for parameter
       preferedSize  in  the script. You can also specify other parameters used for encoding with
       encoderParam option in the script. For a description of the usable parameters take a  look
       in the mplayer/mencoder manual.

       The  outputfilename  is that name of your input file (first option) but with the extension
       avi. If the size of file is less then specified by preferedSize it's  because  the  source
       was  of  very  high quality (no noise) and the specified bitrate was higher than required.
       You usually get 700MB for 1.5 hour film at half image size with bitrate  around  900  that
       means for divx good quality (assuming good quality source material of course).

       The script does a 3 step encoding:

       1st step - audio encoding

       2nd step - first video pass

       3rd step - second video pass

       The  mplayer/mencoder  documentation  deprecates the use of the 3 pass encoding method (it
       can cause A/V sync  problems)  and  recommends  the  use  of  the  2  pass  method.    The
       mencoder/mplayer  documentation  is  extensive  and  has many helpful hints (and a bitrate
       calculator in the TOOLS/ directory).

       For encoding use the fast ffmpeg (lavc) codec. It gives nice results  together  with  high
       good  performance.  For audio encoding mp3 is used. For encoding of all parts it uses unix
       pipes. This mean that you DO NOT need additional space on your hard drive where  all  glav
       manipulations will be done. For audio encoding the script uses a FIFO queue.

       If you want to tweak the script for your own needs use these hints:

       Output of 1st step is file called frameno.avi with encoded audio

       2nd  step  is  using frameno.avi and output is text file called lavc_stats.txt with timing
       informations

       3rd step is using frameno.avi and lavc_stats.txt for encoding the  stream  to  the  output
       file movie2.avi

       If  you  want change only video bitrate keep the file frameno.avi comment out the 1st step
       encoding and repeate 2nd  and  3rd  step.  Dont  forget  to  remove  the  line  where  the
       frameno.avi is removed.

       Optimizing the stream

       Using filters helps to increase the image quality of constant bitrate (CBR) video streams.
       With VBR (variable bit rate) video the filesize is reduced.

       Example:

       > lav2yuv stream.avi  yuvmedianfilter  mpeg2enc -o video.m1v

       Here the yuvmedianfilter program is used to improve the image. This removes  some  of  low
       frequence  noise  in  the  images.  It  also softens the image a little. It takes a center
       pointer and averages the pixels around it that fall within  the  specified  threshold.  It
       then  replaces  the  center  pixel  with this new value.  You can also use the -r (radius)
       option for an other search radius.

       NOTE:a radius greater than the default value of 2 is horrendously slow!

       yuvmedianfilter has separate settings for luma and chroma.  You  can  control  the  search
       radius  and  the  trigger  threshold  independently.   If  you  use  a threshold of 0 then
       filtering is disabled (-t 0 disables luma filtering, -T 0 disables chroma filtering).

       > lav2yuv stream.avi  yuvmedianfilter -r 3 -t 4 -T 0  mpeg2enc -o video.m1v

       This example uses a search radius of 3 pixels for the luma, a threshold of 4 (the  default
       is  2),  and  disables  filtering for the chroma components.   Sometimes, depending on the
       source material, median filtering of the chroma can cause a  slight  color  shift  towards
       green.    Filtering on the luma component (disabling the chroma filtering) is the solution
       to that problem.

       Example:

       > lav2yuv stream.avi  yuvdenoise  mpeg2enc -o video.m1v

       Now we are using yuvdenoise to improve the image. The  filter  mainly  reduces  color  and
       luminance-noise  and  flickering  due  to  phase  errors but is also effective at removing
       speckles.

       yuvdenoise denoises interlaced if the input is interlaced.  You can of course  change  the
       denoiser  threshold  (-g/t).  Creating a black border can lower the bitrate of the encoded
       stream because pure black areas compress much better  than  noise  (captures  from  analog
       sources  such  as  VHS  and 8mm usually have several lines at the time and bottom that are
       very noisy). For this you can use the scaler.

       yuvdenoise uses a different approach to filter the  noise.   More  information  about  how
       yuvdenoise works as well as descriptions of its options are found in the manpage.

       If  you  have  a  high  quality source you should lower the filter to levels like that: -g
       0,255,255 -t 2,2,2.  You might also use the  mpeg2enc  -h/--keep-hf  option.  That  option
       tells  mpeg2enc  to  keep  as much high frequency information as possible.   Using -h will
       greatly increase the bitrate (filesize).  If the bitrate is too close to the maximum  (set
       with  -b)  the  encoder  will  have to decrease the quality to avoid exceeding the maximum
       bitrate.

       A builtin filter in mpeg2enc is the -N/--reduce-HF option.   This  option  is  not  really
       filter  in  the usual sense.  Rather it changes how exactly the high frequency information
       is encoded.  Often the high frequency is noise.  You also have high frequencies  on  sharp
       borders  or  transitions. The -N option can have values between 0.0 and 2.0 where 0.0 does
       nothing  (disables  the  high  frequency  quantizer  boost)  and  2.0  gives  the  maximum
       quantization  boost.  The value to use depends on the desired output quality and filesize.
       Values of -N less than 0.5 are very subtle while a  value  of  1.0  will  achieve  a  good
       balance  between  bitrate  reduction  and output quality.   Using -N values above 1.5 will
       noticeably reduce the sharpness of the output picture and are normally used only for  poor
       quality sources (VHS tapes for example).

       Using  yuvmedianfilter's capability to only filter the chroma (-T) is moderately effective
       at reducing noise in dark scenes without softening  the  image  during  normal  (brighter)
       scenes.    Median  filtering  of  the luma (-t) will produce a lower bitrate but can cause
       loss of detail (softening).  Chroma only medianfiltering is less agressive and is  a  good
       choice to use in combination with yuvdenoise.

       Combining  the filters yuvdenoise, yuvmedianfilter and the mpeg2enc -N option gives a very
       fine degree of control over the bitrate (filesize).  The reduction (or  increase)  in  the
       bitrate  depends on the source material and the exact encoding/filter options used.  So we
       can give no exact numbers how much each option and combination will reduce  the  filesize,
       only guidelines.

       Usually  you  should  use the -N option in a range from 0.5 to 1.5.  Below 0.5 it does not
       reduce the bitrate very much (but does preserve sharpness).  At 1.5 and  higher  you  will
       notice  a  softening  in  the  video and possibly artifacts (halo/ringing) around edges of
       objects (text/subtitles especially).  If you combine the filters you should use yuvdenoise
       and  maybe  afterwards yuvmedianfilter.  Maybe yuvmedianfilter even after scaling.  Having
       yuvmedianfilter in the chain does not reduce the bitrate that  much.   Often  the  use  of
       yuvdenoise is enough.  The yuvmedianfilter helps much if you have low quality sources, and
       not that much if you already have a rather good quality.  When you combine the filter  and
       option  you will very likely reduce the filesize to about the half of the filesize without
       using the options and programs.

       In general aggressive filtering will produce smaller files (lower bitrate) but reduce  the
       quality (details) of the picture.  Less aggressive filtering/processing will preserve more
       detail but result in larger files.

       Example:

       > lav2yuv stream.avi  yuvkineco -F 1  mpeg2enc -o video.m1v

       yuvkineco is used for NTSC sources. It does the conversation  from  30000.0/1001.0  (about
       29.97)  fps  to  24000.0/1001.0 (about 23.976) fps, you can call it ”reverse 2-3 pulldown”
       more info about this in the README.2-3pulldown. yuvkineco does only remove  NTSC  specific
       problems.

       If you want to improve the image you should also use yuvdenoise:

       > lav2yuv stream.avi  yuvkineco  yuvdenoise  mpeg2enc -o video.m1v

       Example

       > lav2yuv stream.avi  yuvycsnoise  mpeg2enc -o video.m1v

       yuvycsnoise  is  also  used  for NTSC and is specialized for NTSC Y/C separation noise. If
       video capture hardware has only a poor Y/C separator then at vertical stripes  (especially
       red/blue)  noises  appear  which  seem  checker  flag  and bright/dark invert per 1 frame.
       yuvycsnoise reduces noises of this  type.  You  can  also  use  different  thresholds  for
       luma/chroma  and  the  optimizing  method.  This filter is not needed with working with DV
       (Digital Video) data.

       yuvycsnoise works only correct when we have NTSC with:

       full height (480 lines)

       full motion captured (29.97 fps)

       captured with poor Y/C separator hardware

       For more information about the yuvkineco and yuvycsnoise read the README in the yuvfilters
       directory.

       If  you  want to experiment to determine the optimal settings for the denoiser, scaler and
       so on replace the mpeg2enc with yuvplay.  yuvplay plays back the yuv frames so you can see
       if the options you have chosen are making the thing better or worse.

       A command would look like this:

       > lav2yuv stream.eli  yuvdenoise -options  yuvscaler -options  yuvplay

       If you want to know how much each tool lowers the average bitrate.  You can use this table
       to see what you can expect if you have a full size video and want to create a DVD  with  a
       qality factor of 5 and the allowed maximal bitrate of 8500kb/sec.

       no denoising : 8300 kb/s (mostly hitting the upper bound)

       yuvenoise : 7700 kb/s

       mpeg2enc --reduce-hf : 7400 kb/s

       yuvdenoise + yuvmedianfilter : 6000 kb/s

       yuvdenoise + mpeg2enc --reduce-hf : 4900 kb/s

       all of the above : 3600 kb/s

       While  -N│--reduce-hf  or  yuvdenoise  alone  is  only a modest improvement, together they
       reduce the bitrate substantially.  There is not really  much  visible  difference  between
       using  yuvdenoise  alone  and yuvdenoise with mpeg2enc --reduce-hf. The usefull values are
       between 0.0 and 1.5. Where you can say that the higher the quality factor  you  want,  the
       less  this  option  improves. At a quality factor 4 you save using -N 1.0 about 1%. If you
       want a quality factor of 9 and use the -N 1.0 you might save up to 40%. But you might save
       less, that depends on the video you encode!!!

       If  you  ask  yourself why not alyways use all of the above filters?  The answers are that
       the image softens (loss of detail) and the encoding time increases.  Most of  the  filters
       each require about the same amount of time as mpeg2enc needs for encoding the video.

       If you have very high quality material and want to keep every detail you should try to use
       the mpeg2enc --keep-hf│-h on the other hand.

       Note: The bitrate reduction you have depends on the material  and  on  the  noise  of  the
       images.

       A  other  interresting  mpeg2enc option is the -E│--unit-coeff-elim option. This option is
       disabled by default. If you enable it, a special "unit coefficient elimination" algorithm,
       is  applied  to the encoded picture blocks.   Basically this proceedure forces blocks of a
       type that do not carry much information (but use many bits to encode)  to  be  skipped.  A
       negative  value  examines  the  base (DC) as well as the AC coefficients. A positive value
       means that  only  texture  (AC)  coefficients  are  examined  and  possibly  zeroed.   The
       recommended  values  lies  between  -20 and +20. You usually can expect that you have a 5%
       decreased filesize. The amount the bitrate is reduced can  vary  considerably,  the  range
       spans from not really noticable up to 20%.

       If  you  think  a  other quantization matrice will help use the -K│--custom-quant-matrices
       option. You can try out your own quanitsation matrice or  use  another  builtin  than  the
       default.   You  can  choose  between kvcd, tmpgenc, hi-res, and your own. Using -K usually
       makes the file smaller except the hi-res option (that makes  files  considerably  larger).
       Exact  guidelines  are  hard  to  give,  sometime a other quanitsation matrix saves almost
       nothing, and the next time up to 20%. More than 20% is very unlikely, 10-15% at a moderate
       qualityfactor (-q 8-10) are likely.  The higher the qualiy the less it saves, at a quality
       factor of 4-6 the reduction in bitrate may only be 5%

       One thing to keep in mind is that the unit coefficient elimination  and  the  quantization
       matrix  option  are decreasing the bitrate while maintaining the same visual quality.   At
       this point you can chose to use the smaller file to increase the amount of video that will
       fit on the disc media or you could chose to increase the quality even more by lowering the
       -q value by 1 and make a larger (but higher quality) file.

Scaling and offset correction

       The basic scaling is described in the Converting video section

       The scaling takes a part of the picture and scales it to a larger  or  smaller  size.  The
       scaling is done by yuvscaler:

       lav2yuv test.eli  yuvscaler -I USE_400x400+50+100  yuvplay

       Here  we  only take part of the picture and scale it up to the size of the original frame.
       But yuvscaler also changes the pixel aspect ratio.  That means when you look at the stream
       using yuvplay it looks like a square in our example.  After scaling, if the sample (pixel)
       aspect ratio were not changed, the video would not display with the proper  aspect  ratio.
       Yuvscaler  compensates  by  adjusting  the  sample aspect ratio.  If you have a interlaced
       video, the height and HeightOffset have to be a multiple by 4 if the video is  interlaced.
       Else the values (width, height, widthoffset, heightoffset) have to be a multiple of 2.

       A  problem  that  cannot be solved easily with scaling is when the picture is not centered
       horizontal. On one side you have no black pixels and on the other you have 30 for example.
       Scaling  is  here  is the wrong solution.  y4mshift is the perfect solution because it can
       shift the image to the left or right.

       lav2yuv test.eli  y4mshift -n 20  mpeg2enc -f 3 -b 4000 -q 10 -o video.m2v

       That will shift the image 20 pixels to the right. If you use a negative the image is shift
       to the left. You have to use a even number. The inserted pixels are set to black.

       Some  might  wonder  why  the image is not centered and there is a black border around the
       image when you view what you have recorded. The reason for the black border is in  history
       of  the  CRT  (Cathode  Ray  Tube) TV technology.  The history of the TV standard s a very
       interesting story but that topic is described in other (large) books.

       The TV does not show the full picture. A part of the picture is not shown because  the  TV
       sets  overscan  (sometimes  as  much  as  10%  but more common today is 5%).  But when you
       capture the video with a card you see the whole image including the border that  TVs  lose
       due to overscanning.  A horizontal offset is usually not a problem of the capture card. It
       is a problem when the film is broadcast and not well synchronized with  the  image.   This
       means  that  the  scan of the source not exactly synchronized with the carrier signal, you
       wont see that on TV.

Frame rate conversion

       Ever needed to convert the framerate from PAL to NTSC or the other direction around  ?  Or
       something  much  simpler  like  converting  the  framerate  from  24FPS  to 24000:1001 for
       conversation from a film frame rate to a valid NTSC frame rate.

       Than yuvfps is your program. It can lower the framerate by dropping  frames  or  create  a
       higher  framerate  by  replicating frames. If you have a wrong framerate in the header you
       can only change the header of the YUV stream and not modify the stream.

       Because the frames are only replicated (copied) you should denoise first and  then  change
       the  framerate and scale at als last step. If you have a interlaced source you should also
       deinterlace before changeing the framerate. If you create a higher frame rate it  is  very
       likely that you will have weird flickers when you play it back. If you convert PAL to NTSC
       (30000:1001 FPS about 29,97 FPS) the frame rate will lower by  about  the  factor  480/576
       (NTSC lines / PAL lines).  If you lower the frame rate from PAL to NTSC (at 24000:1001) or
       NTSC FILM (24FPS) the bitrate will be about (480 Lines * 24 FPS) / (576  Lines  *  25FPS).
       If  you  change  the frame rate before denoising the yuvdenoise will have problems finding
       the noise across the frames and the needed bandwith will slightly increase.

       Example

       > lav2yuv video.eli  yuvfps -r 30000:1001    yuvscaler  -O  SVCD    mpeg2enc  -f  4  -o
       video_ntsc_svcd.m2v

       This  is  a  example to convert the source video to a NTSC video running at 30000:1001 FPS
       (or about 29,97FPS) at SVCD size.

       Example

       > lav2yuv video.eli  yuvdenoise  yuvfps -r 24000:1001    yuvscaler  -O  SIZE_720x480  
       mpeg2enc -f 3 -b 4000 -q 7 -o video_ntsc.m2v

       This  example  shows  how  you  should  use  the  tools. Denoise first and than change the
       framerate and in the last step change the image size.

       It can happen that yuvscaler or mpeg2enc do not  detect  the  TV  norm  correct.  If  that
       happens  you  have  to  add the norm option -n n/p/s to the program that chooses the wrong
       norm.

       If you know that the header tells the wrong framerate, you can simply change the framerate
       of the yuv header this way:

       > lav2yuv video.eli  yuvfps -r 25:1 -c  mpeg2enc -f 3 -b 4000 -q 7 -o video_pal.m2v

       You  need  the  -c  option.  To  tell  yuvfps that it only should change the header of the
       stream. With the -r 25:1 you tell yuvfps the frame rate it should write into  the  header.
       In your example the PAL frame rate of 25 FPS. You always have to use the fractional form.

       If  you  know that the header is wrong, and you need a different output bitrate you can do
       this in a single step:

       > lav2yuv video.eli  yuvfps -s  24:1  -r  25:1    mpeg2enc  -o  video.m1vTranscoding  of
       existing MPEG-2

       For  transcoding  existing  MPEG-2  streams from digital TV cards or DVD a lower data-rate
       than for broadcast will give good results.  Standard VCD 1152 kbps  typically  works  just
       fine for MPEG-1. The difference is in the Signal/Noise ratio of the original. The noise in
       the analog stuff makes it much harder to compress.

       You will also need to manually adjust the  audio  delay  offset  relative  to  video  when
       multiplexing. Very often around 150ms delay seems to do the trick.

       You  have  to  download  the  ac3dec  and  mpeg2dec  packages.  You can find them at their
       homepage: mpeg2dec ( ) and ac3dec.  For decoding the audio streams mpg123 and mplayer  can
       be very helpfull.  You also need sox and toolame.

       In the scripts directory there is a mpegtranscode script that does most of the work.

       So transcoding looks like this:

       > mjpegtranscode -V -o vcd_stream mpeg2src.mpg

       -V

       set's the options so that a VCD compatible stream is generated

       -o vcd_stream

       a vcd_stream.m1v (video) and vcd_stream.mp2 (audio) is created

       mpeg2src.mpg

       specifies the source stream

       The script prints also something like this:

       > SYNC 234 mSec

       You  will  need to adjust the audio/video startup delays when multiplexing to ensure audio
       and video are synchronized.  The exact delay (in milliseconds) that you need  to  pass  to
       mplex  to  synchronize  audio and video using the ”-v”" is printed by the extract_a52 tool
       labeled ”SYNC” when run with the ”s” flag. This is  the  value  th  mjpegtranscode  script
       prints out after the SYNC word.

       Then you need to multiplex them like this:

       > mplex -f 1 -O 234 vcd_stream.mp2 vcd_stream.m1v -o lowrate.mpg

       -f 1

       Mux format is set to VCD

       -O 234

       Video  timestamp  offset in mSec, generated by the mjpegtranscoding script, there negative
       values are allowed

       vcd_stream.mp2 & vcd_stream.m1v

       generated files by the script

       lowrate.mpg

       the VCD compatible output stream

       Here we have a SVCD (MPEG-2 video) example:

       > mjpegtranscode -S -o svcd_stream mpeg2src.mpg

       You have to multiplex it with:

       > mplex -f 4 -O 234 svcd_stream.mp2 svcd_stream.m2v -o lowrate.mpg

       Problem: There is sometimes a problem with NTSC and VCD playback  because  movies  may  be
       recoded  with  3:2  pulldown NTSC with 60 fields/sec. mpeg2dec is designed for playback on
       computers and generates the original 24frames/sec bitrate. If you  encode  the  video  now
       30frames/sec video is created. This video is now much too short for the encoded audio.

       The transcoding can be made to work but it must be done manually:

       >  mpeg2dec -s -o pgmpipe mpeg2src.mpg  pgmtoy4m -a 59:54 -r 25:1 -i t  mpeg2enc -I 0 -f
       4 -q 9 -V 230 -p -P -o svcd_stream.m2v

       The -p tells mpeg2enc to generate header flags for 3:2 pull down of 24fps  movie.  It  may
       also  work if you do not add the -p flag.  You do not need the -p flag when transcoding to
       VCD format because it is not supported in mpeg1.

If you want to do every step on your own it will look something like this

       Extracting Audio:

       > cat test2.mpg  extract_a52 - -s  ac3dec -o wav -p sound.wav 2>/dev/null

       One of the first lines showed contains the label ”SYNC” you have to use  this  time  later
       when  multiplexing.  The  2>/dev/null redirects the output of ac3dec to /dev/null.  In the
       next step you generate the mpeg audio file:

       > cat sound.wav  mp2enc -V -v 2 -o audio.mp2

       -V

       forces VCD format, the sampling rate is converted to 44.1kHz from 48kHz

       -v 2

       unnecessary but if you use it mp2enc tells you how many seconds  of  the  audio  file  are
       already encoded.

       -o

       Specifies the output file.

       cat  test2.mpg   extract_a52 - -s  ac3dec -o wav  sox -t wav /dev/stdin -t wav -r 44100
       /dev/stdout  toolame -p 2 -b 224 /dev/stdin audio.mp2

       One of the first lines again output contains the label ”SYNC”.  You have to use this  time
       (referred to as "SYNC_value" below) when doing the multiplexing.

       For VCD creation use:

       >  mpeg2dec  -s  -o  pgmpipe  test2.mpg   pgmtoy4m -a 59:54 -r 25:1 -i t  mpeg2enc -s -o
       video_vcd.m1v

       mpeg2dec:

       -s

       tells mpeg2dec to use program stream demultiplexer

       -o pgmpipe

       the output format of the pictures, suitable for pgmtoy4m

       Mplex with:

       > mplex -f 1 -O SYNC_value audio.mp2 video_vcd.m1v -o vcd_stream.mpg

       -f 1

       generates an VCD stream

       -O SYNC_value

       the value mentioned above

       For SVCD creation use:

       > mpeg2dec -s -o mpeg2src.mpg  pgmtoy4m -a 59:54 -r 25:1 -i t   mpeg2enc -f 4  -q  9  -V
       230 -o video_svcd.mpg

       -q 9

       Quality factor for the stream (VBR stream) (default q: 12)

       -V 230

       Target video buffer size in KB

       -o

       Output file

       Mplex with:

       > mplex -f 4 -b 230 audio.mp2 video_svcd -o svcd_stream.mpg

       -f 4

       generate an SVCD stream

       -b 200

       Specify the video buffer size by the playback device.

       For other video output formats this might work:

       >  mpeg2dec  -s  -o  pgmpipe  test2.mpg    pgmtoy4m  -a 59:54 -r 25:1 -i t  yuvscaler -O
       SIZE_320x200 -O NOT_INTERLACED  mpeg2enc -o strange_video.m1v

       If you want to edit mpeg streams this also works but in  a  slightly  different  way.  For
       demultiplexing  you  can  use  bbdmux from the bbtools package. Splits out either video or
       audio very cleanly.  You can't get it any more from the homepage from Brent Beyler, it can
       still  be  found  when  you  search  for  it  using  that  keywords  ” bbtools linux -suse
       -blackbox”. Currenty it can be found at:

       First run:

       > bbdmux myvideo.mpg

       You should get something like this:

       Found stream id 0xE0 = Video Stream 0
       Found stream id 0xC0 = MPEG Audio Stream 0
       Found stream id 0xBE = Padding Stream

       Extract audio with:

       > bbdmux myvideo.mpg 0xC0 audio.mp1

       Convert it to wav:

       > mpg123 -w audio.wav audio.m1v

       Extract video with:

       > bbdmux myvideo.mpg 0xE0 video.m1v

       Converting video to an mjpeg avi stream:

       > mpeg2dec -o pgmpipe video.m1v  pgmtoy4m -a 59:54 -r  25:1  -i  t    yuv2lav  -f  a  -o
       test.avi

       Then adding the sound to the avi:

       > lavaddwav test.avi audio.wav final.avi

       If  the source video has already the size of the target video use -o YUV. Using YUVh makes
       the video the half size!  The rest can be  done  just  like  editing  and  encoding  other
       streams.  If you have videos with ac3 sound you only have to adapt the commands above.

       Extracting Audio:

       > cat test2.mpg  extract_a52 - -s  ac3dec -o wav 2>dev/null >sound.wav

       Extract video and adding the audio in a single step :

       >  mpeg2dec -s -o pgmpipe  pgmtoy4m -a 59:54 -r 25:1 -i t  yuvscaler -O VCD  yuv2lav -f
       a -q 85 -w sound.wav -o test.avi

       NOTE:You need much disk space. 1GB of video has a size of about 2GB at SVCD format and  of
       course disk space is needed for some temp files.  Converting the video to mjpeg also takes
       some time.  On my Athlon 500 I never get more than 6-7 Frames a second.  You loose quality
       each time you convert a stream into an other format! Trading Quality/Speed

       If  absolute  quality  is your objective a modest improvement can be achieved using the -4
       and -2 flags.  These control how ruthlessly mpeg2enc discards bad looking matches  between
       sections  of adjacent frames during the early stages of the search when it is working with
       4*4 and 2*2 clusters of pixels rather than individual pixels. Setting -4 1 -2 1  maximizes
       quality.  -4  4  -2 4 maximizes speed. Note that because the statistical criteria mpeg2enc
       uses for discarding bad looking matches are usually fairly reliable the  increase/decrease
       in quality is modest (but noticeable).

       Reducing  the  radius  of the search for matching sections of images also increases speed.
       However due to the way the search algorithm works the search radius is in  effect  rounded
       to  the  nearest  multiple of 8.  Furthermore on modern CPU's the speed gained by reducing
       the radius below 16 is not large enough to make the marked  quality  reduction  worthwhile
       for most applications.

Creating streams to be played from disk using Software players

       Usually  MPEG  player  software is much more flexible than the hardware built into DVD and
       VCD players. This flexibility allows for significantly better compression to  be  achieved
       for  the  same quality.  The trick is to generate video streams that use big video buffers
       (500KB or more) and variable bitrate encoding (the -f / -q  flag  to  mpeg2enc).  Software
       players  will  often  also correctly play back the more efficient MPEG layer 3 (yes, ”MP3”
       audio format.  A good MP3 encoder like lame will produce results comparable to layer 2  at
       224Kbps at 128Kbps or 160Kbps.SMP and distributed Encoding

       Distributed  encoding  is  a  quite  dark theory for the typical Machine in 2013.  So most
       users can safely skip that point. SMP  Encoding  is  more  interresting  for  the  average
       computer

       The degree to which mpeg2enc tries to split work between concurrently executing threads is
       controlled by the -M or --multi-thread [0..32] option. This  optimizes  mpeg2enc  for  the
       specified  number  of  CPUs.  By  default  (-M  1) mpeg2enc runs with just a little multi-
       threading: reading of frames happens concurrently with compression. This is done to  allow
       encoding  pipelines that are split across several machines (see below) to work efficiently
       without the need for special buffering programs.  If you  are  encoding  on  a  single-CPU
       machine  where  RAM is tight you may find turning off multithreading altogether by setting
       -M 0 works slightly more efficiently.

       For SMP machines with two ore more processors you can speed up  mpeg2enc  by  setting  the
       number  of  concurrently  executing  encoding  threads's  you wish to utilize (e.g. -M 2).
       Setting -M 2 or -M 3 on a 2-way machine should allow you to speed up  encoding  by  around
       80%.  Values above 3 are accepted but have very little effect even on 4 cpu systems.

       If  you  have  a  real fast SMP machine (currently 1.Aug.03) like a dual Athlon MP 2600 or
       something similar the -M 2 and the filtering might not keep both (or  more)   CPU's  busy.
       The use of the buffer or bfr program with a 10-20MB buffer helps to keep both CPUs busy.

       Obviously  if  your  encoding pipeline contains several filtering stages it is likely that
       you can keep two or more CPU's busy simultaneously even without using -M. Denoising  using
       yuvdenoise  or  yuvmedianfilter is particular demanding and uses almost as much processing
       power as MPEG encoding.

       It you more than one computer you can also split the encoding pipeline  between  computers
       using  the  standard  'rsh' or 'rcmd' remote shell execution commands. For example, if you
       have two computers:

       > rsh machine1 lav2yuv ”mycapture.eli  yuvscaler -O SVCD  yuvdenoise”  mpeg2enc -f 4 -o
       mycapture.m2vi

       Here  the computer where you execute the command is doing the MPEG encoding and ”machine1”
       is the machine that is decoding scaling and denoising the captured video.

       Obviously, for this to work ”machine1” has to be able to access the video and the computer
       where  the command is executed has to have space for the encoded video. In practice, it is
       usually well worth setting up network file-storage using ”NFS” or other  packages  if  you
       are  going  to  do stuff like this.  If you have three computers you can take this a stage
       further, one computer could do the decoding and scaling, the next could do  denoising  and
       the third could do MPEG encoding:

       >  rsh  machine1  ”lav2yuv  mycapture.eli  yuvscaler -O SVCD”  yuvdenoise  rsh machine3
       mpeg2enc -f 4 -o mycapture.m2v

       NOTE:How the remote command executions are set up so that the data is sent direct from the
       machine that produces it to the machine that consumes it.

       In  practice  for  this  to be worthwhile the network you are using must be fast enough to
       avoid becoming a bottleneck. For Pentium-III class machines  or  above  you  will  need  a
       100Mbps Ethernet.

       For really fast machines a switched 100MBps Ethernet (or better!) may be needed.Setting up
       the rshd (”Remote Shell Daemon” needed for rsh to do its work  and  configuring  ”rsh”  is
       beyond  the  scope  of  this  document,  but  its  a standard package and should be easily
       installed and activated on any Linux or BSD distribution.

       Be aware that this is potentially a security issue so use with care on machines  that  are
       visible to outside networks!Interoperability

       Quicktime   files   capturing  using  lavrec  can  be  edited  using  Broadcast2000.   But
       Broadcast2000 is not available any more on heroinewarrior.  mjpeg AVI files captured using
       the  streamer  tool  from  the  xawtv package can be edited and compressed and played back
       using software.  Hardware playback is not possible for such files due  to  limitations  in
       the  Zoran  hardware  currently  supported.  Videos  recorded with NuppelVideo can also be
       processed with the mjpeg tools.

       If you have a Macintosh (MAC) and want to use the mjpeg tools look there:

       MPEG files produced using the tools are know to play back correctly on:

       dxr2 (hardware decoder card)

       xine

       xmovie

       mplayer

       vlc

       MPEG-1 only: gtv

       MS Media player version 6 and 7 and later version

       severals Software based DVD Player

       To find out what you HW-player (most of the time DVD player) can do take a look at:

       It seems that the MS Media player likes MPEG-1 streams more if you have  used  -f  1  when
       multiplexing.

       If you have any problems or suggestions feel free to mail me (Bernhard Praschinger): There
       is a lot of stuff added from the HINTS which Andrew Stevens created. Wolfgang Goeller  and
       Steven M. Schultz checked the document for bugs and spelling mistakes.

       And to the people who have helped me with program descriptions and hints, thanks

SEE ALSO

       The mjpeg homepage is at:
       http://mjpeg.sourceforge.net/
       http://sourceforge.net/projects/mjpeg

       vcdimager  is aviable at:
       http://www.vcdimager.org/

       cdrdao   is aviable at:
       http://cdrdao.sourceforge.net/index.html

       Linux Video Studio is aviable at:
       http://ronald.bitfreak.net

       The lavtools:
       jpeg2yuv(1),  lav2wav(1),  lav2yuv(1),  lavpipe(1),  lavplay(1),  lavrec(1),  lavtrans(1),
       lavinfo(1),  mp2enc(1),  mpeg2enc(1),  mplex(1),  ppmtoy4m(1),  pnmtoy4m(1),   yuv2lav(1),
       yuvdenoise(1),  yuvkineco(1),  yuvmedianfilter(1),  yuvplay(1),  yuvfps(1),  yuvscaler(1),
       yuvycsnoise(1), y4mblack(1), y4mcolorbars(1), y4mdenoise(1), y4mhist(1),  y4minterlace(1),
       y4mshift(1), y4mstabilizer(1), y4mtopnm(1).  y4mtoppm(1).

       Tools without a man page: lavaddwaw, glav