mpeg2enc (1) - Linux Manuals
mpeg2enc: MPEG-1/2 encoder
NAME
SYNOPSIS
mpeg2enc [-v|--verbose num] [-M|--multi-thread num_CPU] [-f|--format mpeg_profile] [-l|--level]h|high|m|main [-b|--video-bitrate bitrate_kbps] [-V|--video-buffer video_buf_size_kB] [-T|--target-still-size still_size_kB] [-q|--quantisation quantisation] [-r|--motion-search-radius motion_search_radius] [-Q|--quantisation-reduction -4.0..5.0] [-X|--quant-reduction-max-var 0.0..2500.0] [-p|--3-2-pulldown] [-I|--interlace-mode 0|1|2] [-s|--sequence-header-every-gop] [-g|--min-gop-size min_gop_size] [-G|--max-gop-size max_gop_size] [-P|--force-b-b-p] [-n|--video-norm n|p|s] [-F|--frame-rate frame_rate_code] [-x|--display-hsize] 32..38383] [-y|--display-vsize] 32..38383] [-a|--aspect aspect_ratio_code] [-z|--playback-field-order b|t] [-4|--reduction-4x4 1..4] [-2|--reduction-2x2 1..4] [-S|--sequence-length size_MB] [-B|--nonvideo-bitrate bitrate_kbps] [-N|--reduce-hf 0.0..2.0] [-D|--intra_dc_prec 8..11] [-H|--keep-hf] [-d|--no-dummy-svcd-SOF] [-C|--correct-svcd-hds] [--no-constraints] [-K|--custom-quant-matrices kvcd|tmpgenc|default|hi-res|file=inputfile|help] [-E|--unit-coeff-elim -40..40] [-R|--b-per-refframe 0..2] [--no-altscan-mpeg2] [--dualprime-mpeg2] [-A|--ratecontroller 0..1] [-u|--cbr] [--chapters frame,...] [-?|--help] -o|--output filenameDESCRIPTION
mpeg2enc is heavily enhanced derivative of the MPEG Software Simulation Group's MPEG-2 reference encoder. It accepts streams in a simple planar YUV format "YUV4MPEG" produced by the lav2yuv and related filters (e.g. yuvscaler(1)) from the mjpegtools(1) package. An output plug-in to the mpeg2dec(1) MPEG decoder is available to permit its use in transcoding applications. The encoder currently fully supports the generation of elementary MPEG-1, progressive and interlaced frame MPEG-2 streams. Field encoded MPEG-2 is also possible but is not currently maintained or supported.For most purposes this elementary stream output will need to be multiplexed with one or more audio streams into a program/systems stream using the mplex(1) tool.
Note that although this manual page aims to explain how mpeg2enc can be used effectively it is not intended as an introduction to MPEG-1/2 video which is a fairly complex topic in its own right. The MPEG video format is a somewhat baroque standard with many many options, not all of which necessarily easy to explain or even particular useful in the context of a software encoder.
Much useful practical information for novices can be found in the
mjpeg-HOWTO document that should have been installed with mjpegtools(1)
package. Further information and useful supporting software can be found
on the mjpegtools web-site:
SELECTING THE MPEG PROFILE
Set the MPEG profile to use. The MPEG standards support a vast number of options. In practice, different applications of the MPEG format place additional constraints of the form the MPEG stream. Setting this flag selects the kind of stream to produce.
-f|--format
-f|--format
An MPEG1 profile exactly to the VCD2.0 specification.
Flag settings that would result in a non-standard
stream structure are simply ignored.
-f|--format
As for profile 2 but bitrate and video buffer size can
be set to non-standard values. Frame size may also be non-standard.
Bit-rate and buffer sizes default to those for standard VCD.
-f|--format
A basic MPEG-2 profile that lets most parameters be adjusted for
particular applications using the other flags. Typical applications
would be to produce a MPEG-2 stream with big buffers and long GOP's
for software playback on a computer.
-f|--format
An MPEG-2 profile exactly to the SVCD2.0
specification. Flag settings that would result in a
non-standard stream structure are simply ignored.
-f|--format
As for profile 4 but bitrate, video
buffer size, GOP sizes and structure can be set to
non-standard values. Frame size may also be non-standard.
Bit-rate and buffer sizes default to those for standard SVCD.
-f|--format
Encodes the special style of MPEG stream
used for still images on VCDs. To use this profile you must
set the target size you wish to compress the images to using the
-T flag. Reasonable values are around 35KB for standard resolution
stills (352 wide) and 120KB for high resolution stills (704 wide).
-f|--format
Encodes the special style of MPEG stream
used for still images on SVCDs. Both standard (480 wide) and high
resolution (704 wide) images are supported. As with VCD stills you
select how big each compressed still should be using the -T flag.
-f|--format
This version adds special dummy navigation packets into the output stream
that the dvdauthor tool fills in to make a proper .VOB for authoring.
Bit-rate defaults to 7500kbps, buffer sizes to the maximum
permitted by the DVD specification.
-f|--format
Just a very basic implementation. Useful with DXR2 board and similar
hardware that can decode MPEG-2 only if it is presented in a DVD like
form. Bit-rate defaults to 7500kbps, buffer sizes to the maximum
permitted by the DVD specification.
-f|--format
-f|--format
-f|--format
-f|--format
-v|--verbose
Set verbosity level to num. 0 = warnings and errors only, 1 =
information as well, 2=really verbose.
-K|--custom-quant-matriceskvcd|tmpgenc|
Specify which quantisation matrices to use instead of the defaults
(which can be specified by using "-K default"). Using "-K hi-res" is
identical to using the -H option. The value kvcd uses the Kvcd.Net
matrices from http://www.kvcd.net/; the value tmpgenc invokes the
TMPGEnc matrices from http://www.tmpgenc.net/e_main.html. On average
(this depends on the source material), the tmpgenc tables reduce
the average bitrate by about 10% and the kvcd tables reduce bitrate
by about 16% (compared to the default tables).
-E|--unit-coeff-elim
Specify when a special 'unit coefficient elimination' algorithm should
be applied to the encoded picture blocks. Basically, this procedure
forces blocks of a type that don't carry much information but are
expensive to encode to be simply skipped. The larger the number the
more potentially visible this skipping is likely to be but the more
compression is boosted. A negative value means that all coefficients
are zeroed, positive means only texture but not base intensity
coefficients are zeroed. Values of around 10 or -10 seem to work well
with high quality source material. For noisier material it might be
worth trying 20 or -20.
-R|--b-per-refframe
Specify how many bi-directionally (B type) difference-encoded frames
should be encoded between reference (I or P) frames. The default is 0
except for VCD encoding where it is 2 B frames as required by the
standard. Experts differ on how much using B frames improves
compression. In practice unless you have really clean material they
tend to be fairly useless and sometimes even harmful. Encoding is
significantly faster and uses less memory if no B frames are encoded
and compression is rarely more than marginally worse.
-?|--help
Display a synopsis of the command syntax.
N.b. If the profile you have selected sets particular values
for these parameters it will over-ride these adjustment flags.
In particular, there is almost nothing that can be
adjusted for the standard VCD and SVCD profiles.
-b|--video-bitrate
The bitrate of the output video stream in kBits/sec. The default is
exactly the bitrate required for VCD streams.
If variable bitrate (VBR) mode has been selected (see the
-q option) this is the
maximum
bitrate of the stream. NOTE: By default MPEG-2 streams (-f
3, 4, 5, 8 and 9 are VBR. Use the --cbr option for generating
CBR (Constant Bit Rate) streams.
-A|--ratecontroller
Specify which of the rate control algorithms to use. Default is 0.
-V|--video-buffer
The maximum video buffer usage required to decode the stream in
KBytes. The default is 46KB the (tiny) size specified for VCD. The
size to use for SVCD is the (more reasonable) 230KB. If you are
encoding for a half-decent software decoder it makes sense to push
this up to 500K or more.
-T|--target-still-size
Set the target size for (S)VCD still images in KB.
-s|--sequence-header-every-gop
This flag forces the encoder to generate a "sequence header" at the start
of every group-of-pictures. This is needed by some player hardware to
support fast forward/rewind/random access functions but is a waste of bits
otherwise.
-d|--no-dummy-svcd-SOF
The SVCD MPEG-2 profile demands that special "Scan OFfset" which are
(in effect) pointers to the place on the final SVCD disk where the
video for 0.5 and around 5-10 seconds behind and ahead in the stream
is located. The intended use of this information is to support"Fast
forward/Rewind" functions. Unfortunately, at the time mpeg2enc
encodes the video it doesn't know where the video is going to finally
end up. So special dummy "Scan OFfset" values are written which are
intended to be filled in during the creation of the SVCD
image. Currently the GNU vcdimager tool handles this task. However,
in some circumstances the dummy offsets can cause problems. This
flags stops mpeg2enc generating them.
--correct-svcd-hds
In the official SVCD standards the field in the MPEG-2 header
information that passes on the encoders "recommended" horizontal
resolution to decode the stream to is supposed to take the values 540
(for 4:3 sequences) or 720 (for 16:9 sequences). In practice many
players don't work unless the value is 480. This flag, forces mpeg2enc
to follow the official standard. It is worth trying if 16:9 sequences
play at 4:3 aspect ratio.
--no-constraints
This flag deactivates all constraints for the maximum video samplerate or video resolution. Its purpose is to allow the encoding of unusual resolutions of MPEG-video (e.g. 2200 x 576, 160 degrees FOV VR-theatre MPEG movies), but should be used with care: It can possible circumvent a number of other security checks, and untested settings can cause mpeg2enc to crash in this mode.
-l|--level h|high|m|main
This flag allows the MPEG-2 implementation level against which the coding parameters are checked to
be set. You may need to set this to 'high' if you're encoding HDTV material.
--no-altscan-mpeg2
This flag deactivates the use of the 'alternate' macroblock scan pattern for
MPEG2 encoding. Normally this pattern is used but a few elderly software
decoders had bugs relating to this feature. You should never need to use this flag.
--dualprime-mpeg2
MPEG-2 supports a special motion estimation mode (DPME, Dual Prime Motion
Estimation) for I/P-frame only streams that can somewhat improve compression.
A number of players (both hardware and software) do not support this mode.
Those players may or may not be
MPEG-2 compliant depending if DPME is an option or not in the MPEG-2 specs.
If you need to generate content for such players (e.g. Ogle or Apple's
DVD player application) you should NOT turn on dualprime-mpeg2! Surprisingly
at least one hardware/set-top player is known to be allergic to DPME being
used.
-z|--playback-field-order
This flag overrides the field-order specified in the interlacing tag of
the input stream header. (If you need this option, it indicates a problem
in the capturing/encoding process where the temporal order of the two
fields in each frame has been mislabeled. The effect of this is weird
"juddering" when playing back the stream on a TV. Check the mjpeg-howto
for more information about interlacing problems.)
-n|--video-norm
Force the input stream to be treated as NTSC|PAL|SECAM regardless of
what the stream header might suggest. Basically this just sets the
defaults for a bunch of other options.
-F|--frame-rate
Set the frame-rate of the output-stream. By default, this value is
inferred from the input header. Currently only the standard
MPEG rates are supported. Eventually more-or-less arbitrary rates
will be possible.
-a|--aspect
Set the playback aspect ratio code of the encoded video. By default, this
value is inferred from the input header.
-x|--display-hsize
-y|--display-vsize
These set the display-horizontal-size and display-vertical-size hints
in the MPEG-2. By default these are simply the encode frame dimensions.
However, if they are set to different values the player gets a hint that
the appropriate 'black bars' or cropping/scaling should be performed. The main
use for these parameters is to set a display-vertical-size of 1080 for HDTV
1080i or 1080p material. Here, since the frame height has to be a multiple of 16, the encoded frame height is forced to be 1088, even though HDTV standards
specify only 1080 lines of picture content. Standards committees ... love' em.
-p|--3-2-pulldown
Setting -p only makes sense for 24frame/sec Movie source material. It sets
flags in the output stream that tell the decoder to play the movie as
NTSC 60field/sec video using "3:2 pulldown". This is vastly more
efficient than encoding as 60field/sec video. The classic application
is to transcode a PAL-encoded movie (24fps played too fast at 25 fps!)
into NTSC (see the -f flag).
-M|--multi-thread
MPEG encoding is a task that can be split over a small number of CPU's
quite efficiently. Mpeg2enc can be internally set to split major
processing tasks between a number of concurrent threads. This flag
adjusts the multi-threading to the optimum to utilise the specified
number of CPU's.
It should be noted that even with 1 CPU present some
multi-threading is performed: frame input takes place in parallel with
encoding. The default -M value is 1. This allows good performance to
be achieved when when a
seperate machine is being used for pre-processing (decoding from
MJPEG, scaling, denoising etc) with the final result pipe to mpeg2enc
(e.g. using rsh or ssh).
Setting -M 0 disables all multithreading. This is sometimes useful
for debugging or to achieve maximum CPU efficiency on a shared
machine. Setting -M 3 on a dual-CPU machine will produce slightly
faster results than -M 2 at the price of slightly less CPU efficiency.
This is useful if nothing else needs to be done on the encoding
machine. In practice there is little point setting -M greater than 4
even if the CPU's are available due to the fairly coarse-grained
parallelism used. Indeed there is a hardcoded limit of 4 worker threads.
The default has been changed to be 0 instead of 1 to avoid the crash at
end of encoding:
-q|--quantisation
Minimum quantisation of the output stream. Quantisation controls the
precision with which image information is encoded. The lower the
number the higher the quality but the greater the required data-rate.
NOTE: on IA32 systems it is possible to cause artifacting by setting
the value too low (3 or less) due to arithmetic overflow/truncation in the
DCT/iDCT routines.
If this option is set a
variable bitrate
stream is produced. This is more efficient
but variable bitrate MPEG-1 cannot be played by some hardware
decoders and is rejected by some DVD authoring packages. If you intend
to use a software decoder you'd be insane not to use variable bitrate.
If this option is set without a maximum bitrate being specified then
quantisation is fixed at the specified value. It should be noted that not
specifying a bitrate is probably an error and may produce unexpected results.
For MPEG-2 streams a default of 8 is used if -q is not explicitly given.
To force constant bitrate streams use --cbr and -b NOT -q!
-I|--interlace-mode
Set the sequence picture structure and block encoding type for MPEG-2 streams.
By default, this value is inferred from the interlacing tag of the input
stream. Setting 0 encodes frame-by-frame with support for interlaced video
turned off, and specifies that progressive chroma subsampling has been used.
Setting 1 encodes frame-by-frame with interlace-adapted motion compensation
and block encoding, and specifies that interlaced chroma subsampling has
been used. Setting 2 encodes interlaced material field-by-field, which
will produce more accurate results for highly textured interlaced
material with lots of motion, at the expense of generally less efficiency.
-g|--min-gop-size
-G|--max-gop-size
These flags set the minimum and maximum group-of-picture (GOP) size
for the output MPEG stream. The default values depend on the output format.
For MPEG-1 (for example VCD) the default is a fixed GOP size of 12 (-g and -G
are both set to 12).
For
MPEG-2 the default value of -G (max) is set according to the video system:
-G 15 for 625 line (PAL) and 18 for 525 line (NTSC).
If -g (min) has not been specified then the minimum GOP size is set to be
one half of the maximum (-G).
To force a fixed GOP size specify both -g and -G with the same value.
If the minimum and maximum GOP sizes are not identical then mpeg2enc
will start a new GOP if more than 60% of the macroblocks in a P or B
frame are Intra encoded.
This ensure big changes of image coincide with a fully-encoded
I-frame by starting a new GOP. This can help prevent transient
"blockiness".
Reasonable minimum GOP sizes are 6 or 9. If a minimum is not specified but
a maximum is given then the minimum will be set to one half the maximum.
A larger GOP size can help reduce the bitrate required for a given quality.
However, this really only applies to high-quality source material with
little noise (e.g. digital video). For broadcast material there is
little point setting GOP size much beyond 21 or 24. Even with good
source material diminishing returns set in quite rapidly. Also it must be
noted that specific MPEG-2 formats (such as for DVD) are constrained
in the maximum allowable GOP size.
Note: mpeg2enc is currently hard-wired to produce 2 B frames between
each I/P frame unless the GOP size forces less. This is reasonable
for medium to high bitrates (>= 1Mbps) but probably sub-optimal for
low-bitrate encoding.
-c|--closed-GOPs
Setting this flag causes the encoder to generate only "closed" GOPs
(Groups of Pictures) that can be decoded without reference to their
predecessor. This is useful for streams that are supposed to be used
in multi-angle DVD's and applications where more easily edittable MPEG
is required.
-P|--force-b-b-p
This flag forces the GOP size selection to choose sizes
that ensure 2 B frames appear between adjacent I/P frames.
Several common MPEG-1 decoders can't handle streams where less than
2 B-frames appear between I/P frames.
-Q|--quantisation-reduction
This flag sets the amount quantisation is reduced for
blocks containing large amounts of sharp image detail.
Large values produces efficient use of bits but may
cause visible artifacting around detailed sections.
With noisy source material this option may cause
a "swimming" effect on textured backgrounds as the noise cause the
quantisation of blocks to be boosted at random. The default is 0.0 (off).
See also the -X option.
-X|--quant-reduction-max-var
Luma variance below which quantisation boost (-Q) is activated.
-r|--motion-search-radius
This flag sets the motion estimation search radius. For most
purposes the default (16) should be just fine. For high-resolution
MPEG-2 and active scenes it may be worth bumping it up. However, this
will make encoding significantly slower. There is little point
reducing the radius. Speed gains are not huge and the impact on quality
can be marked.
-4|--reduction-4x4
-2|--reduction-2x2
GENERAL FUNCTION LETTERS
FUNCTION LETTERS ADJUSTING THE SELECTED PROFILE
OPTION LETTERS CONTROLLING VIDEO PARAMETERS
OPTION LETTERS FOR CONTROLLING COMPRESSION AND SPEED
INFO: [mpeg2enc] Signaling last frame = 499
mpeg2enc: seqencoder.cc:433: void SeqEncoder::EncodeStream(): Assertion `pass1coded.size() == 0' failed.
Abort