HOWTO: FFMPEG (Avi to vcd, svcd)

[kuleali]

1. Open Terminal (xterm,aterm etc)
2. Download FFMPEg from cvs: (Do NOT INSTALL FROM REP)
cvs -z9 -d:pserver:anonymous@mplayerhq.hu:/cvsroot/ffmpeg co ffmpeg
In terminal type:
cd ffmpeg
./configure
make
sudo make install


AVI to VCD

NTSC

ffmpeg -i <movie.avi> -target ntsc-vcd <filename.mpg>

PAL

ffmpeg -i <movie.avi> -target pal-vcd <filename.mpg>


Burn CD

K3b File > New Project > New Video CD project

[jimmyp]

when I did this and burnt the resulting mpg to a svcd with k3b, the picture was stretched and the sound was off.

[rantak]

The stretched picture is probably because your source was a widescreen picture and you made a 4:3 vcd. You should try this.

ffmpeg -i /path/file.avi -target pal-vcd -s 352x192 -padtop 32 -padbottom 32 /path/output.mpg

More info at http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Create_a_VCD_or_SVCD

Don't know what you should do with the sound though :(

[Marvelous]

@kuleali
you have just solved the ONLY reason i use Windows XP for.
in a very few time until i get better knowledge and more confidence then windows is no more on my laptop.
Thank you

[SteveGodfrey]

I'm following these intstructions but get this, can you suggest what I might be missing?

steve@ubuntu:~/kits/ffmpeg$ sudo make
make -C libavutil all
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/steve/kits/ffmpeg/libavutil'
make[1]: Nothing to be done for `all'.
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/steve/kits/ffmpeg/libavutil'
make -C libavcodec all
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/steve/kits/ffmpeg/libavcodec'
gcc -O3 -g -Wall -Wno-switch -Wdeclaration-after-statement -DHAVE_AV_CONFIG_H -I.. -I/home/steve/kits/ffmpeg/libavutil -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64 -D_LARGEFILE_SOURCE -D_GNU_SOURCE -c -o xvid_rc.o xvid_rc.c
xvid_rc.c: In function âff_xvid_rate_control_initâ:
xvid_rc.c:67: error: âxvid_plugin_2pass2_tâ has no member named âvbv_sizeâ
xvid_rc.c:68: error: âxvid_plugin_2pass2_tâ has no member named âvbv_maxrateâ
xvid_rc.c:69: error: âxvid_plugin_2pass2_tâ has no member named âvbv_initialâ
make[1]: *** [xvid_rc.o] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/steve/kits/ffmpeg/libavcodec'
make: *** [lib] Error 2
steve@ubuntu:~/kits/ffmpeg$

[jimmyp]

@kuleali
you have just solved the ONLY reason i use Windows XP for.
in a very few time until i get better knowledge and more confidence then windows is no more on my laptop.
Thank you
what program in windows did you use for this?

[Rizado]

cd ffmpeg
./configure
make
sudo make install

Instead of doing "sudo make install" do "sudo checkinstall" (Make sure you have checkinstall first.) This will create a debian package that can be easily removed through synaptic.

And for debian based systems nothing should be installed in /usr/local/ so do "./configure --prefix=/usr" instead. /usr can be changed to wherever you want the files.

This is nothing necessary, but it helps making the life easier :)

[Marvelous]

what program in windows did you use for this?
Used Nero.. just dragged and dropped regardless of the file type then it does the ecoding before burning the cd without interruption

[neilyweily]

i was the exact same, dumping files onto my shared vfat partition, rebooting into windows, then handing my pc over to nero for an hour and a half while it encoded the vcd.

didn't bother me too much, (honest)

then i tried to copy one of the vcd's that nero had made, using nero and no, no , no, not having any of it.

ffmpeg is currently encoding a movie for me now, and o still have full functionality

looks like i may not be a dual boot system for much longer
:eek:

[neilyweily]

thanks kuleali for the howto :)

[MihaiM]

I use Avidemux and cdrdao and works great.

[zba78]

Just to let you all know, there is a very easy to use app called tovid. get it at http://tovid.berlios.de/en/index.html

It's just a bunch of scripts that uses mencoder (amongst others) to encode to DVD format. It's slower then ffmpeg but gives higher quality (in my experiance).

Personally I just use ffmpeg.

[eduarm76]

After enconding a big avi file I endup with a 1.2Gb mpeg , I couldn't find a way to burn this image in two CDs with k3b. Is there a way to do this?

[JMO707]

Question: When I make ffmpeg -i /media/cdrom/archive.avi -target ntsc-svcd -s 704x394 -padtop 32 -padbottom 32 /home/jmo/archive.mpg because without those specifications, it result in a stretched image and with lower res, for what Im afraid that in the TV it will look ugly, I loose the subtitles. Can I add them to the resulting mpg?, I got te .srt file.

Thanks.