Mencoder encoding only plays with mplayer

[hobbes487]

I am using mencoder to encode my DVDs to xvid but i am having a problem playing them with anything but mplayer. When i try to play them with VLC i get no audio or video.

here are my mencoder command lines:

mencoder dvd://1 -oac lavc -lavcopts acodec=ac3 −slang en -vf-add crop=720:352:0:62 -ovc xvid -xvidencopts pass=1:bitrate=-2000000 -o "Paradise Now.avi"

mencoder dvd://1 -oac lavc -lavcopts acodec=ac3 −slang en -vf-add crop=720:352:0:62 -ovc xvid -xvidencopts pass=2:bitrate=-2000000 -o "Paradise Now.avi"

another strange thing: i am able to play the partially encoded video with VLC before mencoder finishes, but once it completes i can't play it anymore.

Anyone with some mencoder experience able to help me out?

[Pookie]

Are the final AVI files ending up over 2GB in size ? That MIGHT be the culprit.

[hobbes487]

No, they are less than 2GB. Why would that be a problem anyway?

[Pookie]

'Twas an issue with mingw mencoder ports, IIRC.

The commandline AVImaster app http://www.thozie.de/dnn/AVIMaster.aspx will parse your file for information, report and fix errors.

[hobbes487]

Anyone else have any idea why this could be happening?

[Sharktooth]

pookie just gave you the answer...

[hellfred]

AC3 in AVI? Might the problem not lay in the used audio codec?
Hellfred

[GodofaGap]

AC3 in AVI works fine. And the problem with mencoder/mingw already start from 1 GB.

[celtic_druid]

I have created > 1GB avi's with mencoder. No problems. Depends on the build you use I guess.

[GodofaGap]

I build it myself with mingw. The OpenDML index is completely corrupted, it points to positions beyond the file length. At least, it was that way a while ago. I don't understands why this works in mplayer though, but someone probably patched it to read these broken files. :)

But yeah, after trying some things out, I don't consider mencoder a viable solution for encoding anything...