Converting Streaming MJPEG to MPEG

[specul8]

Hi all.

Does anyone know if it is possible to convert streaming video coming in as MJPEG to MPEG2 or MPEG4 using AviSynth?

I am trying to resample video input received from a video conferencing camera and output it as MPEG so that it can be sent down a low bandwidth link in a more economical fashion.

I can only seem to find hardware that can do this sort of thing (And not very well) - most software seems to work converting pre-saved video files, rather than streaming video.

I've had a look at the AviSynth web site, but could not determine if it can do on-the-fly video processing when given a streaming video source.

Obviously, if anyone knows of any other applications that do this sort of thing, I'd be interested in knowing as well. It has to be able to receive, process and output a video signal _on the fly_

Thanks - Specul8

[sh0dan]

I guess there isn't a way to do this without an intermediate MJPEG file. I think most software encoders also would have a hard time compressing the material realtime, except if it is a small resolution.

I'd suggest a "two-pass" stragegy - first capturing, and compressing after that, but of course that's more timeconsuming.

Vdub can capture directly to MPEG4, using XviD or DivX - that might be the way to go.

Otherwise you might try out dedicated streaming software, like WMV or similar.

[specul8]

Thanks sh0dan.

It's strange that no-one has developed software that can do this, but I guess there is not much call for it. Normally you would buy the hardware that outputs the video in the format you want.

By the way... WMV = Windows Media Video, right?

Thanks again - Specul8

[sh0dan]

On the fly compression often comes at a high price, when using hardware (low quality and almost no options). Software compression on the other hand comes often with a speed penalty - to gain better quality.

Besides - AviSynth is essensially a backend for other programs. It would however still be possible for GUI interfaces to pull frames through AviSynth in realtime - you do however loose a lot of the "nonlinear" funtionality, as one frame in must be one frame out (or closely anyway).