Should I expect problems with certain codecs?

[Lincoln Burrows]

I don't know if this is an easy question to be answered promptly, but I was wondering (in my case, I am mixing all kinds of videos from all kinds of sources, and building a compilation) if there are certain codecs/files that can't be converted properly.

Or if this is just a matter of waiting for newer versions.

For example, in the past I believe I encountered problems when converting MP4 and FLV containers (downloaded from Youtube). And the audio was out of sync.

My idea is to convert different sources using this program:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SUPER_%28software%29

But all videos would be converted using these settings:

http://i.imgur.com/Inoxw.png

And then, all of them would be loaded into Sony Vegas to be rendered as one single file.

May I select FFmpeg always or do you recommend using MEncoder? What about DirectShow Decode?

What I am asking is simple: will these settings be enough to convert all different sources?

* The fps info would be changed depending on the source.

In Sony Vegas, I would use a 1,0000 pixel aspect ratio and Field order: None/progressive scan. Resolution would be 720x480 or similar and Xvid codec with default settings (bitrate would be 1500-2000 instead of 700).

[clsid]

One thing I know about that program is that it installs a lot of junk.

[Keiyakusha]

This software you using... uhh, how should I say this... it is not good. I don't think that investigation of possible problems with it worth the effort.
UPD: Also, whatever software you using, I don't believe in existence of some settings that will fit to different video. Maybe only if all of the videos are from the same dvd/bd box (and for some reason there is no any kinds of special/extra materials in it :P).

[Lincoln Burrows]

This software you using... uhh, how should I say this... it is not good. I don't think that investigation of possible problems with it worth the effort.I am open to suggestions... it's hard to find good converters. :thanks:

[golagoda]

ffmpeg by itself is and probably always will be the better choice out of all converters if you have a wide range of audio, video and container types rather than a specific type, and even then ffmpeg will probably still be better.

I recommend against MEncoder, and there's a good explanation regarding it on the mplayer2 site's FAQ.


3. Why was MEncoder removed? Some people were still using it.

The MEncoder codebase was in very bad shape. The code quality and architecture was bad in general, and there were lots of known bugs that caused failures or more or less subtly corrupt output in a variety of circumstances. Fixing it would have required a lot of effort, and nobody was working on it. MEncoder duplicated various parts of the playback functionality and did that badly; adding some encoding support on top of the player side is overall less work than fixing all the flaws in MEncoder (see next question).

Letting MEncoder stay around in its semi-broken state was less of an issue in MPlayer as it could mostly be ignored; changes in mplayer2 meant that keeping MEncoder compiling at all would have required active work, and this wasn't really worth it considering that MEncoder development was a dead end.

and looking at that software it uses ffmpeg, x264, etc, etc already - you may as well just use those by themselves rather than a closed-source app that tries to install adware when you install it.

[JoeH]

If you are willing to spend a little money, I use TMPGEnc Xpress 4.0 for editing and converting YouTube videos, and it has never failed me. The latest version is called TMPGEnc Video Mastering Works 5.