Free Encoders (?)

[CraigBjorn]

Hopefully not too stupid of a question. The only free MPG2 encoder I know of is the FFMPEG library which I don't know any benchmarks on this, but I'm just wondering:
Why aren't there any/many more, the only reason I can think of is compliancy.
and somewhat off topic, once you've used one of such programs to get your .m2v stream, and you've got your encoded audio stream, how do you mux them, or create a .vob

Sorry, if this is too nube ish, but I'm used to hangin out in the opensource community.

[Amnon82]

No it isn't! Here the list:

DRPEncXP FM (GUI for FFMPEG)
DRPEncXP ME (GUI for MEncoder)
DVDGK (my upcoming MPEG1/2 Encoder)
FFVFW (MPEG1/2 encoder for Virtualdub)
QuEnc (MPEG1/2 Encoder by Nic)

[dragongodz]

actually its more like

1. FFMpeg (a gui has been done by Amnon82)
2. Mencoder (a gui has been done by Amnon82)
3. FFVfw (is codec based so set up using avi output from programs)
4. QuEnc (has its own gui)
all of which is libavcodec so are infact all based on the exact same engine.

5. BBMpeg
rather old now but its still out there.

6. Mpeg2enc from MJPEGtools project
7. Sampeg (i have only seen linux binaries but source code is available)


as for muxing to a vob, your dvd authoring program should be able to handle that.

Edited to add encoders

[Doom9]

all those programs are based on the same mpeg2 encoding library though (except for bbmpeg, which is considerably worse - both in terms of speed and quality).

but I'm used to hangin out in the opensource community.Hmm, if this were a true m$s hating open source community such questions would not be tolerated. You'd get 10 RTFMs banged around your head faster than you can say "but..".

[dragongodz]

all those programs are based on the same mpeg2 encoding library though (except for bbmpeg, which is considerably worse - both in terms of speed and quality).

yep i already said that they were the same engine. also inclusion of BBMpeg was listed for completness not because it is that good. :)

but I'm used to hangin out in the opensource community.

if you look through the forum you will see many open source programs get support here. check out Xvid, Avisynth, Rejig, QuEnc etc etc.

[CraigBjorn]

Oh I know there are a ton of opensource programs, I'm just wondering why there is only one main library out there for mpeg2 encoding, when you have several awesome projects, like Xvid, for mpeg4 encoding, I mean yeah, there are plent of GUI's and sorts, but overall you're not changing the quality and speed of the encoding.

And as for a DVD authoring program, are there even any open sources of those... The only one I know of is dvdauthor, and I'm not sure if there are any fully developed gui's for that.

Maybe I just seem cheap, but I think part of it is open source type programs can also develope faster, and they catch on rather quickly since they're a free alternative to some that may normally cost alot of money.....

[dragongodz]

well there isnt just 1 as you can see (i even just updated the list). as for why FFMpeg engine is used so much, well its fast, produces good quality and is still being developed. why reinvent the wheel ? :)

hmm no i dont know of any free FULL dvd authoring programs. you can do movie only with ifoedit(but its is meant to have some problems with NTSC) and Rejig(it has movie dvd authoring based on dvdauthor). for complex multi-title authoring you will probably have to go with a commercial package at the moment.

ok after a bit more searching i found this

_http://users.adelphia.net/~liquid64/dvdauthorgui.html

yes a gui for dvdauthor but its listed features are
* multiple titles
* multiple titleset menus
* m2v still creation
* chapters
* multiple audio streams
* text subtitles
* ability to edit post commands
* fpc control
* iso creation
* saving/loading projects

so it may be of some use to you.

[Doom9]

Oh I know there are a ton of opensource programs, I'm just wondering why there is only one main library out there for mpeg2 encoding, when you have several awesome projects, like Xvid, for mpeg4 encoding,Well.. the only open source MPEG-4 encoders that come to mind are XviD and libavcodec (opendivx doesn't count as it's really bad quality and XviD derives from it). You know, there isn't an answer why there are X tools in area 1 and Y tools in area 2.. that's just the way it is.
As for authoring tools, those are so complex that I'm surprised there are any open source solutions at all. And they need a shitload of maturing. Better invest a hundred bucks and get a good but cheap tool like DVD-lab.

[vlada]

There's another one DVD authoring opensource solution - http://dvdstyler.sourceforge.net/index.html. It it should be simple to use, but it doesen't seem to have all the futures. Jech

[tickey]

Originally posted by Doom9

As for authoring tools, those are so complex that I'm surprised there are any open source solutions at all. And they need a shitload of maturing. Better invest a hundred bucks and get a good but cheap tool like DVD-lab.
dvdauthorgui is another front end for dvdauthor.
http://users.adelphia.net/~liquid64/dvdauthorgui.html
You can author a dvdIn 2 mins.
Excellent soft, continually updated and works like a charm-unlike a lot of free dvd realated tools.

I tried out a lot of apps.
Scenerist: I've got no time to waste with that nonsense.
DVD Architect: won't let me author a dvd with both a pal and ntsc movie
Tempenc Author: Auto loads start up sh*t.
When I have spent time creating m2vs, ac3's, vobs I cant waste more time on author on disk I will play once every 2 years.

[dragongodz]

vlada - dvdstyler is another gui for dvdauthor.

tickey - look at my previous post just a couple up from yours. :)

[TheXung]

You should count your open source mpeg4 codecs again. You talk of mpeg2 codecs as if they were trivially small tasks to complete.

[Amnon82]

@ dragongodz: can you post me the link for Sampeg

[dragongodz]

Amnon82 -

_http://www.linuxtv.org/mpeg2/sampeg.xml

that has the source for sampeg-2 onsite. they also mention(which i already knew of course) that sampeg-2 was stopped because Dirk Farrin started doing sampeg-4. it also has the link to Dirks sampeg page but it fails to connect for me now so maybe its gone. it has been a long time since i looked at it.

_http://212.219.247.21/sites/www.ibiblio.org/gentoo/distfiles/%5Bpage=77%5D

that is gentoo(linux) dist files which includes sampeg-3 source code.

sampeg-3 was going to eventually be sampeg-4 when finished but it never was. so there is no sampeg-4 just sampeg-2 and sampeg-3.

he also had other related projects like libvideocoding(video encoding functions library) and dvdview. they are probably floating around in distros aswell. :)

[Amnon82]

thx, but I can't compile it for windows... to old.

[jj59]

last version of sampeg 2 is 0.6.5
last version of sampeg 3/4 is 0.0.3 for gcc 3.2 it needs libvideogfx 1.0.3 according to the waybackmachine
both seems from the beginning of 2002

[dragongodz]

if you read the history part of the readme file in sampeg-2 0.6.5 you will see the entry "0.6.4 24.Feb.1999 development has stopped
". the source wasnt made GPL until 2000 or 2001 though. as such i have no idea of whats actually different about 0.6.5.

as for sampeg-3/4 3.0.0.3 yes it does need libvideocoding 1.0.3 to compile but that should be in the gentoo dist aswell for anyone interested.

ok its on the older side but the point was that there is more than 1 free mpeg 1/2 encoding engine out there. thats what the list i did was about and what the original question asked about.

on a side note sampeg-4 was slated to also do mpeg4 encoding. :)