MEncoder options

Encoding DVDs with MEncoder

Here is an example on how to encode a DVD using MEncoder.

mencoder dvd://1 -o test.avi -ss 120 -endpos 10 -alang en -slang en -aid 130 -psprobe 1000000 -vf crop=720:446:0:66 -aspect 1.78 -af volume=15 -ovc x264 -x264encopts crf=21:threads=2 -oac mp3lame -lameopts q=2

You can get hints for the audio id, supported languages, aspect ratio, and other values by playing the DVD with mplayer dvd://1 and inspecting the resulting console output.

• dvd://1: read the main track of the DVD. Sometimes the main video is on another track (e.g. dvd://3, dvd://5, dvd://81, …).
• -o test.avi: selects the output file and AVI as container format. You could also specify an MP4 file here.
• -ss 120 -endpos 10: this tells the encoder to skip the first 120 seconds and then stop after encoding 10 seconds of video. This is used initially to test on a small representative part of the video that the encoding options are correct. Afterwards you can drop these options.
• -alang en: choose the English audio track.
• -slang en: add the English subtitles to the video.
• -aid 130: choose the audio track with id 130. Specifying this is not necessary in most cases.
• -psprobe 1000000: use this option to force MEncoder to extend the search for the audio stream. Only necessary if MEncoder says no audio stream found.
• -vf crop=720:446:0:66: you can use this to crop of black borders.
• -aspect 1.78: often it is necessary to set the pixel aspect ratio of the output video.
• -af volume=15: with many DVDs it is necessary to boost the audio volume.
• -ovc x264 -x264encopts crf=21:threads=2: this selects the H.264 video encoder and configures it.
• -oac mp3lame -lameopts q=2: this selects the MP3 audio encoder and configures it. You can also use -oac faac -faacopts quality=300 if you prefer to use the AAC codec.

Once you have found the right options, rerun the command without the -ss and -endpos option to encode the full video.

See also:

• MPlayer