Converting Footage to DV in Linux

[rose4emily]

Anyone have an example or two of the commands needed to convert HuffYUV/MPEG1/MPEG2/MPEG4 to DV in Linux? I need to join several video segments - encoded in a mix of the four aforementioned codecs, and DV is just about the only thing I haven't tried yet for performing the compilation. It's also the only thing that I know will work.

I should add that none of the source videos are in either NTSC or PAL, which adds an extra complication to this process. 11 are in .avi containers, but one is in a .vob (that's the MPEG2 one).

I've tried MEncoder, using the libdv implementation of DV, and found that it produced video that looked "blocky". Not so much in the crappy DivX rip sense as in the 320x240 Nintendo console sense, almost like it was actually encoded at 1/2 scale and then blown up for playback. I know it's not supposed to do that. BTW - I did make sure I was using the bicubic software scaler rather than the nearest-neighbor to convert the picture resolution to 720x480, and that the output fps was set to 29.97.

I haven't gotten FFMPEG or Transcode to encode anything to DV yet, however, and was hoping someone else here actually has. I know it's possible, I just haven't yet figured out what I need to type to get it to happen.

I also tried searching much ot the rest of the Internet for answers to this - but it seems no one in their right minds would convert anything but a raw film transfer to DV. Then again, most people editing DV have either film or DV to work with in the first place.

[rose4emily]

Problem solved.

I was taking into account the format conversion needed for the video stream, but not one needed for the audio stream.

Specifically, DV requires audio sampled at 48000 Hz, while my source was at the Redbook CD standard sample rate of 44100 Hz.

In case anyone else runs into this problem, here's a couple of examples:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ffmpeg -i 01.avi -ar 48000 -r 29.97 -s 720x480 01.dv

ffmpeg -i 03.vob -ar 48000 -r 29.97 -s 720x480 01.dv

-i: input file
-ar: output audio sample rate
-r: output frame rate
-s: output dimensions
output file name (.dv extension prompts FFMPEG to assume DV encoding)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pretty simple, once I got it to work.