I'm running Debian 11. I use the command line "cat" to concatenate videos of all the same quality together. All VOB files are cat'd together and none others. The second bunch of videos I cat together are from a Sony video camera and are "MTS" files. That's to say I do not cat VOB and MTS files together. The command I use for VOB is (at command line) $ cat File_1.VOB File_2.VOB> New_File_1.VOBThe command I use for MTS is (at command line) $ cat File_1.MTS File_2.MTS> New_File_2.MTS Not wanting to lose any video or audio quality, does "cat" files degrade their quality? If it does can you recommend a code line that'll preserve the quality? VOB file example; Input #0, mpeg, from 'VTS_06_1.VOB': Duration: 00:00:32.53, start: 0.213367, bitrate: 6688 kb/s Stream #0:0[0x1bf]: Data: dvd_nav_packet Stream #0:1[0x1e0]: Video: mpeg2video (Main), yuv420p(tv, bottom first), 720x480 [SAR 8:9 DAR 4:3], 5000 kb/s, 29.97 fps, 29.97 tbr, 90k tbn, 59.94 tbc Side data: cpb: bitrate max/min/avg: 5000000/0/0 buffer size: 1835008 vbv_delay: N/A Stream #0:2[0xa0]: Audio: pcm_dvd, 48000 Hz, stereo, s16, 1536 kb/s MTS file example; Input #0, mpegts, from '00105.MTS': Duration: 00:00:49.06, start: 1.033367, bitrate: 22411 kb/s Program 1 Stream #0:0[0x1011]: Video: h264 (High) (HDMV / 0x564D4448), yuv420p(top first), 1920x1080 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 29.97 fps, 59.94 tbr, 90k tbn, 59.94 tbc Stream #0:1[0x1100]: Audio: ac3 (AC-3 / 0x332D4341), 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 256 kb/s Stream #0:2[0x1200]: Subtitle: hdmv_pgs_subtitle ([144][0][0][0] / 0x0090), 1920x1080
I'm running Debian 11. I use the command line "cat" to concatenate videos of all the same quality together. All VOB files are cat'd together and none others. The second bunch of videos I cat together are from a Sony video camera and are "MTS" files. That's to say I do not cat VOB and MTS files together. The command I use for VOB is (at command line) $ cat File_1.VOB File_2.VOB> New_File_1.VOBThe command I use for MTS is (at command line) $ cat File_1.MTS File_2.MTS> New_File_2.MTS
Not wanting to lose any video or audio quality, does "cat" files degrade their quality? If it does can you recommend a code line that'll preserve the quality?
VOB file example; Input #0, mpeg, from 'VTS_06_1.VOB': Duration: 00:00:32.53, start: 0.213367, bitrate: 6688 kb/s Stream #0:0[0x1bf]: Data: dvd_nav_packet Stream #0:1[0x1e0]: Video: mpeg2video (Main), yuv420p(tv, bottom first), 720x480 [SAR 8:9 DAR 4:3], 5000 kb/s, 29.97 fps, 29.97 tbr, 90k tbn, 59.94 tbc Side data: cpb: bitrate max/min/avg: 5000000/0/0 buffer size: 1835008 vbv_delay: N/A Stream #0:2[0xa0]: Audio: pcm_dvd, 48000 Hz, stereo, s16, 1536 kb/s
MTS file example; Input #0, mpegts, from '00105.MTS': Duration: 00:00:49.06, start: 1.033367, bitrate: 22411 kb/s Program 1 Stream #0:0[0x1011]: Video: h264 (High) (HDMV / 0x564D4448), yuv420p(top first), 1920x1080 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 29.97 fps, 59.94 tbr, 90k tbn, 59.94 tbc Stream #0:1[0x1100]: Audio: ac3 (AC-3 / 0x332D4341), 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 256 kb/s Stream #0:2[0x1200]: Subtitle: hdmv_pgs_subtitle ([144][0][0][0] / 0x0090), 1920x1080 I've never dug into the technicalities of VOB files (nor MTS). The most I've done with them aside from extracting them into more conventional video containers with DVD-ripping software such as MakeMKV is to play
On 12/2/2022 4:36 AM, MyCraigs List via ffmpeg-user wrote: them with VLC Media Player. 'cat' just does a straight binary concatenation of files, without touching their contents (assuming you don't give it any commandline options), so no, there's no quality degradation. However, I'm unaware if VOB or MTS files have headers that need to be preserved and that need to match things like the time duration of the file. Have you tried watching / listening to the concatenated files with a player (e.g. VLC)? Do they look and sound OK when you cross the time index of the concatenation point? If so, I think you're probably fine (though depending on what your intended use is, you might run into trouble in the future due to the files not being standards-compliant thanks to header issues). If you have problems, you could try concatenating them with ffmpeg instead, à la the examples here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7333232/how-to-concatenate-two-mp4-files... -- Dan Harkless http://harkless.org/dan/
I'm running Debian 11. I use the command line "cat" to concatenate videos of all the same quality together. All VOB files are cat'd together and none others. The second bunch of videos I cat together are from a Sony video camera and are "MTS" files. That's to say I do not cat VOB and MTS files together. The command I use for VOB is (at command line) $ cat File_1.VOB File_2.VOB> New_File_1.VOBThe command I use for MTS is (at command line) $ cat File_1.MTS File_2.MTS> New_File_2.MTS
Not wanting to lose any video or audio quality, does "cat" files degrade their quality? If it does can you recommend a code line that'll preserve the quality?
VOB file example; Input #0, mpeg, from 'VTS_06_1.VOB': Duration: 00:00:32.53, start: 0.213367, bitrate: 6688 kb/s Stream #0:0[0x1bf]: Data: dvd_nav_packet Stream #0:1[0x1e0]: Video: mpeg2video (Main), yuv420p(tv, bottom first), 720x480 [SAR 8:9 DAR 4:3], 5000 kb/s, 29.97 fps, 29.97 tbr, 90k tbn, 59.94 tbc Side data: cpb: bitrate max/min/avg: 5000000/0/0 buffer size: 1835008 vbv_delay: N/A Stream #0:2[0xa0]: Audio: pcm_dvd, 48000 Hz, stereo, s16, 1536 kb/s
MTS file example; Input #0, mpegts, from '00105.MTS': Duration: 00:00:49.06, start: 1.033367, bitrate: 22411 kb/s Program 1 Stream #0:0[0x1011]: Video: h264 (High) (HDMV / 0x564D4448), yuv420p(top first), 1920x1080 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 29.97 fps, 59.94 tbr, 90k tbn, 59.94 tbc Stream #0:1[0x1100]: Audio: ac3 (AC-3 / 0x332D4341), 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 256 kb/s Stream #0:2[0x1200]: Subtitle: hdmv_pgs_subtitle ([144][0][0][0] / 0x0090), 1920x1080 I've never dug into the technicalities of VOB files (nor MTS). The most I've done with them aside from extracting them into more conventional video containers with DVD-ripping software such as MakeMKV is to play
Dan, Thanks for the reply. They are family videos some of which were made with a (I think) "tape eating" Panasonic and then later a Sony mini-DV tape video camera(s). Now I use a Sony video camera that records in MTS to an sd chip. I think the tape cameras produced AVI files (I think...but am not sure). I still have the tapes but can't/won't transfer them from the camera for fear of destroying them (tape eater camera....both). The VOB files are from DVD's I made from the tape cameras. It's the best I've got without the aforementioned problems. I don't expect much super quality out of them but they're good enough. Would it be smart of convert them to a format such at mp4 and H.264....for preservation of a common standard? As to the MTS files- the quality is excellent. Cat does a great job and I'm amazed how a clod such as myself got perfect results. But....but....perhaps it also would be smart to convert them to mp4 H.264? I'm pretty old and want our kids to be able to watch these videos in the future when I probably will have broken the social security system. Thanks....will look link below. Thank you, again... Craig On Friday, December 2, 2022 at 10:45:30 AM EST, Dan Harkless <ffmpeg@harkless.org> wrote: On 12/2/2022 4:36 AM, MyCraigs List via ffmpeg-user wrote: them with VLC Media Player. 'cat' just does a straight binary concatenation of files, without touching their contents (assuming you don't give it any commandline options), so no, there's no quality degradation. However, I'm unaware if VOB or MTS files have headers that need to be preserved and that need to match things like the time duration of the file. Have you tried watching / listening to the concatenated files with a player (e.g. VLC)? Do they look and sound OK when you cross the time index of the concatenation point? If so, I think you're probably fine (though depending on what your intended use is, you might run into trouble in the future due to the files not being standards-compliant thanks to header issues). If you have problems, you could try concatenating them with ffmpeg instead, à la the examples here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7333232/how-to-concatenate-two-mp4-files... -- Dan Harkless http://harkless.org/dan/ _______________________________________________ ffmpeg-user mailing list ffmpeg-user@ffmpeg.org https://ffmpeg.org/mailman/listinfo/ffmpeg-user To unsubscribe, visit link above, or email ffmpeg-user-request@ffmpeg.org with subject "unsubscribe".
On 12/2/2022 11:17 AM, MyCraigs List via ffmpeg-user wrote:
Dan, Thanks for the reply. They are family videos some of which were made with a (I think) "tape eating" Panasonic and then later a Sony mini-DV tape video camera(s). Now I use a Sony video camera that records in MTS to an sd chip. I think the tape cameras produced AVI files (I think...but am not sure). I still have the tapes but can't/won't transfer them from the camera for fear of destroying them (tape eater camera....both).
Understood. I had a Sony MiniDV camera that started getting bad audio dropouts. At the Sony service center (back in the good old days when there was a local one), I learned that the cause was my mixing different brands of MiniDV tapes. Apparently the different lubricants the different brands use react together to produce a sticky residue. It was reportedly OK to use, say, Panasonic tapes with a Sony cam, but only if you *always* used Panasonic tapes. After I got my camera back from the service center, I only used Sony tapes from then on. Not that that necessarily has anything to do with your tape-eating problem, which is probably issues with the transport mechanism, but I thought I'd mention it since you said you had Sony and Panasonic cameras. And yeah, the Sony capture application produced AVI files with DV contents.
The VOB files are from DVD's I made from the tape cameras. It's the best I've got without the aforementioned problems. I don't expect much super quality out of them but they're good enough. Would it be smart of convert them to a format such at mp4 and H.264....for preservation of a common standard? As to the MTS files- the quality is excellent. Cat does a great job and I'm amazed how a clod such as myself got perfect results. But....but....perhaps it also would be smart to convert them to mp4 H.264?
I don't think MPEG-2 compatibility will be going away any time in the forseeable future, especially since the later formats like H.264/AVC and H.265/HEVC are also MPEG standards. MPEG-2 videos have slightly better picture quality than they do after transcoding to AVC or HEVC, so the only reason to convert to one of those formats would be to save disk space. If you have enough space to keep them in MPEG-2 format, I would do that. MPEG-2 is also easier for video editing programs to deal with than the later, more highly compressed standards (especially if you want to make frame-accurate edits), though not as easy as DV format (the one used on the MiniDV tapes themselves), since *it* only uses intraframe compression, not interframe compression.
I'm pretty old and want our kids to be able to watch these videos in the future when I probably will have broken the social security system. Thanks....will look link below. Thank you, again... Craig
I don't have a suggestion for the MTS files (beyond using ffmpeg to concatenate, if cat results in problems at the concatenation points), as my cameras don't produce that format, but if I were you, I would download MakeMKV: https://www.makemkv.com/ which is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Rather than trying to mess with VOB files directly, you can use that application to convert each DVD to a series of .MKV files (one per "title" on the DVD; you may or may not have more than one, depending on how you authored them), with MPEG-2 contents. The nice thing about doing it this way is that there is zero loss of quality, unlike with apps that go directly to AVC or HEVC. Also, you don't have to make the decision of whether to deinterlace to ~30 frames per second or line-double the fields to ~60 frames per second (assuming you're in NTSC land) — you can leave the MPEG-2 interlaced, and let the player deal with it (not a problem for modern programs like VLC). MakeMKV is in a semi-permanent Beta state, so you need to periodically download new license keys from: https://forum.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1053 but aside from that, it's easy to use, and is free and open-source. Good luck with your family video preservation, and cheers. -- Dan Harkless http://harkless.org/dan/
makeMkV is working pretty well. It certainly is going to save a lot of time in taking the old DVDs and separating them into titles. I've been suspicious of the name Matroska as I thought it was a format not worth considering. Hopefully, all will work out. Thanks, Craig On Friday, December 2, 2022 at 02:49:24 PM EST, Dan Harkless <ffmpeg@harkless.org> wrote: On 12/2/2022 11:17 AM, MyCraigs List via ffmpeg-user wrote:
Dan, Thanks for the reply. They are family videos some of which were made with a (I think) "tape eating" Panasonic and then later a Sony mini-DV tape video camera(s). Now I use a Sony video camera that records in MTS to an sd chip. I think the tape cameras produced AVI files (I think...but am not sure). I still have the tapes but can't/won't transfer them from the camera for fear of destroying them (tape eater camera....both).
Understood. I had a Sony MiniDV camera that started getting bad audio dropouts. At the Sony service center (back in the good old days when there was a local one), I learned that the cause was my mixing different brands of MiniDV tapes. Apparently the different lubricants the different brands use react together to produce a sticky residue. It was reportedly OK to use, say, Panasonic tapes with a Sony cam, but only if you *always* used Panasonic tapes. After I got my camera back from the service center, I only used Sony tapes from then on. Not that that necessarily has anything to do with your tape-eating problem, which is probably issues with the transport mechanism, but I thought I'd mention it since you said you had Sony and Panasonic cameras. And yeah, the Sony capture application produced AVI files with DV contents.
The VOB files are from DVD's I made from the tape cameras. It's the best I've got without the aforementioned problems. I don't expect much super quality out of them but they're good enough. Would it be smart of convert them to a format such at mp4 and H.264....for preservation of a common standard? As to the MTS files- the quality is excellent. Cat does a great job and I'm amazed how a clod such as myself got perfect results. But....but....perhaps it also would be smart to convert them to mp4 H.264?
I don't think MPEG-2 compatibility will be going away any time in the forseeable future, especially since the later formats like H.264/AVC and H.265/HEVC are also MPEG standards. MPEG-2 videos have slightly better picture quality than they do after transcoding to AVC or HEVC, so the only reason to convert to one of those formats would be to save disk space. If you have enough space to keep them in MPEG-2 format, I would do that. MPEG-2 is also easier for video editing programs to deal with than the later, more highly compressed standards (especially if you want to make frame-accurate edits), though not as easy as DV format (the one used on the MiniDV tapes themselves), since *it* only uses intraframe compression, not interframe compression.
I'm pretty old and want our kids to be able to watch these videos in the future when I probably will have broken the social security system. Thanks....will look link below. Thank you, again... Craig
I don't have a suggestion for the MTS files (beyond using ffmpeg to concatenate, if cat results in problems at the concatenation points), as my cameras don't produce that format, but if I were you, I would download MakeMKV: https://www.makemkv.com/ which is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Rather than trying to mess with VOB files directly, you can use that application to convert each DVD to a series of .MKV files (one per "title" on the DVD; you may or may not have more than one, depending on how you authored them), with MPEG-2 contents. The nice thing about doing it this way is that there is zero loss of quality, unlike with apps that go directly to AVC or HEVC. Also, you don't have to make the decision of whether to deinterlace to ~30 frames per second or line-double the fields to ~60 frames per second (assuming you're in NTSC land) — you can leave the MPEG-2 interlaced, and let the player deal with it (not a problem for modern programs like VLC). MakeMKV is in a semi-permanent Beta state, so you need to periodically download new license keys from: https://forum.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1053 but aside from that, it's easy to use, and is free and open-source. Good luck with your family video preservation, and cheers. -- Dan Harkless http://harkless.org/dan/ _______________________________________________ ffmpeg-user mailing list ffmpeg-user@ffmpeg.org https://ffmpeg.org/mailman/listinfo/ffmpeg-user To unsubscribe, visit link above, or email ffmpeg-user-request@ffmpeg.org with subject "unsubscribe".
On 12/3/2022 6:03 AM, MyCraigs List via ffmpeg-user wrote:
makeMkV is working pretty well. It certainly is going to save a lot of time in taking the old DVDs and separating them into titles. I've been suspicious of the name Matroska as I thought it was a format not worth considering.
Because it's a Russian name, and you were thus worried about possible connections to the Russian government? No, it's an open format, meaning "(nested) Russian doll", alluding to its flexibility as a container format, and it's supported by a non-profit organization in France. It's gradually overtaking .mp4 for storing AVC and HEVC videos, due to this flexibility, and because it's not patent-encumbered like .mp4. If it bothered you, you could always use ffmpeg after MakeMKV to repackage your MPEG-2 MKVs into .mpg files without quality loss, since your DVD home videos presumably don't need to take advantage of the more flexible container. -- Dan Harkless http://harkless.org/dan/
On Fri, 2 Dec 2022 11:49:04 -0800 Dan Harkless <ffmpeg@harkless.org> wrote: <snip>
MakeMKV is in a semi-permanent Beta state, so you need to periodically download new license keys from:
https://forum.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1053
but aside from that, it's easy to use, and is free and open-source. Good luck with your family video preservation, and cheers.
How can it be open-source but also require a license key? Couldn't I, or anyone else, just edit the license check code out then? Thanks, David
Le 03/12/2022 à 15:42, David Niklas a écrit :
On Fri, 2 Dec 2022 11:49:04 -0800 Dan Harkless <ffmpeg@harkless.org> wrote: <snip>
MakeMKV is in a semi-permanent Beta state, so you need to periodically download new license keys from:
https://forum.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1053
but aside from that, it's easy to use, and is free and open-source. Good luck with your family video preservation, and cheers.
How can it be open-source but also require a license key?
Free software is not necessarily free. Even when the sources are released under a free software license (such as GPL), the compiled versions can be charged. But anyone is free to get the sources and compile them. That said, MakeMKV is not a free software, and it is only partly open-source. It's a freeware (for the DVD rip/decrypt part) and a shareware (for the bluray rip/decrypt part).
Couldn't I, or anyone else, just edit the license check code out then?
Indeed yes in the case of a free software (but no in the case of MakeMKV)
Am 01.01.23 um 19:16 schrieb pehache:
Couldn't I, or anyone else, just edit the license check code out then?
Indeed yes in the case of a free software (but no in the case of MakeMKV)
when the source code is available *you can* and the only thing you mustn't do is distiribute the results as you must not distribute ffmpeg binaries built with the "wrong" configure options
Le 01/01/2023 à 19:21, Reindl Harald a écrit :
Am 01.01.23 um 19:16 schrieb pehache:
Couldn't I, or anyone else, just edit the license check code out then?
Indeed yes in the case of a free software (but no in the case of MakeMKV)
when the source code is available *you can* and the only thing you mustn't do is distiribute the results
That's correct
as you must not distribute ffmpeg binaries built with the "wrong" configure options
What do you mean ?
Am 02.01.23 um 11:34 schrieb pehache:
Le 01/01/2023 à 19:21, Reindl Harald a écrit :
Am 01.01.23 um 19:16 schrieb pehache:
Couldn't I, or anyone else, just edit the license check code out then?
Indeed yes in the case of a free software (but no in the case of MakeMKV)
when the source code is available *you can* and the only thing you mustn't do is distiribute the results
That's correct
as you must not distribute ffmpeg binaries built with the "wrong" configure options
What do you mean?
https://github.com/flathub/com.obsproject.Studio/issues/48 The ffmpeg build distributed by Flathub is illegal. It included a copyright violation. You're not allowed to distribute binaries built with --enable-nonfree. In this case, it probably means removing fdk-aac and replacing it with another aac encoder (like the one built into ffmpeg itself). --------------------- https://www.ffmpeg.org/general.html OpenCORE and VisualOn libraries are under the Apache License 2.0 (see http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 for details), which is incompatible to the LGPL version 2.1 and GPL version 2. You have to upgrade FFmpeg’s license to LGPL version 3 (or if you have enabled GPL components, GPL version 3) by passing --enable-version3 to configure in order to use it. The license of the Fraunhofer AAC library is incompatible with the GPL. Therefore, for GPL builds, you have to pass --enable-nonfree to configure in order to use it. To the best of our knowledge, it is compatible with the LGPL.
On 1/1/2023 10:16 AM, pehache wrote:
Le 03/12/2022 à 15:42, David Niklas a écrit :
On Fri, 2 Dec 2022 11:49:04 -0800 Dan Harkless <ffmpeg@harkless.org> wrote:
MakeMKV is in a semi-permanent Beta state, so you need to periodically download new license keys from:
https://forum.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1053
but aside from that, it's easy to use, and is free and open-source. Good luck with your family video preservation, and cheers.
How can it be open-source but also require a license key?
Free software is not necessarily free. Even when the sources are released under a free software license (such as GPL), the compiled versions can be charged. But anyone is free to get the sources and compile them.
That said, MakeMKV is not a free software, and it is only partly open-source. It's a freeware (for the DVD rip/decrypt part) and a shareware (for the bluray rip/decrypt part).
Thanks for correcting me on MakeMKV being only partially open-source, pehache. And sorry, David, for not responding to your query — the list server didn't send me that email, for some reason. -- Dan Harkless http://harkless.org/dan/
Le 02/12/2022 à 13:36, MyCraigs List via ffmpeg-user a écrit :
I'm running Debian 11. I use the command line "cat" to concatenate videos of all the same quality together. All VOB files are cat'd together and none others. The second bunch of videos I cat together are from a Sony video camera and are "MTS" files. That's to say I do not cat VOB and MTS files together. The command I use for VOB is (at command line) $ cat File_1.VOB File_2.VOB> New_File_1.VOBThe command I use for MTS is (at command line) $ cat File_1.MTS File_2.MTS> New_File_2.MTS
Not wanting to lose any video or audio quality, does "cat" files degrade their quality?
The answer is definitely "no"
participants (5)
-
Dan Harkless -
David Niklas -
MyCraigs List -
pehache -
Reindl Harald