NAME
tovid - Convert video to (S)VCD/DVD format
DESCRIPTION
tovid converts arbitrary video files into (S)VCD/DVD-compliant MPEG
format, suitable for burning to CD/DVD-R for playback on a standalone
DVD player.
USAGE
tovid [OPTIONS] -in INFILE -out OUTPREFIX
Where INFILE is any multimedia video file, and OUTPREFIX is what you
want to call the output file, minus the file extension. OPTIONS are
additional customizations, described below.
By default, you will (hopefully) end up with an NTSC DVD-compliant
MPEG-2 video file; if you burn this file to a DVD-R, it should be
playable on most DVD players.
For example:
tovid -in foo.avi -out foo_encoded
Convert 'foo.avi' to NTSC DVD format, saving to
'foo_encoded.mpg'.
tovid -pal -vcd foo.avi -out foo_encoded
Convert 'foo.avi' to PAL VCD format, saving to
'foo_encoded.mpg'.
BASIC OPTIONS
-v, -version
Print tovid version number only, then exit.
-quiet Reduce output to the console.
-fake Do not actually encode; only print the commands (mplayer,
mpeg2enc etc.) that would be executed. Useful in debugging;
have tovid give you the commands, and run them manually.
-ffmpeg
Use ffmpeg for video encoding, instead of mplayer/mpeg2enc. Try
this if you have any problems with the default encoding method.
Using this option, encoding will be considerably faster. Works
with -vcd, -svcd, and -dvd.
TELEVISION STANDARDS
-ntsc NTSC format video (USA, Americas) (default)
-ntscfilm
NTSC-film format video
-pal PAL format video (Europe and others)
FORMATS
Standard formats, should be playable in most DVD players:
-dvd (720x480 NTSC, 720x576 PAL) DVD-compatible output (default)
-half-dvd
(352x480 NTSC, 352x576 PAL) Half-D1-compatible output
-svcd (480x480 NTSC, 480x576 PAL) Super VideoCD-compatible output
-dvd-vcd
(352x240 NTSC, 352x288 PAL) VCD-on-DVD output
-vcd (352x240 NTSC, 352x288 PAL) VideoCD-compatible output
Non-standard formats, playable in some DVD players:
-kvcd (352x240 NTSC, 352x288 PAL) KVCD-enhanced long-playing video CD
-kdvd (720x480 NTSC, 720x576 PAL) KVCD-enhanced long-playing DVD
-kvcdx3
(528x480 NTSC, 520x576 PAL) KVCDx3 specification
-kvcdx3a
(544x480 NTSC, 544x576 PAL) KVCDx3a specification (slightly
wider)
-bdvd (720x480 NTSC, 720x576 PAL) BVCD-enhanced long-playing DVD
See kvcd.net (http://kvcd.net/) for details on the KVCD specification.
Please note that KVCD ("K Video Compression Dynamics") is the name of a
compression scheme that can be applied to any MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 video,
and has little to do with VCD ("Video Compact Disc"), which is the name
of a standard video disc format.
ADVANCED OPTIONS
ASPECT RATIOS
tovid automatically determines aspect ratio of the input video by
playing it in mplayer. If your video plays with correct aspect in
mplayer, you should not need to override the default tovid behavior.
If mplayer does not play your video with correct aspect, you may
provide an explicit aspect ratio in one of several ways:
-full Same as -aspect 4:3
-wide Same as -aspect 16:9
-panavision
Same as -aspect 235:100
-aspect WIDTH:HEIGHT
Custom aspect, where WIDTH and HEIGHT are integers.
NOTE: This is the INPUT aspect ratio. tovid chooses an optimal output
aspect ratio for the selected disc format (VCD, DVD, etc.) and does the
appropriate letterboxing or anamorphic scaling.
VIDEO STREAM OPTIONS
-quality NUM (default 6)
Desired output quality, on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 giving
the best quality at the expense of a larger output file. Default
is 6. Output size can vary by approximately a factor of 4 (that
is, -quality 1 output can be 1/4 the size of -quality 10
output). Your results may vary. WARNING: With -quality 10, the
output bitrate may be too high for your hardware DVD player to
handle. Stick with 9 or lower unless you have phenomenally good
eyesight.
At present, this option affects both output bitrate and
quantization (but may, in the future, affect other
quality/size-related attributes). Use -vbitrate if you want to
explicitly provide a maximum bitrate.
-vbitrate NUM
Maximum bitrate to use for video (in kbits/sec). Must be within
allowable limits for the given format. Overrides default values.
Ignored for VCD, which must be constant bitrate.
-interlaced
Do interlaced encoding of the input video (top fields first).
Use this option if your video is interlaced, and you want to
preserve as much picture quality as possible. This option is
ignored for VCD, which doesn't support it.
You can tell your source video is interlaced by playing it, and
pausing during a scene with horizontal motion; if you see a
"comb" effect at the edges of objects in the scene, you have
interlaced video. Use this option to encode it properly.
If you would prefer to have output in progressive format, use
-progressive. If you have a DV camera, use -interlaced_bf since
DV footage is generally bottom fields first.
-interlaced_bf
Do interlaced encoding of the input video (bottom fields first).
-deinterlace | -progressive
Convert interlaced source video into progressive output video.
Because deinterlacing works by averaging fields together, some
picture quality is invariably lost. Uses an adaptive kernel
deinterlacer (kerndeint), or, if that's not available, the
libavcodec deinterlacer (lavcdeint).
-mkvsub LANG (EXPERIMENTAL)
Attempt to encode an integrated subtitle stream (such as may be
found in Matroska .mkv files) in the given language code (eng,
jpn, etc.) May work for other formats.
-autosubs
Automatically include subtitle files with the same name as the
input video.
-subtitles FILE
Get subtitles from FILE and encode them into the video.
WARNING: This hard-codes the subtitles into the video, and you
cannot turn them off while viewing the video. By default, no
subtitles are loaded. If your video is already compliant with
the chosen output format, it will be re-encoded to include the
subtitles.
-type {live|animation|bw}
Optimize video encoding for different kinds of video. Use 'live'
(default) for live-action video, use 'animation' for cartoons or
anime, and 'bw' for black-and-white video. This option
currently only has an effect with KVCD/KSVCD output formats;
other formats may support this in the future.
-safe PERCENT
Fit the video within a safe area defined by PERCENT. For
example, -safe 90% will scale the video to 90% of the
width/height of the output resolution, and pad the edges with a
black border. Use this if some of the picture is cut off when
played on your TV. The percent sign is optional.
-filters {none,denoise,deblock,contrast,all} (default none)
Apply post-processing filters to enhance the video. If your
input video is very high quality, use 'none'. If your input
video is grainy, use 'denoise'; if it looks washed out or faded,
use 'contrast'. You can use multiple filters separated by
commas. To apply all filters, use 'all'.
-fps RATIO
Force input video to be interpreted as RATIO frames per second.
May be necessary for some ASF, MOV, or other videos. RATIO
should be an integer ratio such as "24000:1001" (23.976fps),
"30000:1001" (29.97fps), or "25:1" (25fps). This option is
temporary, and may disappear in future releases. (Hint: To
convert a decimal like 23.976 to an integer ratio, just multiply
by 1000, i.e. 23976:1000)
-crop WIDTH:HEIGHT:X:Y
Crop a portion of the video WIDTH by HEIGHT in size, with the
top-left corner at X, Y.
AUDIO STREAM OPTIONS
-normalize [VOLUME]
If used without VOLUME argument, analyze the audio stream and
then normalize the volume of the audio. This is useful if the
audio is too quiet or too loud, or you want to make volume
consistent for a bunch of videos. Similar to running normalize
without any parameters. The default is -12dB average level with
0dB gain. If the optional VOLUME argument is supplied, ffmpeg
will be used instead to increase or decrease the volume. An
argument of 256 is normal volume. This option is useful for
-slice, because there are sync issues if audio and video are
encoded separately after a seek.
-amplitude NUM[dB]
In addition to analyzing and normalizing, apply the gain to the
audio such that the 'average' (RMS) sound level is NUM. Valid
values range 0.0 - 1.0, with 0.0 being silent and 1.0 being full
scale. Use NUMdB for a decibel gain below full scale (the
default without -amplitude is -12dB).
-abitrate NUM
Encode audio at NUM kilobits per second. Reasonable values
include 128, 224, and 384. The default is 224 kbits/sec, good
enough for most encodings. The value must be within the
allowable range for the chosen disc format; Ignored for VCD,
which must be 224.
-audiotrack NUM
Encode the given audio track, if the input video has multiple
audio tracks. NUM is 1 for the first track, 2 for the second,
etc. You may also provide a list of tracks, separated by spaces
or commas, for example -audiotrack 3,1,2. Use idvid on your
source video to determine which audio tracks it contains.
-async NUM
Adjust audio synchronization by NUM seconds.
OTHER OPTIONS
-config FILE
Read configuration from FILE, containing 'tovid' alone on the
first line, and free-formatted (whitespace-separated) tovid
command-line options on remaining lines.
-force Force encoding of already-compliant video or audio streams.
-overwrite
Overwrite any existing output files (with the same name as the
given -out option).
-priority {low|medium|high}
Sets the main encoding process to the given priority. With high
priority, it may take other programs longer to load and respond.
With lower priority, other programs will be more responsive, but
encoding may take 30-40% longer. The default is high priority.
-discsize NUM
When encoding, tovid automatically splits the output file into
several pieces if it exceeds the size of the target media. This
option sets the desired target DVD/CD-R size to NUM mebibytes
(MiB, 2^20). By default, splitting occurs at 700 for CD, 4300
for DVD. Use higher values at your own risk. Use 650 or lower if
you plan to burn to smaller-capacity CDs. Doesn't work with the
-ffmpeg option.
-fit NUM
Fit the output file into NUM MiB. Rather than using default (or
specified) video bitrates, tovid will calculate the correct
video bitrate that will limit the final output size to NUM MiB.
This is different than -discsize, which cuts the final file into
NUM MiB pieces. -fit makes sure that the file never exceeds NUM
MiB. This works with -ffmpeg, but not with -vcd since VCDs have
a standardized constant bitrate.
-parallel
Perform ripping, encoding, and multiplexing processes in
parallel using named pipes. Maximizes CPU utilization and
minimizes disk usage. Note that this option simply does more
tasks simultaneously, in order to make better use of available
CPU cycles; it's unrelated to multi-CPU processing (which is
done automatically anyway). Has no effect when -ffmpeg is used.
-update SECS
Print status updates at intervals of SECS seconds. This affects
how regularly the progress-meter is updated. The default is once
every five seconds.
-mplayeropts "OPTIONS"
Append OPTIONS to the mplayer command run during video encoding.
Use this if you want to add specific video filters (documented
in the mplayer manual page). Overriding some options will cause
encoding to fail, so use this with caution!
-nofifo (EXPERIMENTAL)
Do not use a FIFO pipe for video encoding. If you are getting
"Broken pipe" errors with normal encoding, try this option.
WARNING: This uses lots of disk space (about 2 GB per minute of
video).
-keepfiles
Keep the intermediate files after encoding. Usually, this means
the audio and video streams are kept (eg the .ac3 and .m2v files
for an NTSC DVD). This doesn't work with -parallel because the
intermediate files are named pipes, and not real files.
-slice START-END
Encode a segment from START to END (in seconds).
-from-gui
Put tovid into a fully non-interactive state, suitable for
calling from a gui.
-noask Don't ask questions when choices need to be made. Assume
reasonable answers.
CONFIGURATION
Two configuration files are created the first time you run tovid. Edit
them to change tovid's directory use and default behavior.
Working and output directories are defined in ~/.tovid/preferences:
WORKING_DIR=/tmp
OUTPUT_DIR=/pub/video
If you would like to include certain command-line options all the time,
edit ~/.tovid/tovid.config and add them.
SEE ALSO
idvid(1), makedvd(1), makemenu(1), makeslides(1), makevcd(1),
makexml(1), postproc(1), tovid(1), todisc(1)
CONTACT
For further assistance, contact information, forum and IRC links,
please refer to the tovid homepage (http://tovid.org/).
TOVID MANUAL(1)