[theora] encoding raw file (.yuv) using ffmpeg2theora

[Gregory Maxwell]

On Wed, Mar 17, 2010 at 12:10 PM, Alexander Parshin
<savo at graphics.cs.msu.ru> wrote:
> Hello!
>
> I'm trying to use ffmpeg2theora to encode raw (.yuv) files in I420
> format (just frames, no headers at all), but failed to find
> corresponding input format. Is there any documentation of supported
> formats for ffmpeg2theora?
>
> Or maybe there is another command-line tool for Windows to encode raw
> video using Theora algorithm?
>
> Thank you for help!

You might find the following notes from our wiki helpful:

http://wiki.xiph.org/Notes_on_encoding_with_libtheora



==Speed and quality==

If you need really high speed and don't care if the bitrate is
enormous (or the quality is really poor) you can use speed level 2.
The purpose it was created for was from keeping video encoding from
falling behind on the OLPC.   A live encoder could temporarily switch
to it to catch up, for example.   But because it disables half of the
format, the quality is really terribly except at very high bitrates.

==Rate control and quality==

Another piece of advice is that by default one pass rate control
imposes a buffering constraint: It does not allow the instantaneous
bitrate to go above what could be satisfied by a small buffer.  This
is important for real time streaming, but it can be absolutely brutal
on the quality.  Two-pass does not, because other video formats used
in infinite latency applications don't do any buffer constraint. You
can use the buf-delay knob to control the amount of buffer constraint.

==Encoder_example peculiarities==

Theora uses the JPEG chroma siting. Encoder_example will automatically
resample non-jpeg sited input to the JPEG positions.  This can be
surprising if you don't know that it does it.

Like many other formats Theora must encode an area that is a multiple
of 16x16 pixels. If you have a video that isn't a multiple of that
size the tools round up then leave a note in the format to tell the
decoder to crop down.  All tools do this.

Theora has an offset header that allows the cropped header to be
some-place other than in one extreme corner of the video.  A few
decoder tools (e.g. mplayer, ffmpeg) have ignored this offset
parameter and sometimes the crop parameter, causing offset videos to
come out slightly shifted.

Encoder_example always centers the video.  This makes people more
likely to notice offset-broken decoders.  It does, unfortunately, seem
to reduce quality for some clips because of how the invisible area can
interact with motion prediction.

Regardless of the encoder used you're best off it you can choose sizes
which are a multiple of 16x16.

==The most current Theora encoder==

You also might want to try out the current encoder rather than the
older stuff.   It's available from SVN at
http://svn.xiph.org/experimental/derf/theora-ptalarbvorm/  and can
also be used with ffmpeg2theora.

Compared to 1.1, the new encoder produces nicely improved visual
results though watch out because the visual optimizations are not good
for PSNR (though they do enormously improve SSIM).