MEncoder is a free

command line A command-line interpreter or command-line processor uses a command-line interface (CLI) to receive commands from a user in the form of lines of text. This provides a means of setting parameters for the environment, invoking executables and pro ...

transcoding Transcoding is the direct digital-to-digital conversion of one encoding to another, such as for video data files, audio files (e.g., MP3, WAV), or character encoding (e.g., UTF-8, ISO/IEC 8859). This is usually done in cases where a target d ...

tool released under the

GNU General Public License The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was the first copyleft for general ...

. It is a sibling of

MPlayer MPlayer is a free and open-source media player software application. It is available for Linux, OS X and Microsoft Windows. Versions for OS/2, Syllable, AmigaOS, MorphOS and AROS Research Operating System are also available. A port for DOS using ...

, and can convert all the formats that MPlayer understands into a variety of compressed and uncompressed formats using different

codec A codec is a device or computer program that encodes or decodes a data stream or signal. ''Codec'' is a portmanteau of coder/decoder. In electronic communications, an endec is a device that acts as both an encoder and a decoder on a signal or ...

s.MPlayer and MEncoder Status of codecs support
Retrieved on 2009-07-19 MEncoder is included in the MPlayer distribution.

Capabilities

As it is built from the same code as MPlayer, it can read from every source which MPlayer can read, decode all media which MPlayer can decode and it supports all filters which MPlayer can use. Moreover, MEncoder can read a sequence of

image files An Image file format is a file format for a digital image. There are many formats that can be used, such as JPEG, PNG, and GIF. Most formats up until 2022 were for storing 2D images, not 3D ones. The data stored in an image file format may b ...

and convert it to a video file with a specified framerate. MPlayer can be used to view the output of most of the filters (or of a whole pipeline of filters) before running MEncoder. If the system is not able to process this in realtime, audio can be disabled using -nosound to allow a smooth review of the video filtering results. It is possible to copy audio and/or video unmodified into the output file to avoid quality loss because of re-encoding. For example, to modify only the audio or only the video, or to put the audio/video data unmodified into a different

container format A container format (informally, sometimes called a wrapper) or metafile is a file format that allows multiple data streams to be embedded into a single file, usually along with metadata for identifying and further detailing those streams. No ...

. Since it uses the same code as MPlayer, it features the same huge number of highly-configurable video and audio filters to transform the video and audio stream. Filters include cropping, scaling, vertical flipping, horizontal mirroring, expanding to create

letterbox A letter box, letterbox, letter plate, letter hole, mail slot or mailbox is a receptacle for receiving incoming mail at a private residence or business. For outgoing mail, Post boxes are often used for depositing the mail for collection, althou ...

es, rotating,

brightness Brightness is an attribute of visual perception in which a source appears to be radiating or reflecting light. In other words, brightness is the perception elicited by the luminance of a visual target. The perception is not linear to luminance, ...

/ contrast, changing the aspect ratio,

colorspace A color space is a specific organization of colors. In combination with color profiling supported by various physical devices, it supports reproducible representations of colorwhether such representation entails an analog or a digital represen ...

conversion,

hue In color theory, hue is one of the main properties (called color appearance parameters) of a color, defined technically in the CIECAM02 model as "the degree to which a stimulus can be described as similar to or different from stimuli that ...

saturation Saturation, saturated, unsaturation or unsaturated may refer to: Chemistry * Saturation, a property of organic compounds referring to carbon-carbon bonds **Saturated and unsaturated compounds ** Degree of unsaturation **Saturated fat or fatty aci ...

, color-specific

gamma correction Gamma correction or gamma is a nonlinear operation used to encode and decode luminance or tristimulus values in video or still image systems. Gamma correction is, in the simplest cases, defined by the following power-law expression: : V_\tex ...

, filters for reducing the visibility of compression artifacts caused by MPEG compression (deblocking, deringing), automatic brightness/contrast enhancement (autolevel),

sharpness Sharpness ( ) is an English port in Gloucestershire, one of the most inland in Britain, and eighth largest in the South West. It is on the River Severn at , at a point where the tidal range, though less than at Avonmouth downstream ( typical s ...

/ blur, denoising filters, several ways of

deinterlacing Deinterlacing is the process of converting interlaced video into a non-interlaced or Progressive scan, progressive form. Interlaced video signals are commonly found in analog television, digital television (HDTV) when in the 1080i format, some D ...

, and reversing telecine.

Frame rate conversions and slow-motion

Changing the frame rate is possible using the -ofps or -speed options and by using the framestep filter for skipping frames. Reducing the frame rate can be used to create fast-motion "speed" effects which are sometimes seen in films. Doubling the frame rate of interlaced footage without duplicating or morphing frames is possible using the tfields filter to create two different frames from each of the two fields in one frame of interlaced video. This allows playback on progressive displays, while preserving the full resolution and framerate of interlaced video, unlike other

methods. It also makes the video stream usable for framerate conversion, and creating

slow-motion Slow motion (commonly abbreviated as slo-mo or slow-mo) is an effect in film-making whereby time appears to be slowed down. It was invented by the Austrian priest August Musger in the early 20th century. This can be accomplished through the use ...

scenes from streams taken at standard video/TV frame rates, e.g. using cheap consumer

camcorders A camcorder is a self-contained portable electronic device with video and recording as its primary function. It is typically equipped with an articulating screen mounted on the left side, a belt to facilitate holding on the right side, hot-swap ...

. If the filter gets incorrect information about the top/bottom field order, the resulting output will have juddering motion, because the two frames created would be displayed in the wrong order.

References

External links

*
MEncoder and MPlayer manual

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mencoder Cross-platform free software Free software programmed in C Free video conversion software

Capabilities

Frame rate conversions and slow-motion

See also

References

External links