[MPlayer-dev-eng] [RFC] change lacv's MPEG-4 encoding options defaults

[Rich Felker]

On Wed, Dec 28, 2005 at 06:08:54PM +0000, Robert Swain wrote:
> > For what it's worth, other codeds supported by MEncoder (XviD and x264
> > at the very least) have defaults which are carefully chosen (by people
> > who know what they are talking about) to provide a good speed/quality
> > tradeoff, making them a _lot_ more user-friendly.
> > Users love that.
> 
> The default number of b-frames for x264 is currently 0 while most
> people use 2/3 as standard. Fair enough b-frames stored in avi aren't
> perfect, but standalones can play the produced files, most if not all
> software can play the produced files, so is this a real problem?

Like I said: mencoder is broken so B frames cause a/v desync!! This is
not easily fixable without rewriting mplayer/mencoder to correctly use
timestamps, or adding ugly hacks when B frames are enabled.

> When I have some time I will look into 'fixing' the mp4 multiplexer
> such that it can handle b-frames and everything correctly, then maybe
> the default container for MPEG-4 codecs should be the defined
> container.

mp4 is NOT the preferred container for mpeg4 video. It's the worst or
second-worst container for anything, coming in only after ogg/ogm.
Making ignorant statements like this does not help your case.
Preferred container is mkv or (once it's finished) nut.

> > Well, since I don't want to interfere with you, I'll just drop the case.
> 
> I would be interested to hear what the rest of the developers and
> maintainers think rather than dropping this prematurely after
> receiving only one contributor's input.

I'm willing to consider something like profiles as a compromise.
However defaults should always be everything-off. I would be just as
mad if someone were trying to make mplayer load vf_scale, vf_pp, etc.
by default.

To use the (good) car analogy, it's like when a car comes with lots of
useless crap (navigation system, luxury seats, 6-disc cd changer, ...)
and lots of other useful-but-nonessential stuff (automatic
transmission, abs, traction control, ...) in the default package and
it becomes difficult or impossible to get a car without all that
expensive bloat. The default package should be bare minimum.

Rich