mencoder+x264

I've built (with MinGW) mplayer/mencoder with the latest revision of x264 (48). Good news: x264 it's almost twice as fast. I've tried to encode an AVI file with b-frames enabled (without cabac) but no player (mplayer, VLC, DS based players etc) seems to be able to play these files, and some of them even managed to crash my computer. There is a player that can actually play x264 with b-frames? (for those interested, I've managed to built a quick'n'(VERY)dirty (I'm not a competent coder...) hacked version of ffmpeg with x264 encoder. (is such thing legal, at least for personal use?). Now I can encode mp4 files with AAC and h264 (no b-frames and 2-pass, though). VLC and mplayer play them, but I wonder if these files are fully standard...)

MPlayer CVS as of september 26 should be able to play H.264 with B-frames and without CABAC, and should at least not crash with CABAC. (If it still can't, file a bug report.) Whether it's legal to use H.264 without paying for all the patents - who knows? I'll leave that to someone who cares. But there's nothing wrong with hacking ffmpeg or x264. And why don't you support 2-pass? It's just another x264 option, doesn't require anything special in the application. -- Akupenguin, x264 developer.

Contrary to popular belief any type of use of patented technology infringes, whether it be for education/research/whatever. The amount of damages if they were ever to sue you is just lower than for infringement for commercial gain. Source-code is slightly different since it cannot be used directly and because of the freedom of speech angle, but it hasnt really been tested in courts much ... there is a possibility that even distribution of source code could be deemed contributory infringement. Basically you should just ignore patents if you write software ... you cant avoid them, the best you can do is to make a conscious effort not to know anything about them. So if you do end up in court at least you wont have to pay tripple damages. Or stop writing software.

ffdshow not withstanding, 2-pass has been in x264 since August 28.

FFdshow also contains the fixes and the 2-pass RC, the problem is that the latest build is exactly a month old. A new build would be greatly appreciated. :)

The FFDShow I have (ffdshow-20040828.exe) can only encode CBR and CQ. Is there an update?

I'm currently working on rate-distortion optimization of block types, and improving 2-pass. Future: There are lots of features that I have some idea how to add. I may or may not get around to implementing them anytime soon.

@hitbit Please post your exact command line to get x264 to be built into mencoder, i.e. ./configure ..... etc I could not get configure to detect the x264 libraries when I tried with MinGW.

Can mencoder be used to output mp4 files? If not I guess Videolan may be the best way to take DTT sources and encode them to h.264 in an mp4 container. Unless anyone knows of another way to do this?

Doubtly, 'mencoder -of help' will list all available formats.