ffmpeg video encoding

[Adel Ahmed]

I'll be using ffmpeg video encoders alot
I'm lost in the codec part
I see ffmpeg automatically selects the codec based on the extension I'm using(.mp3,.mpg...etc
say I want to try out the amv format:
DEVIL. amv AMV Video

what am I supposed to do
I tried .amv(no dice)
and -vcodec amv
NULL @ 0x2614e90] Unable to find a suitable output format for '/tmp/out'
/tmp/out: Invalid argument

and -vcodec amv with /tmp/out.mpg
[amv @ 0x2548b30] only 8 bits/component accepted
Error while decoding stream #0:0: Operation not permitted


I have a vague idea of the container/codec topic

thanks

[Adel Ahmed]

the avi format accepts all codecs
problem solved

[FishB8]

[Adel Ahmed]

ffmpeg -f x11grab -r 30 -s 1366x768 -i :0.0 -vcodec $vcodec -preset ultrafast $out -y
where $vcodec is h264 atm and $out is a .mp4 file

I just use the avi format for benchmarking the codecs.

I'm using the .mp4 with h264(and sometimes aac as well) for the actual encoding now(after I was done benchmarking)

[FishB8]

amv is a slightly modified version of avi, and only really is intended to use mjpeg and a adpcm variant for codecs. So it's probably not very useful for what you are trying to do. Use the -f option to specify format rather than vcodec.

Avi does not have the proper mechanisms to deal with non-intra frame codecs, so each implementation works around that limitation (and others) in its own way, which creates incompatibilities. If you want a generic format for testing codecs with ffmpeg based tools, use the nut format.
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[Adel Ahmed]

hmm that's interesting
ok thanks I'll look up the nut format and use it for my benchmarks