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tovid: Convert video to (S)VCD/DVD format
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tovid converts arbitrary video files into (S)VCD/DVD-compliant
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MPEG format, suitable for burning to CD/DVD-R for playback on a
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standalone DVD player.
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**tovid** [//OPTIONS//] **-in** //INFILE// **-out** //OUTPREFIX//
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Where //INFILE// is any multimedia video file, and //OUTPREFIX// is what
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you want to call the output file, minus the file extension. //OPTIONS//
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are additional customizations, described below.
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By default, you will (hopefully) end up with an NTSC DVD-compliant
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MPEG-2 video file; if you burn this file to a DVD-R, it should be
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playable on most DVD players.
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: ``tovid -in foo.avi -out foo_encoded``
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Convert 'foo.avi' to NTSC DVD format, saving to 'foo_encoded.mpg'.
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: ``tovid -pal -vcd foo.avi -out foo_encoded``
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Convert 'foo.avi' to PAL VCD format, saving to 'foo_encoded.mpg'.
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: **-v**, **-version**
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Print tovid version number only, then exit.
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Reduce output to the console.
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Do not actually encode; only print the commands (mplayer, mpeg2enc etc.)
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that would be executed. Useful in debugging; have tovid give you the
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commands, and run them manually.
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Use ffmpeg for video encoding, instead of mplayer/mpeg2enc. Try this if
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you have any problems with the default encoding method. Using this option,
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encoding will be considerably faster. Works with **-vcd**, **-svcd**, and
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===Television standards===
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NTSC format video (USA, Americas) (default)
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NTSC-film format video
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PAL format video (Europe and others)
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Standard formats, should be playable in most DVD players:
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(720x480 NTSC, 720x576 PAL) DVD-compatible output (default)
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(352x480 NTSC, 352x576 PAL) Half-D1-compatible output
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(480x480 NTSC, 480x576 PAL) Super VideoCD-compatible output
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(352x240 NTSC, 352x288 PAL) VCD-on-DVD output
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(352x240 NTSC, 352x288 PAL) VideoCD-compatible output
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Non-standard formats, playable in some DVD players:
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(352x240 NTSC, 352x288 PAL) KVCD-enhanced long-playing video CD
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(720x480 NTSC, 720x576 PAL) KVCD-enhanced long-playing DVD
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(528x480 NTSC, 520x576 PAL) KVCDx3 specification
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(544x480 NTSC, 544x576 PAL) KVCDx3a specification (slightly wider)
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(720x480 NTSC, 720x576 PAL) BVCD-enhanced long-playing DVD
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See [kvcd.net http://kvcd.net/] for details on the KVCD specification. Please
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note that KVCD ("K Video Compression Dynamics") is the name of a compression
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scheme that can be applied to any MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 video, and has little to
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do with VCD ("Video Compact Disc"), which is the name of a standard video disc
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tovid automatically determines aspect ratio of the input video by playing it in
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mplayer. If your video plays with correct aspect in mplayer, you should not
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need to override the default tovid behavior.
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If mplayer does not play your video with correct aspect, you may provide an
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explicit aspect ratio in one of several ways:
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Same as **-aspect 4:3**
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Same as **-aspect 16:9**
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Same as **-aspect 235:100**
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: **-aspect** //WIDTH//**:**//HEIGHT//
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Custom aspect, where //WIDTH// and //HEIGHT// are integers.
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NOTE: This is the INPUT aspect ratio. tovid chooses an optimal output aspect
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ratio for the selected disc format (VCD, DVD, etc.) and does the appropriate
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letterboxing or anamorphic scaling.
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===Video stream options===
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: **-quality** //NUM// (default 6)
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Desired output quality, on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 giving the best
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quality at the expense of a larger output file. Default is 6. Output size
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can vary by approximately a factor of 4 (that is, **-quality 1** output
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can be 1/4 the size of **-quality 10** output). Your results may vary.
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WARNING: With **-quality 10**, the output bitrate may be too high for
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your hardware DVD player to handle. Stick with 9 or lower unless you
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have phenomenally good eyesight.
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At present, this option affects both output bitrate and quantization (but
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may, in the future, affect other quality/size-related attributes). Use
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**-vbitrate** if you want to explicitly provide a maximum bitrate.
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: **-vbitrate** //NUM//
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Maximum bitrate to use for video (in kbits/sec). Must be within allowable
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limits for the given format. Overrides default values. Ignored for VCD,
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which must be constant bitrate.
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Do interlaced encoding of the input video (top fields first). Use this
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option if your video is interlaced, and you want to preserve as much
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picture quality as possible. This option is ignored for VCD, which
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You can tell your source video is interlaced by playing it, and pausing
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during a scene with horizontal motion; if you see a "comb" effect at the
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edges of objects in the scene, you have interlaced video. Use this option
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to encode it properly.
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If you would prefer to have output in progressive format, use
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**-progressive**. If you have a DV camera, use **-interlaced_bf** since
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DV footage is generally bottom fields first.
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Do interlaced encoding of the input video (bottom fields first).
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: **-deinterlace** | **-progressive**
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Convert interlaced source video into progressive output video. Because
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deinterlacing works by averaging fields together, some picture quality is
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invariably lost. Uses an adaptive kernel deinterlacer (kerndeint), or,
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if that's not available, the libavcodec deinterlacer (lavcdeint).
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: **-mkvsub** //LANG// (EXPERIMENTAL)
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Attempt to encode an integrated subtitle stream (such as may be found in
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Matroska .mkv files) in the given language code (eng, jpn, etc.) May work
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Automatically include subtitle files with the same name as the input video.
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: **-subtitles** //FILE//
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Get subtitles from //FILE// and encode them into the video. WARNING: This
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hard-codes the subtitles into the video, and you cannot turn them off while
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viewing the video. By default, no subtitles are loaded. If your video is
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already compliant with the chosen output format, it will be re-encoded to
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include the subtitles.
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: **-type** {live|animation|bw}
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Optimize video encoding for different kinds of video. Use 'live' (default)
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for live-action video, use 'animation' for cartoons or anime, and 'bw' for
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black-and-white video. This option currently only has an effect with
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KVCD/KSVCD output formats; other formats may support this in the future.
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: **-safe** //PERCENT//
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Fit the video within a safe area defined by //PERCENT//. For example,
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**-safe 90%** will scale the video to 90% of the width/height of the output
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resolution, and pad the edges with a black border. Use this if some of the
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picture is cut off when played on your TV. The percent sign is optional.
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: **-filters** {none,denoise,deblock,contrast,all} (default none)
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Apply post-processing filters to enhance the video. If your input video is
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very high quality, use 'none'. If your input video is grainy, use 'denoise';
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if it looks washed out or faded, use 'contrast'. You can use multiple
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filters separated by commas. To apply all filters, use 'all'.
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Force input video to be interpreted as //RATIO// frames per second. May be
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necessary for some ASF, MOV, or other videos. //RATIO// should be an
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integer ratio such as "24000:1001" (23.976fps), "30000:1001" (29.97fps), or
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"25:1" (25fps). This option is temporary, and may disappear in future
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releases. (Hint: To convert a decimal like 23.976 to an integer ratio, just
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multiply by 1000, i.e. 23976:1000)
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: **-crop** //WIDTH//://HEIGHT//://X//://Y//
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Crop a portion of the video //WIDTH// by //HEIGHT// in size, with the
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top-left corner at //X//, //Y//.
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===Audio stream options===
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: **-normalize** [VOLUME]
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If used without VOLUME argument, analyze the audio stream and then
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normalize the volume of the audio.
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This is useful if the audio is too quiet or too loud, or you want to
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make volume consistent for a bunch of videos. Similar to running
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normalize without any parameters. The default is -12dB average level
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If the optional VOLUME argument is supplied, ffmpeg will be used instead
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to increase or decrease the volume. An argument of 256 is normal volume.
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This option is useful for -slice, because there are sync issues if
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audio and video are encoded separately after a seek.
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: **-amplitude** //NUM//[dB]
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In addition to analyzing and normalizing, apply the gain to the audio
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such that the 'average' (RMS) sound level is //NUM//. Valid values
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range 0.0 - 1.0, with 0.0 being silent and 1.0 being full scale. Use
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//NUM//dB for a decibel gain below full scale (the default without
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-amplitude is -12dB).
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: **-abitrate** //NUM//
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Encode audio at //NUM// kilobits per second. Reasonable values include
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128, 224, and 384. The default is 224 kbits/sec, good enough for most
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encodings. The value must be within the allowable range for the chosen disc
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format; Ignored for VCD, which must be 224.
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: **-audiotrack** //NUM//
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Encode the given audio track, if the input video has multiple audio tracks.
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//NUM// is //1// for the first track, //2// for the second, etc. You may
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also provide a list of tracks, separated by spaces or commas, for example
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**-audiotrack 3,1,2**. Use **idvid** on your source video to determine which
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audio tracks it contains.
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Adjust audio synchronization by //NUM// seconds.
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: **-config** //FILE//
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Read configuration from //FILE//, containing 'tovid' alone on the first
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line, and free-formatted (whitespace-separated) tovid command-line options
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Force encoding of already-compliant video or audio streams.
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Overwrite any existing output files (with the same name as the given
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: **-priority** {low|medium|high}
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Sets the main encoding process to the given priority. With high priority,
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it may take other programs longer to load and respond. With lower priority,
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other programs will be more responsive, but encoding may take 30-40%
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longer. The default is high priority.
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: **-discsize** //NUM//
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When encoding, tovid automatically splits the output file into several
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pieces if it exceeds the size of the target media. This option sets the
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desired target DVD/CD-R size to //NUM// mebibytes (MiB, 2^20). By default,
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splitting occurs at 700 for CD, 4300 for DVD. Use higher values at your
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own risk. Use 650 or lower if you plan to burn to smaller-capacity CDs.
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Doesn't work with the **-ffmpeg** option.
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Fit the output file into //NUM// MiB. Rather than using default (or specified)
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video bitrates, tovid will calculate the correct video bitrate that will
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limit the final output size to //NUM// MiB. This is different than **-discsize**,
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which cuts the final file into //NUM// MiB pieces. **-fit** makes sure that
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the file never exceeds //NUM// MiB. This works with **-ffmpeg**, but not
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with **-vcd** since VCDs have a standardized constant bitrate.
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Perform ripping, encoding, and multiplexing processes in parallel using
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named pipes. Maximizes CPU utilization and minimizes disk usage. Note that
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this option simply does more tasks simultaneously, in order to make better
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use of available CPU cycles; it's unrelated to multi-CPU processing (which
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is done automatically anyway). Has no effect when **-ffmpeg** is used.
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: **-update** //SECS//
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Print status updates at intervals of //SECS// seconds. This affects how
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regularly the progress-meter is updated. The default is once every five
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: **-mplayeropts** **"**//OPTIONS//**"**
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Append //OPTIONS// to the mplayer command run during video encoding. Use
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this if you want to add specific video filters (documented in the mplayer
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manual page). Overriding some options will cause encoding to fail, so use
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: **-nofifo** (EXPERIMENTAL)
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Do not use a FIFO pipe for video encoding. If you are getting "Broken pipe"
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errors with normal encoding, try this option. WARNING: This uses lots of
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disk space (about 2 GB per minute of video).
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Keep the intermediate files after encoding. Usually, this means the audio
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and video streams are kept (eg the .ac3 and .m2v files for an NTSC DVD).
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This doesn't work with -parallel because the intermediate files are named
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pipes, and not real files.
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: **-slice** //START//-//END//
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Encode a segment from //START// to //END// (in seconds).
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Put tovid into a fully non-interactive state, suitable for calling from
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Don't ask questions when choices need to be made. Assume reasonable
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Two configuration files are created the first time you run tovid. Edit them
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to change tovid's directory use and default behavior.
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Working and output directories are defined in **~/.tovid/preferences**:
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OUTPUT_DIR=/pub/video
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If you would like to include certain command-line options all the time, edit
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**~/.tovid/tovid.config** and add them.
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**idvid**(1), **makedvd**(1), **makemenu**(1), **makeslides**(1),
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**makevcd**(1), **makexml**(1), **postproc**(1), **tovid**(1), **todisc**(1)
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For further assistance, contact information, forum and IRC links,
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please refer to the [tovid homepage http://tovid.org/].
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docs/src/en/tovid.t2t
