Video files ¶

A video file consists out of TWO seperate elements:

    * container
    * codec 

The container holds the digitally encoded data and the codec is capable of decoding/encoding this digitally encoded data.

Veejay supports the AVI and the Quicktime container , with the following codecs:

Quicktime:

    * mpjeg,mjpa,jpeg,dmb1
    * dvsd, dv, dvcp, dvhd 

AVI

    * mjpeg, mjpa,jpeg,jfif,dmb1
    * dvsd, dv, dvcp, dvhd
    * i420, i422, yv16, hfyu 

Raw DV

    * PAL / NTSC dvsd 

Veejay can only deal with video files that consists entirely out of whole images (only I-frames). The codecs below will only work if all frames are I-frames. Otherwise, veejay will abort with an error message.

AVI / Quicktime:

    * xvid, mp4v,divx,dxsd,mp4s,m4s2
    * div3,mp43,mp42,mpg4
    * avc1,h264,x264,davc,svq1,svq3,avc1 

Wich codec to use ¶

MotionJPEG ( mjpeg) is the veejay codec of choice for most applications, it gives you a good tradeof between compression, quality and compatibility. If you want speed, use AVI yv16 or i420 while recording to new samples.

Tools that support MJPEG:

    * http://cvs.cinelerra.org/Cinelerra
    * http://www.kinodv.org/Kino
    * http://ronald.bitfreak.net/lvs/Linux video studio
    * http://mjpeg.sourceforge.net/mjpegtools
    * http://www.mplayerhq.huMplayer, and mencoder
    * http://lives.sf.net Lives 

Wich resolutions to use ¶

Veejay can do:

    * high definition (use MLZO/YUV avi)
    * pal: 720x576 (recommended to use MLZO/YUV avi)
    * ntsc: 720x480
    * 1/4 pal: 360x288 (any)
    * 1/4 ntsc: 360x240  (any)

If you load multiple video files on the commandline, make sure that all files have the same resolution and audio properties.
How to convert ¶

Veejay can convert dv video to mjpeg for you, however, I prefer to use mplayer for this, wich has more flexibility.

From "anything" mplayer can play to mjpeg, use:

 $ mencoder -ovc lavc -oac pcm -lavcopts vcodec=mjpeg -o <outputfile> <inputfile>

To scale on the fly, use:

 $ mencoder -ovc lavc -oac pcm -lavcopts vcodec=mjpeg -vf scale=352:288 -o <outputfile> <inputfile>

consult mplayer documentation about other options, such as cropping and filtering out blocks in video.

a quick hint for bulk encoding a bunch of capture.dv files:

 $ for i in `ls *dv`;do mencoder -ovc lavc -oac pcm -lavcopts vcodec=mjpeg -o `echo $i | sed s/.dv/.avi/` $i; done;

What is this dummy mode ¶

Dummy mode opens up a 'color stream' to start veejay without a video file.

If you use a video file, veejay will take that file's properties as default settings for the whole session.