Overview

MEncoder (MPlayer's Movie Encoder) is a simple movie encoder, designed to encode MPlayer-playable movies (AVI/DVD/VCD/VOB/MPG/MOV/VIV/NET) to other MPlayer-playable formats (see below). Currently it's in beta stage, and encodes only to DivX4 (1 or 2 passes) video, PCM/MP3/VBRMP3 audio. Also has stream copying abilities. In the future, there will be cropping, resizing filters, and other interesting stuff.

Compiling

read MPlayer's compilation instructions, it contains info about how to install libdvdread for DVD support, etc.
download the newest DivX4linux libs from avifile.sourceforge.net, and have them PROPERLY installed. This is needed for DivX4 (1/2 pass) encoding.
download and install libmp3lame (from lame 3.89beta or lame CVS). This is needed for CBR/VBR MP3 audio encoding ability. Note that a single lame binary isn't sufficient.
use ./configure with optional parameters as usual, and type : make mencoder , then make install .

You are ready. As you probably know, other encoding tools need the avifile library installed. MEncoder doesn't need it at all.

MEncoder features :

encoding from the wide range of fileformats and decoders of MPlayer
encoding/multiplexing to interleaved AVI files with proper index
1 or 2 pass DivX4 video
VBR MP3 audio
PCM audio
stream copying (only from AVI/ASF now, and CBR audio only)
input A/V synchronizing (PTS-based, can be disabled with -mc 0 option)
FPS correction with -ofps option (useful when encoding 29.97fps VOB to 24fps AVI)

Planned features :

using audio from separate file (AC3, MP3, OGG)
VBR audio stream copy
even wider variety of available en/decoding formats/codecs (creating VOB files with DivX4/Indeo5/VIVO streams :)

Encoding 2-pass DivX4

The name comes from the fact that this method encodes the file twice. The first encoding (dubbed pass) creates a temporary file with a size of few megabytes. In the second pass, the output file is created, using the bitrate data from the temporary file. The resulting file will have much better image quality. If this is the first time you heard about this, you should consult some guides available on the Net.

This example shows how to encode a DVD to a 2-pass DivX4 AVI. Just two commands are needed :
mplayer -dvd 2 -ovc divx4 -oac mp3lame -divx4opts br=1100 -o movie.avi -pass 1 mplayer -dvd 2 -ovc divx4 -oac mp3lame -divx4opts br=1100 -o movie.avi -pass 2

Examples

Using MEncoder is the easiest thing on Earth. See the following :

Encoding from DVD, title 2 :
mencoder -dvd 2 -o title2.avi

Encoding from HTTP :
mencoder http://mplayer.hq/example.avi -o example.avi

Encoding from standard input :
rar p test-SVCD.rar | mencoder -divx4opts br=800 -ofps 24 -pass 1 -- -

For all available options, check the MEncoder man page !