Lots of content here last updated on January 2012.  Sorry to blow m
here, but this collection is quite possibly the most comprehensive 
professional Internet-wide collection of examples and explanations 
ffmpeg and mencoder to perform video encoding under Linux.  I've se
for this info and was not able to find anything as comprehensive or


Here are a few useful things to know when working with DVDs.

Method to rip *DVDs with* sector protections (removes ARccOS, etc).  Works most of the time.

C source code for use with the above link.

Script utilizing mplayer to rip *DVDs without* sector protections (only for CSS encrypted discs).

Encoding DVD compliant video with ffmpeg or mencoder.  Quite possibly the most comprehensive set of notes on the Internet for using ffmpeg and mencoder to produce DVD ready MPEG2 files.  Current to Jan 2012.

There was a popular series of NTSC capture cards produced by Hauppa
model number PVR 150, 250, and 350.  These cards were nice because 
hardware MPEG2 encoding in realtime during the capture.  The 250 an
had a composite input which was useful for capturing and digitizing

In Linux the module for these cards works extremely well.  Applicat
can use the card to view include basically any application that can
/dev/video0 device; mplayer, vlc, tvtime, mythtv, etc..

Sometimes in Linux forums you'll see people ask how to record from 
other v4l cards and people will say something lame like "just do ca
/dev/video0 > output.mpg". Ummmm...no.  I'm using a professional op
system, I expect fine grain control over which inputs I'm capturing
bitrate, the codecs, the resolution, the gop size, etc.

The most important part is the recording!  For that you have 2 choi
and the command line.  I prefer the command line because you can sc
needs and the method is very low resource.  MythTV is great for a d
or if you do a lot of time shifting and just want a way to setup re
manage them in a GUI.

Setting up the card parameters and capturing video.

An example of a script to setup parameters and execute a timed recording, can be used in a cron job.

What do you do with your MPEG2 videos that you captured?  I don't s
keeping them in that format unless you're going straight to DVD.  I
encode to H.264, Theora, or Webm.  It all depends on what type of v
(junk, archival, etc) and what device I'll be viewing it on (comput
center device, portable, etc).

Examples of using ffmpeg2theora to encode videos.

Encoding to Ogg Theora using the Internet Archive's method.

Encoding to Webm format with ffmpeg.

Encoding to H.264 with ffmpeg, including the Internet Archive's method.

Here's some random media related stuff that doesn't fit anywhere el

Using ffmpeg's x11grab method to capture video/audio on your desktop.

Info about ffmpeg, mencoder, and mplayer and the encoding/decoding available to them.