Converting AVI to Dirac

FFMPEG understands Dirac. So here's the command to convert MJPEG/AVI to Dirac. Use MKV extension for the output file to keep the sound.

$ ffmpeg -i t1.avi -vcodec libschroedinger t1.drc

It can be done the long way, by converting to YUV first:

$ lav2yuv +n DSC_0023.AVI > tmp.yuv
$ ffmpeg -i tmp.yuv -vcodec libschroedinger t1.drc

From a 55.2 MB AVI/MJPEG file with audio and 720x480 video, a 729.9 MB YUV420 file is produced.

Encoding to Dirac directly from AVI, results in a 562.4 KB file.
Encoding to MKV from AVI produces a 563.9 KB file.

Compare that to 6.8 MB H.264 file produced form YUV420.

$ ffmpeg -i tmp.yuv -vcodec libx264 t1.mp4

Note: FFMPEG crashes when converting directly from AVI to H.264.

Summary for File 1:

Codec	MJPEG	YUV	Dirac (.DRC)	Dirac (.MKV)	H.264
File size (MB)	55.2	729.9	0.562	0.563	6.8
Compression ratio (x)	13.22	1	1297.8	1294.4	107.3

But that's not the whole story. The quality of the Dirac video is so bad...because I used libschroedinger.

Here's the results for File 2, using libdirac switch:

Codec	MJPEG	YUV	Dirac (.DRC)	H.264(.MP4)
File size (MB)	47.0	1891.1	3.4	8.1
Compression ratio (x)	40.2	1	556.2	233.5

Suddenly, Dirac doesn't look so bad.