mpeg_bits

NAME
  mpeg_bits - monitors and modifies bitrate in encoded streams

SYNOPSIS
  mpeg_bits [ -edits edit_file_name ] [ -dither dither_option
  ] [ file_name ]

DESCRIPTION
  mpeg_bits provides a GUI for the monitoring and modification
  of MPEG streams. As it displays an MPEG bitstream, it gives
  feedback on how bits are being allocated on a macroblock-
  by-macroblock level.  It also enables the user to specify
  block-level q-scale changes, which are then compiled into a
  specifics file which can be used in later encodings.

OPTIONS
  -edits edit_file_name : loads the edits made in a previous
	   mpeg_bits session

  -dither dither_option : selects from a variety of dither
	   options. The possible values are:

	   ordered - ordered dither.

	   ordered2 - a faster ordered dither. This is the
			default.

	   mbordered - ordered dithering at the macroblock level.
			Although there is a noticeable decrease in dither
			quality, this is the fastest dither available.

	   fs4 - Floyd-Steinberg dithering with 4 error values
			propogated.

	   fs2 - Floyd-Steinberg dithering with 2 error values
			propogated.

	   fs2fast - Fast Floyd-Steinberg dithering with 2 error
			values propogated.

	   hybrid - Hybrid dithering, a combination of ordered
			dithering for the luminance channel and Floyd-
			Steinberg 2 error dithering for the chrominance
			channels. Errors are NOT propogated properly and
			are dropped all togethor every two pixels in
			either direction.

	   hybrid2 - Hybrid dithering as above, but with error
			propogation among pixels.

	   2x2 - A dithering technique using a 2x2 pixel area for
			each pixel. The image displayed is 4 times larger
			than the original image encoded. Random error
			terms are added to each pixel to break up contours
			and gradients.

	   gray - Grayscale dithering. The image is dithered into
			128 grayscales. Chrominance information is thrown
			away.

	   gray256 - Grayscale dithering. The image is dithered
			into 256 grayscales (requires private colormap).
			Chrominance information is thrown away.

	   color - Full color display (only available on 24 bit
			color displays).

	   none - no dithering is done, no image is displayed.
			Used to time decoding process.

	   mono - Floyd-Steinberg dithering for monochrome
			displays.

	   threshold - Floyd-simple dithering for monochrome
			displays.


NOTES
  The tool expects video streams only. It can handle
  multiplexed MPEG streams (video+audio streams) by discarding
  the audio. It uses the paris entropy coding table set (which
  we believe to be the MPEG-1 standard), but can not handle
  any bitstreams that use the "berlin" entropy coding table
  set. Berlin data is relatively rare so there shouldn't be
  too much to worry about here, but be aware of the difference
  when looking for streams to work with.

  Some streams do not end with the proper sequence end code
  and will probably generate an "Improper sequence end code."
  error when done playing.

  This player can play XING data files. Be aware that XING
  makes no use of temporal redundancy or motion vector
  information. In other words, they do not use any P or B
  frames in their streams. Instead, XING data is simply a
  sequence of I frames. Since I frames take significantly
  longer to decode, performance of the application using XING
  data is not representative of its ability.

VERSION
  This is the first public release, version 1.0.

AUTHORS
  Doug Banks - University of California, Berkeley,
	   dbanks@cs.berkeley.edu