doc/avconv: add some details about the transcoding process.

1 files changed, 120 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/doc/avconv.texi b/doc/avconv.texi
index 2ebfe9fe44..776a326369 100644
--- a/doc/avconv.texi
+++ b/doc/avconv.texi
@@ -79,6 +79,126 @@ The format option may be needed for raw input files.
 
 @c man end DESCRIPTION
 
+@chapter Detailed description
+@c man begin DETAILED DESCRIPTION
+
+The transcoding process in @command{avconv} for each output can be described by
+the following diagram:
+
+@example
+ _______              ______________               _________              ______________            ________
+|       |            |              |             |         |            |              |          |        |
+| input |  demuxer   | encoded data |   decoder   | decoded |  encoder   | encoded data |  muxer   | output |
+| file  | ---------> | packets      |  ---------> | frames  | ---------> | packets      | -------> | file   |
+|_______|            |______________|             |_________|            |______________|          |________|
+
+@end example
+
+@command{avconv} calls the libavformat library (containing demuxers) to read
+input files and get packets containing encoded data from them. When there are
+multiple input files, @command{avconv} tries to keep them synchronized by
+tracking lowest timestamp on any active input stream.
+
+Encoded packets are then passed to the decoder (unless streamcopy is selected
+for the stream, see further for a description). The decoder produces
+uncompressed frames (raw video/PCM audio/...) which can be processed further by
+filtering (see next section). After filtering the frames are passed to the
+encoder, which encodes them and outputs encoded packets again. Finally those are
+passed to the muxer, which writes the encoded packets to the output file.
+
+@section Filtering
+Before encoding, @command{avconv} can process raw audio and video frames using
+filters from the libavfilter library. Several chained filters form a filter
+graph.  @command{avconv} distinguishes between two types of filtergraphs -
+simple and complex.
+
+@subsection Simple filtergraphs
+Simple filtergraphs are those that have exactly one input and output, both of
+the same type. In the above diagram they can be represented by simply inserting
+an additional step between decoding and encoding:
+
+@example
+ _________                        __________              ______________
+|         |                      |          |            |              |
+| decoded |  simple filtergraph  | filtered |  encoder   | encoded data |
+| frames  | -------------------> | frames   | ---------> | packets      |
+|_________|                      |__________|            |______________|
+
+@end example
+
+Simple filtergraphs are configured with the per-stream @option{-filter} option
+(with @option{-vf} and @option{-af} aliases for video and audio respectively).
+A simple filtergraph for video can look for example like this:
+
+@example
+ _______        _____________        _______        _____        ________
+|       |      |             |      |       |      |     |      |        |
+| input | ---> | deinterlace | ---> | scale | ---> | fps | ---> | output |
+|_______|      |_____________|      |_______|      |_____|      |________|
+
+@end example
+
+Note that some filters change frame properties but not frame contents. E.g. the
+@code{fps} filter in the example above changes number of frames, but does not
+touch the frame contents. Another example is the @code{setpts} filter, which
+only sets timestamps and otherwise passes the frames unchanged.
+
+@subsection Complex filtergraphs
+Complex filtergraphs are those which cannot be described as simply a linear
+processing chain applied to one stream. This is the case e.g. when the graph has
+more than one input and/or output, or when output stream type is different from
+input. They can be represented with the following diagram:
+
+@example
+ _________
+|         |
+| input 0 |\                    __________
+|_________| \                  |          |
+             \   _________    /| output 0 |
+              \ |         |  / |__________|
+ _________     \| complex | /
+|         |     |         |/
+| input 1 |---->| filter  |\
+|_________|     |         | \   __________
+               /| graph   |  \ |          |
+              / |         |   \| output 1 |
+ _________   /  |_________|    |__________|
+|         | /
+| input 2 |/
+|_________|
+
+@end example
+
+Complex filtergraphs are configured with the @option{-filter_complex} option.
+Note that this option is global, since a complex filtergraph by its nature
+cannot be unambiguously associated with a single stream or file.
+
+A trivial example of a complex filtergraph is the @code{overlay} filter, which
+has two video inputs and one video output, containing one video overlaid on top
+of the other. Its audio counterpart is the @code{amix} filter.
+
+@section Stream copy
+Stream copy is a mode selected by supplying the @code{copy} parameter to the
+@option{-codec} option. It makes @command{avconv} omit the decoding and encoding
+step for the specified stream, so it does only demuxing and muxing. It is useful
+for changing the container format or modifying container-level metadata. The
+diagram above will in this case simplify to this:
+
+@example
+ _______              ______________            ________
+|       |            |              |          |        |
+| input |  demuxer   | encoded data |  muxer   | output |
+| file  | ---------> | packets      | -------> | file   |
+|_______|            |______________|          |________|
+
+@end example
+
+Since there is no decoding or encoding, it is very fast and there is no quality
+loss. However it might not work in some cases because of many factors. Applying
+filters is obviously also impossible, since filters work on uncompressed data.
+
+@c man end DETAILED DESCRIPTION
+
 @chapter Stream selection
 @c man begin STREAM SELECTION