[BUG] Interlaced files encoded lossless, muxed with mencoder in AVI, are 10% shorter

[mihai]

In the latest developer version, with ffmpeg as default, instead of mencoder, the video has the correct duration, the sound can be heard in VLC, and the sound info looks corectly (the same as the original audio) in MediaInfo (Bit rate: 256 kb/s, Stream size: 1.83 MiB).
In Premiere Pro, the sound it is a loud noise like in the previous Hybrid versions (inluding the official versions), maybe it is a Premiere Pro problem (in VLC the sound is good, not loud noise); in timeline this loud noise can be replaced with the original sound (from the original M2TS file).
I encoded the 1 minute video 50i with these lossless codecs, to 50p using QTGMC deinterlacing, to check if the sound works in Premiere Pro:
x264 lossless.mp4 = MP4Box
x264 lossless.avi = ffmpeg
x265 lossless.mp4 = MP4Box
FFV1.avi = ffmpeg
UT Video.avi = ffmpeg
FFvHuff.avi = ffmpeg
The 2 files muxed with MP4Box has sound in Premiere Pro, the 4 files muxed with ffmpeg has loud noise in Premiere Pro (the voice almost cannot be heard).
I can send you these files (or you can encode them) if you can verify their sound in Premiere Pro.
I can also encode to these lossless video codecs to MKV (muxing with mkvmerge) in Hybrid, then I'll mux these files to AVI and MP4 (because Premiere Pro doesn't import MKV), to check the sound in Premiere Pro.
This developer version, with ffmpeg as default, needs removal or replacement for this option:
Config > Containers > Avi: Always use ffmpeg for muxing
It can be replaced to (if mencoder will remain in Hybrid for muxing to AVI, as a second option after the default ffmpeg):
Config > Containers > Avi: Always use mencoder for muxing

[Selur]

I suspect that ac3 in avi simple is rather uncommon nowadays and that is why Premiere is lacking there.
I don't use Premiere so no need to send the samples, but you can check if there's a difference in Premiere depending on whether ffmpeg or mp4box was used for the mp4 muxing.
I'll probably look into mencoder some more and see whether I can find a workaround or it's issues, if not I'll simply remove it for muxing if multiple streams are used inside the .avi container. 'Config > Containers > Avi: Always use ffmpeg for muxing' will probably get removed if I don't find a workaround.


Cu Selur

[mihai]

I checked now if Premiere is lacking support for AC3 in AVI (as you mentioned), and indeed Premiere doesn't like AC3 in AVI. I remuxed the 1 minute M2TS (H264+AC3) video to AVI, using Avidemux and Video Containers Changer, and these AVI files has the same loud noise in Premiere.
Because I prefer deinterlacing to FFV1 (smaller than UT Video and FFvHuff, and only a little bigger than x264 lossless) and AVI is needed for Premiere, I'll replace in timeline the loud noise with either the original AC3 sound from M2TS, or with the WAV edited sound in Izotope RX (I always edit the sound). Or, now that I learned that Premiere doesn't like AC3 in AVI, I can import in Premiere FFV1+FLAC/WAV in AVI, after AC3 is encoded with Hybrid to FLAC or WAV. Other option, x264 lossless in MP4, can be imported in Premiere, and AC3 is supported in MP4 (AC3 muxed with MP4Box in MP4 with Hybrid has sound in Premierex).
In future, Premiere will have to add back the support for MKV (that was removed in the 2019 version); at "How can we improve Premiere Pro?" forum, "Restore MKV Format Support" is the second requested feature (883 votes now), after "Support Blackmagic RAW" (1628 votes).