dvd_transcode takes a list of video files and transcodes them into DVD compliant MPEG-2 (NTSC).

dvd_transcode.sh

#! /usr/bin/env python

import argparse
import os
import subprocess

def main():
	parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='Transcodes videos to DVD compatible MPEG-2 using mencoder')
	parser.add_argument('file', help='Input file', nargs='+')
	args = parser.parse_args()

	command_format = "mencoder -oac lavc -ovc lavc -of mpeg -mpegopts format=dvd:tsaf"\
	" -vf scale=720:480,harddup -srate 48000 -af lavcresample=48000"\
	" -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg2video:vrc_buf_size=1835:vrc_maxrate=9800:vbitrate=5000:keyint=18:vstrict=0:acodec=ac3:abitrate=192:aspect=16/9"\
	" -ofps 30000/1001 -o \"%s\" \"%s\""

	commands = []
	logfilepaths = []
	for filepath in args.file:
		root, ext = os.path.splitext(filepath)
		logfilepath = '%s.transcoding.log' % root
		logfilepaths.append(logfilepath)
		output_filepath = '%s.mpg' % root
		command = command_format % (output_filepath, filepath)
		commands.append(command)

	logfiles = []
	processes = []
	for command, logfilepath in zip(commands, logfilepaths):
		logfile = open(logfilepath, 'w')
		logfiles.append(logfile)
		p = subprocess.Popen(command, shell=True, stdout=logfile, stderr=logfile)
		processes.append(p)

	for p in processes:
		p.wait()

if __name__ == '__main__':
	main()