This H.264 sample doesn't play correctly in current FFmpeg (SVN 25-10-2007) because there is no support yet for H.264 + PAFF + spatial direct motion vectors. It looks like some macroblocks are not decoded near the outline of characters. I see a lot of messages "Interlaced pictures + spatial direct mode is not implemented" in the output of ffplay. This sample is a capture from an Electra 5400 encoder. It can be decoded correctly by the H.264 reference software from Fraunhofer. This is the method used to run the test : 1. capture the output from the encoder in TS format. (tf1.h264.paff.ts) 2. convert to raw H.264 video format. vlc h264_paff_spatial_direct_mv.ts --no-audio --sout '#std{access=file,mux=raw,url=h264_paff_spatial_direct_mv.h264}' 3. run the reference decoder. ldecod.exe -i h264_paff_spatial_direct_mv.h264 -o h264_paff_spatial_direct_mv.yuv 4. play the result. mplayer -demuxer rawvideo -rawvideo pal h264_paff_spatial_direct_mv.ts