mystic convert behavior

[rh]

Dear VLC-friends,
first of all i use vlc long time ago but now i have a problem without a solution.

My wish is to convert my VDR records (MPEG2-Video/MPEG-Audio) to MPEG4-Files. I use the command line:

vlc -vvv -I dummy 001.vdr --sout="#transcode{vcodec=mp4v,vb=600,scale=0.4}:duplicate{dst=std{access=file,mux=ts,dst="TEST"}}" vlc:quit

On the FIRST computer with Debian Etch everything works fine with VLC 0.8.6.a and this version of ffmpeg

FFmpeg version SVN-rUNKNOWN, Copyright (c) 2000-2007 Fabrice Bellard, et al.
configuration: --prefix=/usr --libdir=${prefix}/lib --shlibdir=${prefix}/lib --incdir=${prefix}/include/ffmpeg --enable-shared --enable-libmp3lame --enable-gpl --enable-libfaad --mandir=${prefix}/share/man --enable-libvorbis --enable-pthreads --enable-libfaac --enable-xvid --enable-libdts --enable-amr_nb --enable-amr_wb --enable-pp --enable-libogg --enable-libgsm --enable-x264 --enable-liba52 --enable-libtheora --extra-cflags=-Wall -g -fPIC -DPIC --cc=ccache cc --enable-swscaler
libavutil version: 49.4.0
libavcodec version: 51.40.2
libavformat version: 51.11.0
built on Mar 29 2007 11:08:52, gcc: 4.1.2 20061115 (prerelease) (Debian 4.1.1-21)

Other diagnostic says:

vlc --list |grep mp4

mux_mp4 MP4/MOV Muxer
mp4 MP4-Stream Demuxer

vlc --list |grep ffmpeg

ffmpeg FFmpeg Audio/Video - Dekoder/Encoder ((MS)MPEG4,SVQ1,H263,WMV,WMA)
ffmpeg FFmpeg Farbkonvertierung
ffmpeg FFmpeg Audio/Video-Encoder
ffmpeg FFmpeg-Demuxer
ffmpeg FFmpeg Muxer
ffmpeg FFmpeg-Videofilter
ffmpeg FFmpeg-Videobeschneidungsfilter
ffmpeg FFmpeg-Deinterlace-Videofilter



On the SECOND computer with Debian Lenny and the same command line VLC tell me thats unable to find MPEG-4 encoder


[00000354] ffmpeg encoder debug: libavcodec already initialized
[00000354] ffmpeg encoder error: cannot find encoder MPEG-4 Video
[00000299] stream_out_transcode private error: cannot find encoder ((null))
[00000353] ffmpeg decoder debug: ffmpeg codec (MPEG-4 Video) stopped
[00000353] main decoder debug: removing module "ffmpeg"
[00000299] stream_out_transcode private error: cannot create video chain
[00000322] main packetizer error: cannot create packetizer output (mp4v)
[00000319] avi demuxer warning: cannot skip packet, track disabled
[00000322] main packetizer debug: removing module "packetizer_mpeg4video"


VLC Version:

VLC-Version 0.8.6c Janus
Compiliert von sam@poukram.unknown
Compiler: gcc version 4.1.3 20070429 (prerelease) (Debian 4.1.2-6)

FFmpeg version SVN-r6315, Copyright (c) 2000-2004 Fabrice Bellard
configuration: --prefix=/usr --enable-faac --disable-shared --enable-pp --enable-mp3lame --enable-faad --enable-a52 --enab
le-gpl --enable-vorbis --enable-libogg --enable-xvid --enable-amr_nb --disable-vhook --disable-ffserver
libavutil version: 49.0.0
libavcodec version: 51.14.0
libavformat version: 50.5.0
built on Oct 29 2006 22:40:28, gcc: 2.95.4 20011002 (Debian prerelease)


"vlc --list |grep mp4 " and "vlc --list |grep ffmpeg" give the same results as the working version above.


For a better understanding:
Are there dependencies between ffmpeg and vlc if i wish to do this? How can i avoid these and first of all how can i make a diagnostic ?

[rh]

Hi, is there anybody out there ?
Or is my the question a really kind of stupid ...

[funman]

try ffmpeg -formats to show ffmpeg encoder & decoders supported.

the debian lenny message says that libavcodec hasn't found encoder support for this codec

[rh]

Sometimes you need only one message to blow all clouds of unawareness away ...
Thanks a lot, everything works as expected.

[MacZero]

I have exactly the same problem but I don't understand your solution . Maybe you can explain it a little bit more detail?
Is it a problem of ffmpeg?

ffmpeg -formats says:

Code: Select all

Codecs: D V 4xm D V D 8bps D V VMware video D V D aasc DEA ac3 DEA adpcm_4xm DEA adpcm_adx DEA adpcm_ct DEA adpcm_ea DEA adpcm_ima_dk3 DEA adpcm_ima_dk4 DEA adpcm_ima_qt DEA adpcm_ima_smjpeg DEA adpcm_ima_wav DEA adpcm_ima_ws DEA adpcm_ms DEA adpcm_sbpro_2 DEA adpcm_sbpro_3 DEA adpcm_sbpro_4 DEA adpcm_swf DEA adpcm_xa DEA adpcm_yamaha D A alac DEV D asv1 DEV D asv2 D V D avs DEV bmp D V D camstudio D V D camtasia D V D cavs D V D cinepak D V D cljr D A cook D V D cyuv D A dca D A dsicinaudio D V D dsicinvideo D A dts DES dvbsub DES dvdsub DEV D dvvideo DEV D ffv1 DEVSD ffvhuff DEA flac DEV D flashsv D V D flic DEVSD flv D V D fraps DEA g726 DEV gif DEA gsm D A gsm_ms D V D h261 D VSDT h263 D VSD h263i D V DT h264 DEVSD huffyuv D V D idcinvideo D A imc D V D indeo2 D V indeo3 D A interplay_dpcm D V D interplayvideo EV jpegls D V kmvc EV libtheora EV ljpeg D V D loco D A mace3 D A mace6 D V D mdec DEV D mjpeg D V D mjpegb D V D mmvideo DEA mp2 D A mp3 D A mp3adu D A mp3on4 D A mpc sv7 DEVSDT mpeg1video D VSDT mpeg2video D VSDT mpeg4 D VSDT mpegvideo D VSD msmpeg4 D VSD msmpeg4v1 D VSD msmpeg4v2 D V D msrle D V D msvideo1 D V D mszh D V D nuv DEV pam DEV pbm DEA pcm_alaw DEA pcm_mulaw DEA pcm_s16be DEA pcm_s16le DEA pcm_s24be DEA pcm_s24daud DEA pcm_s24le DEA pcm_s32be DEA pcm_s32le DEA pcm_s8 DEA pcm_u16be DEA pcm_u16le DEA pcm_u24be DEA pcm_u24le DEA pcm_u32be DEA pcm_u32le DEA pcm_u8 DEV pgm DEV pgmyuv DEV png DEV ppm D A qdm2 D V D qdraw D V D qpeg D V D qtrle DEV rawvideo D A real_144 D A real_288 D A roq_dpcm D V D roqvideo D V D rpza DEV D rv10 DEV D rv20 D A shorten D A smackaud D V smackvid D V D smc DEV snow D A sol_dpcm DEA sonic EA sonicls D V D sp5x DEV D svq1 D VSD svq3 D V targa D V theora D V D tiertexseqvideo D V tiff D V D truemotion1 D V D truemotion2 D A truespeech D A tta D V D ultimotion D V vc1 D V D vcr1 D A vmdaudio D V D vmdvideo DEA vorbis D V vp3 D V vp5 D V vp6 D V vp6f D V D vqavideo D A wavpack DEA wmav1 DEA wmav2 DEVSD wmv1 DEVSD wmv2 D V wmv3 D V D wnv1 D A ws_snd1 D A xan_dpcm D V D xan_wc3 D V D xl DEV D zlib DEV zmbv Supported file protocols: file: pipe: udp: rtp: tcp: http: Frame size, frame rate abbreviations: ntsc pal qntsc qpal sntsc spal film ntsc-film sqcif qcif cif 4cif Motion estimation methods: zero(fastest) full(slowest) log phods epzs(default) x1 hex umh iter Note, the names of encoders and decoders dont always match, so there are several cases where the above table shows encoder only or decoder only entries even though both encoding and decoding are supported for example, the h263 decoder corresponds to the h263 and h263p encoders, for file formats its even worse

[syl]

Same here : same problem, same result in ffmpeg -format, same no understanding of the solution.
Please help !

[rh]

ok guys, so let us talk about this ...

If you fired up "ffmpeg --formats" the first output section means the compiling options of your vlc. Be sure vlc is compiled with some important options like --enable-libmp3lame or --enable-libxvid and so on, followed by the version information of your A/V-Libraries, like libavcodec, libavformat, libavdevice ... And be sure you have installed the related libraries of your distribution.

The second section "File formats" have a format like this:
DE avi AVI Format

This mean that ffmpeg is able to (D)ecoding - for playing - and (E)ncoding - for muxing - in the AVI-Containerformat. If you dont see the (E) ffmpeg cannot encoding in this file format, for instance because the file format isnt free or something else. But if your vlc is compiled with libmp3lame and the lame package is installed (see above) of cause you can encoding mp3-Files with vlc independent of your ffmpeg package.

The third section "codecs" is a little bit more complicated - and i do not know everything about this - but i think the most important is the same. (D) means decoding, (E) menas encoding, (A) means audio codec, (V) means video codec.

The last section of the output contains information about filters, file formats and othe important things ...

I think a "best practice" for start converting from a mpeg2/mpga-file like from your vdr recordings is like this:
cvlc -vvv <vdr-recordfile> --sout="#transcode{vcodec=mp4v,vb=600,scale=0.5}:duplicate{dst=std{access=file,mux=ts,dst="<MP4-file>"}}"
without transcoding audio

or of course try using the vlc menu for converting!