Transcoding H.264, please fix it

[Heion]

I'm running VLC 0.8.6i on a Linux server which is streaming video to other devices.

I used mkvinfo on the file:

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Track type: video Codec ID: V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC Pixel width: 1280 Pixel height: 720 Interlaced: 0 Display width: 1280 Display height: 720 Track type: audio Codec ID: A_VORBIS Sampling frequency: 48000.000000 Channels: 2 Track type: subtitles Codec ID: S_TEXT/A-SS File name: Timeless.ttf Mime type: application/x-truetype-font File data, size: 61212 File UID: 2591820693

Just to test whether or not VLC was able to transcode the file, I tried the following options:

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vlc MyTestFile.mkv -vvv -I dummy --sout "#transcode{vcodec=mp2v,vb=4096,soverlay,acodec=mpga,ab=192,samplerate=48000,channels=2,audio-sync,fps=25}:standard{mux=ps,access=file,dst=TestOutput.mpeg}" --sub-track=0 vlc:quit

With these options VLC stops after about 10-15 seconds, giving me a LOT of warnings, some of which I'll post here:

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[00000480] main stream output warning: trying to send non-dated packet to stream output! [00000501] ffmpeg decoder warning: warning: first frame is no keyframe (h264@0x82774d0) [00000339] ffmpeg encoder warning: Set profile and level (mpeg2video@0x819edc0) [00000502] ffmpeg encoder error: cannot open encoder [00000481] stream_out_transcode private error: cannot find encoder ((null)) [00000501] ffmpeg decoder debug: ffmpeg codec (H264 - MPEG-4 AVC (part 10)) stopped [00000505] main private error: subpicture heap is full [00000503] subsdec decoder warning: can't get spu buffer [00000505] main private error: subpicture heap is full [00000503] subsdec decoder warning: can't get spu buffer [00000505] main private error: subpicture heap is full [00000503] subsdec decoder warning: can't get spu buffer [00000505] main private error: subpicture heap is full .... [00000489] mkv demuxer warning: find KaxCues FIXME [00000489] mkv demuxer warning: cannot get block EOF? [00000485] main private warning: no more input streams for this mux

I have tried removing soverlay and --sub-track=0 options, which get rid of the subpicture heap errors, but still VLC stops and fails to transcode the file.
It is not only this MKV file I have issues with, there are several MKV files, all of them encoded with H.264, and none of them work.
There are also AVI files encoded with H.264, they do not work either.

I am able to transcode & stream these files with either ffmpeg or mencoder, but I want to use VLC since it has better subtitle features.
So, the files themselves are not corrupt or damaged, since they transcode/stream nicely with other software.
(They also play nicely when simply played with a VLC client, without transcoding/streaming).

There is one MKV file, with H.264 that works, which has this info:

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Track type: video Codec ID: V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC Pixel width: 640 Pixel height: 480 Interlaced: 0 Display width: 640 Display height: 480 Track type: audio Codec ID: A_MPEG/L3 Sampling frequency: 44100.000000 Channels: 2

The relevant differences that I can think of, is the sampling rate of 44,1kHz instead of 48kHz all the other files have.
The AVI files I mentioned that do not work, also uses MPEG3 audio, but 48kHz sampling. From avinfo:

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video: 856x480 00:24:04 23.97fps H264 5Kbps audio: 48KHz 00:24:04 Stereo 344bps mp3

The MKV file with 44,1kHz is the only file with H.264 encoding, which works when transcoding with VLC.

Any thoughts?

[Heion]

I have tried VLC 0.9.0 beta2 as well now, without any success.

Any help would be much appreciated.

[Heion]

I have tried over 10 different MKV files now, all of which were compressed with H.264.
None of them will transcode with VLC.

I would like to see VLC H.264 support improved.

Thanks in advance.

[Heion]

It seems I am left with converting the files in order to play them.
I hope that sometime in the future H.264 transcoding can be fixed.