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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 ?

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

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

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

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

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:

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

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!