Unable to stream (+transcode) FLACs to any format?

[christopherw]

Using some FLACs I encoded earlier as a source, I was attempting to stream and transcode (first to Vorbis, then to AAC and finally to MP3, on separate attempts) to my own Icecast server. It's verified as functioning using my home machine to stream to my work machine, which I was using earlier

It looks like VLC can't combine the FLAC decoder with any kind of streaming, or maybe FFMPEG is crippled to stop this kind of streaming? Either way, it's intensely annoying and also may well spoil some of the plans I had for work-related streaming to an icecast server for the company web site (it's a small record label and we're implementing a label-music-only streaming radio station...)

This happens on both my home and work PCs (all Windows XP, both running VLC 1.1.4 The Luggage).

main debug: processing request item Test node Playlist skip 0
main debug: resyncing on Test
main debug: Test is at 0
main debug: starting new item
main debug: creating new input thread
main debug: Creating an input for 'Test'
main debug: thread (input) created at priority 1 (../.././src/input/input.c:214)
main debug: thread started
main debug: reusing sout
main debug: you probably want to use gather stream_out
main debug: using timeshift granularity of 50 MiB
main debug: using timeshift path 'C:\DOCUME~1\CHRIST~1\LOCALS~1\Temp'
main debug: `G:\test.flac' gives access `' demux `' path `G:\test.flac'
main debug: creating demux: access='' demux='' path='G:\test.flac'
main debug: looking for access_demux module: 4 candidates
main debug: no access_demux module matching "any" could be loaded
main debug: TIMER module_need() : 0.000 ms - Total 0.000 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 0.000 ms)
main debug: creating access '' path='G:\test.flac'
main debug: looking for access module: 5 candidates
vcd debug: trying .cue file: G:\test.cue
vcd debug: could not find .cue file
filesystem debug: opening file `G:\test.flac'
main debug: using access module "filesystem"
main debug: TIMER module_need() : 4.000 ms - Total 4.000 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 4.000 ms)
main debug: Using AStream*Stream
main debug: pre buffering
main debug: received first data after 0 ms
main debug: pre-buffering done 1024 bytes in 0s - 1000000 KiB/s
main debug: looking for stream_filter module: 2 candidates
main debug: no stream_filter module matching "any" could be loaded
main debug: TIMER module_need() : 0.000 ms - Total 0.000 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 0.000 ms)
main debug: looking for stream_filter module: 1 candidate
main debug: using stream_filter module "stream_filter_record"
main debug: TIMER module_need() : 0.000 ms - Total 0.000 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 0.000 ms)
main debug: creating demux: access='' demux='' path='G:\test.flac'
main debug: looking for demux module: 50 candidates
main debug: looking for packetizer module: 21 candidates
main debug: using packetizer module "packetizer_flac"
main debug: TIMER module_need() : 0.000 ms - Total 0.000 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 0.000 ms)
main debug: using demux module "flacsys"
main debug: TIMER module_need() : 0.000 ms - Total 0.000 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 0.000 ms)
main debug: starting in sync mode
main debug: looking for meta reader module: 2 candidates
main debug: using meta reader module "taglib"
main debug: TIMER module_need() : 0.000 ms - Total 0.000 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 0.000 ms)
main debug: removing module "taglib"
main debug: `G:\test.flac' successfully opened
main debug: selecting program id=0
main debug: looking for packetizer module: 21 candidates
main debug: using packetizer module "packetizer_flac"
main debug: TIMER module_need() : 4.000 ms - Total 4.000 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 4.000 ms)
qt4 debug: IM: Setting an input
main debug: thread (decoder) created at priority 2 (../.././src/input/decoder.c:301)
main debug: thread started
main debug: Buffering 0%
main debug: switching to async mode
main debug: Buffering 30%
main debug: Buffering 61%
main debug: adding a new sout input (sout_input:0206cd68)
stream_out_transcode debug: creating audio transcoding from fcc=`flac' to fcc=`vorb'
main debug: Buffering 92%
main debug: looking for decoder module: 34 candidates
main debug: using decoder module "flac"
main debug: TIMER module_need() : 0.000 ms - Total 0.000 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 0.000 ms)
main debug: looking for encoder module: 12 candidates
main debug: Stream buffering done (371 ms in 0 ms)
vorbis error: CBR mode initialisation failed
avcodec debug: libavcodec already initialized
avcodec error: cannot find encoder Vorbis Audio
*** Your FFMPEG installation is crippled. ***
*** Please check with your FFMPEG packager. ***
*** This is NOT a VLC media player issue. ***
main debug: no encoder module matching "any" could be loaded
main debug: TIMER module_need() : 16.000 ms - Total 16.000 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 16.000 ms)
stream_out_transcode error: cannot find audio encoder (module:any fourcc:vorb)
main debug: removing module "flac"
stream_out_transcode error: cannot create audio chain
main error: cannot create packetizer output (flac)
main debug: Decoder buffering done in 16 ms
main debug: EOF reached
main debug: finished input
main debug: thread times: real 0m1.343750s, kernel 0m0.015625s, user 0m0.015625s
main debug: removing module "packetizer_flac"
main debug: killing decoder fourcc `flac', 0 PES in FIFO
main debug: removing module "packetizer_flac"
main debug: removing module "flacsys"
main debug: removing module "stream_filter_record"
main debug: removing module "filesystem"
main debug: Program doesn't contain anymore ES
main debug: thread ended
main debug: dead input
main debug: thread times: real 0m1.343750s, kernel 0m0.062500s, user 0m1.265625s
main debug: changing item without a request (current 0/1)
main debug: nothing to play
qt4 debug: IM: Deleting the input
main debug: TIMER input launching for 'Test' : 8.000 ms - Total 8.000 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 8.000 ms)

Have I missed the blindingly obvious or is something weird happening here?

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

avcodec debug: libavcodec already initialized
avcodec error: cannot find encoder Vorbis Audio
*** Your FFMPEG installation is crippled. ***
*** Please check with your FFMPEG packager. ***
*** This is NOT a VLC media player issue. ***

That is why.

[christopherw]

avcodec debug: libavcodec already initialized
avcodec error: cannot find encoder Vorbis Audio
*** Your FFMPEG installation is crippled. ***
*** Please check with your FFMPEG packager. ***
*** This is NOT a VLC media player issue. ***

That is why.

Indeed, but I just did what most normal Windows users will do - download and install the current stable win32 build from the web site. I can't easily recompile with a noncrippled FFMPEG build because I don't have the required tools (or the skills). Why aren't the stable win32 VLC binaries distributed with a fully functioning FFMPEG library?

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Please share your line to transcode.

[HunterZ]

I'm having this problem as well. I have a FLAC recording that I want to convert to Ogg/Vorbis format using VLC 1.1.5 under Win7 x64. I tried using VLC's Media -> Convert/Save feature to convert to "Audio - Vorbis (OGG)" and got the following error message:

"Streaming / Transcoding failed:
It seems your FFMPEG (libavcodec) installation lacks the following encoder:
Vorbis Audio."

Does the official Windows build of VLC ship with a crippled libavcodec or something? If so, why?

Also, I get a similar (but not exact) error with VLC 1.1.4 in Ubuntu 10.10 x64.

[Fatbag]

Hi, I have the same problem with VLC version 2.0.0 on Vista 64-bit SP2. I actually uninstalled it completely, deleting all my preferences, and reinstalled it completely, deleting my preferences the second time, and set the verbosity to 2.

I cannot encode to FLAC or Vorbis (or AAC, but I don't care about that). The process is this: I go to Media -> Stream, select an audio file, click Stream, click Next, choose to stream to HTTP Port 15304 with GET /stream.ogg and check Activate Transcoding, set it to the default "Audio - Vorbis (OGG)", click Next, and then click Stream, and then I get the following:

Code: Select all

Streaming / Transcoding failed: It seems your FFMPEG (libavcodec) installation lacks the following encoder: Vorbis Audio. If you don't know how to fix this, ask for support from your distribution. This is not an error inside VLC media player. Do not contact the VideoLAN project about this issue.

Yet actually, if I go to Tools -> Plugins and Extensions and select the Plugins tab and do a search for "vorbis" and again for "flac", it tells me that I have the following plugins:

Code: Select all

Vorbis audio decoder Vorbis audio encoder Vorbis audio packetizer Flac audio decoder FLAC demuxer Flac audio encoder Flac audio packetizer

I think we can all agree that unlike on Linux, VideoLAN would be the official "distribution" of the VLC package for Windows, so why don't we get this transcoding capability with the copy of libavcodec shipped with VLC?

Edit: Wow, fixed Vorbis by simply setting its encode quality in VLC's preferences, advanced view, to something other than 0, and selecting a wav file to begin with, not flac. When I chose from a flac file, my output, when choosing to "stream" to File, would be ~15kB: an ogg container with the signature "vorbis-...Xiph.Org libVorbis I 20101101 (Schaufenugget)........ENCODER=VLC media player..vorbis+BCV" but no audio.

Encoding to flac still does not work, however, but I don't get any message from VLC. It just abruptly stops as soon as I hit Stream, and the file is not even created.

[VLC_help]

Open Tools -> Messages (set Verbosity to 2), then try again. Messages will tell you more.