ffmpegX jumps to "finished" crashes computer, lost progress.app

[jegler]

So I followed all the instructions, located plugins, dragged a .vob file in, made my settings and hit convert, was prompted to find Progress.app, clicked on that, hit encode again and the program jumped to "finished" and crashed my computer. When I tried again, my progress.app is gone. ?!?!?

[guns1inger]

A pointless poll and meaningless, garbled text with no mention even of the software being used.

How do you expect to get any help with a post like this ?

[Ai Haibara]

Well, given the mention of 'progress.app,' jegler's probably referring to ffmpegx. Maybe this should be moved to the ffmpegx forum?

[jegler]

Ehh, well I reinstalled and tried to follow the instructions from the GUIDE TO VIDEO_TS -> DIVX CONVERSION WITH FFMPEGX section of the site. To the letter I followed these instructs although, when I click preview while setting the crop I got a lengthy error mssg that I couldn't copy/paste. Anyway decided to do a three pass encode. The spinner came up for about a min. then prompted to continue- jumped immediately to finished (but hey, no crash!) and there is no resulting output file. Yargghhh. am running OS 10.3.9

PS
I also took pains to make sure all the path names didn't have spaces in them. Can a file start with _ (an underscore)?

[jegler]

Well, given the mention of 'progress.app,' jegler's probably referring to ffmpegx. Maybe this should be moved to the ffmpegx forum?

I am a total newbie and assumed this forum was for ffmpegx.

[jegler]

Yes OK I'm retarded, I see now that this is a huge forum and this should have been posted in the ffmpegx forum. I'm afraid to repost as per the forum rules. So I'll continue here and hope a mod moves it. Here's the latest progress.app script:

Encoding started on Wed May 28 21:52:06 CDT 2008
MEncoder dev-CVS-051126-18:35-3.3 (C) 2000-2005 MPlayer Team
Mac OSX static build for ffmpegX
The h option must be >= 0: -654
AltiVec found
CPU: PowerPC
Exiting... (error parsing cmdline)
Option vop: Error while parsing crop parameter h (-654)

[guns1inger]

You can always ask a mod to move a post for you. Click on Report this Post (bottom right corner of your posts) and ask them to shift it to another forum.

[redwudz]

I can move it to the ffmpegX forum.

And I got rid of your poll, as it doesn't really pertain to your questions.

And welcome to our forums.

[Case]

The h option must be >= 0: -654
Option vop: Error while parsing crop parameter h (-654)

It seems you were trying to crop the source with the wrong value.

PS: I also took pains to make sure all the path names didn't have spaces in them. Can a file start with _ (an underscore)?

Sure.

[jegler]

Wow, so I got ffmpegx to "convert" to divx, and after downloading MORE stuff (divx plug for quicktime) the resulting file is just a white screen. 150 megs of white screen. Yarrgghhh. THanks for all the replies tho - I'm not sure what to do now...

[Ai Haibara]

Try testing it in something that doesn't use Quicktime, as well - such as VLC or one of the mplayer setups.

[tomlee59]

If your goal is to convert a DVD into Divx, I recommend DVision3. It is free, and since it's a specialized tool for this particular task, it does it very well. You may wish to give this a try if you continue to have trouble getting ffmpegx to do your bidding in this case.

[jegler]

All I know is that I got a dvd of some footage from a band show that I was going to incorporate with the mini DV camera stuff of mine. I did a Google search for "convert/extract dvd movie freeware" and basically after searching around, found two apps for Mac - Handbrake and ffmpegx. Handbrake only work on 10.4 so I couldn't use that. ffmpegx has eaten up probably 7 or eight hours of my time, and I still can't get a usable result. The best I've gotten is truncated copies that won't play in quicktime - will open in final cut pro- but after waiting 3 HOURS for it to render I got an error message and the footage went back to unrendered. I know this is freeware but DAM<N, what a pain in the ass.

I did a search for DVision3 but couldn't find a downloads page. Is it freeware?

Thanks to everyone who tried to help

[tomlee59]

You still haven't quite articulated what your objective is. So far, all you've told us is that you start with a DVD, and that ffmpegx isn't working. That's not a whole lot for us to go on. If you can be less mysterious about what you are trying to do, we can help you better.

DVision only converts into DivX/XviD. If that's not what you want, then you don't want to use it. And Dvision 3 is indeed free. See the main page at http://www.objectifmac.com/

[jegler]

I should not make posts when I'm feeling frustrated. Shame on me. I'll try to as pragmatic as possible for everyone's sake who's trying to help (thank you thank you thank you) I AM learning. Honest.

I make videos using my 3 camcorders (all mini DV) and Final Cut Pro HD 4.5 on my Mac (OS x.3.9) For a recent band show, I had a friend also employ his mini DVD cam. He gave me the footage "finalized" in DVD format (VIDEO_TS) I am simply trying to utilize that footage in a Final Cut Pro project.

I need to convert into basically ANY format that Quicktime/FCP will read (sounds kinda desperate, huh?) I have QT Pro 7.1.5

Heres where I am so far and need help:
I HAVE gotten ffmpegx to convrt my VIDEO_TS folder into AVI which I then have to import into QT, convert into mpeg4 (or whatever) before FCP will read it. Sounds like success? Except that even though I took the VID_TS folder straight off the DVD and then drug the whole thing into ffmpegx, it only converted a small portion of it (you know how when you pull a DVD main menu up it lets you page through all your scenes (6 scenes on Page 1, 6 scenes on page 2 etc.) Well ffmpegx only converted what was on that first page of DVD material (the first 6 scenes-about 4.5 minutes of 12 minutes total). I tried a couple times after searching for menu items that may have an impact but same result. So if some one has the magic formula for success at this point, I sure could use it. Especially since the material I really need is all on page two of the DVD scenes!

And again, I apologize for seeming pissy, I really do appreciate everyones intent to diffuse knowledge and empowerment. Thanks for welcoming me to this forum. -insert Humble emoticon here-

[jegler]

OMG I think I may actually be retarded. Yes I see now under video parameters the Title/Chpt settings. DUH!!

Now my only problem is that the resulting .avi file wont render in Final Cut Pro (?) and I have to convert again in Quick Time. When all is said and done the quality is pretty poor. Any suggestions for improving quality?

In ffmpegx I start with:
mpeg-2, 720x480, 9100 kbps, 29.97 fps
and use these conversion settings:
mencoder mpeg4, 720x544(4:3), 1516 kbps, 29.97 fps, no crop
best quality, 2pass encode.
I leave everything else alone.

Thanks again for everyone's help

[tomlee59]

Your target bitrate seems a bit low. If you are dissatisfied with the quality of the output, crank up the bitrate. If quality doesn't improve, lower your expectations.