Converting .mov or .avi to flv does not work

[Alainb2809]

Seems like nothing happen. The proceess of converting takes only a second and result in a 0kb file. COnversion works for other format.
My computer is a imac i7 Osx 10.6

What can that be?
argnn! hehe!

FFmpeg version CVS, Copyright (c) 2000-2004 Fabrice Bellard
Mac OSX universal build for ffmpegX
libavutil version: 49.0.0
libavcodec version: 51.9.0
libavformat version: 50.4.0
Tue Oct 5 10:19:04 EDT 2010
Input #0, avi, from '/Users/abois/Desktop/20611006_animation.avi':
Duration: 00:03:20.0, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 262 kb/s
Stream #0.0, 5.00 fps(r): Video: mpeg4, yuv420p, 1920x1018
Number of stream maps must match number of output streams

[Case]

Number of stream maps must match number of output streams

There is one input stream (video) and two streams (video+audio) are selected for output. To help ffmpegX encode this, de-select the "Encode audio" checkbox in the Audio tab.

[nobopyon]

I have same problem as well...
I did the "uncheck" audio for output.... still same thing...

Y????

[Case]

I have same problem as well... I did the "uncheck" audio for output.... still same thing...

Please post your Process Information log for analyses.

[nobopyon]

After I posted previous comment, I browsed through the forum (I found this forum and joined yesterday) and I came across you suggesting something about manually invert mapping..?!
I tried it, but I don't think I understand the procedure enough to do it correctly.
Instead, I saw a check box "invert mapping" under audio section.
So I tried that...
This time it worked... sort of... but playback is really djerky (audio exported good)... and here is the log.


FFmpeg version CVS, Copyright (c) 2000-2004 Fabrice Bellard
Mac OSX universal build for ffmpegX
libavutil version: 49.0.0
libavcodec version: 51.9.0
Wed Oct 6 10:22:48 CDT 2010
libavformat version: 50.4.0
[mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 @ 0x5597b8]negative ctts, ignoring
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from '/Volumes/Data/VST/Temp/Kahler, Michael/Flash Movies/04 The Safety Dance - FULL LENGTH_3.mov':
Duration: 00:01:46.0, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 7083 kb/s
Stream #0.0(eng): Audio: pcm_s16le, 48000 Hz, stereo, 1536 kb/s
Stream #0.1(eng), 30.00 fps(r): Video: h264, yuv420p, 720x405
Output #0, flv, to '/Volumes/Data/VST/Temp/Kahler, Michael/Flash Movies/04 The Safety Dance - FULL LENGTH_1000.flv':
Stream #0.0, 30.00 fps(c): Video: flv, yuv420p, 720x400, q=2-15, 1000 kb/s
Stream #0.1: Audio: mp3, 22050 Hz, stereo, 56 kb/s
Stream mapping:
Stream #0.1 -> #0.0 [sync #0.0]
Stream #0.0 -> #0.1 [sync #0.1]
video:5612kB audio:726kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead 121.674344%
bench: utime=31.186s
/Applications/ffmpegX2.app//Contents/Resources/flvtool2:2:in `require': no such file to load -- flvtool2 (LoadError)
from /Applications/ffmpegX2.app//Contents/Resources/flvtool2:2


Try to play around with the setting... but video seems to come out jerky...

[nobopyon]

OK.... another odd thing....

My original MOV frame size is 720x405, and somehow, i have had exported flv frame size to be 720x400 (as you can see in the info log I posted).

Then I change export flv frame size to be same as original 720x405, now I don't get it to export.....


FFmpeg version CVS, Copyright (c) 2000-2004 Fabrice Bellard
Mac OSX universal build for ffmpegX
libavutil version: 49.0.0
libavcodec version: 51.9.0
libavformat version: 50.4.0
[mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 @ 0x5597b8]negative ctts, ignoring
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from '/Volumes/Internal/JC_egnew/04 The Safety Dance - FULL LENGTH_3.mov':
Duration: 00:01:46.0, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 7083 kb/s
Stream #0.0(eng): Audio: pcm_s16le, 48000 Hz, stereo, 1536 kb/s
Wed Oct 6 11:33:02 CDT 2010
v420p, 720x405
Could not find input stream #0.2

[Case]

converting to FLV ... invert mapping ... but video seems to come out jerky

This is a known issue. See also https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/301616-Encoding-problems#post1845439

I change export flv frame size to be same as original 720x405, now I don't get it to export.

For conversions to FLV with ffmpeg, frame size must be a multiple of 2.

[Alainb2809]

Ok, follow-up. I have uncheck the audio encoding option and it worked. This is a problem. Thanks for the help!

[nobopyon]

converting to FLV ... invert mapping ... but video seems to come out jerky

This is a known issue. See also https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/301616-Encoding-problems#post1845439

ok.... i'm afraid i have to do manually invert map.. thing... I guess I'm gonna have to try again....

I change export flv frame size to be same as original 720x405, now I don't get it to export.

For conversions to FLV with ffmpeg, frame size must be a multiple of 2.[/QUOTE]

wow... this is interesting...

by the way, I don't think i have thank you for the quick reply and answering all my questions!!!

I will give you the update once I tried the "known issue" work around

[nobopyon]

UPDATE

the video jerking is fixed!
but now, audio is missing... or i just can't hear the audio... here is the log


FFmpeg version CVS, Copyright (c) 2000-2004 Fabrice Bellard
Thu Oct 7 11:06:54 CDT 2010
Mac OSX universal build for ffmpegX
libavutil version: 49.0.0
libavcodec version: 51.9.0
libavformat version: 50.4.0
[mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 @ 0x5597b8]negative ctts, ignoring
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from '/Volumes/Internal/JC_egnew/delete.mov':
Duration: 00:01:46.0, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 5550 kb/s
Stream #0.0(eng), 30.00 fps(r): Video: h264, yuv420p, 720x405
Stream #0.1(eng): Audio: pcm_s16le, 48000 Hz, stereo, 1536 kb/s
Stream #0.2(eng), 30.00 fps(r): Video: h264, yuv420p, 720x405
Output #0, flv, to '/Volumes/Internal/JC_egnew/delete.mov.ff.flv':
Stream #0.0, 30.00 fps(c): Video: flv, yuv420p, 720x404, q=2-15, 3000 kb/s
Stream #0.1: Audio: mp3, 22050 Hz, stereo, 56 kb/s
Stream mapping:
Stream #0.0 -> #0.0
Stream #0.1 -> #0.1
bench: utime=51.650s
video:38683kB audio:1kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead 0.128681%
/Applications/ffmpegX2.app//Contents/Resources/flvtool2:2:in `require': no such file to load -- flvtool2 (LoadError)
from /Applications/ffmpegX2.app//Contents/Resources/flvtool2:2


what did i do wrong....??

[Case]

the video jerking is fixed!
but now, audio is missing... or i just can't hear the audio...

video:38683kB audio:1kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead 0.128681%

audio:1kB is so little as about 'no audio', or it is mp3 compressed silence. I see no audio errors in the log, though. Can you hear audio in the source .mov file?

[nobopyon]

the video jerking is fixed!
but now, audio is missing... or i just can't hear the audio...

video:38683kB audio:1kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead 0.128681%

audio:1kB is so little as about 'no audio', or it is mp3 compressed silence. I see no audio errors in the log, though. Can you hear audio in the source .mov file?

yes, I can hear original MOV file with audio...
however, after i did audio "add to the movie", then i can't hear audio....

[Case]

however, after i did audio "add to the movie", then i can't hear audio....

Please re-check the steps you took, to see if perhaps some things were not as intended: --

Open your original.mov in QTP. Show Movie Properties (⌘-J).
Select the Sound Track by clicking on that line. Extract the soundtrack with the [Extract] button, to create a separate movie window with just the sound. Delete the soundtrack in the original .mov using the [Delete] button.
Switch to the extracted Untitled soundtrack window. Select all (⌘-A). Copy (⌘-C).
Switch back to the original .mov window. Select all (⌘-A).
Check that the position slider is at the beginning of the movie. If not, move it there.
menu Edit > Add to Movie (or ⌘-⌥-V).
Save as self-contained .mov.
The stream order is now reversed (video first, audio second).

[nobopyon]

CASE!!

U R AWSOME!!

I don't know what I did wrong... but this time it worked perfectly!

Thank you so much for being patient and help me.
it still interesting that frame size has to be divided by 2 though...


FFmpeg version CVS, Copyright (c) 2000-2004 Fabrice Bellard
Mac OSX universal build for ffmpegX
libavutil version: 49.0.0
libavcodec version: 51.9.0
libavformat version: 50.4.0
[mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 @ 0x5597b8]negative ctts, ignoring
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from '/Volumes/Internal/JC_egnew/delete.mov':
Duration: 00:01:46.0, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 7084 kb/s
Stream #0.0(eng), 30.00 fps(r): Video: h264, yuv420p, 720x405
Stream #0.1(eng): Audio: pcm_s16le, 48000 Hz, stereo, 1536 kb/s
Thu Oct 7 14:51:08 CDT 2010
gnew/delete.mov.ff.flv':
Stream #0.0, 30.00 fps(c): Video: flv, yuv420p, 720x400, q=2-15, 2000 kb/s
Stream #0.1: Audio: mp3, 22050 Hz, stereo, 56 kb/s
Stream mapping:
Stream #0.0 -> #0.0
Stream #0.1 -> #0.1
video:25834kB audio:726kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead 0.426210%
bench: utime=52.275s
/Applications/ffmpegX2.app//Contents/Resources/flvtool2:2:in `require': no such file to load -- flvtool2 (LoadError)
from /Applications/ffmpegX2.app//Contents/Resources/flvtool2:2


at the end of the line, it says require flvtool2..?
I went to the link and it doesn't look like it supports mac... am I right?
and what does flvtool2 do?

Thank you again!!

[Case]

it still interesting that frame size has to be divided by 2 though...

The video codec that ffmpegX uses for FLV requires the width and height to be an even number. I'm not sure if this is determined by the FLV specs or ffmpegX. (Some other video codecs require the dimensions to be multiples of 16!)

/Applications/ffmpegX2.app//Contents/Resources/flvtool2:2:in `require': no such file to load -- flvtool2 (LoadError)
from /Applications/ffmpegX2.app//Contents/Resources/flvtool2:2

at the end of the line, it says require flvtool2..?
I went to the link and it doesn't look like it supports mac... am I right?
and what does flvtool2 do?

flvtool2 injects metadata (file information) into FLV files, so that players know what they're dealing with without to much analyses. One of the major benefits is that FLV movies embedded into HTML pages show the duration, percentage done, remaining time, as well as fast-start ability (start of playback begins before the whole file is downloaded).

The error means ffmpegX tried to invoke flvtool2, but failed. It only means no metadata was added to the flv output file.

Instructions for flvtool2 installation can be found in the 0.0.9y release post and on the official website.

[nobopyon]

again, u awsome!!

this is what i got after I install flvtool2


FFmpeg version CVS, Copyright (c) 2000-2004 Fabrice Bellard
Mac OSX universal build for ffmpegX
Thu Oct 7 17:03:36 CDT 2010
libavutil version: 49.0.0
libavcodec version: 51.9.0
libavformat version: 50.4.0
[mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 @ 0x5597b8]negative ctts, ignoring
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from '/Volumes/Internal/JC_egnew/delete.mov':
Duration: 00:01:46.0, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 7084 kb/s
Stream #0.0(eng), 30.00 fps(r): Video: h264, yuv420p, 720x405
Stream #0.1(eng): Audio: pcm_s16le, 48000 Hz, stereo, 1536 kb/s
Output #0, flv, to '/Volumes/Internal/JC_egnew/delete.mov.ff.flv':
Stream #0.0, 30.00 fps(c): Video: flv, yuv420p, 720x404, q=2-15, 5000 kb/s
Stream #0.1: Audio: mp3, 22050 Hz, stereo, 56 kb/s
Stream mapping:
Stream #0.0 -> #0.0
Stream #0.1 -> #0.1
bench: utime=56.174s
video:64168kB audio:726kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead 0.174440%
---
/Volumes/Internal/JC_egnew/delete.mov.ff.flv:
hasKeyframes: true
cuePoints:
audiodatarate: 56.3781886792453
hasVideo: true
stereo: true
canSeekToEnd: false
framerate: 30
audiosamplerate: 22000
videocodecid: 2
datasize: 66539712
lasttimestamp: 106
audiosamplesize: 16
audiosize: 791704
hasAudio: true
audiodelay: 0
videosize: 65746148
metadatadate: Thu Oct 7 17:04:35 GMT-0500 2010
metadatacreator: inlet media FLVTool2 v1.0.6 - http://www.inlet-media.de/flvtool2
lastkeyframetimestamp: 105.167
height: 404
filesize: 66568709
hasMetadata: true
keyframes:
times:
- 0
- 8
- 8.533
- 9.267
- 17.267
- 25.267
- 29
- 29.833
- 29.867
- 30.167
- 31.033
- 31.367
- 32.133
- 32.467
- 33.5
- 33.833
- 34.967
- 35
- 38.467
- 38.5
- 38.533
- 39
- 39.233
- 40.2
- 40.433
- 41.033
- 41.067
- 41.167
- 41.4
- 41.633
- 42.6
- 42.833
- 43.433
- 43.467
- 43.8
- 44.733
- 44.967
- 45.8
- 47.367
- 48.133
- 48.167
- 48.567
- 49.767
- 50.533
- 50.567
- 52.967
- 54.533
- 55.733
- 56.933
- 57.867
- 65.867
- 67.267
- 75.267
- 76.8
- 81.667
- 89.667
- 96.333
- 97.533
- 97.767
- 103.5
- 103.967
- 104.7
- 104.933
- 105.167
filepositions:
- 2041
- 5078541
- 5265195
- 5450204
- 10299577
- 13524981
- 15157759
- 16435387
- 16466630
- 16541618
- 18272713
- 18389583
- 20218395
- 20336933
- 21428376
- 21511767
- 22252781
- 22263546
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- 24472705
- 24489353
- 24794395
- 24863095
- 25543897
- 25619752
- 26063791
- 26083374
- 26150522
- 26281266
- 26346192
- 26985073
- 27064583
- 27529361
- 27546968
- 27767989
- 28337132
- 28507404
- 29020025
- 30135142
- 30617950
- 30628523
- 30861023
- 31589889
- 32094988
- 32108762
- 33632904
- 34643930
- 35404643
- 36164552
- 36749077
- 41704982
- 42599094
- 47006462
- 48297197
- 51020684
- 56744336
- 61129453
- 61850526
- 61987771
- 65571038
- 65806548
- 66192637
- 66293797
- 66354658
audiocodecid: 2
videodatarate: 4959.33260377358
duration: 106.033
hasCuePoints: false
width: 720
...
Encoding completed on Thu Oct 7 17:04:35 CDT 2010

[nobopyon]

as much as i pasted all these log... i still don't really understand them... lol

[nobopyon]

Hi, Case,
it's kinda different question... but I tried to make smaller file size of the flash video.

I changed frame size to 320x180 and hoping to make file size smaller... but it doesn't seem to be smaller...

Do you know the best compressed setting on video and audio?
Audio shouldn't take much space... right...?

[Case]

as much as i pasted all these log... i still don't really understand them... lol

There plenty in those logs that I don't understand either. But after seeing many of them, you'll get a feeling to spot things that are out of the ordinary.

Lets try this:

FFmpeg version CVS, Copyright (c) 2000-2004 Fabrice Bellard
Mac OSX universal build for ffmpegX

This version of ffmpeg is specially compiled for use with ffmpegX. It is a Universal Binary, that is, it contains both PowerPC code and Intel code, so it will run on either CPU.

Thu Oct 7 17:03:36 CDT 2010

Local start time of the encoding

libavutil version: 49.0.0
libavcodec version: 51.9.0
libavformat version: 50.4.0

Version numbers for various parts of ffmpeg.

[mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 @ 0x5597b8]negative ctts, ignoring

ffmpeg will ignore negative numbers for ctts values.

Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from '/Volumes/Internal/JC_egnew/delete.mov':

Your source file format and its path.

Duration: 00:01:46.0, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 7084 kb/s

Mentioning the duration and bitrate of the source file.

Stream #0.0(eng), 30.00 fps(r): Video: h264, yuv420p, 720x405

First source stream, framerate, video codec, chroma subsampling, and frame size.

Stream #0.1(eng): Audio: pcm_s16le, 48000 Hz, stereo, 1536 kb/s

Next source stream, audio codec, sampling rate, number of channels, and bitrate

Output #0, flv, to '/Volumes/Internal/JC_egnew/delete.mov.ff.flv':

Target (output) file format and path.

Stream #0.0, 30.00 fps(c): Video: flv, yuv420p, 720x404, q=2-15, 5000 kb/s

First output stream, framerate, video codec, chroma subsampling, frame size, quantizer range and bitrate.

Stream #0.1: Audio: mp3, 22050 Hz, stereo, 56 kb/s

Next output stream, audio codec, sampling rate, number of channels, and bitrate

Stream mapping:
Stream #0.0 -> #0.0
Stream #0.1 -> #0.1

Stream mapping tells how streams from the source are converted to corresponding streams in the output, so that video gets converted to video and audio to audio.

bench: utime=56.174s

It took 56 seconds to process to this point.

video:64168kB audio:726kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead 0.174440%

63 MB worth of video is converted and 0.7 MB of audio is converted. Less than 2% of the output file is audio data (726/64168=0.0113).

[nobopyon]

OMG!!
That is awsome!! it makes so much more sense to me now!!

Since you are so knowledge-ble about this... you think ffmpegx is one of the best video conversion there?

I always come across to have horrible avi convertion on QTpro.
It usually converted horrible video quality with big file size.... and I can find someone outhere upload avi video file with so much better video quality and yet much smaller file size.

I do *sort of* understand that "avi" is just a container of the video format... then I still don't know how to convert such a good compressed video file...

For this particular case, I only guessed higher video bitrate, better video quality and bigger file size...
is there any other setting that might help me to have better compression..??

[Case]

I changed frame size to 320x180 and hoping to make file size smaller... but it doesn't seem to be smaller...

The output file size is mainly determined by the bitrate and duration.
The optimal bitrate (*) depends on video codec, frame size and framerate. When you keep the codec and framerate fixed, then smaller frame size means lower video bitrate is possible.

FLV (H.263) -- 1960 kbps -- 720x404 -- 30 fps
FLV (H.263) -- 1480 kbps -- 624x352 -- 30 fps
FLV (H.263) -- 879 kbps -- 480x272 -- 30 fps
FLV (H.263) -- 388 kbps -- 320x180 -- 30 fps
FLV (H.263) -- 207 kbps -- 240x128 -- 30 fps

MP4 (H.264) -- 1022 kbps -- 720x404 -- 30 fps
MP4 (H.264) -- 772 kbps -- 624x352 -- 30 fps
MP4 (H.264) -- 458 kbps -- 480x272 -- 30 fps
MP4 (H.264) -- 202 kbps -- 320x180 -- 30 fps
MP4 (H.264) -- 107 kbps -- 240x128 -- 30 fps

(*) 'Optimal' is used here as a trade-off between quality and file size, as suitable in most cases, with no regard for content. There will be cases when other (lower/higher) bitrates are a better choice, but the calculated optimal bitrate should be good most of the time.

[Case]

you think ffmpegx is one of the best video conversion there?

ffmpegX is just an interface for its encoding engines (ffmpeg, mencoder, mpeg2enc) that do the real work. I like ffmpegX for the ability to tweak settings and the support for a wide variety of input and output formats, and its speed.

I always come across to have horrible avi convertion on QTpro. It usually converted horrible video quality with big file size

QuickTime (Pro) can produce some excellent quality output, but it isn't fast by any standard. I'm not sure why your output should be 'horrible'.

and I can find someone outhere upload avi video file with so much better video quality and yet much smaller file size.

Video noise is a bitrate killer. So clean high quality source video can compress to smaller sizes. That's the main reason why tv shows and movies made with professional cameras compress so well.
The same principle as with noise goes for generation loss, i.e. encoding a clip with introduce small artifacts that make it a bit harder to re-encode, as the encoder tries to process these small artifacts as valid video information (e.g. macroblock edges).

is there any other setting that might help me to have better compression..??

Most tweaks can be made in the Options tab.
Many options will use smarter and more complex ways to encode frames, allowing for either more quality at a given bitrate, or smaller output file size (and thus lower bitrate) at a certain quality, but not by a huge margin. The 'cost' for these settings is often a longer encoding time, and possibly more CPU effort on playback.
Experienced encoders will know the effect of settings on the output for a certain type of video, and if it is worth the effort to activate them. No magic here to take away all of the complexity.

[nobopyon]

I changed frame size to 320x180 and hoping to make file size smaller... but it doesn't seem to be smaller...

The output file size is mainly determined by the bitrate and duration.
The optimal bitrate (*) depends on video codec, frame size and framerate. When you keep the codec and framerate fixed, then smaller frame size means lower video bitrate is possible.

FLV (H.263) -- 1960 kbps -- 720x404 -- 30 fps
FLV (H.263) -- 1480 kbps -- 624x352 -- 30 fps
FLV (H.263) -- 879 kbps -- 480x272 -- 30 fps
FLV (H.263) -- 388 kbps -- 320x180 -- 30 fps
FLV (H.263) -- 207 kbps -- 240x128 -- 30 fps

MP4 (H.264) -- 1022 kbps -- 720x404 -- 30 fps
MP4 (H.264) -- 772 kbps -- 624x352 -- 30 fps
MP4 (H.264) -- 458 kbps -- 480x272 -- 30 fps
MP4 (H.264) -- 202 kbps -- 320x180 -- 30 fps
MP4 (H.264) -- 107 kbps -- 240x128 -- 30 fps

(*) 'Optimal' is used here as a trade-off between quality and file size, as suitable in most cases, with no regard for content. There will be cases when other (lower/higher) bitrates are a better choice, but the calculated optimal bitrate should be good most of the time.

Thank you for the sample setting...
I will try all the setting and see which one I like the best!