1 problem with the app itself, 1 with encoding (related?)

i have 2 problems, one of which pertains to the application itself and the other has to do with the encoding process.

my first problem (having to do with the application) has bewildered me for a few weeks. everytime i prepare a file to encode (either audio or video) i am prompted to find the Terminal.app program by a pop-up window, without fail. this all started up suddenly and without warning, as i had neither installed nor uninstalled anything ffmpegx or terminal related leading up to this problem. its not so much a terrible thing as much as it is an inconvenience and something i really wish to do away with.

the second problem has sprung up tonight, as i was trying to encode an xvid avi file so that it would play better on my dvd divx player. whenever i prepare it for encoding and hit the encode button, the file just sits at 0% for several minutes and then just says 'finished,' leaving an 8kb file. here is the information from the encode if this helps diagnose the problem:

Encoding started on Thu Aug 24 23:43:11 MST 2006
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
Input #0, avi, from '/Volumes/Hard Drive 2/DVD/*************.avi':
Duration: 00:24:19.0, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 1006 kb/s
Stream #0.0, 23.98 fps(r): Video: mpeg4, 640x480
Stream #0.1: Audio: mp3, 48000 Hz, stereo, 128 kb/s
Output #0, avi, to '/Volumes/Hard Drive 2/DVD/*************.avi.ff.avi':
Stream #0.0, 23.98 fps(c): Video: xvid, 640x480, q=2-9, 1654 kb/s
Stream mapping:
Stream #0.0 -> #0.0
video:0kB audio:0kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead inf%
bench: utime=266.770s
Encoding completed on Thu Aug 24 23:47:55 MST 2006

(i dotted out the file name to protect my hyde, just in case :P )

similarly, audio is also acting up whenever its put through encoding, and leaves only a 152 kb file:

Encoding started on Fri Aug 25 00:01:17 MST 2006
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
Input #0, avi, from '/Volumes/Hard Drive 2/DVD/*************.avi':
Duration: 00:24:19.0, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 1006 kb/s
Stream #0.0, 23.98 fps(r): Video: mpeg4, 640x480
Stream #0.1: Audio: mp3, 48000 Hz, stereo, 128 kb/s
Output #0, mp2, to '/Volumes/Hard Drive 2/DVD/.avi.ff.mp3':
Stream #0.0: Audio: mp3, 48000 Hz, stereo, 128 kb/s
Stream mapping:
Stream #0.1 -> #0.0 [sync #0.0]

another noteworthy thing is that tonight when i ran the application, the bits of information that usually remain through previous preference choice (such as framerate in the video tab) were blank. this is different from the other day when i ran the application and everything functioned normally. again, between now and the time i last ran the application, i've not installed or uninstalled anything pertaining to ffmpegx or the terminal app, nor experienced any other quirks with my computer that may lead up to this.

anyways, thanks for any help you can provide. i get a lot of use out of this app, and i'm hoping i can get this resolved ASAP with your help.

Originally Posted by joshmunkey

i am prompted to find the Terminal.app program

Is ffmpegX in /Applications on the boot drive?
Are you logged in as Administrator?
Is Terminal.app in /Applications/Utilities on your boot drive? If it isn't, then that could be a reason.

Originally Posted by joshmunkey

/Volumes/Hard Drive 2/...

Some (most?) tools/encodings in ffmpegX require the path (including the drive name) to be without spaces and special characters. "Hard_Drive_2" might be a better name. Not sure if this is the reason for this encoding failure, tho'.

Originally Posted by joshmunkey

the file just sits at 0% for several minutes and then just says 'finished,' leaving an 8kb file.

video:0kB audio:0kB

What preset? Did you change any setting after choosing the preset? If so, which?

Originally Posted by joshmunkey

(i dotted out the file name)

Then we won't know if the filename itself is part of the problem.

You did try again after a reboot? I agree it seems rather vague, not having a clear error message in the log.

ah, thank you for your response.

yes, ffmpegx is on the bootable drive in the applications folder, and the terminal app is in the utilities folder.

the naming of my second hard drive (non-booting) shouldnt be an issue, as it has functioned just fine for months while i've been encoding files. just the other week, i encoded a 1.2 gig file off that same hard drive with no problems, using the same encoding procedure as i was trying to use with the current non-working file.

the procedures i took with the file are as follows:

1. choose 'XVID (ffmpegx)' as the video encoding technique
2. unselect audio from being encoded
3. change aspect ratio to 4:3 to fit the files original shape
4. switch the files filmrate to 'NTSC film' so that it is playable on my dvd player with divx playback
5. hit the 'Best' button to get a 1654 bitrate
6. hit encode

the file contained no spaces nor any odd characters. it was all letters, numbers, bracket parenthesis, and underscores, which have gone through the application many times before on my mac.

i tried after a reboot, but still nothing. i could try it again after i get back to my house after school.

and yeah, i agree that its becoming a bit weird. the app has always been solid these past couple of months that i've been using it, which leads me to believe its just some minor thing thats giving me so much grief. anyways, thanks for trying your hand at this. if you have any more suggestions of what could be wrong, it'd be great to hear. otherwise, i may just end up going for a clean uninstall/re-install, which may or may not fix things.

I'm having a similar problem with regards to the XVID[.avi] ffmpeg codec not encoding. If I use this codec then it pings that it's finished after a few seconds, but there's no converted file, whereas if I use the mencoder version of the codec it encodes it. However, I've been having audio/video sync problem on certain files when I burn then onto DVD in Toast (am burning about 7 divx files onto the disc at a time to watch them on standalaone DVD). They all play fine in Quicktime though. I never used to have this problem and am not sure if it's a toast issue or a ffmpegx issue. Please help. Cheers.