problems converting .wmv to .mp4

[betsbillabong]

I have downloaded ffmpegx and all associated files. I'm running OSX.2.8 on an iBook 600. I'm able to open the .wmv file, play it and process it -- it takes a while to process, and then there's a ding at the end (although it says 100% long before that point).

The problem is, when I try to play the .avi file in Quicktime, I get this message: "Couldn't open the file stingy74.avi because the movie contains an incorrect duration."

Any help would be appreciated. Here's the log:

Current dirname: /usr/local/share/locale
MEncoder dev-CVS-030226-15:00-3.1 (C) 2000-2003 Arpad Gereoffy (see DOCS)
AltiVec not found
Reading /Users/bb/.mplayer/codecs.conf: Reading /usr/local/etc/mplayer/codecs.conf: Using built-in default codecs.conf
File not found: 'frameno.avi'
Reading config file /Users/bb/.mplayer/mencodersuccess: format: 0 data: 0x0 - 0x107B1D
ASF file format detected.
============ ASF Stream group == START ===
object size = 38
stream count=[0x2][2]
stream id=[0x1][1]
max bitrate=[0x860f][34319]
stream id=[0x2][2]
max bitrate=[0x2fcd6][195798]
============ ASF Stream group == END ===
VIDEO: [1VMW] 320x240 24bpp
ASF: No audio stream found -> no sound.
[V] filefmt:6 fourcc:0x31564D57 size:320x240 fps:1000.00 ftime:=0.0010
Opening video filter: [expand=-1:-1:-1:-1:1]
Expand: -1 x -1, -1 ; -1 (-1=autodetect) osd: 1
Opening video filter: [scale=320:240]
================================================== ========================
Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family
Selected video codec: [ffwmv1] vfm:ffmpeg (FFmpeg M$ WMV1/WMV7)
================================================== ========================
Writing AVI header...
VDec: vo config request - 320 x 240 (preferred csp: Planar YV12)
VDec: using Planar YV12 as output csp (no 0)
Movie-Aspect is undefined - no prescaling applied.
SwScaler: using unscaled Planar YV12 -> Planar YV12 special converter
videocodec: libavcodec (320x240 fourcc=58564944 [XVID])
Skipping frame!
New_Face failed. Maybe the font path is wrong.
Please supply the text font file (~/.mplayer/subfont.ttf).
subtitle font: load_sub_face failed.
32 duplicate frame(s)!

--> this duplicate frame message is repeated hundreds of times with the numbers 31, 32, 33, 34. <--

Skipping frame!
Skipping frame!
Skipping frame!
Skipping frame!
Skipping frame!
Skipping frame!
Skipping frame!
Writing AVI index...
Fixing AVI header...
Video stream: 143.772 kbit/s (17971 bps) size: 657126 bytes 36.565 secs 1105 frames
Encoding completed on Mon Mar 15 21:05:22 EST 2004

[major]

[V] size:320x240 fps:1000.00

Your source movie is probably not 1000 frames per second. I suggest you to set framerate manually to NTSC and re-encode.

[betsbillabong]

Hi Major,

Thanks for your help. Ugh, I typed this up once and then got involved in something else and quit Safari without sending it. So here goes again:

I was wondering about that 1000fps! I changed it manually to NTSC, and now I am getting different error messages, as below:

MPEG4[.AVI] (ffmpeg)
"Couldn't open the file... because it is not a file that QuickTime understands."

MPEG4[.AVI] (mencoder)
"You may experience problems playing a video track in ... because the required compressor could not be found. Would you like to close the movie or continue?" (doesn't play... info says it's DIVX)

MPEG1[.MPG] (ffmpeg)
"Couldn't open the file... because it is not a file that QuickTime understands."

MPEG1[.MPG] (mpeg2enc)
Process failed:
"**ERROR: [yuvscaler] Could'nt read YUV4MPEG header!
**ERROR: [mpeg2enc] Could not read YUV4MPEG2 header: system error (failed read/write)!

Any ideas?

[betsbillabong]

Oops, that first one is wrong. It should read:

MPEG4[.AVI] (ffmpeg)
"Couldn't open the file ... because there is an error in the program."

[betsbillabong]

Okay... I never figured out how to do it with ffmpegx, but was pointed in the direction of ASF Converter, and luckily I still have a computer booting to OS9 every once in a while, and it worked like a charm.

So if anyone here reading this is in a similar situation -- try ASF converter. I'm not sure if it runs in Classic mode, will have to test that out. I got it here:

http://mornmist.2y.net/~blibbler/programs.html

I would still like to learn how to use ffmpegx for this purpose, but perhaps it just doesn't work ASF-Quicktime. If anyone can shed any light on this, please let me know. Thanks.

BetsBillabong