Problems, Problems, Problems

[Mr.Ash]

I can't encode a QT movie with mjpegA video and uncompressed audio to DivX mpeg4 using mencoder. I've already reinstalled ffmpegX in hope that would solve the problem. When i chose the preset DivX mencoder and hit the encode button the following message comes up:

Encoding started on Sat Oct 9 01:10:30 CEST 2004
MEncoder dev-CVS-040904-19:44-3.3 (C) 2000-2004 MPlayer Team
AltiVec found
CPU: PowerPC
Reading /Users/mrash/.mplayer/codecs.conf: Reading /usr/local/etc/mplayer/codecs.conf: Using built-in default codecs.conf.
Font /usr/local/share/mplayer/font/font.desc loaded successfully! (206 chars)
Reading disc structure, please wait...
libdvdread: Can't open file VIDEO_TS.IFO.
Can't open VMG info!
Cannot open file/device.
Exiting...

I also recognized that the mplayer doesn't work too well. I was a lot happier with the former versions of ffmpegX cause since v0.0.9o i only encounter one problem after an other. I hope this app becomes better in the future.

[Case]

Reading disc structure, please wait...
libdvdread: Can't open file VIDEO_TS.IFO.
Can't open VMG info!
Cannot open file/device.
Exiting...

Looks like your input file is a DVD, not a QuickTime/MOV file, or it would have said:

QuickTime/MOV file format detected.

[Mr.Ash]

My input movie is a QT .mov file. I recoded this movie directly from TV with my Alchemy TV card with motion JPEG A Video and uncompressed audio so it can't be a DVD.

[Case]

Okay. When I transcode from Motion JPEG A and uncompressed audio to DivX (mencoder), I do not get the lines which I quoted from your post.

When you open the input file in ffmpegX, do you get the identifying line on top, like:

VIDEO: mjpeg, 480x260, 25.00 fps. AUDIO: pcm_s16be, 44100 Hz, stereo, 1411 kb/s
(Your values likely will be different, but the formats should show.)

[Mr.Ash]

Yes, ffmpegX shows the same info to me. But this has worked in former versions why not now?

[major]

Email me to major4@mac.com a link to download your clip, so as to reproduce your issue.

[TugBoat]

I'm not sure this is related, but, I just encoded three QT.movs that had similar problems with the identification line and final output. All three movies contain the following tracks in the same order;
Sound Track 1 - MPEG-4 Audio
Video Track - 3ivx D4 4.1
Text Track 1 - Text(chapters)

The top line in ffmpegX reads 'AUDIO: mpeg4aac, 44100 Hz, stereo', and that's it. I'm using ffmpeg to output to MPEG2. I found that I had to use 'Decode with QT' and 'invert mapping' to get any output. And the only output I got was a .mpv, no audio. All I need is the .mpv, but it would have been nice to get an audio track.

I did my usual and exported as aif in QT for the audio, which syncs up perfectly in DVDSP. It would be nice if you could turn off the automatic letterboxing when using 'Decode with QT'. The aspect in these movies was a little off and the only way I found to change it was to use QT to change the size in the original movie.

Anyway, the progress says this;
Input #0, yuv4mpegpipe, from 'pipe:':
Duration: N/A, bitrate: N/A
Stream #0.0: Video: rawvideo, yuv420p, 352x400, 29.97 fps
Output #0, rawvideo, to '/Volumes/Video/Movie.mov.ff.mpv':
Stream #0.0: Video: mpeg2video (hq), 352x400, 29.97 fps, q=1-8, pass 1, 1600 kb/s
Stream mapping:
Stream #0.0 -> #0.0
[mpeg2video @ 0x331210]rc buffer underflow
bench: utime=3812.920s
video:1485065kB audio:0kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead 0.000000%
Input #0, yuv4mpegpipe, from 'pipe:':
Duration: N/A, bitrate: N/A
Stream #0.0: Video: rawvideo, yuv420p, 352x400, 29.97 fps
Output #0, rawvideo, to '/Volumes/Video/Movie.mov.ff.mpv':
Stream #0.0: Video: mpeg2video (hq), 352x400, 29.97 fps, q=1-8, pass 2, 1600 kb/s
Stream mapping:
Stream #0.0 -> #0.0
video:1486727kB audio:0kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead 0.000000%
bench: utime=3877.860s
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp, from '/Volumes/Video/Movie.mov':
02:06:51.9, bitrate: 1542 kb/s
Stream #0.0: Audio: mpeg4aac, 44100 Hz, stereo
Could not find input stream #0.1

And it stops there, leaving me with a good mpv and a 0kb mp2. Seems strange that it identifies the audio in the top line and then can't find it later....

[major]

It would be nice if you could turn off the automatic letterboxing when using 'Decode with QT'.

This is possible by disabling "Letterbox", but only for mpeg2enc engine. About the inverted audio problem, please email me to major4@mac.com a link to a clip so as I can test.

[TugBoat]

AArrrrggghhhhh!
It's back!

Both of my stand-alones have the same problem with the same track, Track 1, not track two as the message says. Track 2 & 3 play perfectly. What I get is the intended track squished into the top half of the screen and part of the menu, partially scrambled, taking up the lower.
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=238382

All three tracks. Both stand-alones, doesn't happen on the computers. WTF? All three tracks were encoded at half D-1, 16:9, with 'Decode with QT' enabled. I believe that was the same settings used the last time this happened. I think it has something to do with 'Decode with QT' using those settings as I never use it normally, but had to with these particular movies.

*************

I think I might know what happened.

Stream #0.0: Video: mpeg2video (hq), 352x400, 29.97 fps, q=1-8, pass 1, 1600 kb/s

I had tried manual letterboxing first, and when that didn't work, I went to 'Decode with QT' and didn't bother to change the 400 to 480. That's the theory for now. I just can't believe I did that on all four movies
I'm re-encoding everything now.


*************

Yep, that appears to have solved it. Strange. Of course I still don't get audio, but I've already found a work around for that. Anyone want to chance explaining why this affects the standalones and not the computers? It would be nice if it affected the computers also. That way, I wouldn't have this 6+ hour, three track DVD-R that will only play correctly on computers :P

[Mr.Ash]

Ok, i managed to solve my problem by using MPEG4 Video instead of MJPEG A. But still, why has this worked in former versions and now not? I think the new mplayer is the source who causes all these problems.