Converting MPEG to 3GP --> Empty Target File?

[SnakeGirl]

Hello, i am brand new here, to ffmpegX, & to video conversion in general so i'm pretty clueless about most or all of the technical terminology here regarding videos. Having said that, i am trying to do some basic video conversions of MPEG/.MPG files to 3GP format so i can put the video on my cell phone & play it there. i am hoping to find FREE software to do this on my Mac, & i downloaded & installed ffmpegX yesterday. Hopefully i did the installation correctly.

When i attempted to do a test conversion, i got the "ding" at the end but ended up w/a target file that seems to have nothing in it. i'm not sure that i entered all the ffmpegX input fields correctly: i entered the source & target file name fields using the "Open..." & "Save As..." buttons at the top of the ffmpegX application window. Under Source Format, i selected MPG in the From field (the Video field says "No Video" & the Audio field says "No audio"). i didn't really understand how to "Drop a movie or audio file that you want to convert", as i wasn't able to drag & drop anything into the Source Format area. Under Target Format, i selected 3GP in the To field & i guess the corresponding Video & Audio fields got filled automatically. i clicked the "Encode" button, got the little Progress window saying "Encoding MOV00014.MPG to ffmpeg h263", & then the "ding" of the bell right after that when the process appeared to finish.

This is what it says in the Process Information window:

FFmpeg version CVS, Copyright (c) 2000-2004 Fabrice Bellard
Mon Jan 7 19:50:46 PST 2008
Mac OSX universal build for ffmpegX
libavutil version: 49.0.0
libavcodec version: 51.9.0
libavformat version: 50.4.0
Input #0, mpeg, from '/Users/Princess/Desktop/SONY DCR-TRV480/Test/MOV00014.MPG':
Duration: 00:00:28.4, start: 0.177778, bitrate: 792 kb/s
Stream #0.0[0x1c0]: Audio: mp2, 32000 Hz, mono, 32 kb/s
Stream #0.1[0x1e0], 25.00 fps(r): Video: mpeg1video, yuv420p, 320x240, 104857 kb/s
Codec type mismatch for mapping #0.0 -> #0.0

Can anyone please tell me what am i doing wrong & how to correct it? Thank you in advance.

[Case]

Hi SnakeGirl, welcome to our little corner of the 'net.

Input #0, mpeg, from '/Users/Princess/Desktop/SONY DCR-TRV480/Test/MOV00014.MPG':
Duration: 00:00:28.4, start: 0.177778, bitrate: 792 kb/s
Stream #0.0[0x1c0]: Audio: mp2, 32000 Hz, mono, 32 kb/s
Stream #0.1[0x1e0], 25.00 fps(r): Video: mpeg1video, yuv420p, 320x240, 104857 kb/s
Codec type mismatch for mapping #0.0 -> #0.0

The 'Codec type mismatch for mapping'-error means ffmpegX encountered something that it cannot handle (yet): the audio (stream #0.0) is listed before the video (stream #0.1). ffmpegX needs some help in overcoming that: Set the "Invert mapping" checkbox in the Audio tab (screenshot).

i didn't really understand how to "Drop a movie or audio file that you want to convert", as i wasn't able to drag & drop anything into the Source Format area.

The Summary tab (initial screen) has two drop zones (screenshot), where you may drop files, as an alternative of using the Open button.
The first drop zone is where it says "Drop file here" in the area to the right of the word "From:" in the Source format section. The second drop zone is to the right of the "Open..." button.
When you drag a file over that area, your cursor should change from the regular arrow to an arrow with a green plus sign. When you release the mouse button, the action will be processed as opening a file and its properties will be filled in.

[SnakeGirl]

Hi Case,

Thanx for the welcome & the reply.

1. Thanx for the suggestion about the "invert mapping" checkbox, i will try that today. i had also noticed that the audio stream was listed before the video stream & was wondering what was up w/that. (The source file was originally recorded using a Sony DCR-TRV80 camcorder.)

2. Yes, i did attempt to drop a file into the 1st drop zone to the right of "From:" in the Source Format section that you described (i just wanted to make sure i attempted to do the drag-&-drop correctly). When my cursor was over that area, i expected it to change as you mentioned, but it didn't so when i attempted to drop there, nothing happened. i'll try that again, i'm not sure why it didn't work as i was pretty sure i knew how to do a simple drag-&-drop & was attempting to do it the way that you described.

Thanx again!

[Case]

so when i attempted to drop there, nothing happened.

Many items on your screen can be responsive to drag-and-drop. If you drag a movie file icon to ffmpegX, and the drag action takes it over other things, like folder windows or open documents, then Mac OS may need some time to process that the drag action has moved the icon beyond that section of the screen. Usually responsiveness isn't noticeably effected, but in some instances I've noticed a lag.
Maybe something like that has happened when you thought nothing happened?

The source file was originally recorded using a Sony DCR-TRV80 camcorder.

I'm surprised you got an .mpg file out of that. I thought these cameras would record in DV.

[SnakeGirl]

Hey Case,

OMG, thank you SO much for your suggestion(s)! i took your advice & after several attempts (i had to do some slight & unexpected "tweaking" on each attempt), i had success!

On the 1st try, i just checked the "invert mapping" box & that resulted in ffmpegX not liking the picture size (error message: The specified picture size of 640x272 is not valid for the H.263 codec. Valid sizes are 128x96, 176x144, 352x288, 704x576, and 1408x1152. Try H.263+. Error while opening codec for output stream #0.0 - maybe incorrect parameters such as bit_rate, rate, width or height). i hadn't manually specified this parameter, i think it got filled in automatically when i had previously selected 3GP as the target format on my earlier & very 1st attempt to run ffmpegX. i didn't really know which picture size to select, so i just tried 128x96 for my 2nd attempt since it was the smallest of the available options. ffmpegX still didn't like this input, as there were a bunch of warning messages in the Process Info window + i couldn't play the output video file. i didn't see an H.263+ option in the list of target formats & i still didn't really know what picture size to select so i ended up looking @ an earlier test file that i had successfully converted using a trial version of the Xilisoft converter before i found & downloaded ffmpegX. That earlier test file had a picture size of 176x144 so i manually entered that & made a 3rd attempt. Again i got a bunch of warning msgs. & didn't get a playable output file . So @ this point, i was REALLY beginning to scratch my head! i started to poke around a little bit before finally coming back here to post again & ask for more advice. As it turns out, the 4th & final time i just went back & reselected 3GP for the target format again even though it had already been selected before. That seemed to do the trick (the 4th time was the charm i guess), & EUREKA! Success @ last! Yay! i was beginning to worry that i was never gonna get it to work!

As for the business of not being able to drag & drop, this time around i found that the drag-&-drop DID work just as you described. i think what happened before was that it may actually have worked when i did the drop but either i didn't notice or didn't remember that the cursor DID change, & i didn't realize that the drop had occurred successfully because there wasn't any real obvious visual indication that it had & i had to move the cursor all the way to the end of the source file name field before i could tell that the drop had indeed happened correctly (upon doing the drop, the source file name field only shows that part of the file name that fits into the input field & if the directory path part is real long, then the full file name specification including the directory path doesn't fit into the part of the field that is shown & you can't see the actual target/output file name unless you manually move the cursor all the way to the end & there is no obvious visual indicator that appears or pops up to tell you what you dropped or that the drop was successful). So thanx for describing the drop process in detail, that helped me out a lot w/figuring it out.

Diana aka Snake Girl

[SnakeGirl]

The source file was originally recorded using a Sony DCR-TRV80 camcorder.

I'm surprised you got an .mpg file out of that. I thought these cameras would record in DV.

Yes, if memory serves me correctly, that camcorder did create .MPG files as output when i recorded to a memory stick, which i was able to simply copy over to my Mac using a USB connection. (The DCR-TRV80 can record on either 8mm/Hi8/Digital 8 tape or to memory stick.) When i record to (analog) tape, then to get the recording over onto the Mac, i have to import that video into iMovie over a firewire connection & then save it to disk on the Mac as a .DV file. (i believe that's the procedure i have to follow to get both types of recordings over to the Mac, but it's been quite a while since i used the camcorder so i hope i'm remembering everything correctly.) So far i haven't done any recording to a Digital 8 tape yet so i'm not sure what kind of output i get in that case (.MPG or .DV or whatever).

The videos that i would like to convert to 3GP are either (a) older recordings originally made on VHS tape & then converted to digital format w/the camcorder & imported to the Mac via iMovie so i believe those source files (to ffmpegX) would be in .DV format (i think i can only save/export the videos to disk from iMovie as .DV files unless someone knows how i can do it in other formats like .MPG, etc. i just have iMovie & not iMovie HD so i'm not sure if iMovie HD can save the video files in different formats) or (b) TV shows recorded from cable TV & converted/imported to the Mac using iMovie so i believe those videos would be in .DV format also, or (c) if i can find out how to capture streaming (Flash?) video on the Mac & convert it to 3GP so i can watch it on the cell phone. For (b) & (c) above, i need to find out if there is other (free) software in addition to iMovie that i can use to capture/import the video programming & be able to save on the Mac in more compressed formats than .DV. Is the streaming video from a website (like TV show episodes that are free to watch online) in Flash format? If not, what format might it be in & what kind of free software can i use on the Mac to capture it? i'm assuming or @ least hoping that whatever video i capture (whether from cable TV or off the internet) will be in formats that are compatible w/ffmpegX & can be converted to 3GP. As far as the .DV files go though, is there anything special i need to know when converting those to 3GP using ffmpegX (like certain parameters or settings to specify)?

Another ffmpegX question i have: is there a way to estimate ahead of time the size of an ffmpegX output file if i know the format & the duration of the input video? i'm just wondering because the hard drive on my Mac is pretty full & if i am going to be converting video files using ffmpegX, i'd like to have an idea ahead of time how big the output file(s) will be & whether i'll need to be using an external hard drive to store the output so i don't accidentally fill up my internal drive (those darn .DV files are so big & eat up so many gigabytes of disk space)!!!!!

Thanx again!

Diana aka The Snake Girl

[Case]

As it turns out, the 4th & final time i just went back & reselected 3GP for the target format again even though it had already been selected before. That seemed to do the trick.

At the top of the ffmpegX screen is this line of three numbered actions. Stick to that order, even for consecutive encodes. A new source file may alter settings such as video size and framerate, so (re-)select a preset after opening a new source file, to get the settings right again.

Is there a way to estimate ahead of time the size of an ffmpegX output file if i know the format & the duration of the input video?

There's a Bitrate Calculator in the Video tab. The default video bitrate is set by the preset, the duration in minutes is set by the source file, the output size isn't calculated initially. The [Size] button will calculate the estimated file size of the output file based on the other parameters. (If you hover the mouse pointer stationary over any of the calculator buttons, a tool tip should pop up telling you what each button does.)
With regard to disk space, that might be somewhat more, as some processes create temporary files (not sure about 3GP). As .3GP is quite low-bitrate, it is never much compared to DV disk space requirements.