Problems converting files using either mencoder or ffmpeg

[krisbee]

I have linux here, and I am trying to convert avi (or asf, or wma) files to a dvd compliant mpeg so I can burn them.

If I convert using ffmpeg (ffmpeg input_file_name.avi -target ntsc-dvd -o output.mpg) and try to burn in varsha or qdvdauthor (which uses dvdauthor) I get this error:
ERR: SCR moves backwards, remultiplex input

It plays fine in mplayer.


If I convert using mencoder using this:

mencoder -oac lavc -ovc lavc -of mpeg -mpegopts format=dvd:tsaf \
  -vf scale=720:480,harddup -srate 48000 -af lavcresample=48000 \
  -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg2video:vrc_buf_size=1835:vrc_maxrate=9800:vbitrate=5000:\
keyint=18:vstrict=0:acodec=ac3:abitrate=192:aspect=16/9 -ofps 30000/1001 \
  -o movie.mpg movie.avi

Then when I try to use a dvdauthoring program, it says:
WARN: audio sector out of range

and the encoding takes forever, and it still doesn't work in the dvd player. Of course, it plays fine in mplayer as well.

What am I doing wrong in these conversions???

Please help, I am going insane!

[GMaq]

Hi,
Have you tried ManDVD, DeVeDe, WinFF or any of the other GUI DVD Conversion programs for Linux? ffmpeg is a little flaky with WMV to MPEG file conversions sometimes, usually because of the VBR audio I can't speak for Mencoder. What distro are you using?

[tekkieman]

Any of the applications GMaq has suggested should work great for you. Just to add one additional app, tovid has always worked well for me.

[krisbee]

I will give it a try tonight (I downloaded all here at work), and I believe I already have tovid...

However, since they are front ends for ffmpeg (for the most part), I wonder what it is that is throwing everything off...

I will report what happens, and thank you both for your time and help!

--Kris

[GMaq]

Hi Again,
I just noticed your -o output is "movie.mpg movie.avi" forgive if I'm mistaken since I don't know Mencoder very well but shouldn't your output file have either a .mpg or .vob extension? Also you are running your max bitrate a little high if the encoder overshoots combined with your audio you could be exceeding 10000kbps which would put your file out of DVD spec. I'd suggest a maxrate of 8000, you won't see much quality increase beyond that anyway.

[krisbee]

This was taken directly from some website that was for converting any file to a dvd spec file... I believe a gentoo wiki, actually.

Well, you certainly might be right about the out of spec, because it is the audio that is the problem using that mencoder script and trying to make a dvd...

As for the output, it always outputs as an mpg.... -o output.mpg input.avi, with input.avi being the source file...

I will try this fix first, because it is certainly an easy script, and I think that is all the other front-ends are going to do anyway (but I will take a look at them too!)

I will report back tomorrow!

[krisbee]

Ok, reporting back.

DeVeDe would not run on my machine, due to a bad line 1 in its' program (there were also python/cairo problems)... I am not sure what that was about, but maybe I will revisit at a later date.

I ran mencoder with the 9800 reduced to 8000... still same error in dvdauthor about the audio being out of range.

I read about running the file through mencoder with an -noidx option and making a straight copy which kind of resets the file for any problems it might have. Then I ran ffmpeg with a more defined list of commands... I ended up having the same problem in dvdauthor about the timecode running backwards and the need to remultiplex. I would like to visit this solution one day, more on that in one second.

Tovid (running from tovid-gui) saw the file, could not determine the audio on it, and created a blank audio file to go along with the video, which is not correct, of course.

ManDVD .rpm wouldn't install, but I didn't get the source and try that yet.

WinFF would not open xterm (which I had to reinstall - I had deleted it, because I always use konsole), always saying permission denied... it also was very blocky looking (the program), things didn't draw right in the program window, and I couldn't get it going anyway. Also, its' ffmpeg output was similar to mine anyway.

So, one solution I read was to use avidemux, which I did. I set it to the Auto-Default of DVD, and it ran the video through (2 passes ) without a hitch, and made a video that worked with varsha/dvdauthor.

I have surprised the wife this morning by running it on the tv when she gets back in

This solution will work fine for me (does take a little longer due to the 2 pass, but that is okay).

However, this will not work with .wma files, or any other kooky things I might come across. I have 1 .wma that I do want to convert, so I will look into trying to use ffmpeg to encode 2 streams and multiplex them together, which should work according to the error I have been getting using this method.

Any suggestions on this?

[GMaq]

Hi,
Wow, You're not having much luck, AviDemux is a great app, it uses it's own ffmpeg as well so it's weird that it worked and the others didn't!? Because of all the rights and licensing legalities and wma/wmv being Windows formats, I believe the ffmpeg developers can't (or won't) go too much farther in implementing handling of them. This is one issue, also because the audio streams are VBR they are difficult to transcode to other formats, Even in Windows wma/wmv will bring many of the best transcoders to their knees. Like you mentioned I have had luck with difficult files in the past by separately encoding the two streams and muxing them with a 3rd party muxer, worth a try I guess. It's too bad WinFF won't work for you, it's great for that. Sorry, that's all I can tell you.

[krisbee]

Well, at least I am clear on what is going on!

Ffmpeg did a great job, it just chokes on dvdauthor (which I finally found more posts on). Some people just change the stop to a warning when they compile dvdauthor, and never have the problem again! I like using packages when I can, so when I upgrade I can keep track of everything like you are supposed to.

I think why the avidemux worked is that it did two passes, and muxed the audio itself I believe, just like I will need to with my standalone version.

As for why Mencoder goes out of range, I am still not clear, but, as long as ffmpeg can do its' thing, going the extra step to demux and the multiplex back isn't a big deal... I will even write a quick script in my system for it. Now, having said that, I haven't done it yet, so I don't know if I will be successful yet! And, I don't think I have tried with a .wma file yet but that will be on the hopper tomorrow (Friday)

Now, if the audio and video has a sync problem, is there a swith ffmpeg needs to fix that, or is that done automatically by ffmpeg and the -target ntsc-dvd option?

Thanks for talking me through everything... it made me learn quite abit about conversion, and how to troubleshoot these things... Video is extra hard, but I think I am finally understanding some of the process.

[krisbee]

Okay, so I ran the mencoder just like I did before, but ran it with dvd instead of dvd:tsaf (read one post buried somewhere)... This didn't make a difference, I still had those WARN audio out of range errors. Then I tried someone elses version of mencoder with a much more conservative bit rate, and this didn't do anything to help me either.

However, I then ran my mpeg through avidemux, it reindexed the file. Then I selected copy for both audio and video, and mpeg ps a+v as my output, and now my files are compliant.

What is the magical step that is happening here? I don't mind this extra step through avidemux, but I sure would like to understand it (and avoid it if I am doing something that can be done on the first pass)

I have attached the console output when I run the file through avidemux for anyone who would like to check it out. It seems some people do have this problem with dvdauthor, but I don't see many posts anywhere about a solution (here is one!)

--Kris

audio%20dvd%20error%20file.txt

[krisbee]

No ideas?

[krisbee]

Using Tovid, I had no problems (maybe becasue it multiplexes the audio back)... these files were huge compared to avidemux, but it had excellent results (i used the -ffmpeg option).

I have learned alot from everyone.. thank you so much.

In case a newbie is reading this, one thing to look out for is frame rate. In avidemux, it isn't easy to figure out how to convert the frame rate if you need to... tovid did it easily.

Remember, if the avi is PAL, you will have to convert to NTSC if that is your standard. (PAL uses 25fps, while NTSC can be 23.976 or 29.97)

[krisbee]

More problems/help needed.... Using tovid, when I finally went to make a dvd, I had the same SCR moving backwards thing... so I ran through avidemux to rebuild the index (just doing copy/copy), and wouldn't you know it, it put the audio out of sync!

So, I figured with this video (PAL), I would use avidemux to try to convert it to an NTSC compliant file, but no matter what I did, when I looked at the properties of the video after I did the DVD selection from the Auto dropdown, the audio length never matched the video lenght.

My steps: I went to video and changes the frame rate to either 23.976 or 29.97 (two different times)... then with the audio, I did the PAL-->FILM checkbox, and no matter what, the audio length was 4 seconds off from the video length.

I am running my original mencoder script I posted above, but with mp2 audio (which is what avidemux seems to do for my successes; it doesn't run ac3)... hopefully I will have a compliant file when I get home today and I will be able to burn this video to a DVD (always my goal)...

Is there something I am doing wrong? Nobody has these odd problems with ffmpeg or mencoder?

The tovid script/program worked great with ffmpeg, it just made the index say moving backwards when creating a dvd from the file (a bug in dvdauthor, I have read)... when I tried to use tovid with mencoder, it choked on remultiplexing (I should have forced an audio codec, it just did a copy because it detected the file as an mp2, but I think it might have been wonky)

Ugh! If these problems are normal, I will accept it... if it is me, I can learn... if it is the programs... well then I am stumped!