adding subtitles isn't working anymore

[kategabrielle]

I've used ffmpegX (0.0.9y) to add permanent subtitles to about 10 of my movies in the last month or so. Then all of a sudden today I tried adding it to 2 movies (both .avi, the same format as the other ones) and it didn't work. The progress window pops up, but it shows that the conversion is completed in about one second, and there is no new file in my folder. I tried it countless times, changing all sorts of settings (I tried converting it to other formats besides .avi but none of them would support the subtitles) and I'm totally at a loss. Any help is greatly appreciated!!

[Baldrick]

What does the ffmpegx log say? ( https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/264808-ffmpegx-occasionally-creates-0kb-files-inste...=1#post1583257 )

And I'm moving you to the ffmpegx forum section.

[kategabrielle]

Thanks! This is what it says for one of them:

Encoding started on Sat Jun 26 03:30:51 EDT 2010
MEncoder dev-CVS-060307-04:23-4.0.1 (C) 2000-2006 MPlayer Team
Mac OSX static build for ffmpegX
FIXME:Hardenabling SSE and SSE2 without detection
CPU: Intel Pentium III Katmai/Pentium III Xeon Tanner (Family: 6, Stepping: 10)
CPUflags: Type: 6 MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 1 SSE2: 1
Compiled for x86 CPU with extensions: MMX MMX2 SSE SSE2
Exiting... (No output file specified, please see the -o option)

And on the second .avi file it just says this:

/bin/sh: -c: line 0: syntax error near unexpected token `('

[Case]

Exiting... (No output file specified, please see the -o option)[/I]

This is odd, as ffmpegX specifies a default output name and path, which can be changed, but can't be omitted.

Please check the path in the Save As field. It should point to a write-enabled location (no read-only media, or locked folders (copying from optical media can introduce locked folders), and ideally should have no special characters in the output file name or path (folder names). Keep it simple. Saving to the Desktop as "output" is about as fail-safe as is gets (no spaces, no special characters).
Maybe the special characters are even in the source file name or path, which may be confusing mencoder?

I thought the version 0.0.9y update resolved most filename/path character issues, but perhaps you found an exception?

/bin/sh: -c: line 0: syntax error near unexpected token `('

I have seen this a few times on this forum, but with inclusion of the full "line 0" command line reference. In that command line is likely an error somewhere near the opening parenthesis-character "(". In all cases so far, that turned out to be the parentheses of the framerate specification, as in the erroneous: "NTSC FILM (29.97)", which would generate a syntax error.

Please check what ffmpegX specifies as the default output framerate in the Video tab, and report that here.