Can't encode .m2v

[Dave22]

I have several .m2v files (MPEG-2 encoded with Apple's compressor software) and they are at a datarate that is too high. I've been trying to use ffmpegx to reencode them to an MPEG-2 of a slightly lower bit rate, but it never works, and I've tried many different .m2v files that I know are perfectly fine. This is what it spits out:

Encoding started on Thu Jun 10 12:45:13 MDT 2004
INFO: [yuvscaler] yuvscaler (version 1.7.0) is a general scaling utility for yuv frames
INFO: [yuvscaler] (C) 2001-2002 Xavier Biquard <xbiquard@free.fr>
INFO: [yuvscaler] yuvscaler -h for help, or man yuvscaler
usage: movtoy4m -w width -h height -F a:b -a a:b [-s] [-f] [-o ppm/y4m] movie.mov
example: movtoy4m -w 352 -h 288 -F 25:1 -a 4:3 pal_normal.mov
example: movtoy4m -w 352 -h 240 -F 30000:1001 -a 16:9 ntsc_wide.mov
**ERROR: [yuvscaler] Could'nt read YUV4MPEG header!
**ERROR: [mpeg2enc] Could not read YUV4MPEG2 header: system error (failed read/write)!

Any idea how I can fix this problem? Thanks.

[major]

Are you able to open your .m2v files in Quicktime player?

[Dave22]

Yes. As I said, I know the files themselves are perfectly fine. I can play them with quick time AND ffmpegx, as well as use them in DVD Studio Pro. I could even burn them to DVD if their data rates were a tad smaller.

[major]

Try to encode with the "Decode with mplayer" option enabled.

[Dave22]

That fails as well, only in a different way. The bar continues to scroll alternating colors indefinately. Here is what log shows:

INFO: [yuvscaler] yuvscaler (version 1.7.0) is a general scaling utility for yuv frames
Fri Jun 11 17:59:17 MDT 2004
-f 5 -b 3742 -q 5 -B 260 -V 230 -a 2
-F 4
INFO: [yuvscaler] (C) 2001-2002 Xavier Biquard <xbiquard@free.fr>
INFO: [yuvscaler] yuvscaler -h for help, or man yuvscaler
**ERROR: [mpeg2enc] Unable to open: Archive/movie.mpv:
No such file or directory
**ERROR: [mpeg2enc] Could not read YUV4MPEG2 header: system error (failed read/write)!
Using GNU internationalization
Original domain: messages
Original dirname: /usr/local/share/locale
Current domain: mplayer
Current dirname: /usr/local/share/locale
MPlayer dev-CVS-030316-14:10-3.1 (C) 2000-2003 Arpad Gereoffy (see DOCS)
: No such file or directory
AltiVec found
Reading config file /usr/local/etc/mplayer/mplayer.confReading config file /Users/collinanderson/.mplayer/config
Reading /Users/collinanderson/.mplayer/codecs.conf: Reading /usr/local/etc/mplayer/codecs.conf: Using built-in default codecs.conf
CommandLine: '-noframedrop' '-vo' 'yuv4mpeg' '-ao' 'pcm' '-waveheader' '-v' '-osdlevel' '0' '/Volumes/Video/Video' 'Archive/The' 'Liver' 'Complete‚Ñ¢.M2V' '-aid' '0'
get_path('font/font.desc') -> '/Users/collinanderson/.mplayer/font/font.desc'
can't open '/Users/collinanderson/.mplayer/codecs.conf': No such file or directory
can't open '/usr/local/etc/mplayer/codecs.conf': No such file or directory
font: can't open file: /Users/collinanderson/.mplayer/font/font.desc
Font /usr/local/share/mplayer/font/font.desc loaded successfully! (206 chars)
Using Unoptimized OnScreenDisplay
Using usleep() timing
Can't open input config file /Users/collinanderson/.mplayer/input.conf : No such file or directory
Terminal type `unknown' is not defined.
get_path('input.conf') -> '/Users/collinanderson/.mplayer/input.conf'
Can't open input config file /usr/local/etc/mplayer/input.conf : No such file or directory
Falling back on default (hardcoded) input config
get_path('Video.conf') -> '/Users/collinanderson/.mplayer/Video.conf'
File not found: '/Volumes/Video/Video'
Playing /Volumes/Video/Video
Not an URL!
get_path('The.conf') -> '/Users/collinanderson/.mplayer/The.conf'
Playing Archive/The
File not found: 'Archive/The'
File not found: 'Liver'
File not found: 'Complete‚Ñ¢.M2V'
Not an URL!
get_path('Liver.conf') -> '/Users/collinanderson/.mplayer/Liver.conf'
Playing Liver
Not an URL!
get_path('Complete‚Ñ¢.M2V.conf') -> '/Users/collinanderson/.mplayer/Complete‚Ñ¢.M2V.conf'
Playing Complete‚Ñ¢.M2V
Not an URL!
Exiting... (End of file)

[major]

'/Volumes/Video/Video' 'Archive/The' 'Liver' 'Complete‚Ñ¢.M2V'

Never use special characters and spaces in your paths when using Unix-based applications.

[csdesigns]

Hey, Dave22, I just thought of this workaround and it might work better than anything else. Why don't you build your DVD as normal, not worrying about the disc size at the moment. Even if the disc size comes out to 8GB+, you're still OK. Once the disc is built and ready, download an application called DVD2oneX (or similar, there are quite a few out there, and some have free demo periods for use). Open up DVD2oneX, select the VIDEO_TS folder you have saved and set the output to your standard DVD+/-R(W) size. In a few minutes (less than 20 usually on my system) the video will be compressed to fit within your size parameters. You should then be able to burn what you want to a standard DVD-5 disc.