VirtualDub error -2...what does this mean?

[oldfart13]

I keep getting this error using the latest version of AutoGK:

"VirtualDub Error: The source image format is not acceptable (error code -2)"

Any idea what this means? I'm using a 720X480 DVD Mpeg that has been run through VideoRedo to fix any stream errors (I also tried it with a save from Womble Mpeg Video Wizard 2003 and got the same error). The original equipment is a Liteon 5001 at the SP setting. Oddly enough, I did 2 other conversions in the previous few days with exactly the same parameters from files ripped out of the DVD caps using VOB2MPG v2.0 (same as this current file) and they encoded perfectly. This one has me stumped. I can only conclude that VirtualDub doesn't like the hybrid source file as that comes up saying "Mostly Film" when AutoGK analyses it.

Any help very much appreciated...

[jagabo]

It usually means the frame size is not acceptable to the compression codec. For instance, you can't use odd (as in even vs. odd numbers) with Xvid. That wouldn't be a problem with 720x480 but I bet you cropped or resized.

[oldfart13]

I don't use Xvid...only DivX 6.1. Thanks for the info though. Perhaps it explains the problems with Staxrip. I found out that it defaulted to Xvid when I first ran it, then produced a file devoid of any video. Second time it gave me the video in DivX but the wrong file size. Time to leave well enough alone for the moment...

[jagabo]

Divx has the same frame size issues. Just about every codec requires an even sized frame.

[NormaJ]

http://forums.virtualdub.org/index.php?act=ST&f=4&t=6608&

[oldfart13]

Frame size confirmed as even...720X480, so it must be the wrong colour depth. The film itself seems to be Technicolor but how that was converted for broadcast and how the Liteon 5001 encodes it are also suspect. Well, it did end up with an encode after a lot of playing around with it but I'm going back to AutoGK unless I get that error again. I don't get it on Black and White program encodes as there is no colour info to mess up...

[jagabo]

Sorry, my original reply was off base. That's not the error you get with wrong frame sizes and Divx/Xvid compression.

I get the source image format error when the wrong codec is trying to decompress the source video. For some reason the Panasonic DV codec tries to decode Divx files when I use VirtualDubMod -- and that's when I get that error. Changing the fourcc code to Xvid fixes the problem. Or I can just use VirutualDubMPEG2. Don't know if that will be of use to you...

[oldfart13]

That sounds about right. The latest vid was in Black and White so it isn't a colour problem. The encoding programs seem to want to default to Xvid so I let Staxrip do that and I can get a pretty good encode. I'm going to install the 6.11 DivX bundle and see if that fixes the problem. I don't like the picture on my PIII in Xvid as it looks like it's missing frames or something. I am going to try some other software players and see if they work better.

[guns1inger]

A black and white film, stored digitally at 24 bits of colour depth has the same type of colour information stored as a techniclour film or DV video stored using the same codec and colour depth. Computers don't see black and white or colour, they see colour depth.

[jagabo]

A black and white film, stored digitally at 24 bits of colour depth has the same type of colour information stored as a techniclour film or DV video stored using the same codec and colour depth. Computers don't see black and white or colour, they see colour depth.

There are some codecs that can use an 8 bit gray scale palette rather than 24 bit RGB. Microsoft RLE, and Cinepack I think. I'm pretty sure VirtualDub can read those.