troubleshooting - empty file?

[Silky Slim]

hi folks...
just installed ffmpegx a minute ago (including all the components) and tried encoding a file.
the input file was a .dv file and i wanted to encode to .avi divx.
after hitting "encode", ffmpegx immediately "dinged" to signify encoding was finished.
the resulting file was zero length.
what went wrong?
btw, i was reading and writing to an external firewire drive.
thanks

[Case]

Could you post the Process Information ("the log") here?
You can access that by pressing the blue "i" in the Progress window, after a (successful or failed) conversion.
That would help diagnose the issue.

[Silky Slim]

thanks for replying, case. here it is:

Encoding started on Mon Jan 28 18:20:22 IST 2008
FIXME:Hardenabling SSE and SSE2 without detection
MEncoder dev-CVS-060307-04:23-4.0.1 (C) 2000-2006 MPlayer Team
Mac OSX static build for ffmpegX
CPU: Intel (Family: 6, Stepping: 6)
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
success: format: 0 data: 0x0 - 0x1b949700
[V] filefmt:30 fourcc:0x10000005 size:0x0 fps: 0.00 ftime:=0.0000
Opening video filter: [expand osd=1]
Expand: -1 x -1, -1 ; -1, osd: 1, aspect: 0.000000, round: 1
Opening video filter: [scale w=640 h=480]
Opening video filter: [pp=md]
================================================== ========================
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]illegal POC type 4
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]slice type too large (0) at 0 0
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]decode_slice_header error
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 16
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 31
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 0
picture size invalid (96x0)
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 26
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 0
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 17
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 16
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 26
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 28
Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family
Selected video codec: [ffh264] vfm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg H.264)
================================================== ========================
Forcing output fourcc to 58564944 [DIVX]
8c]Unknown NAL code: 29
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 26
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 29
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 26
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]non existing PPS referenced
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]decode_slice_header error
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 29
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 17
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 0
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]non existing PPS referenced
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]decode_slice_header error
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 0
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]non existing PPS referenced
:0.000 [0:0]
h264 @ 0x878f8c]decode_slice_header error
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 0
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]slice type too large (5) at 0 0
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]decode_slice_header error
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 0
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 18
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 0
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 16
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]non existing PPS referenced
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]decode_slice_header error
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 23
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 26
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]illegal POC type 20
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 23
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 20
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 16
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]non existing PPS referenced
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]decode_slice_header error
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 0
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]illegal POC type 4
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 23
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 26
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 16
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 0
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 0
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 26
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 21
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 18
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 26
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]non existing SPS referenced
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]decode_slice_header error
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 31
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 23
Error while decoding frame!
Skipping frame!
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]non existing SPS referenced
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]decode_slice_header error
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]non existing SPS referenced
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]decode_slice_header error
Error while decoding frame!
Skipping frame!
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]non existing PPS referenced
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]decode_slice_header error
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]non existing PPS referenced
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]decode_slice_header error
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 16
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 23
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 17
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 23
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 0
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]non existing SPS referenced
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]decode_slice_header error
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]illegal aspect ratio
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 23
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 0
Error while decoding frame!
Skipping frame!
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]non existing SPS referenced
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]decode_slice_header error
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]non existing PPS referenced
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]decode_slice_header error
Error while decoding frame!
Skipping frame!
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]non existing SPS referenced
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]decode_slice_header error
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 16
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 23
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 26
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 16
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]non existing SPS referenced
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]decode_slice_header error
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 18
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 18
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 20
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 16
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]non existing SPS referenced
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]decode_slice_header error
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 26
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]slice type too large (6) at 0 0
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]decode_slice_header error
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 0
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 26
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]non existing SPS referenced
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]decode_slice_header error
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 26
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 20
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]Unknown NAL code: 30
[h264 @ 0x878f8c]FMO not supported
/bin/sh: line 1: 4673 Bus error '/Library/Application Support/ffmpegX/mencoder' /Volumes/40/Mikre\ Isha.dv -oac mp3lame -lameopts cbr:br=128:vol=0 -srate 48000 -aid 1 -ovc lavc -sws 0 -lavcopts threads=2:vcodec=mpeg4:vbitrate=940:keyint=240:vqm in=2:vqmax=15 -ofps 25 -vop scale=640:480,pp=md -noodml -ffourcc DIVX -o /Volumes/40/Mikre\ Isha.dv.ff.avi

[Case]

[V] filefmt:30 fourcc:0x10000005 size:0x0 fps: 0.00 ftime:=0.0000
...
/bin/sh: line 1: 4673 Bus error

For some reason mplayer/mencoder incorrectly thinks your DV file is an H.264 file, with size 0x0 and framerate 0. Obviously, it needs to be recognized correctly in order to decode the source file. Later, it even generates a bus error! No sure why this happens, tho'.
Which application last modified your DV file before passing it to ffmpegX? Just curious...

You could try the DivX ffmpeg preset instead of DivX mencoder. It uses a different engine, and could very well decode your source file much better.

[Silky Slim]

i'll try that soon!
meanwhile, thanks so much for replying!
i'll post how it went!