Having Trouble Converting from .wmv to .mp4

[rcallahanb]

So I've been trying to convert a .wmv file to a .mp4 file. The 'conversion' lasts less than a second, tells me its finished, and then there is no converted file.

To the best of my (admittedly limited) knowledge, I have installed everything, and I'm using the 'Summary' tab because I'm not too picky on the details, I just want a file I can edit in iMovie. Can someone help? I don't understand what I'm doing wrong.

[Case]

I just want a file I can edit in iMovie.

Then you would be converting to DV. If you convert to .mp4, then iMovie will convert that to DV (two conversions instead of one).

So I've been trying to convert a .wmv file to a .mp4 file.

There are several presets that generate .mp4 files. Please be more specific about your settings, e.g. the ".MP4 mpeg-4" preset, or the "h.264 mencoder" preset. In the Target format Video field, does it start with "ffmpeg" or "mencoder"?

The 'conversion' lasts less than a second, tells me its finished, and then there is no converted file.

In the ffmpegX Progress window (where it said Finished), there is a blue "i" for every conversion. It is a button for more information: the Process Information log. It tells what ffmpegX was trying to do. Please post the results, so we can see what was going on.

If you were using an ffmpeg preset and the last lines of the Process Information log include
"Codec type mismatch for mapping #0.0 -> #0.0"
then the solution is the set the "Invert mapping" checkbox in the Audio tab.
Inverted mapping of the streams is very common with WMV files.

[rcallahanb]

Well, it doesn't matter what I convert to, because it all fails in the same way. But thank you for your help. So, with trying to convert to .DV, I get the same problem

Here's what the information window says:

Encoding started on Sun Aug 10 13:05:08 EDT 2008
Seems that stream 1 comes from film source: 1000.00 (1000/1) -> 30.00 (30/1)
Input #0, asf, from '/Users/Callie/Movies/vid1.wmv':
Duration: 00:03:48.8, start: 3.000000, bitrate: 403 kb/s
Stream #0.0: Audio: wmav2, 44100 Hz, stereo, 64 kb/s
Stream #0.1: Video: WMV3, 320x240, 1000.00 fps
Codec type mismatch for mapping #0.0 -> #0.0

So I did what you said (checking off invert mapping) and got failure and this message in the information window:

Seems that stream 1 comes from film source: 1000.00 (1000/1) -> 30.00 (30/1)
Sun Aug 10 13:07:32 EDT 2008
Input #0, asf, from '/Users/Callie/Movies/vid1.wmv':
Duration: 00:03:48.8, start: 3.000000, bitrate: 403 kb/s
Stream #0.0: Audio: wmav2, 44100 Hz, stereo, 64 kb/s
Stream #0.1: Video: WMV3, 320x240, 1000.00 fps
Output #0, dv, to '/Users/Callie/Movies/vid1.wmv.ff.dv':
Stream #0.0: Video: dvvideo, 720x480, 29.97 fps, q=2-15, 25000 kb/s
Stream #0.1: Audio: pcm_s16le, 48000 Hz, stereo, 1536 kb/s
Stream mapping:
Stream #0.1 -> #0.0
Stream #0.0 -> #0.1
Unsupported codec (id=0) for input stream #0.1

[Case]

Well, it doesn't matter what I convert to, because it all fails in the same way.

That would be because it is a decoding (reading) error, which does not depend on the target format.

Stream #0.1: Video: WMV3, 320x240, 1000.00 fps
Unsupported codec (id=0) for input stream #0.1

ffmpeg doesn't support WMV3 yet (which is the identifier code for Windows Media Video 9).
I haven't tried it in a while, but it used to be that you could convert WMV if you had Flip4Mac installed and converted with Decode with QT activated in the Options tab. (As long as the .wmv isn't DRM'ed.)