mp4->avi->flv??

[graphictodd]

I'm trying to convert a couple of 30 minute videos that are in mp4 format to flv. The problem is that I often have to convert them to avi first then to flv... i've been able to do this with smaller videos but the larger ones only yield about 2-5 mins... is there a limit to the size of a flv file using ffmegx? If so, how can I get around this so I can get these converted? Thanks!

[Case]

I just successfully converted a 28 min XviD AVI to FLV, and also an H.264 MP4 to FLV directly. I couldn't reproduce your 2-5 mins issue. I have no idea why it would cause this problem for you.
Perhaps you can give some parameters of this source file. Maybe there are file specific things going on.

[graphictodd]

I just successfully converted a 28 min XviD AVI to FLV, and also an H.264 MP4 to FLV directly. I couldn't reproduce your 2-5 mins issue. I have no idea why it would cause this problem for you.
Perhaps you can give some parameters of this source file. Maybe there are file specific things going on.

Sure! this is the info I get when I try and convert the .mp4 file

FFmpeg version CVS, Copyright (c) 2000-2004 Fabrice Bellard
Mac OSX universal build for ffmpegX
libavutil version: 49.0.0
libavcodec version: 51.9.0
libavformat version: 50.4.0
Thu Oct 2 16:34:17 PDT 2008
Seems that stream 1 comes from film source: 1000.00 (1000/1) -> 30.00 (30/1)
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from '/Users/tjfisher/Desktop/chep1.mp4':
Duration: 00:26:40.3, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 547 kb/s
Stream #0.0(eng): Audio: aac, 44100 Hz, stereo
Stream #0.1(eng), 30.00 fps(r): Video: mpeg4, yuv420p, 320x240
Codec type mismatch for mapping #0.0 -> #0.0

This is the info I get after converting the .mp4 to a .avi

FFmpeg version CVS, Copyright (c) 2000-2004 Fabrice Bellard
Mac OSX universal build for ffmpegX
libavutil version: 49.0.0
libavcodec version: 51.9.0
libavformat version: 50.4.0
Thu Oct 2 16:40:52 PDT 2008
Input #0, avi, from '/Users/tjfisher/Desktop/chep1.avi':
Duration: 00:26:40.3, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 29164 kb/s
Stream #0.0, 30.00 fps(r): Video: dvvideo, yuv411p, 720x480
Stream #0.1: Audio: pcm_s16le, 22050 Hz, mono, 352 kb/s
Output #0, flv, to '/Users/tjfisher/Desktop/chep1.avi.ff.avi.flv':
Stream #0.0, 29.97 fps(c): Video: flv, yuv420p, 320x240, q=2-15, pass 1, 700 kb/s
Stream #0.1: Audio: mp3, 22050 Hz, stereo, 56 kb/s
Stream mapping:
Stream #0.0 -> #0.0
Stream #0.1 -> #0.1
bench: utime=87.252s
video:33101kB audio:2884kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead 1.250380%
FFmpeg version CVS, Copyright (c) 2000-2004 Fabrice Bellard
Mac OSX universal build for ffmpegX
libavutil version: 49.0.0
libavcodec version: 51.9.0
libavformat version: 50.4.0
Input #0, avi, from '/Users/tjfisher/Desktop/chep1.avi':
Duration: 00:26:40.3, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 29164 kb/s
Stream #0.0, 30.00 fps(r): Video: dvvideo, yuv411p, 720x480
Stream #0.1: Audio: pcm_s16le, 22050 Hz, mono, 352 kb/s
Output #0, flv, to '/Users/tjfisher/Desktop/chep1.avi.ff.avi.flv':
Stream #0.0, 29.97 fps(c): Video: flv, yuv420p, 320x240, q=2-15, pass 2, 700 kb/s
Stream #0.1: Audio: mp3, 22050 Hz, stereo, 56 kb/s
Stream mapping:
Stream #0.0 -> #0.0
Stream #0.1 -> #0.1
video:33190kB audio:2884kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead 1.247273%
bench: utime=87.493s
/Users/tjfisher/Desktop/ffmpegX_0.0.9y/ffmpegX.app//Contents/Resources/flvtool2:2:in `require': no such file to load -- flvtool2 (LoadError)
from /Users/tjfisher/Desktop/ffmpegX_0.0.9y/ffmpegX.app//Contents/Resources/flvtool2:2

[Case]

.mp4 to .flv

Stream #0.0(eng): Audio: aac, 44100 Hz, stereo
Stream #0.1(eng), 30.00 fps(r): Video: mpeg4, yuv420p, 320x240
Codec type mismatch for mapping #0.0 -> #0.0

In your .mp4 file the audio stream is listed before the video stream. This is reverse from how ffmpeg handles conversion by default. For other types of conversions, I would recommend the "Invert mapping" setting in the Audio tab, but for conversions to FLV this setting would introduce a stuttering issue with Adobe Flash Player (the webbrowser plug-in) that you wouldn't want.
You can invert the streams using QuickTime Pro, before conversion, as a work-around.

(.mp4 to) .avi to .flv

bench: utime=87.252s
video:33101kB audio:2884kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead 1.250380%

video:33190kB audio:2884kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead 1.247273%
bench: utime=87.493s

This seems like two encodings?!? Did ffmpegX do this by itself, or did you paste two logs here? No apparent errors in there, besides the non-fatal one below.

/Users/tjfisher/Desktop/ffmpegX_0.0.9y/ffmpegX.app//Contents/Resources/flvtool2:2:in `require': no such file to load -- flvtool2 (LoadError)
from /Users/tjfisher/Desktop/ffmpegX_0.0.9y/ffmpegX.app//Contents/Resources/flvtool2:2

Apparently you do not have flvtool2 installed, which prevents ffmpegX to add metadata (such as duration) to the FLV clip. It shouldn't effect the FLV video quality itself, nor playback.

Stream #0.0, 30.00 fps(r): Video: dvvideo, yuv411p, 720x480
Stream #0.1: Audio: pcm_s16le, 22050 Hz, mono, 352 kb/s

That is weird audio for a DV file. DV usually has 2 channels at 48000 Hz and 1411 kbps. Not sure if it influences conversions, though.

[graphictodd]

.mp4 to .flv

Stream #0.0(eng): Audio: aac, 44100 Hz, stereo
Stream #0.1(eng), 30.00 fps(r): Video: mpeg4, yuv420p, 320x240
Codec type mismatch for mapping #0.0 -> #0.0

In your .mp4 file the audio stream is listed before the video stream. This is reverse from how ffmpeg handles conversion by default. For other types of conversions, I would recommend the "Invert mapping" setting in the Audio tab, but for conversions to FLV this setting would introduce a stuttering issue with Adobe Flash Player that you wouldn't want.
You can invert the streams using QuickTime Pro, before conversion, as a work-around.

(.mp4 to) .avi to .flv

bench: utime=87.252s
video:33101kB audio:2884kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead 1.250380%

video:33190kB audio:2884kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead 1.247273%
bench: utime=87.493s

This seems like two encodings?!? Did ffmpegX do this by itself, or did you paste two logs here? No apparent errors in there, besides the non-fatal one below.

/Users/tjfisher/Desktop/ffmpegX_0.0.9y/ffmpegX.app//Contents/Resources/flvtool2:2:in `require': no such file to load -- flvtool2 (LoadError)
from /Users/tjfisher/Desktop/ffmpegX_0.0.9y/ffmpegX.app//Contents/Resources/flvtool2:2

Apparently you do not have flvtool2 installed, which prevents ffmpegX to add metadata (such as duration) to the FLV clip. It shouldn't effect the FLV video quality itself, nor playback.

Thank you so much for you excellent reply!

How would I invert them in QT pro?

And yes, both those log files were created by ffmpgx. I'm going to download flvtool2... i've been transferring my converted .flv files on a thumb drive then putting them on a PC and using a meta inject for years now... I had no Idea this flvtool2 was available! Thank you!

[Case]

How would I invert them in QT pro?

The line "You can invert the streams using QuickTime Pro, before conversion, as a work-around"
is actually a link to an older post on this forum, describing how to do it.

[graphictodd]

Apparently you do not have flvtool2 installed, which prevents ffmpegX to add metadata (such as duration) to the FLV clip. It shouldn't effect the FLV video quality itself, nor playback.

Hi Case, I download the flvtool2 file and tried to install but I'm not sure I'm doing it correctly... I open terminal and drop the file in there but that's where I seem to fall off track as doing the other steps yields no results... any suggestions? Thanks!

[Case]

In more detail:

1/ Download "flvtool2-1.0.6.tgz"
2/ Decompress "flvtool2-1.0.6.tgz" into "flvtool2-1.0.6.tar" (normally Safari does this for you)
3/ Decompress "flvtool2-1.0.6.tar" into folder "flvtool2-1.0.6"
4/ Open Terminal.app
5/ Type "cd " (without the quotes, including the space character)
6/ Drop the folder "flvtool2-1.0.6" onto the terminal shell window
7/ Make sure the Terminal window is still active (frontmost), then press the <enter> (or <return>) key
This should change the working directory to the "flvtool2-1.0.6" folder
You can verify this by looking at the prompt: Computer-name:/working-directory/ username$
8/ Type "ruby setup.rb config" (without the quotes), followed by the <enter> key
You should get a few lines of output with arrows (--->)
9/ Type "ruby setup.rb setup" (without the quotes), followed by the <enter> key
You should get a few lines of output with arrows (--->)
10/ Type "sudo ruby setup.rb install" (without the quotes), followed by the <enter> key
This will require that you enter your login password
You should get more lines of output, many of them starting with "install"

[graphictodd]

In more detail:

1/ Download "flvtool2-1.0.6.tgz"
2/ Decompress "flvtool2-1.0.6.tgz" into "flvtool2-1.0.6.tar" (normally Safari does this for you)
3/ Decompress "flvtool2-1.0.6.tar" into folder "flvtool2-1.0.6"
4/ Open Terminal.app
5/ Type "cd " (without the quotes, including the space character)
6/ Drop the folder "flvtool2-1.0.6" onto the terminal shell window
7/ Make sure the Terminal window is still active (frontmost), then press the <enter> (or <return>) key
This should change the working directory to the "flvtool2-1.0.6" folder
You can verify this by looking at the prompt: Computer-name:/working-directory/ username$
8/ Type "ruby setup.rb config" (without the quotes), followed by the <enter> key
You should get a few lines of output with arrows (--->)
9/ Type "ruby setup.rb setup" (without the quotes), followed by the <enter> key
You should get a few lines of output with arrows (--->)
10/ Type "sudo ruby setup.rb install" (without the quotes), followed by the <enter> key
This will require that you enter your login password
You should get more lines of output, many of them starting with "install"

Thank you Case... I Followed your directions to a "T" here is what my terminal window says...

Last login: Wed Oct 8 09:58:47 on ttys000
t-f-macbook:~ tjfisher$ cd
t-f-macbook:~ tjfisher$ /Users/tjfisher/Desktop/flvtool2-1.0.6
-bash: /Users/tjfisher/Desktop/flvtool2-1.0.6: is a directory
t-f-macbook:~ tjfisher$ ruby setup.rb config
ruby: No such file or directory -- setup.rb (LoadError)
t-f-macbook:~ tjfisher$

help! I can't be this stupid!

[Case]

t-f-macbook:~ tjfisher$ cd
t-f-macbook:~ tjfisher$ /Users/tjfisher/Desktop/flvtool2-1.0.6

Do not press <enter> between "cd " and dragging the folder. Together they should be one command.

[graphictodd]

t-f-macbook:~ tjfisher$ cd
t-f-macbook:~ tjfisher$ /Users/tjfisher/Desktop/flvtool2-1.0.6

Do not press <enter> between "cd " and dragging the folder. Together they should be one command.

Case, you ROCK! thank you so much... that did the trick! woo hoo!!

[303]

In more detail …

Thanks Case, just had flvtool2 installed with your instructions. I suggest this should be added into the FAQ or made a Sticky here in this forum, helping others to find this.