Basic FFMpeg Command question (m2t to mov)

[fitch.j]

I'm looking for how to re-encode my m2t video files into .mov files using the quicktime animation codec. Is this possible?

I know little about ffmpeg command lines, i was trying to use WinFF as it seemed to be more intuitive,
I had the preset command line as:

-f mov -acodec libfaac -ab 128kb -ac 2

But it threw up an error.

I'm not looking to change anything else, resolution framerates etc all to be kept.

Any help would be great, thanks.


If it helps this is what mediainfo says about the source file:

ID                               : FF
Complete name                    : G:\Video Footage\Test Cap-2009_10_20-16_01_51.m2t
Format                           : MPEG-TS
File size                        : 21.3 MiB
Duration                         : 6s 759ms
Start time                       : UTC 2009-10-20 16:01:51
End time                         : UTC 2009-10-20 16:01:58
Overall bit rate                 : 26.4 Mbps
Maximum Overall bit rate         : 33.0 Mbps
Encoded date                     : UTC 2009-10-20 16:01:51

Video
ID                               : 2064 (0x810)
Menu ID                          : 100 (0x64)
Format                           : MPEG Video
Format version                   : Version 2
Format profile                   : Main@High-1440
Format settings, Matrix          : Default
Duration                         : 6s 720ms
Bit rate mode                    : Constant
Bit rate                         : 24.2 Mbps
Nominal bit rate                 : 25.0 Mbps
Width                            : 1 440 pixels
Height                           : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio             : 16:9
Frame rate                       : 25.000 fps
Standard                         : Component
Colorimetry                      : 4:2:0
Scan type                        : Interlaced
Scan order                       : Top Field First
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)               : 0.622
Stream size                      : 19.4 MiB (91%)

Audio
ID                               : 2068 (0x814)
Menu ID                          : 100 (0x64)
Format                           : MPEG Audio
Format version                   : Version 1
Format profile                   : Layer 2
Duration                         : 6s 528ms
Bit rate mode                    : Constant
Bit rate                         : 384 Kbps
Channel(s)                       : 2 channels
Sampling rate                    : 48.0 KHz
Resolution                       : 16 bits
Video delay                      : 48ms
Stream size                      : 306 KiB (1%)

[Baldrick]

What is the error from ffmpeg?

Another option would be to try mpeg streamclip and see if it can open the mts.

[poisondeathray]

qtrle is for animation

ffmpeg -i input.m2t -vcodec qtrle -acodec copy output.mov

You might have to change aspect ratio, not sure what the signalling is for DAR or PAR in mov container. It looks like you have hdv source. Try
-aspect 16:9

[AlanHK]

Different versions of ffmpeg use their options in subtly different ways.
Eg the -ab for audio bitrate can be in kb, or just bytes in more recent versions.

Do ffmpeg -h >ffmpeg.txt to see what your version does.

[fitch.j]

Ok great thanks i managed to sort it out and 'qtrle' was what i needed to know.

Another couple of questions: Firstly i'm assuming that is at quality 100 yes? It seems like it to me but just checking.

And also what would be the codec name for Photo-JPEG ? I'm looking around now for a list of codec names for ffmpeg but not able to find them yet, i thought that would be a top google result! :/

Cheers for the fast responses and help guys.

[poisondeathray]

Firstly i'm assuming that is at quality 100 yes?

animation codec is lossless, so yes quality is "100%", but there is a colorspace conversion to RGB. Converting back to a YV12 format isn't lossless.

also beware of the "QT gamma shift bug". Google. This may or may not affect you depending on what you are doing and your platform, how you play your files.

I'm looking around now for a list of codec names for ffmpeg

ffmpeg -formats

to see what your specific build supports / codec names

There is a list if you scroll down here, but not all builds may have compiled support:
http://t.webofgoo.com/2008/08/10/ffmpeg-convert-any-audiovideo-format-in-linux/comment-page-1/

[fitch.j]

Ok, Thanks for that link that was exactly what i was looking for.

I tried simply changing the codec from 'qtrle' to 'mjpeg' however now i'm getting the error "error while opening for output stream #0.0 - maybe incorrect paramaters such as bit_rate, rate, width or height"

However i haven't defined these in the command line so i'm not sure what needs to be changed, and what paramaters Motion-JPEG requires to be told rather than just copy the source file.

What i ran and worked fine for Animation was:

-f mov -vcodec qtrle -ac 2

However i'm getting the error when running this for mjpeg here:

-f mov -vcodec mjpeg -ac 2

Once again all help is very much appreciated!

[poisondeathray]

Not sure, it might be that mjpeg requires 1:1 square pixel format. It might not support anamorphic like your source (just guessing)

Also, mjpeg comes in many, many different "flavours" , from different colorspaces, different compression from very lossy to lossless, etc... Not sure what one you're getting by using ffmpeg. So it might be you have to specify a bitrate (not sure)

[fitch.j]

Hmmm, i can't work it out. I just rendered this out as photo jpeg (from AE) and it seems to handle anamorphic footage fine.

General
Complete name                    : G:\Video Footage\Comp 2.mov
Format                           : MPEG-4
Format profile                   : QuickTime
Codec ID                         : qt  
File size                        : 177 MiB
Duration                         : 6s 40ms
Overall bit rate                 : 246 Mbps
Encoded date                     : UTC 2009-11-27 19:34:00
Tagged date                      : UTC 2009-11-27 19:34:15
Writing library                  : Apple QuickTime

Video
ID                               : 1
Format                           : M-JPEG
Codec ID                         : jpeg
Duration                         : 6s 40ms
Bit rate mode                    : Variable
Bit rate                         : 246 Mbps
Width                            : 1 440 pixels
Height                           : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio             : 16:9
Frame rate mode                  : Constant
Frame rate                       : 25.000 fps
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)               : 6.338
Stream size                      : 177 MiB (100%)
Language                         : English
Encoded date                     : UTC 2009-11-27 19:34:00
Tagged date                      : UTC 2009-11-27 19:34:15

I'll have to look into it more

[poisondeathray]

Maybe a dumb question, but why don't you just use AME or AE to do this? Why ffmpeg?

[fitch.j]

I'm not at home, i'm away with friends for a while and trying to help him with some AE work but he only has the trial version, so importing m2t files is unsupported. I thought if i could easily convert his footage to Quicktime files he could work with them a lot easier, and After Effects likes quicktime files. Unfortunately AE won't do this for him so i went to FFMpeg.

I think he'll be fine with the Animation files i've got here, however i was only looking towards Motion-Jpeg because at 95-100 quality that would be fine for what he is wanting to do, and with Animation thats eating up his hard drive space in no time.

I suppose i could go really longwinded and convert to Animation, and then use adobe to reconvert to Motion-JPEG, but would be nicer if there was one easy step.

Not a dumb question at all! 8)