mencoder x264 issues

[tommiy]

I'm try to transcode from my fta tv recordings to a mp4 using mencoder but no matter what options I try mencoder will not encode. I'm after some help please. I'm assuming the errors are due to the fact that perhaps the sn of the TV signal is not great. I still can't resolve why this doesn;t work. Any help would be appreciated.

D:\temp\mencoder\MPlayer-p4-svn-31878>mencoder "1.dvr-ms" -ovc x264 -x264encopts
subq=4:bframes=2:weight_b=yes:bitrate=1400 -ofps 25 -oac mp3lame -o test.mp4

MEncoder Sherpya-SVN-r32198-4.2.5 (C) 2000-2010 MPlayer Team
159 audio & 354 video codecs
Warning unknown option imate at line 593

WARNING: OUTPUT FILE FORMAT IS _AVI_. See -of help.
success: format: 0 data: 0x0 - 0xb8a29c8
ASF file format detected.
[asfheader] Audio stream found, -aid 1
[asfheader] Video stream found, -vid 2
VIDEO: [DVR ] 0x0 0bpp 1000.000 fps 5761.5 kbps (703.3 kbyte/s)
VIDEO: MPEG2 720x576 (aspect 3) 25.000 fps 10000.0 kbps (1250.0 kbyte/s)
[V] filefmt:6 fourcc:0x10000002 size:720x576 fps:25.000 ftime:=0.0400
================================================== ========================
Opening audio decoder: [mp3lib] MPEG layer-2, layer-3
AUDIO: 48000 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 256.0 kbit/16.67% (ratio: 32000->192000)
Selected audio codec: [mp3] afm: mp3lib (mp3lib MPEG layer-2, layer-3)
================================================== ========================
Opening video filter: [expand osd=1]
Expand: -1 x -1, -1 ; -1, osd: 1, aspect: 0.000000, round: 1
================================================== ========================
Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family
Selected video codec: [ffmpeg2] vfm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg MPEG-2)
================================================== ========================
MP3 audio selected.
[mpeg2video @ 00fc58d4]interlaced frame in progressive sequence, ignoring
[mpeg2video @ 00fc58d4]invalid frame_pred_frame_dct
Movie-Aspect is 2.09:1 - prescaling to correct movie aspect.
x264 [info]: using SAR=501/352
x264 [info]: using cpu capabilities: MMX2 SSE2Fast SSSE3 FastShuffle SSE4.1 Cach
e64
x264 [info]: profile High, level 3.0
[mpeg2video @ 00fc58d4]ac-tex damaged at 0 0
[mpeg2video @ 00fc58d4]skipped MB in I frame at 3 1
[mpeg2video @ 00fc58d4]invalid mb type in I Frame at 1 2
[mpeg2video @ 00fc58d4]ac-tex damaged at 0 3
[mpeg2video @ 00fc58d4]ac-tex damaged at 0 4
[mpeg2video @ 00fc58d4]skipped MB in I frame at 1 5
[mpeg2video @ 00fc58d4]skipped MB in I frame at 1 6
[mpeg2video @ 00fc58d4]slice mismatch
[mpeg2video @ 00fc58d4]ac-tex damaged at 0 8
[mpeg2video @ 00fc58d4]ac-tex damaged at 0 9
[mpeg2video @ 00fc58d4]ac-tex damaged at 0 10
[mpeg2video @ 00fc58d4]ac-tex damaged at 0 11
[mpeg2video @ 00fc58d4]ac-tex damaged at 0 12
[mpeg2video @ 00fc58d4]skipped MB in I frame at 1 13
[mpeg2video @ 00fc58d4]ac-tex damaged at 0 14
[mpeg2video @ 00fc58d4]ac-tex damaged at 1 15
....
and on this goes until
.....
[mpeg2video @ 00fc58d4]mb incr damaged
[mpeg2video @ 00fc58d4]slice below image (30 >= 30)
Error while decoding frame!

1 duplicate frame(s)!
Muxer frame buffer cannot allocate memory!
Pos: 0.0s 12f ( 0%) 0.15fps Trem: 241min 0mb A-V:0.004 [0:0]
Movie-Aspect is 2.09:1 - prescaling to correct movie aspect.

New video file has different resolution or colorspace than the previous one.
FATAL: Cannot initialize video driver.

Exiting...

[Baldrick]

I guess you can play the dvrms? Have you tried remux the dvrms ato mpg/ts, then convert and see how it works? Try dvrmstoolbox.

[tommiy]

Thanks.

Its interesting that ffmpeg with DVRMS toolbox has no issues on my file in removing the dvrms container using the commandd

ffmpeg -y -i "input.dvr-ms" -vcodec copy -acodec copy -f dvd output.mpg

However any of the current recent builds of ffmpeg throws alot of errors in attempting to execute this command and ends up with something like

[dvd @ 038d80c0] packet too large, ignoring buffer limits to mux it
[dvd @ 038d80c0] buffer underflow i=1 bufi=4161 size=5872
Last message repeated 1 times
[dvd @ 038d80c0] packet too large, ignoring buffer limits to mux it
[dvd @ 038d80c0] buffer underflow i=1 bufi=4161 size=5872
[dvd @ 038d80c0] st:1 error, non monotone timestamps 214200 >= 213840


The ffmpeg with dvrms toolbox also eports non-montone timestamps but continues processing the file.

Seems to be a different splinter of ffmpeg for dvr-ms toobox? it appears rather old with the copyright only going to 2007.

Is there anyway to use current ffmpeg builds or is the other customised to the entent that the changes will never be formally part of the official build tree?

[tommiy]

Posting so it may help someone else!

Well a day of stuffing around and trying to find a solution to everything on the net. I found alot of people complaining like myself on ffmpeg not encoding correctly or throwing this error. There is nothing conclusive anywhere on the net by the looks. Following your nose and trying to be logical about it got me there in the end but its more by good luck than anything else.

I first decided to remove the dvr-ms format from the equation by using the old ffmpeg_MPEGTS programs to get a standard mpeg file. Also got virtualdub and the mpeg plugin so I could exmaine my source. I then tried alot of alternatives with ffmpeg to get it to provide a mp4 encode of my mpeg file. I had not mcuh luck with this as I got errors about monotones and invalid codec for the video and number other messages about not enough memory for the mux and it went on and on. Eventually I figured out that the reasons for most of this was that ffmpeg simply couldn't determine the input frame rate.

My original command was:

ffmpeg.exe -i 1tb.mpg -vcodec libx264 -crf 22 -fpre ..\ffmpeg\presets\libx264-default.ffpreset test3.mp4

which was met with the following errors:

[mpeg2video @ 031603a0] warning: first frame is no keyframe
frame= 41 fps= 0 q=27.0 size= 2kB time=0.08 bitrate= 176.8kbits/s dup=0
[mp4 @ 037d0050] st:0 error, non monotone timestamps 80 >= 80
av_interleaved_write_frame(): Operation not permitted

however, if I modified the command and explicitly told ffmpeg that the input fps was 25 and the output fps should be 25....magic happened.

ffmpeg.exe -r 25 -i 1tb.mpg -r 25 -vcodec libx264 -crf 22 -fpre ..\ffmpeg\presets\libx264-default.ffpreset test5.mp4

Then I returned and used my original dvr-ms file as input

ffmpeg.exe -r 25 -i 1.dvr-ms -r 25 -vcodec libx264 -crf 22 -fpre ..\ffmpeg\presets\libx264-default.ffpreset test5.mp4

However this was then met with the error of:

Decoder (codec id 102400) not found for input stream #0.0

and then encoding stopped.

Looking at the information at the start of the file there appears to be an extra stream in the dvr--ms.

Duration: 00:04:06.76, start: 0.077000, bitrate: 6276 kb/s
Stream #0.0(eng): Audio: [0][0][0][0] / 0x0000, 48000 Hz, 2 channels, 256 kb/s
Stream #0.1(eng): Invalid Codec type -1
Stream #0.2(eng): Video: mpeg2video, yuv420p, 720x576 [PAR 64:45 DAR 16:9],10000 kb/s, 25 fps, 25 tbr, 1k tbn, 50 tbc


Given the error relates to not being able to determine the audio codec I explicitly told mmpeg its a mp2.

ffmpeg.exe -r 25 -acodec mp2 -deinterlace -i 1.dvr-ms -r 25 -vcodec libx264 -crf 22 -fpre ..\ffmpeg\presets\libx264-default.ffpreset test5.mp4

And viola a working mp4 that mediainfo likes as well.

Why was all this really so difficult is beyond me. The number of messages on the net with the same errors as I've had and no real simple answer provided makes you wonder. I hope this helps someone else along the way.