Artefacts when uploading video to instagram

[dog_wearing_sandwiches]

Hi

I'm encoding this video:

Guessed Channel Layout for  Input Stream #0.1 : stereo
Input #0, avi, from 'input.avi':
  Duration: 00:00:15.00, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 841360 kb/s
    Stream #0:0: Video: rawvideo, bgr24, 1080x1080, 841678 kb/s, 30 fps, 30 tbr, 30 tbn, 30 tbc
    Stream #0:1: Audio: pcm_s16le ([1][0][0][0] / 0x0001), 48000 Hz, 2 channels, s16, 1536 kb/s

using the ffmpeg command:

ffmpeg -i input.avi -codec:v libx264 -profile:v baseline -preset slow -pix_fmt yuv420p -r 29.97 -b:v 25000k -threads 0 -acodec libvo_aacenc -ar 44100 output.mp4

This produces the following video:

Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'output.mp4':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : isom
    minor_version   : 512
    compatible_brands: isomiso2avc1mp41
    encoder         : Lavf57.2.100
  Duration: 00:00:15.04, start: 0.036281, bitrate: 24893 kb/s
    Stream #0:0(und): Video: h264 (Constrained Baseline) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p, 1080x1080, 24794 kb/s, 29.97 fps, 29.97 tbr, 11988 tbn, 59.94 tbc (default)
    Metadata:
      handler_name    : VideoHandler
    Stream #0:1(und): Audio: aac (LC) (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 44100 Hz, stereo, fltp, 128 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      handler_name    : SoundHandler

There are no artefacts at this point, but when I upload this mp4 to instagram, I get the following artefact:



See for yourself at https://instagram.com/p/73mZSGTCqz/

What could cause such a monstrosity? Any ideas on how to get a better result?

ffmpeg version N-75458-g198110d Copyright (c) 2000-2015 the FFmpeg developers
  built with gcc 4.9.3 (GCC)
  configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --disable-w32threads --enable-avisynth --enable-bzlib --enable-fontconfig --enable-frei0r --enable-gnutls --enable-iconv --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libbs2b --enable-libcaca --enable-libdcadec --enable-libfreetype --enable-libgme --enab
le-libgsm --enable-libilbc --enable-libmodplug --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopus --enable-librtmp --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libsoxr --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libtwolame --enable-libvidstab --ena
ble-libvo-aacenc --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwavpack --enable-libwebp --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-libxavs --enable-libxvid --enable-lzma --enable-decklink --enable-zlib
  libavutil      55.  2.100 / 55.  2.100
  libavcodec     57.  3.100 / 57.  3.100
  libavformat    57.  2.100 / 57.  2.100
  libavdevice    57.  0.100 / 57.  0.100
  libavfilter     6.  6.100 /  6.  6.100
  libswscale      4.  0.100 /  4.  0.100
  libswresample   2.  0.100 /  2.  0.100
  libpostproc    54.  0.100 / 54.  0.100

Thanks

[El Heggunte]

Try a service which sucks less than Instagram or Facebook —
YouTube, Vimeo, whatever.

OR upload to a file sharing site, then the loss of quality = zero.

[SameSelf]

I don't know what sort of bit rate instagram expects, but

-b:v 25000k

is a pretty fat bit rate. I would try something more parsimonious like 5000 and see if that helps. Plus the sample rate of the audio, 44.1 kHz, is not standard for video and should be 48 kHz.

[poisondeathray]

Isn't the max resolution 640x640?

Try disabling weightp - a similar decoding error used to happen to other websites

In ffmpeg libx264 it would be
-x264opts weightp=0