[vlc] Encoded/Saved Files Never Have Video

[Hal Vaughan]

Thank you for a reply!  Much appreciated!

On Monday 19 January 2009, you wrote:
> Hal Vaughan wrote:
> > On Wednesday 14 January 2009, Hal Vaughan wrote:
> >> This problem first showed up with .mts files, but I'm having the
> >> same problem with .mp4 files now.  I'm on Ubuntu Intrepid Linux
> >> and I have downloaded all the codecs.  Whenever I try to transcode
> >> a file in VLC, I end up with an output file with audio and no
> >> video.  I've fiddled with settings and tried different input
> >> files, but I never get video output.
> >>
> >> What do I need to do to make this work?
>
> 1) do not use debian or ubuntu because they come with crippled codec
> libraries.
> OR
> 2) deinstall ffmpeg and compile it yourself from ffmpeg source code

If the codec is not there, how can I view the video in a file but not 
get video when it transcodes it -- even to open codecs like Ogg?

I've been told, specifically, and on this list, that "You can install 
libavcodec52-unstripped (and friends) or use the
libavcodec of medibuntu"  which I've done.  While Ubuntu and Debian may 
have fewer codecs in the main distro, for as long as I've been using 
Debian (over 5 years now) and, as best I could see on Ubuntu, from the 
start, they've had separate repositories of the non-free software such 
as codecs.

Are you saying that even with the non-free repositories for Ubuntu, the 
codecs still aren't there?  Again, if the codecs aren't there, how can I 
still see the video, both the original .mts file and the .mp4 file 
HandBrake produces, played back to me?

I'm not trying to argue, but I've gotten different answers from 
different people, so I'm really quite confused.  About 6 months ago, on 
an earlier version of Ubuntu, I had transcoding working perfectly with 
this bash script:

#!/bin/bash
vcodec="mp4v" 
acodec="mp4a" 
bitrate="4096" 
arate="512" 
ext="mpg" 
mux="mp4" 
vlc="vlc" 
fmt="dv" 


$vlc -I dummy -vvv $1 --sout 
"#transcode{vcodec=$vcodec,vb=$bitrate,acodec=$acodec,ab=$arate,channels=2}
:standard{mux=$mux,dst=$2,access=file}" vlc:quit

(The last was all one line, split here for email.)  The only problem I 
had with it was that when it was done, VLC would not quit, I had to kill 
it with CTRL-C.  (Any help on why the vlc:quit doesn't work as in the 
man page would be appreciated as well!)

> > Previously someone told me what video codecs I needed to install to
> > make this work.  I've installed them.
> >
> > Is this not the right place to get help with this?
>
> Yes it is, but you need to give us more information:
> - what VLC version are you using?
> - send us the logging output of vlc
> - send the commandline used.

I did that once before, after they were asked, and nobody responded to 
that post.  I'm using VLC 4.3.2.  I've had problems with the command 
line.  I can pick "Convert/Save" and set it up, it gives me a command 
line, but when I cut and paste that line into the console after the 
command "vlc" it doesn't work.  To get this output, I ran VLC from the 
console as just "vlc", then when I used "Convert/Save" and set that up, 
(using MP4 as the container, video, and audio codecs) this was the 
resulting command line it said to use:

:sout=#transcode{vcodec=mp4v,vb=800,scale=1,acodec=mp4a,ab=128,channels=2}:duplicate{dst=std{access=file,mux=mp4,dst=/data/Data/Video/Dance/Performances/SweptAway-
DeepRun-VLC.mp4}}

I clicked on "Save" and it did the conversion.  Here's the command line 
output, from command to run VLC:

[hal at wizard:RawMTS]$ vlc
VLC media player 0.9.4 Grishenko
[00000001] main libvlc debug: VLC media player - version 0.9.4 Grishenko 
- (c) 1996-2008 the VideoLAN team
[00000001] main libvlc debug: libvlc was configured with ./configure  
'--build=x86_64-linux-gnu' '--enable-maintaner-mode' '--enable-release' 
'--prefix=/usr' '--enable-libtool' '--enable-fast-install' '--with-
binary-version=1ubuntu3' '--disable-update-check' '--disable-gnome' '--
disable-gtk' '--disable-familiar' '--disable-fb' '--enable-ggi' '--
enable-sdl' '--enable-esd' '--enable-mad' '--enable-arts' '--enable-
jack' '--enable-pulse' '--enable-lirc' '--enable-a52' '--enable-aa' '--
enable-dvbpsi' '--enable-mozilla' '--with-mozilla-pkg=libxul-plugin' '--
disable-kde' '--enable-mp4' '--enable-dvb' '--disable-satellite' '--
enable-ogg' '--enable-vorbis' '--enable-shout' '--enable-qt4' '--
disable-slp' '--enable-flac' '--disable-skins' '--disable-basic-skins' 
'--enable-skins2' '--enable-freetype' '--enable-mkv' '--enable-speex' 
'--enable-caca' '--enable-live555' '--enable-libmpeg2' '--enable-
fribidi' '--enable-cdio' '--enable-mod' '--enable-theora' '--enable-
modplug' '--enable-dvdnav' '--enable-gnutls' '--enable-ffmpeg' '--
enable-ncurses' '--enable-smb' '--disable-gnomevfs' '--enable-bonjour' 
'--enable-mpc' '--enable-vcd' '--enable-vcdx' '--enable-notify' '--
enable-twolame' '--enable-x264' '--enable-faad' '--disable-zvbi' '--
enable-telx' '--enable-mediacontrol-bindings' '--disable-atmo' '--
enable-taglib' '--enable-libass' '--enable-libdca' '--enable-alsa' '--
enable-dv' '--enable-v4l' '--enable-v4l2' '--enable-pvr' '--enable-
svgalib' '--enable-dvd' '--without-dvdcss' 'build_alias=x86_64-linux-
gnu' 'CFLAGS=-g -O2' 'LDFLAGS=-Wl,--as-needed' 'CPPFLAGS=' 'CXXFLAGS=-g 
-O2'
[00000001] main libvlc debug: translation test: code is "C"
[00000001] main libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface. Use 
'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.
libdvbpsi error (PSI decoder): TS discontinuity (received 1, expected 0) 
for PID 0
libdvbpsi error (PSI decoder): TS discontinuity (received 1, expected 0) 
for PID 256
[00000477] a52 packetizer: A/52 channels:2 samplerate:48000 
bitrate:256000
[00000492] a52 decoder: A/52 channels:2 samplerate:48000 bitrate:256000

In case there's an issue with codecs, I did it again, specifying Ogg as 
the encapsulation, video and audio.  Here's the command:

:sout=#transcode{vcodec=theo,vb=800,scale=1,acodec=vorb,ab=128,channels=2}:duplicate{dst=std{access=file,mux=ogg,dst=/data/Data/Video/Dance/Performances/SweptAway-
DeepRun-Ogg.mp4}}

And here's the output from just that command:

[00000538] mux_ogg mux: Open
libdvbpsi error (PSI decoder): TS discontinuity (received 1, expected 0) 
for PID 0
libdvbpsi error (PSI decoder): TS discontinuity (received 1, expected 0) 
for PID 256
[00000545] a52 packetizer: A/52 channels:2 samplerate:48000 
bitrate:256000
[00000546] a52 decoder: A/52 channels:2 samplerate:48000 bitrate:256000

Again, the output file has audio and no video.  This is from the same 
.mts file that Handbrake had no problem converting to .mp4 with sound 
and video.  Ideally, I'd like to use VLC, convert the .mts file to 2 
different .mp4 files, one that's 16:9, for my use and YouTube uploads 
(the .mts files don't always work right with YouTube) and also create a 
letter-boxed 4:3 .mp4 to use to create DVDs for other people.  It'd be 
nice to be able to produce both files with one program that I can set up 
with a script to make it easy to batch convert.

If it helps anyone, an .mts file I was working with is on my blog 
website.  This is not the file I'm currently working with, but it's one 
that YouTube accepted for upload in its original form and one that 
Handbrake converted without problem and it has all the same issues in 
VLC that the current file I'm using does.

http://halblog.com/videocheck/00027.mts

Thanks, again, for any help on this!


Hal
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.videolan.org/pipermail/vlc/attachments/20090119/f8a3af46/attachment.html>