Arch Linux

RobF

Member

Registered: 2006-10-10

Posts: 157

VLC doesn't save streaming audio to mp3 anymore

I want to save streaming audio from the internet to my HDD in mp3 format while listening to it at the same time.  That worked fine when I did it with VLC, using the GUI.  To be specific, here are the settings that I used:

VLC main menu: File>Open Network Stream>Open...Network>tick HTTP/HTTPS/FTP/MMS and enter the URL (http://vruk.sc.llnwd.net:12265) >under Advanced Options tick Stream/Save and click on Settings (opens Stream Output window)>Outputs, tick Play locally, tick File, click on Browse and enter filename and location for the stream saving file, i.e. /home/robert/vlcout.mp3>Encapsulation method, tick on Raw>Transcoding options, tick on Audio codec and select mp3>Bitrate 128 kb/s, Channels 2>OK, OK, to start recording. Stop or Quit VLC, to stop recording.

Two days ago I upgraded VLC from v.0.8.5-9 to v.0.8.6a-4 (which also upgraded ffmpeg from v.20060920-1 to v.20070131-1), and now the above procedure isn't working anymore.  The stream isn't playing anymore over my speakers while the encoding supposedly is going on, the vlcout.mp3 file is empty (0B), and VCL gives me the following error messages:

stream_out_transcode error: cannot find encoder ((null))
stream_out_transcode error: cannot create audio chain
main error: cannot create packetizer output (mpga)

It looks as though VLC is failing to encode the stream to mp3.  The VLC documentation (see http://www.videolan.org/streaming-features.html) in a table of "possible output formats for the transcoding module" says that for mp3 audio "you have to compile ffmpeg with libmp3lame support."  Has the new ffmpeg v.20070131-1 (in extra) been compiled without mp3 support?  If so, why?  Apparently, the older version I was using last week supported mp3.

libmp3lame is installed on my system.  There is a very recent alternative ffmpeg-svn-8218-1 pkgbuild in AUR that enables libmp3lame in the configure section of the build but when I try to install the package built that way it conflicts with ffmpeg v.20070131-1, and to remove the official ffmpeg v.20070131-1 I'd first have to remove a slew of other packages that depend on it.

Is it possible to remove VLC v.0.8.6a-4 and ffmpeg v.20070131-1 and go back to the older versions that worked for me?  There was talk of a bug in ffmpeg in this forum at the end of January; what about it?

What should I do?

Robert

Last edited by RobF (2007-03-14 16:25:51)

RobF

Member

Registered: 2006-10-10

Posts: 157

Re: VLC doesn't save streaming audio to mp3 anymore

I solved the problem for now by downgrading both vlc and ffmpeg to the earlier versions that I was using before.  Saving an audio stream in mp3 format is working again now.

I believe there are problems with the current versions of both vlc and ffmpeg.

1. vlc 0.8.6a doesn't seem to have ffmpeg enabled, i.e.

$ vlc --list | grep ffmpeg
VLC media player 0.8.6a Janus

whereas with the older version I get

$ vlc --list | grep ffmpeg
VLC media player 0.8.5 Janus
  ffmpeg                FFmpeg audio/video decoder/encoder ((MS)MPEG4,SVQ1,H263,WMV,WMA)
  ffmpeg                FFmpeg chroma conversion
  ffmpeg                FFmpeg audio/video encoder
  ffmpeg                FFmpeg demuxer
  ffmpeg                FFmpeg video filter
  ffmpeg                FFmpeg crop padd filter
  ffmpeg                FFmpeg deinterlace video filter

2. The current package ffmpeg v.20070131-1 in extra may not refer to various libraries correctly in its configure parameters.  E.g. in AUR there is an alternative pkgbuild ffmpeg-svn 8218-1 from 04-Mar-2007 in which the original configure parameters were replaced as follows:

--enable-mp3lame --> --enable-libmp3lame
--enable-vorbis --> --enable-libvorbis
--enable-faac --> --enable-libfaac
--enable-faad --> --enable-libfaad
--enable-a52 --> --enable-liba52
--enable-dts --> --enable-libdts

Has the ffmpeg package in extra been compiled with mp3 support which is needed for the transcoding module of vlc to encode in mp3 format?  The alternative ffmpeg package in AUR conflicts with the ffmpeg package from extra, and I don't know how to tell the new vlc to use the alternative package instead of the one from extra. 

Someone ought to look into this.

Robert

Cotton

Member

From: Cornwall, UK

Registered: 2004-09-17

Posts: 568

Re: VLC doesn't save streaming audio to mp3 anymore

Someone ought to look into this.

"Someone" is unlikely to unless you raise a bug report.

RobF

Member

Registered: 2006-10-10

Posts: 157

Re: VLC doesn't save streaming audio to mp3 anymore

"Someone" is unlikely to unless you raise a bug report.

Done (FS#6600).

skottish

Forum Fellow

From: Here

Registered: 2006-06-16

Posts: 7,942

Re: VLC doesn't save streaming audio to mp3 anymore

VLC 8.6b (nightly snapshot: http://nightlies.videolan.org./build/source/vlc-snapshot-branch-0.8.6-bugfix-20070412.tar.gz ) plus FFMPEG built 4/15/2007 doesn't have this problem. Also, MP4 playback under Linux is no longer broken in the build.

skottish

Forum Fellow

From: Here

Registered: 2006-06-16

Posts: 7,942

Re: VLC doesn't save streaming audio to mp3 anymore

Sorry to bump, but 0.8.6b is out! I marked the package as out of date, so hopefully the new version will hit the repos soon.