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Wesman26

Member

Registered: 2009-04-18

Posts: 70

ffmpeg avi to mp4 issues

I'm trying to convert a video (Choke) from avi to mp4 format so that I can put it on my old 5G ipod video.

ffmpeg -i /home/wes/Videos/Choke/Choke.avi -s qvga /homa/wes/Videos/Choke/Choke.mp4

returns

[mpeg4 @ 0x83580a0]timebase not supported by mpeg 4 standard
Error while opening codec for output stream #0.0 - maybe incorrect parameters such as bit_rate, rate, width or height

I thought that should work, but I've been wrong before so I look around the wiki and the aur.  I tried furiusconverter from the AUR and got similar errors. Avidemux doesn't work either. I'm getting really frustrated since from what I understand this should be working flawlessly. So I turn to the wiki and I find some code:

ffmpeg -vcodec xvid -b 300 -qmin 3 -qmax 5 -bufsize 4096 \
-g 300 -acodec aac -ab 96 -i INPUT -s 320x240 \
-aspect 4:3 output.mp4

I got some errors pertaining to the bit rate that went away when I changed "-b 300" to "-b 300k" and "-ab 96" to "-ab 96k".  There were also problems with "-vcodec" and how "xvid" was not recognized so I just got rid of "-vcodec xvid" but then I got the first error I posted.
The wiki also had this to offer: http://thomer.com/howtos/mp4ize
but after making it into "Converter.sh" and chmodding it (777) and running it I got another error.  This error may have something to do with my not having Ruby installed but I think I do so it shouldn't be a problem.

Does anyone know if I'm doing something wrong, how I can fix it, or any bit of wisdom?
On the fringe,
--Wes

EDIT:
So I installed Ruby (stupid of me not to check) and tried the code in the link above again. It seems like it's working and we'll see in a while if it did or not, but I'm still really curious why ffmpeg isn't working for me.  Can some one please tell me what I'm doing wrong with ffmpeg so that I don't have to keep using this homebrewed script?

Last edited by Wesman26 (2009-06-26 19:52:13)

brisbin33

Member

From: boston, ma

Registered: 2008-07-24

Posts: 1,796

Website

Re: ffmpeg avi to mp4 issues

maybe incorrect parameters such as ..., width or height

-s size
           Set frame size. The format is wxh (ffserver default = 160x128, ffmpeg default = same as
           source).  The following abbreviations are recognized:
...
           qvga
               320x240

i'd try it as simply ffmpeg -i file.avi file.mp4 and see if it works.  maybe that size is just not supported by mp4

---

//github/