Video transcoding

[BrianDelShasta]

Has anyone had any luck using ffmpeg or any other transcoder to successfully transcode video *with* sound? I can get the video to work fine, I just can get any audio packets to send.

[jigsaw]

I did a quick search in the forum and found two hits:

http://forum.subsonic.org/forum/viewtop ... ght=ffmpeg

http://forum.subsonic.org/forum/viewtop ... ght=ffmpeg

Try reading them and see if they give you your answers:)

[kapz]

Has anyone tried transcoding mp4 videos (h.264/AAC)? I have started to archive my DVD collection and the movie sizes range between 1.2-1.6 gigs (sometimes much more, or much less), it depends on the quality of the source. But the goal was to make perfect quality that would look like a DVD on a 60" TV.

The files stream with subsonic/VLC, but with ISP's adding bandwidth caps, it would be nice to reduce the size.

[BrianDelShasta]

Jigsaw, thank you, but I was already aware of those threads. I've even posted in one of them awhile back Unfortunately, I have not been able to find a solution. I can get the transcoded video to work, but no sound.

[jamart3d]

Has anyone had any luck using ffmpeg or any other transcoder to successfully transcode video *with* sound? I can get the video to work fine, I just can get any audio packets to send.

I'm getting no sound when I try to play a link on the same machine that runs
subsonic, (using vlc as the player) but when I play the link on another machine I get sound and video
with..
ffmpeg -i %s -f avi -

but now I'm trying to use vlc to do video transcoding..
I've copied vlc and all it's subdirs into the transcode dir

the log show's vlc starting, but it is having trouble passing the stream back to subsonic I think?

here is the last thing I tried
vlc -I dummy -vv %s :sout=#transcode{vcodec=DIV3,vb=192,scale=.5,acodec=mpga,ab=32,channels=1}:duplicate{dst=std{access=file,mux=asf,dst=-}}

[BrianDelShasta]

That's odd, I wonder if you're using a different version of ffmpeg?

When I use:
ffmpeg -i %s -f avi -
I get no audio packets at all, when streaming locally or remotely. I've tried multiple version of VLC.

When I use:
ffmpeg -i %s -f avi -b 128k -
to actually downsample the video, I get the same results: no audio packets.

However, when I run the same ffmpeg command from the prompt and transcode a file, I can get video/audio. It's very frustrating.

[jamart3d]

try to play the stream with mplayer, or something else than vlc
I can confirm no sound when playing from vlc on another machine as well
something with ffmpeg I think.. or the -f avi format...

these work well enough for me if I play with mplayer..

ffmpeg -v 1 -i %s -f avi -s qvga -b 128kb -ab 32kb -
ffmpeg -v 1 -i %s -f avi -s qvga -b 128kb -g 300 -bf 2 -ab 32kb -ac 1 -
ffmpeg -v 1 -i %s -f avi -s qqvga -b 128kb -ab 32kb -ac 1 -
ffmpeg -v 1 -i %s -f avi -s qvga -b 256kb -aspect 16:9 -croptop 60 -cropbottom 60 -ab 96kb -

I've been trying to up the rez, fiddle with formats..
but haven't found a better sweet spot yet..

ffmpeg is pretty nice, but I'm used to streaming with vlc, I tuned vlc
to deliver nice vid either over 3g or into work

p.s. once your getting something good, change the -v 1 to -v 0, to reduce verbosity of ffmpeg

[BrianDelShasta]

Hmm, interesting. I am able to get sound using mplayer. I'll try and figure out what's up with VLC now that I know the stream is attempting to send audio. Thanks!

[BrianDelShasta]

Okay, I finally got sound for transcoded video in VLC!
VLC aparently just doesn't like the -f avi swtich in ffmpeg because when it sees it, it dumps the avi module and then doesn't know what to do with any audio packets.

ffmpeg -i %s -f mpeg -b 128k -

now it streams in mpeg instead of avi, but it works.
Odd thing is, I thought this was one of the first things I tried, but I guess not.

[jamart3d]

cool, I got this to feed decent video/audio to vlc

ffmpeg -v 0 -i %s -f asf -s qvga -b 384kb -ab 56kb -ac 2 -

this is better :
mpg>asf
ffmpeg1 -v 0 -i %s -f asf -vcodec mpeg4 -s qvga -b 512kb -ab 56kb -ac 2 -

[samotano]

Glad to hear to some people are having success trasncoding video (last time I checked on this forum about a year ago there were no successes).

Can someone explain how those arguments are to be entered in the transcoding windows of subsonic? (i.e. Name, Convert from, convert to, step1, step2, step3).

I am specifically looking to lower avi resolution and perhaps using H.264 on the fly

[Bishop05]

I really would lime to stream AVI file via subsonic.
I'm a bit confused on how to configure FFMPEG to convert the files.

I'm streaming to a extermal player VLC.
any help would be great.

[kyds3k]

i'm VERY interested in doing this!!! access to my entire anime collection remotely . . . yesssss . . .

[arcangel]

I've been lurking around the forums for a while and decided what the he11. I'm trying to get more information on what it takes to set up streaming video in subsonic. I have a basic but limited understanding of what it takes but i haven't been able to set it up correctly. I get just a second or two of video and then it disappears. That is when i try the information listed above. Any more help here would be greatly appreciated

I ran across an article this morning:

http://www.informationproductsinc.com/b ... erver.aspx

Containing information i haven't seen posted on the forums. I haven't had a chance to try it, but i'm looking forward to it. Who knows maybe it will help someone else.

[lemay86]

I've been lurking around the forums for a while and decided what the he11. I'm trying to get more information on what it takes to set up streaming video in subsonic. I have a basic but limited understanding of what it takes but i haven't been able to set it up correctly. I get just a second or two of video and then it disappears. That is when i try the information listed above. Any more help here would be greatly appreciated

I ran across an article this morning:

http://www.informationproductsinc.com/b ... erver.aspx

Containing information i haven't seen posted on the forums. I haven't had a chance to try it, but i'm looking forward to it. Who knows maybe it will help someone else.

In that link the avi > flv conversion command should work for you though you might want to add -ac 2 to force the videos to 2 channel audio. For example:

Code: Select all

ffmpeg -re -y -i %s -ar 44100 -ac 2 -f flv -


Also if you have a slow pc you might run into the video playing faster then your system can transcode it if that happens then the video in flash player will stop and restart thinking it had reached the end. To prevent this you can start the video and pause it for a little while then continue playing the video.