avidemux and AVCHD (.MTS)

**xzero1** · June 20th, 2009

I would continue to fight to get ffmpeg or mencoder or something to convert before your edit, because Kdenlive is uses ffmpeg under the hood anyway.

If quality is important, then the decoding/re-encoding of the video will not be lossless and will be time consuming. Yes, it is harder to get video editors to only edit the sections that are affected by the editing process but if this can be done for other codecs, why not x264? Are there not commercial software programs that already do this? If one only needs to do a cut and paste here and there why should this require re-encoding the entire video? Still, there are other perfectly valid reasons for using the process you describe.

**mashedbear** · June 21st, 2009

Originally Posted by xzero1

First of all, -an says no audio. But you shouldn't need to convert -- just change the container. Try this:

Code:

ffmpeg -i filename.mts -acodec copy -vcodec copy filename.mp4

Thanks. Tried this but got the following error:

Code:

ffmpeg -i 00000.MTS -acodec copy -vcodec copy test.mp4FFmpeg version r11872+debian_3:0.svn20080206-12ubuntu3.1, Copyright (c) 2000-2008 Fabrice Bellard, et al.
  configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-pp --enable-swscaler --enable-x11grab --prefix=/usr --enable-libgsm --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-pthreads --disable-strip --enable-libfaad --enable-libfaadbin --enable-liba52 --enable-liba52bin --enable-libdc1394 --enable-shared --disable-static
  libavutil version: 49.6.0
  libavcodec version: 51.50.0
  libavformat version: 52.7.0
  libavdevice version: 52.0.0
  built on Mar 13 2009 17:52:45, gcc: 4.3.2
Input #0, mpegts, from '00000.MTS':
  Duration: 00:06:48.7, start: 1.040000, bitrate: 12286 kb/s
  Program 1 
    Stream #0.0[0x1011]: Video: h264, yuv420p, 1440x1080 [PAR 4:3 DAR 16:9], 25.00 tb(r)
    Stream #0.1[0x1100]: Audio: liba52, 48000 Hz, 5:1, 448 kb/s
Output #0, mp4, to 'test.mp4':
    Stream #0.0: Video: libx264, yuv420p, 1440x1080 [PAR 0:1 DAR 0:1], q=2-31, 25.00 tb(c)
    Stream #0.1: Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, 5:1, 448 kb/s
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0.0 -> #0.0
  Stream #0.1 -> #0.1
[mp4 @ 0x7f6271be7040]track 1: could not find tag for codec
Could not write header for output file #0 (incorrect codec parameters ?)

I think this is to do with the audio - perhaps mp4 doesn't support AC3? I have tried various different acodec settings

adpcm_ima_wav - results in Floating point exception
ac3 - results in Error while opening codec for output stream #0.1 - maybe incorrect parameters such as bit_rate, rate, width or height
mp3 - results in Unknown encoder 'mp3'

Am shooting in the dark a bit. Any light appreciated!

**xzero1** · June 22nd, 2009

Try adding the "-f mp4" parameter. The original command works for me converting a similar ".ts" format (h.264, 5.1) file. If that does not work, you may need to update ffmpeg and its libraries.

In the command line, I used "FFmpeg version 0.5-svn17737+3:0.svn20090303-1ubuntu6" compiled according to this thread:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...ight=ffmpeg-mt

**mashedbear** · June 26th, 2009

Originally Posted by xzero1

Try adding the "-f mp4" parameter. The original command works for me converting a similar ".ts" format (h.264, 5.1) file. If that does not work, you may need to update ffmpeg and its libraries.

In the command line, I used "FFmpeg version 0.5-svn17737+3:0.svn20090303-1ubuntu6" compiled according to this thread:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...ight=ffmpeg-mt

Thanks have tried the "-f mp4" parameter and this also errored

Code:

ffmpeg -i 00001.MTS -f mp4 -vcodec copy -acodec copy test.mp4
FFmpeg version r11872+debian_3:0.svn20080206-12ubuntu3.1, Copyright (c) 2000-2008 Fabrice Bellard, et al.
  configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-pp --enable-swscaler --enable-x11grab --prefix=/usr --enable-libgsm --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-pthreads --disable-strip --enable-libfaad --enable-libfaadbin --enable-liba52 --enable-liba52bin --enable-libdc1394 --enable-shared --disable-static
  libavutil version: 49.6.0
  libavcodec version: 51.50.0
  libavformat version: 52.7.0
  libavdevice version: 52.0.0
  built on Mar 13 2009 17:52:45, gcc: 4.3.2
Input #0, mpegts, from '00001.MTS':
  Duration: 00:00:35.3, start: 1.040000, bitrate: 12466 kb/s
  Program 1 
    Stream #0.0[0x1011]: Video: h264, yuv420p, 1440x1080 [PAR 4:3 DAR 16:9], 25.00 tb(r)
    Stream #0.1[0x1100]: Audio: liba52, 48000 Hz, 5:1, 448 kb/s
Output #0, mp4, to 'test.mp4':
    Stream #0.0: Video: libx264, yuv420p, 1440x1080 [PAR 0:1 DAR 0:1], q=2-31, 25.00 tb(c)
    Stream #0.1: Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, 5:1, 448 kb/s
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0.0 -> #0.0
  Stream #0.1 -> #0.1
[mp4 @ 0x7f6b2cbcd040]track 1: could not find tag for codec
Could not write header for output file #0 (incorrect codec parameters ?)

My version of ffmpeg is

Code:

ffmpeg -version
FFmpeg version r11872+debian_3:0.svn20080206-12ubuntu3.1, Copyright (c) 2000-2008 Fabrice Bellard, et al.
  configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-pp --enable-swscaler --enable-x11grab --prefix=/usr --enable-libgsm --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-pthreads --disable-strip --enable-libfaad --enable-libfaadbin --enable-liba52 --enable-liba52bin --enable-libdc1394 --enable-shared --disable-static
  libavutil version: 49.6.0
  libavcodec version: 51.50.0
  libavformat version: 52.7.0
  libavdevice version: 52.0.0
  built on Mar 13 2009 17:52:45, gcc: 4.3.2
FFmpeg r11872+debian_3:0.svn20080206-12ubuntu3.1
libavutil   3212800
libavcodec  3355136
libavformat 3409664
libavdevice 3407872

Do i need to upgrade this? Is there a way to do this without building from source?

I still think this could be to do with the audio formats that mp4 supports.

Thanks again for any help

**mashedbear** · June 27th, 2009

Originally Posted by xzero1

Try adding the "-f mp4" parameter. The original command works for me converting a similar ".ts" format (h.264, 5.1) file. If that does not work, you may need to update ffmpeg and its libraries.

In the command line, I used "FFmpeg version 0.5-svn17737+3:0.svn20090303-1ubuntu6" compiled according to this thread:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...ight=ffmpeg-mt

I have upgraded my system from ubuntu 8.10 to 9.04 and now have the same version of ffmpeg ie. 0.5-svn17737+3:0.svn20090303-1ubuntu6 and guess what this now works!

Brilliant. Thanks for your help!

**Backharlow** · July 3rd, 2009

Excellent.

**mashedbear** · July 6th, 2009

Ah not quite. Got the ffmpeg command to work - and have a way to automate running the command over a directory of files. Only problem is neither Cinelerra 2.1CV or Avidemux 2.4.4 will open them.

Am i going in circles or getting close?

**mashedbear** · July 14th, 2009

Have found a post on using mencoder to convert AVCHD to avi and am trying to get this to work.

The post is here in case this is of any help to others.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...40#post7605440