ffmpeg convert MTS to MP4 problem

[fnadde42]

Hello forum!
I have this really bad camcorder that records in high quality. Then why is it bad then? Because it records in some iditot codec that is impossible to edit with. So I want to convert this, so called, AVCHD video into MPEG4 video so I can actually do something with my recorded material. I have looked around and a lot of people are recommending ffmpeg. So I installed it and tried it on one of my clips.

I'm gonna warn you right now; I'm kind of a n00b when it comes to this.

But anyway, this is what I typed in the terminal

The output of this was a video named output.mp4 - 0 bytes - MPEG-4-video


ffmpeg -i 00000.MTS -vframes 25 -s hd1080 -vcodec mpeg4 -deinterlace output.mp4
ffmpeg version 0.7.2-4:0.7.2-1ubuntu1, Copyright (c) 2000-2011 the Libav developers
built on Oct 2 2011 15:13:26 with gcc 4.6.1
configuration: --extra-version='4:0.7.2-1ubuntu1' --arch=amd64 --prefix=/usr --enable-vdpau --enable-bzlib --enable-libgsm --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-pthreads --enable-zlib --enable-libvpx --enable-runtime-cpudetect --enable-vaapi --enable-gpl --enable-postproc --enable-swscale --enable-x11grab --enable-libdc1394 --enable-shared --disable-static
WARNING: library configuration mismatch
avutil configuration: --extra-version='4:0.7.2.1ubuntu1' --arch=amd64 --prefix=/usr --enable-vdpau --enable-bzlib --enable-libgsm --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-pthreads --enable-zlib --enable-libvpx --enable-runtime-cpudetect --enable-vaapi --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-gpl --enable-postproc --enable-swscale --enable-x11grab --enable-libdirac --enable-libmp3lame --enable-librtmp --enable-libx264 --enable-libxvid --enable-libvo-aacenc --enable-version3 --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-version3 --enable-libdc1394 --enable-shared --disable-static
avcodec configuration: --extra-version='4:0.7.2.1ubuntu1' --arch=amd64 --prefix=/usr --enable-vdpau --enable-bzlib --enable-libgsm --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-pthreads --enable-zlib --enable-libvpx --enable-runtime-cpudetect --enable-vaapi --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-gpl --enable-postproc --enable-swscale --enable-x11grab --enable-libdirac --enable-libmp3lame --enable-librtmp --enable-libx264 --enable-libxvid --enable-libvo-aacenc --enable-version3 --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-version3 --enable-libdc1394 --enable-shared --disable-static
libavutil 51. 7. 0 / 51. 7. 0
libavcodec 53. 5. 0 / 53. 5. 0
libavformat 53. 2. 0 / 53. 2. 0
libavdevice 53. 0. 0 / 53. 0. 0
libavfilter 2. 4. 0 / 2. 4. 0
libswscale 2. 0. 0 / 2. 0. 0
libpostproc 52. 0. 0 / 52. 0. 0

Seems stream 0 codec frame rate differs from container frame rate: 50.00 (50/1) -> 50.00 (50/1)
Input #0, mpegts, from '00000.MTS':
Duration: 00:00:09.63, start: 0.801367, bitrate: 16846 kb/s
Program 1
Stream #0.0[0x1011]: Video: h264 (High), yuv420p, 1920x1080 [PAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 50 fps, 50 tbr, 90k tbn, 50 tbc
Stream #0.1[0x1100]: Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, 5.1, s16, 384 kb/s
[buffer @ 0xb7a9e0] w:1920 h:1080 pixfmt:yuv420p
[libvo_aacenc @ 0xb77940] Unable to set encoding parameters
Output #0, mp4, to 'output.mp4':
Stream #0.0: Video: mpeg4, yuv420p, 1920x1080 [PAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], q=2-31, 200 kb/s, 90k tbn, 50 tbc
Stream #0.1: Audio: libvo_aacenc, 48000 Hz, 5.1, s16, 64 kb/s
Stream mapping:
Stream #0.0 -> #0.0
Stream #0.1 -> #0.1
Error while opening encoder for output stream #0.1 - maybe incorrect parameters such as bit_rate, rate, width or height

[FakeOutdoorsman]

The not so useful error is coming from libvo_aacenc. I guess it is having trouble with the input having 6 channels. You can try adding -acodec copy and copy the input audio to the output. Or add -ac 2 to attempt to downmix from 6 to 2 channels (stereo). This is not compatible with -acodec copy and will re-encode your audio into a lossy format therefore will have lower quality, but you may not notice a difference with a high enough bitrate (-ab 192k for example).

As for the video, add -qscale 3 to improve the output quality. The default output bitrate of 200k is dismal. You can also remove -s hd1080 because your output will automatically inherit the frame size of the input.

What editor is having trouble with your inputs? It's doubtful, but perhaps the container is to blame:

ffmpeg -i 00000.MTS -vcodec copy -acodec copy 00000.mp4
or

ffmpeg -i 00000.MTS -vcodec copy -acodec copy 00000.mkv

[fnadde42]

I'm using Kdenlive. I know that it can open .MTS-files but it freezes Kdenlive for a few seconds when you try to play through the timeline. So I want to convert it to a better format for editing.

I tried the first command and the result is the same; it generate a file that's less than 1Kb

But the other one with the Matroska container worked! Thanks a thousand times!

[pollywog]

I used WinFF (version 1.4.2 running on Lucid) and it worked like a charm