Cinepak encoder?

[hellocatfood]

Is there a way to encode video using the Cinepak codec on Linux? FFMPEG can only decode.

[hellocatfood]

I've since gotten a bit of help from the kind folk over at videohelp but I think I may be experiencing a program error. Can anyone test this to help me?

Just to clarify my issue I'll provide a sample video and my process. I'll be working with this short clip http://ubuntuone.com/p/iJr/

I converted this to an avi in the rgb24 colourspace

ffmpeg -i vid.mov -vcodec png -pix_fmt bgr24 outfile.avi

I then tried to convert this to an avi that uses the cinepak codec

mencoder outfile.avi -vf format=bgr24 -ovc vfw -xvfwopts codec=iccvid.dll -oac mp3lame -o outfile_2.avi

This is where I got my segmentation fault:

MP3 audio selected.
Could not find matching colorspace - retrying with -vf scale...
Opening video filter: [scale]
Opening video filter: [flip]
Movie-Aspect is 1.78:1 - prescaling to correct movie aspect.
[swscaler @ 0xb6315fc0]using unscaled rgb24 -> bgr24 special converter
Opening video filter: [expand]
Expand: -1 x -1, -1 ; -1, osd: 0, aspect: 0.000000, round: 1
Starting compression:
 Input format:
  biSize 40
  biWidth 1280
  biHeight 720
  biPlanes 1
  biBitCount 24
  biCompression 0x0 ('')
  biSizeImage 2764800
 Output format:
  biSize 40
  biWidth 1280
  biHeight 720
  biPlanes 1
  biBitCount 24
  biCompression 0x64697663 ('cvid')
  biSizeImage 254100
 Output format after query/begin:
  biSize 40
  biWidth 1280
  biHeight 720
  biPlanes 1
  biBitCount 24
  biCompression 0x64697663 ('cvid')
  biSizeImage 254100
Segmentation fault

Just to be sure I tried this code with both bgr24 and rgb24 arguments. Same results

I'm surprised that it still tries to convert to bgr24 when I've specifically told ffmpeg to use bgr24 in the first place.

As for the segfault, is this a problem with the software or the video that I'm using?

[ron999]

Same result as you.

ron@ubuntu:~$ mencoder outfile.avi -vf format=bgr24 -ovc vfw -xvfwopts codec=iccvid.dll -oac mp3lame -o outfile_2.avi
MEncoder SVN-r29643-Ubuntu-RVM (C) 2000-2009 MPlayer Team
success: format: 0  data: 0x0 - 0x58b6e9a
AVI file format detected.
[aviheader] Video stream found, -vid 0
[aviheader] Audio stream found, -aid 1
VIDEO:  [MPNG]  1280x720  24bpp  23.976 fps  183849.6 kbps (22442.6 kbyte/s)
[V] filefmt:3  fourcc:0x474E504D  size:1280x720  fps:23.976  ftime:=0.0417
==========================================================================
Opening audio decoder: [mp3lib] MPEG layer-2, layer-3
AUDIO: 48000 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 64.0 kbit/4.17% (ratio: 8000->192000)
Selected audio codec: [mp3] afm: mp3lib (mp3lib MPEG layer-2, layer-3)
==========================================================================
Loading codec DLL: 'iccvid.dll'
Loaded DLL driver iccvid.dll at 6ea20000
HIC: a4a7ab8
568 - 568 - 568
Compressor type: 63646976
Compressor subtype: 64697663
Compressor flags: 47, version 65536, ICM version: 260
Flags: quality
ICCompressGetFormatSize ret: 40
Opening video filter: [expand osd=1]
Expand: -1 x -1, -1 ; -1, osd: 1, aspect: 0.000000, round: 1
Opening video filter: [format fmt=bgr24]
==========================================================================
Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family
Unsupported PixelFormat -1
Selected video codec: [ffpng] vfm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg PNG)
==========================================================================
MP3 audio selected.
VDec: vo config request - 1280 x 720 (preferred colorspace: RGB 24-bit)
Could not find matching colorspace - retrying with -vf scale...
Opening video filter: [scale]
VDec: using RGB 24-bit as output csp (no 6)
Opening video filter: [flip]
Movie-Aspect is 1.78:1 - prescaling to correct movie aspect.
[swscaler @ 0x8985f80]using unscaled rgb24 -> bgr24 special converter
Opening video filter: [expand]
Expand: -1 x -1, -1 ; -1, osd: 0, aspect: 0.000000, round: 1
Starting compression:
 Input format:
  biSize 40
  biWidth 1280
  biHeight 720
  biPlanes 1
  biBitCount 24
  biCompression 0x0 ('')
  biSizeImage 2764800
 Output format:
  biSize 40
  biWidth 1280
  biHeight 720
  biPlanes 1
  biBitCount 24
  biCompression 0x64697663 ('cvid')
  biSizeImage 254100
 Output format after query/begin:
  biSize 40
  biWidth 1280
  biHeight 720
  biPlanes 1
  biBitCount 24
  biCompression 0x64697663 ('cvid')
  biSizeImage 254100
Segmentation fault
ron@ubuntu:~$

[hellocatfood]

Drats!

Have you tried any other parameters and got it working? I think I'll just have to go and report an mencoder bug as well

[andrew.46]

Your commandlines worked on my system using the latest git FFmpeg / svn MEncoder producing the following result:

Input #0, avi, from 'outfile_2.avi':
  Metadata:
    encoder         : MEncoder SVN-r33083-4.5.2
  Duration: 00:00:04.00, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 25335 kb/s
    Stream #0.0: Video: cinepak, yuv420p, 1280x720, PAR 1:1 DAR 16:9, 23.98 tbr, 23.98 tbn, 23.98 tbc
    Stream #0.1: Audio: mp3, 48000 Hz, stereo, s16, 288 kb/s

I have posted the resulting file here:

wget http://www.andrews-corner.org/tmp/outfile_2.avi

I suspect that the advice on MPlayer-users will be to upgrade to the latest development offering, there are guides for the latest MPlayer and FFmpeg on these forums. (The MPlayer guide needs a few additions to build the long neglected MEncoder as well).

Andrew

[hellocatfood]

Thanks for the help. I'm not able to upgrade at the moment (don't want to upgrade during project development), but at least I know it's a problem that has been fixed

[andrew.46]

Thanks for the help. I'm not able to upgrade at the moment (don't want to upgrade during project development), but at least I know it's a problem that has been fixed

Mind you if you are using the stock Natty Narwhal MEncoder it might be worth your while to file a bug report against the package. Reinhard Tartler is usually pretty good with such things.

[hellocatfood]

So the one in Natty isn't one with a fix for my problem?

I'm still using the Maverick version from medibuntu

[andrew.46]

So the one in Natty isn't one with a fix for my problem?

I'm still using the Maverick version from medibuntu

Looks like both Medibuntu Maverick and Natty are using MPlayer rc4 so I suspect there may be no difference. Unfortunately I do not have a Natty installation + repository MPlayer to test this on and in reality I am far happier building my own MPlayer packages anyway . Hopefully some enterprising person with a copy of Natty Narwhal can test this....

BTW did the file I created work well enough on your system?

Andrew

[hellocatfood]

The file worked perfectly!

Could I ask one more favour of you? Would you be able to encode the video file using Cinepak again but at a really really low bit rate?

To put this all into context I like to explore glitches and compression artifacts and I've heard that there's really weird glitches when you encode video at low bit rates using Cinepak codec. My website (in my sig) probably explains it a lot better!