HOWTO: Install and use the latest FFmpeg and x264

[FakeOutdoorsman]

x264 should install fine without any lame packages. As for FFmpeg, you should make sure lame installed properly. Did the Install LAME (optional) step fail for you?

Also, don't forget to make distclean when performing an update as shown in the Updating FFmpeg and x264 section.

[Cavsfan]

x264 should install fine without any lame packages. As for FFmpeg, you should make sure lame installed properly. Did the Install LAME (optional) step fail for you?

Also, don't forget to make distclean when performing an update as shown in the Updating FFmpeg and x264 section.

I guess x264 is installed, but not ffmpeg. Let me take a look at what you're suggesting.
Thanks!

[Cavsfan]

Everything went well that time! Thanks a lot!

[FakeOutdoorsman]

Why not dpkg-buildpackage -b

I've never used this myself. Why do you prefer this over checkinstall? Checkinstall has it's annoyances, but it seems to work fine for packages that aren't going to be re-distributed (like the ones from this guide) and doesn't require editing of a changelog. I suppose sed would be useful in this case, but I don't have much experience there.

[mc4man]

I've never used this myself. Why do you prefer this over checkinstall? Checkinstall has it's annoyances, but it seems to work fine for packages that aren't going to be re-distributed (like the ones from this guide)

There can be some small advantages though for the most part nothing that would be 'generally' better.
I do a set of certain sources once or twice an install as .debs but again some of the reasons are of low use for most
(like keeping a local repo which again has some advantages and makes a re-install, if needed, quite simple and quick.

Certainly with ffmpeg at some point some users will create issues if continually built as shared.

I'd think things are good as currently done (w/checkinstall

and doesn't require editing of a changelog. I suppose sed would be useful in this case, but I don't have much experience there.

There are some interesting ways there though a manual edit is also quite easy.
(though in this case (current lame), there is actually no need to to have the package named ..4 for karmic or lucid, the .3 will do and the lib is ...4 anyway
Also if there is a suggestion to do as .debs much better to have the user create a build folder, otherwise could be confusing w/ stuff loose in home.

As an ex. - only if one had devscripts installed -
(and installing devscripts may be confusing to some, nothing actually needs to be entered, just navigating thru
(blue can stay as is or be made legit, add. "<whatever>" can be added to debchange when desired, each is new line in changelog

mkdir lame && cd lame && \
wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/lame/lame/3.98.4/lame-3.98.4.tar.gz && \
tar xzvf lame-3.98.4.tar.gz && cd lame-3.98.4 && \
export DEBEMAIL="noone@nowhere.com" && \
debchange  -v 3.98.4+nmu1 "new upstream release" && \
debuild -us -uc && cd .. && \
sudo dpkg -i *.deb

[camslaz]

Hi all, I am not sure if this is the right place to post this issue but here it is...

Basically I am running a php script that encodes a 250Mb MOV file into 14 videos of different frame sizes and formats. The script takes over 10mins to run and after a period of time FFMPEG crashes with a "av_interleaved_write_frame(): Operation not permitted" error on one of the videos.

From all the investigation I have done with this issue, the error is normally accompanied with a reason of something like "error, non monotone timestamps xxxxxx >= yyyyy". In my case it is not... it actually starts to encode the file and then crashes after a period of time with "av_interleaved_write_frame(): Operation not permitted". The other thing to mention is that If I encode the individual file via the command line or even via a php script it does not error and encodes with no problems.

It always crashes around the 10min mark so I don't know if it is related to timestamps, a server config issue or an FFMPEG bug. It will encode 10 videos or more up to the point it crashes with no issue... from there the script will continue through the remaining videos to be encoded but all remaining videos have the 'av_interleaved_write_frame(): Operation not permitted' error.

Has anyone experienced an issue similar to this or have any idea why I might be experiencing it. Thanks in advance.

 0 => 'FFmpeg version SVN-r24545, Copyright (c) 2000-2010 the FFmpeg developers',
 1 => '  built on Aug 20 2010 23:32:02 with gcc 4.1.2 20080704 (Red Hat 4.1.2-48)',
 2 => '  configuration: --enable-shared --enable-gpl --enable-pthreads --enable-nonfree --cpu=opteron --extra-cflags=\'-O3 -march=opteron -mtune=opteron\' --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libx264 --enable-libxvid --enable-avfilter --enable-filter=movie --enable-avfilter-lavf --enable-swscale',
 3 => '  libavutil     50.23. 0 / 50.23. 0',
 4 => '  libavcore      0. 1. 0 /  0. 1. 0',
 5 => '  libavcodec    52.84. 1 / 52.84. 1',
 6 => '  libavformat   52.77. 0 / 52.77. 0',
 7 => '  libavdevice   52. 2. 0 / 52. 2. 0',
 8 => '  libavfilter    1.26. 1 /  1.26. 1',
 9 => '  libswscale     0.11. 0 /  0.11. 0',
 10 => 'Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from \'/home/hdfootage/public_html/process/VideoEncode/_tmpfiles/GVowbt3vsrXL/GVowbt3vsrXL.mov\':',
 11 => '  Metadata:',
 12 => '    major_brand     : qt',
 13 => '    minor_version   : 537199360',
 14 => '    compatible_brands: qt',
 15 => '  Duration: 00:00:20.00, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 110802 kb/s',
 16 => '    Stream #0.0(eng): Video: mjpeg, yuvj422p, 1920x1080 [PAR 72:72 DAR 16:9], 109386 kb/s, 25 fps, 25 tbr, 25 tbn, 25 tbc',
 17 => '    Stream #0.1(eng): Audio: pcm_s16be, 44100 Hz, 2 channels, s16, 1411 kb/s',
 18 => '[buffer @ 0x1db8ed0] w:1920 h:1080 pixfmt:yuvj422p',
 19 => '[unsharp @ 0x1de63e0] auto-inserting filter \'auto-inserted scaler 0\' between the filter \'src\' and the filter \'Filter 0 unsharp\'',
 20 => '[scale @ 0x1de3860] w:1920 h:1080 fmt:yuvj422p -> w:1920 h:1080 fmt:yuv420p flags:0xa0000004',
 21 => '[unsharp @ 0x1de63e0] effect:sharpen type:luma msize_x:5 msize_y:5 amount:1.00',
 22 => '[unsharp @ 0x1de63e0] effect:none type:chroma msize_x:0 msize_y:0 amount:0.00',
 23 => 'Output #0, mp4, to \'/home/hdfootage/public_html/process/VideoEncode/_tmpfiles/GVowbt3vsrXL/GVowbt3vsrXL_4.mp4\':',
 24 => '  Metadata:',
 25 => '    encoder         : Lavf52.77.0',
 26 => '    Stream #0.0(eng): Video: mpeg4, yuv420p, 1920x1080 [PAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], q=2-31, 200 kb/s, 25 tbn, 25 tbc',
 27 => '    Stream #0.1(eng): Audio: aac, 44100 Hz, 2 channels, s16, 64 kb/s',
 28 => 'Stream mapping:',
 29 => '  Stream #0.0 -> #0.0',
 30 => '  Stream #0.1 -> #0.1',
 31 => 'Press [q] to stop encoding',
 32 => 'frame=    3 fps=  0 q=1.0 size=     595kB time=0.12 bitrate=40602.0kbits'
 33 => 'frame=    6 fps=  6 q=1.0 size=    1060kB time=0.24 bitrate=36190.5kbits'
 34 => 'frame=    9 fps=  6 q=1.0 size=    1554kB time=0.36 bitrate=35354.9kbits'
 35 => 'frame=   12 fps=  6 q=1.0 size=    2071kB time=0.48 bitrate=35349.8kbits'
 36 => 'frame=   15 fps=  6 q=1.0 size=    2721kB time=0.60 bitrate=37149.7kbits'
 37 => 'frame=   18 fps=  6 q=1.0 size=    3224kB time=0.72 bitrate=36683.2kbits'
 38 => 'frame=   21 fps=  6 q=1.0 size=    3722kB time=0.84 bitrate=36298.9kbits'
 39 => 'frame=   24 fps=  6 q=1.0 size=    4219kB time=0.96 bitrate=36004.3kbits'
 40 => 'frame=   27 fps=  6 q=1.0 size=    4882kB time=1.08 bitrate=37033.4kbits'
 41 => 'frame=   30 fps=  6 q=1.0 size=    5342kB time=1.20 bitrate=36467.2kbits'
 42 => 'frame=   33 fps=  6 q=1.0 size=    5803kB time=1.32 bitrate=36015.0kbits'
 43 => 'frame=   36 fps=  6 q=1.0 size=    6294kB time=1.44 bitrate=35804.1kbits'
 
 croped 
 
210 => 'frame=  452 fps=  6 q=1.0 size=   77197kB time=18.08 bitrate=34977.8kbits'
211 => 'frame=  455 fps=  6 q=1.0 size=   77690kB time=18.20 bitrate=34969.3kbits'
212 => 'frame=  458 fps=  6 q=1.0 size=   78328kB time=18.32 bitrate=35025.3kbits'
213 => 'frame=  461 fps=  6 q=1.0 size=   78832kB time=18.44 bitrate=35021.1kbits'
214 => 'frame=  464 fps=  6 q=1.0 size=   79348kB time=18.56 bitrate=35022.7kbits'
215 => 'frame=  467 fps=  6 q=1.0 size=   79802kB time=18.68 bitrate=34996.6kbits'
216 => 'frame=  470 fps=  6 q=1.0 size=   80424kB time=18.80 bitrate=35044.4kbits'
217 => 'frame=  473 fps=  6 q=1.0 size=   80944kB time=18.92 bitrate=35047.2kbits'
218 => 'frame=  476 fps=  6 q=1.0 size=   81534kB time=19.04 bitrate=35080.0kbits'
219 => 'frame=  479 fps=  6 q=1.0 size=   82078kB time=19.16 bitrate=35093.2kbits'
220 => 'av_interleaved_write_frame(): Operation not permitted'

[FakeOutdoorsman]

It appears to me that FFmpeg is not the culprit, but it will be easier to guess what is going on if you provide the PHP script or a sample command at the very least. Does the error occur consistently? Have you tried it on another machine? Do you encounter the error with certain input/output formats?

You can increase the output verbosity of FFmpeg with:

ffmpeg -v 9 -loglevel 99 -i foo ...

This may provide additional clues.

[camslaz]

Sorry about that... I thought I had included the command. This is an example of one of the commands. It just loops through the script for 4 different frame sizes with 3 different output formats (mov, mp4 and wmv). This is an example of the mp4 version, the others just have different frame sizes and output type.

/usr/local/bin/ffmpeg -i GVowbt3vsrXL.mov -s 1920x1080 -sameq -vf "unsharp" -y GVowbt3vsrXL_4.mp4

Yes it consistently fails on the same encoding video when running the script but not always on exactly the same frame... although always fairly close. It also depends on the size of the input video as to which encoding video it will fail on. But regardless if I run the script again using the same input file it was always fails at almost the same point each time for that input video. Note that this only happens for larger files... I do not have a problem when encoding < 200mb files. If I try with larger files it consistently fails.

I haven't tried it on another machine... I have numerous RS cloud servers all set up with centos so I would assume they would react the same. It is something I can try though.

I encounter the error at any point in the encoding... so it will be mp4, wmv, thumbnails or flv files... it just seems to be when ever the script hits a certain limit it crashes.

Increasing the verbosity of FFMPEG command didn't really point to any real issue... maybe you will see differently. This is an extract of the output just before the crash

           15675 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] qscale[0]:  1',
           15676 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] index=1',
           15677 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] qscale[1]: 1',
           15678 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] marker parser used 132 bytes  (1056 bits)',
           15679 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] marker=c4  avail_size_in_buf=536289',
           15680 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] class=0 index=0  nb_codes=12',
           15681 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] class=0 index=1  nb_codes=12',
           15682 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] class=1 index=0  nb_codes=251',
           15683 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] class=1 index=1  nb_codes=251',
           15684 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] marker parser used 418 bytes  (3344 bits)',
           15685 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] marker=c0  avail_size_in_buf=535869',
           15686 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] sof0: picture: 1920x1080',
           15687 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] component 0 2:1 id: 0  quant:0',
           15688 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] component 1 1:1 id: 1  quant:1',
           15689 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] component 2 1:1 id: 2  quant:1',
           15690 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] pix fmt id 21111100',
           15691 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] marker parser used 17 bytes  (136 bits)',
           15692 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] marker=da  avail_size_in_buf=535850',
           15693 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] escaping removed 2482  bytes',
           15694 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] component: 0',
           15695 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] component: 1',
           15696 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] component: 2',
           15697 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] marker parser used 533367  bytes (4266935 bits)',
           15698 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] marker=d9  avail_size_in_buf=0',
           15699 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] mjpeg decode frame unused 0  bytes',
           15700 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] marker=d8  avail_size_in_buf=535298',
           15701 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] marker parser used 0 bytes  (0 bits)',
           15702 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] marker=e0  avail_size_in_buf=535296',
           15703 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] marker parser used 16 bytes  (128 bits)',
           15704 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] marker=fe  avail_size_in_buf=535278',
           15705 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] marker parser used 12 bytes  (96 bits)',
           15706 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] marker=db  avail_size_in_buf=535264',
           15707 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] index=0',
           15708 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] qscale[0]: 1',
           15709 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] index=1',
           15710 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] qscale[1]: 1',
           15711 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] marker parser used 132 bytes  (1056 bits)',
           15712 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] marker=c4  avail_size_in_buf=535130',
           15713 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] class=0 index=0  nb_codes=12',
           15714 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] class=0 index=1  nb_codes=12',
           15715 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] class=1 index=0  nb_codes=251',
           15716 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] class=1 index=1  nb_codes=251',
           15717 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] marker parser used 418 bytes  (3344 bits)',
           15718 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] marker=c0  avail_size_in_buf=534710',
           15719 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] sof0: picture: 1920x1080',
           15720 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] component 0 2:1 id: 0  quant:0',
           15721 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] component 1 1:1 id: 1  quant:1',
           15722 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] component 2 1:1 id: 2  quant:1',
           15723 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] pix fmt id 21111100',
           15724 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] marker parser used 17 bytes  (136 bits)',
           15725 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] marker=da  avail_size_in_buf=534691',
           15726 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] escaping removed 2530  bytes',
           15727 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] component: 0',
           15728 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] component: 1',
           15729 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] component: 2',
           15730 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] marker parser used 532160  bytes (4257280 bits)',
           15731 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] marker=d9  avail_size_in_buf=0',
           15732 => '[mjpeg @ 0x1d86950] mjpeg decode frame unused 0  bytes',
           15733 => 'av_interleaved_write_frame(): Operation not  permitted',

Interestingly, the script is run via cron which is when I get the issues. If I run the script via a browser there is no error and it will complete with no problem. Cron logs don't log anything suspicious. So that leads me to think that you are correct in saying that FFMPEG is not the culprit... although the error returned leads you to think otherwise. It is like some limits are reached or some setting causes it to crash after a certain period.

Are there any limits to cron or running FFMPEG via cron?

[qyot27]

Have you tried compiling ffmpeg with a newer version of GCC? I say this because, I'm not sure about GCC 4.1.2 (as the log post indicated), but 3.4.5 would do something with ffmpeg that caused it to throw errors over MJPEG (also in the logs) and say it was miscompiled. Perhaps that issue - or something like it - was still present in 4.1.x, which would mean you need to use a more recent version of GCC.

[camslaz]

Thanks for the responses guys... I have solved the problem. I was running the cron under the owner of the domain rather then root... when I switch it to root, voila, it ran all the way through with no issues.

I still don't know why it would fail for larger videos when run under the owner of the domain... probably some limitation or configuration. Something to keep in mind if you are experiencing similar issues.