[mythtv-users] Transcoding firewire HD captures using ffmpeg in mythbuntu

[kanetse@gmail.com]

I am trying to take my firewire HD recordings and x264-encoding them
to save space.  However, I am not having much luck.

I am doing this on a fresly-configured Mythbuntu 8.10 remote frontend
(running in VMware).  I installed ffmpeg SVN using the following
instructions:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=786095

However, whenever I try to transcode, I get:

picture size invalid (0x0)
Cannot allocate temp picture, check pix fmt

Here is the full output:

FFmpeg version SVN-r18343, Copyright (c) 2000-2009 Fabrice Bellard, et al.
  configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-postproc --enable-pthreads
--enable-libfaac --enable-libfaad --enable-libmp3lame
--enable-libtheora --enable-libx264 --enable-libxvid
  libavutil     50. 3. 0 / 50. 3. 0
  libavcodec    52.25. 0 / 52.25. 0
  libavformat   52.32. 0 / 52.32. 0
  libavdevice   52. 2. 0 / 52. 2. 0
  libswscale     0. 7. 1 /  0. 7. 1
  libpostproc   51. 2. 0 / 51. 2. 0
  built on Apr  6 2009 14:14:41, gcc: 4.3.2
[mpegts @ 0x158ab10]Could not find codec parameters (Video: mpeg2video)
Input #0, mpegts, from '/data/mythtv/store/3229_20090325205900.mpg':
  Duration: N/A, start: 79065.077378, bitrate: N/A
  Program 1
    Stream #0.0[0x800]: Video: mpeg2video, 90k tbr, 90k tbn, 90k tbc
    Stream #0.1[0x801](eng): Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, 5.1, s16, 384 kb/s
picture size invalid (0x0)
Cannot allocate temp picture, check pix fmt

Here is the command I was trying to run (from an earlier thread on this list):

Original thread:
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/375333?search_string=Downscale%20HD%20recordings%20with%20ffmpeg;#375333

ffmpeg -y -i /data/mythtv/store/3229_20090325205900.mpg -pass 1
-vcodec libx264 -vpre fastfirstpass -b 512k -bt 512k -threads 0 -f mp4
-an /dev/null && ffmpeg -i /data/mythtv/store/3229_20090325205900.mpg
-pass 2 -acodec libfaac -ab 128k -ac 2 -vcodec libx264 -vpre hq -b
512k -bt 512k -threads 0 -f mp4 test.mp4

Thanks!