[mythtv-users] Mytharchive errors

[Harry Devine]

Rod Smith wrote:
> The frame rate message you recorded is a *warning*, not an *error*. The two 
> are very different. A warning tells you about something that might be a 
> problem, but it's not something that'll stop the processing in its tracks. An 
> error is more serious, and will terminate the processing.
>
> Although it's true that you're having problems, there's little reason to think 
> that the frame rate is the cause of your problems. It could be, but if I had 
> to place a bet, I'd say that the frame rate is not the root of your problem. 
> In my experience, MythArchive (and/or ffmpeg, upon which it relies) does a 
> poor job at transcoding recordings into MPEG-2 form. My own experience is 
> filled with audio/video sync problems, transcodes that crash, transcodes that 
> loop forever and fill the disk with cryptic log file messages, etc. That's 
> why I developed my own manual transcode script that uses mencoder; I find 
> it's much more reliable than MythArchive's own method. (That said, my own 
> script doesn't always work. In particular, it occasionally produces a file 
> that later steps can't process fully, resulting in truncated recordings on 
> the DVD.)
>
> As to what happens when you make a DVD with MythArchive, the steps are these, 
> in summary and omitting various details:
>
> 1) If necessary or if you've told it to do so, MythArchive calls ffmpeg to
>    transcode the recording (in MPEG-2, MPEG-4, RTjpeg, or some other format)
>    into a DVD-compliant MPEG-2 form. This seems to be the step that's failing
>    for you.
>
> 2) The MPEG-2 file is demuxed into separate audio and video streams.
>
> 3) The DVD menus are created.
>
> 4) The menus and recordings are recombined into new files and stored in the
>    format appropriate for a DVD.
>
> 5) The DVD files are combined into an ISO image file.
>
> 6) If you requested it, the ISO image file is burned to DVD.
>
>   

OK, I understand that part, but I just can't seem to figure out why the 
command that Mytharchive is putting together is failing.  I go into 
Mytharchive and do the following:

1) I select "Single Layer DVD" and "Burn to DVD", then press Next
2) I select "Add Recording" then choose the recording that I want, then 
I press Next
3) I select the DVD menu theme (I chose MythCenter, just for the 
record), then press Next
4) I select SP for the Encoder profile, then press Finish.  At this 
step, I see the recording at the top of the screen and it has a scissor 
icon above it.  When I try to check the box next to the recording, 
nothing happens to the checkbox, but I do get 2 red arrows next to it.  
I assumed that selecting this checkbox would honor the cutlist, but it 
doesn't do anything.

5) I then see the Log Viewer window, and I get the following error (as I 
stated in my original post):

2008-12-04 18:01:15 Waiting for mythtranscode to create the fifos
2008-12-04 18:01:16 Running ffmpeg
2008-12-04 18:01:16 
************************************************************
2008-12-04 18:01:16 ERROR: Failed while running ffmpeg to re-encode video.
Command was ffmpeg -y -threads 2 -f s16le -ar 48000 -ac 2 -i 
/tmp/work/1/audout
-f rawvideo -pix_fmt yuv420p -s 480x480 -aspect 1.33333 -r 29.97 -i 
/tmp/work/1/
vidout -aspect 1.33333 -r 29.97 -croptop 0 -cropright 0 -cropbottom 0 
-cropleft
0 -s 720x480 -b 4771k -vcodec mpeg2video -qmin 5 -qmax 31 -qdiff 31 -ab 
192k -ar
 48000 -acodec ac3 -f dvd "/tmp/work/1/newfile2.mpg"
2008-12-04 18:01:16 
************************************************************
2008-12-04 18:01:16
2008-12-04 18:01:16 Terminated

So, the original question is: why does the ffmpeg command fail?  Is 
there some settings in the frontend somewhere that I need to massage to 
get it working better?

Lastly, I'll try the midentify script.  However, when I tried your 
transcode script the other day, I wasn't really sure how to answer the 
questions.  Mainly due to my lack of understanding of the audio/video 
formats that are required.

Thanks for any help!
Harry