[Lou Logan]

Are you actually using ffmpeg?

[Lou Logan]

You need to at least show your ffmpeg command and the complete console output.

What player are you using?

[Lou Logan]

[Reuben Martin] “ffmpeg -i sourcefile.mov -target pal-dvd -qscale 2 -trellis 2 outputfile.mpg”

Using “-qscale:v” instead of “-qscale” will remove any ambiguity issues since this option can be used for audio or video (encoder dependent).

[Lou Logan]

If you simply need to re-mux with stream copy mode:

$ ffmpeg -i input -codec copy -map 0 output.mxf

If you need to re-encode:
$ ffmpeg -i input -c:v mpeg2video -b:v 12M -pix_fmt yuv422p -c:a pcm_s16le -map 0 output.mxf

Should result in OP-1a. Note that, depending on your input, you may have to declare additional options such as an output frame rate with “-r” (or the fps video filter). Default GOP size will be 12, I believe, but this can be changed with the “-g” option.

For encoder capabilities/restrictions and a list of private options see:

$ ffmpeg -h encoder=mpeg2video

[Lou Logan]

Did you try ffmpeg with the scale video filter?
ffmpeg -i input -codec:v mpeg2video -vf scale=1344:384 -qscale:v 2 output.mpg
Range for `-qscale:v` with this encoder is a linear range of 1-31. A lower value results in higher quality.

Note that this will force a size of 1344×384 which, depending on your input, may result in a stretched or squished look. You can use the crop or pad filters to compensate:

ffmpeg -i input -codec:v mpeg2video -vf "scale=1344:-1,crop=iw:384" -qscale:v 2 output.mpg

[Lou Logan]

You can use the concat demuxer to concatenate these files:

$ cat list1.txt
file 'NYAC-1234-A.wav'
file 'NYAC-1234-B.wav'

$ cat list2.txt
file 'NYAC-3456-A.wav'
file 'NYAC-3456-B.wav'

$ ffmpeg -f concat -i list1.txt -codec copy NYAC-1234.wav
$ ffmpeg -f concat -i list2.txt -codec copy NYAC-3456.wav

Also see:

• How can I join video files?
• How to concatenate (join, merge) media files

[Lou Logan]

[Jack Passmore] ”
I want to use ffmpeg to combine the A and B tracks with the same prefixes into single Wave files.”

“Combine” is ambiguous. Do you want to concatenate (join one after the other) or merge two or more audio streams into a single multi-channel stream?

Please show the complete ffmpeg console output of:
ffmpeg -i NYAC-1234-A.wav -i NYAC-1234-B.wav -i NYAC-3456-A.wav -i NYAC-3456-B.wav

[Lou Logan]

[Chiq Garcia] ” ffmpeg -i concat:"file1|file2|file3" -c:v copy -c:a copy "combined.mp4"
there are other approaches, but i think this one is easy on the eyes. plus, video specs have to be exactly the same.”

Use of the concat protocol requires the input to be “cat friendly”. From FFmpeg FAQ – Concatenating using the concat protocol (file level):

A few multimedia containers (MPEG-1, MPEG-2 PS, DV) allow to concatenate video by merely concatenating the files containing them.

[Lou Logan]

[Peter Robertson] ” Does anyone have a good formula for converting a .mov file to and .mp4 at the same size and quality?

mov and mp4 are container formats and can contain various multimedia formats meaning you can often stream copy supported formats to and from these containers:

ffmpeg -i input.mov -codec copy -map 0 output.mp4

This requires no re-encoding, therefore it is fast and preserves the quality. Adding “-map 0” will copy all streams instead of one of each stream type (see stream selection documentation).

[Peter Robertson] In the past I have gotten this to work

ffmpeg -i RabbiFass.mov -vcodec libx264 -vprofile high -preset slow -b:v 500k -maxrate 500k -bufsize 1000k -vf scale=-1:480 -threads 0 -acodec libvo_aacenc -b:a 128k output.mp4

Please use the code button to format commands and console outputs.

[Peter Robertson] but now I get the error

Error while opening encoder for output stream #0:0 – maybe incorrect parameters such as bit_rate, rate, width or height

You should always include the complete ffmpeg console output. Otherwise we can only guess.

[Lou Logan]

See FFmpeg Wiki: How to concatenate (join, merge) media files, and FFmpeg FAQ: How can I join video files?; particularly the information on the concat demuxer.