[Siddhant Bhansali]

Hmm – good points, but nevertheless we do need a ‘blanket’ conversion process in our application to handle user videos. I’m planning to use the following and I do have a mechanism to detect when the conversion breaks altogether:

ffmpeg -i input.ext -vcodec libx264 -s 640×360 -qmax 30 output.mp4

# ffmpeg -version

FFmpeg version %{evr}, Copyright (c) 2000-2009 Fabrice Bellard, et al.
configuration: –prefix=/usr –libdir=/usr/lib64 –shlibdir=/usr/lib64 –mandir=/usr/share/man –enable-shared –enable-gpl –enable-postproc –enable-swscale –enable-avfilter –enable-avfilter-lavf –enable-pthreads –enable-vdpau –disable-avisynth –enable-libamr-nb –enable-libamr-wb –enable-libfaac –enable-libfaad –enable-libfaadbin –enable-libgsm –enable-libmp3lame –enable-libtheora –enable-libvorbis –enable-libx264 –enable-libxvid –enable-nonfree –disable-demuxer=v4l –disable-demuxer=v412 –disable-indevs –disable-outdevs –enable-shared –extra-cflags=-O2 -g -pipe -Wall -Wp,-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -fexceptions -fstack-protector –param=ssp-buffer-size=4 -m64 -mtune=generic -fPIC –disable-stripping
libavutil 49.15. 0 / 49.15. 0
libavcodec 52.20. 0 / 52.20. 0
libavformat 52.31. 0 / 52.31. 0
libavdevice 52. 1. 0 / 52. 1. 0
libavfilter 0. 4. 0 / 0. 4. 0
libswscale 0. 7. 1 / 0. 7. 1
libpostproc 51. 2. 0 / 51. 2. 0
built on Jun 2 2009 04:35:52, gcc: 4.1.2 20080704 (Red Hat 4.1.2-44)
FFmpeg %{evr}
libavutil 49.15. 0 / 49.15. 0
libavcodec 52.20. 0 / 52.20. 0
libavformat 52.31. 0 / 52.31. 0
libavdevice 52. 1. 0 / 52. 1. 0
libavfilter 0. 4. 0 / 0. 4. 0
libswscale 0. 7. 1 / 0. 7. 1
libpostproc 51. 2. 0 / 51. 2. 0

[Siddhant Bhansali]

Hi Reuben,

Thanks for replying. To clarify further, this ffmpeg command is part of an automated script that handles a variety of user uploaded video formats. It worked fine for all videos except for this particular instance where it was breaking and I was investigating why.

Also, regarding your comment about the version, there’s been a bit of back and forth between my hosting company and I and they have said that they have installed the latest version of ffmpeg. Running ffmpeg from the command line shows the following, is there any strong reason to believe otherwise?

I dont understand the ‘FFmpeg version %{evr}’ – can I check the version number elsewhere?

root@vps [~]# ffmpeg
FFmpeg version %{evr}, Copyright (c) 2000-2009 Fabrice Bellard, et al.
configuration: –prefix=/usr –libdir=/usr/lib64 –shlibdir=/usr/lib64 –mandir=/usr/share/man –enable-shared –enable-gpl –enable-postproc –enable-swscale –enable-avfilter –enable-avfilter-lavf –enable-pthreads –enable-vdpau –disable-avisynth –enable-libamr-nb –enable-libamr-wb –enable-libfaac –enable-libfaad –enable-libfaadbin –enable-libgsm –enable-libmp3lame –enable-libtheora –enable-libvorbis –enable-libx264 –enable-libxvid –enable-nonfree –disable-demuxer=v4l –disable-demuxer=v412 –disable-indevs –disable-outdevs –enable-shared –extra-cflags=-O2 -g -pipe -Wall -Wp,-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -fexceptions -fstack-protector –param=ssp-buffer-size=4 -m64 -mtune=generic -fPIC –disable-stripping
libavutil 49.15. 0 / 49.15. 0
libavcodec 52.20. 0 / 52.20. 0
libavformat 52.31. 0 / 52.31. 0
libavdevice 52. 1. 0 / 52. 1. 0
libavfilter 0. 4. 0 / 0. 4. 0
libswscale 0. 7. 1 / 0. 7. 1
libpostproc 51. 2. 0 / 51. 2. 0
built on Jun 2 2009 04:35:52, gcc: 4.1.2 20080704 (Red Hat 4.1.2-44)
At least one output file must be specified