[FFmpeg-user] Problem: some videos freeze, other very similar videos do not--difference might be just in resolution (pixels)--how to convert?

[Randy Kramer]

Background:  I have what is probably a marginal system for playing videos, 
especially when I have other applications open.  Still, many videos play 
fine, properly displaying video and playing audio (combined).  On the other 
hand, some don't play--well, what I mean is, the audio plays, but the video 
freezes, showing only the first frame.

Sometimes when that happens, I can shut down applications, or close web pages 
in a browser, or similar things, and when I try gmplayer again, the video 
works fine.  That is why I describe my system as marginal.

Below is the output from 2 such videos.  video1 freezes often, video2 has 
never frozen.  The only significant difference I can see is that the one that 
freezes was apparently originally recorded at 320x240, while the one that 
never freezes was apparently originally recorded at 480x360.  

(I should note that I'm a novice at videos, and [g]mplay and ffmpeg, so I may 
be misinterpreting some of the information I see.)

The screen I display the videos on is 800x600 pixels.

I'm assuming that [g]mplay has to do more work to get the 320x240 video to 
800x600 than the 480x360 video, hence the reason the 320x240 video often 
freezes.

Does that make sense?

Presumably, what I need to do then is convert the 320x240 video(s) to 
something like 480x360.  (I guess I could convert them to 800x600, but I'm 
assuming that would require more disk space, which I'd rather avoid.)

If this sounds like I'm on the right track, can someone suggest an ffmpeg 
command that will let me convert the 320x240 videos to 480x360?

Thanks!
Randy Kramer

=
rhk at s17:/back2/videos/music_vid$ mplayer video1.flv
MPlayer dev-SVN-r26940
CPU: Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 3.06GHz (Family: 15, Model: 4, Stepping: 1)
CPUflags:  MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 1 SSE2: 1
Compiled with runtime CPU detection.
Can't open joystick device /dev/input/js0: No such file or directory
Can't init input joystick
mplayer: could not connect to socket
mplayer: No such file or directory
Failed to open LIRC support. You will not be able to use your remote control.

Playing video1.flv.
libavformat file format detected.
[lavf] Video stream found, -vid 0
[lavf] Audio stream found, -aid 1
VIDEO:  [H264]  320x240  0bpp  1000.000 fps    0.0 kbps ( 0.0 kbyte/s)
==========================================================================
Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family
Selected video codec: [ffh264] vfm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg H.264)
==========================================================================
==========================================================================
Opening audio decoder: [faad] AAC (MPEG2/4 Advanced Audio Coding)
FAAD: compressed input bitrate missing, assuming 128kbit/s!
AUDIO: 44100 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 128.0 kbit/9.07% (ratio: 16000->176400)
Selected audio codec: [faad] afm: faad (FAAD AAC (MPEG-2/MPEG-4 Audio) 
decoder)
==========================================================================
AO: [alsa] 44100Hz 2ch s16le (2 bytes per sample)
Starting playback...
VDec: vo config request - 320 x 240 (preferred colorspace: Planar YV12)
VDec: using Planar YV12 as output csp (no 0)
Movie-Aspect is 1.33:1 - prescaling to correct movie aspect.
VO: [xv] 320x240 => 320x240 Planar YV12  [fs]   
=


=
rhk at s17:/back2/videos/music_vid$ mplayer video2.flv
MPlayer dev-SVN-r26940
CPU: Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 3.06GHz (Family: 15, Model: 4, Stepping: 1)
CPUflags:  MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 1 SSE2: 1
Compiled with runtime CPU detection.
Can't open joystick device /dev/input/js0: No such file or directory
Can't init input joystick
mplayer: could not connect to socket
mplayer: No such file or directory
Failed to open LIRC support. You will not be able to use your remote control.

Playing video2.flv.
libavformat file format detected.
[h264 @ 0x87a0ff0]brainfart cropping not supported, this could look slightly 
wrong ...
[lavf] Video stream found, -vid 0
[lavf] Audio stream found, -aid 1
VIDEO:  [H264]  480x360  0bpp  29.917 fps    0.0 kbps ( 0.0 kbyte/s)
==========================================================================
Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family
Selected video codec: [ffh264] vfm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg H.264)
==========================================================================
==========================================================================
Opening audio decoder: [faad] AAC (MPEG2/4 Advanced Audio Coding)
FAAD: compressed input bitrate missing, assuming 128kbit/s!
AUDIO: 44100 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 128.0 kbit/9.07% (ratio: 16000->176400)
Selected audio codec: [faad] afm: faad (FAAD AAC (MPEG-2/MPEG-4 Audio) 
decoder)
==========================================================================
AO: [alsa] 44100Hz 2ch s16le (2 bytes per sample)
Starting playback...
[h264 @ 0x87a0ff0]brainfart cropping not supported, this could look slightly 
wrong ...
VDec: vo config request - 480 x 360 (preferred colorspace: Planar YV12)
VDec: using Planar YV12 as output csp (no 0)
Movie-Aspect is 1.33:1 - prescaling to correct movie aspect.
VO: [xv] 480x360 => 480x360 Planar YV12  [fs]
A:   8.0 V:   8.0 A-V:  0.000 ct:  0.024   0/  0 14%  4%  1.1% 4 0
=