[MEncoder-users] Stopping mencoder from stream seeking (was: Using MEncoder with TySuiteJ)

[Reimar Döffinger]

On Sun, Apr 13, 2008 at 07:39:54PM -0400, Phil Combs wrote:
> I've added the two switches as suggested but they have not helped.  

not sure that combining them is a good idea, also try -demuxer mpegpes
-nocache

> Putting that line into TySuiteJ (with a few format changes specific to 
> that program) just won't work. The program starts encoding, gets ~4MB 
> in and freezes.  I can up the cache amount to a ridiculous amount (eg. 
> 308,000) and the file will completely process but nothing gets written 
> to disk until I abort the program; when I do the file is unplayable as 
> (I believe) something doesn't close properly and the file format 
> probably gets corrupted. 

How large is the file then? I'd actually assume that it does not play
because the only thing that gets written is the index.

> The error.txt file that gets written through TySuiteJ gives the 
> following):

Do you also have the exact commandline that that program uses?

> *****
> The selected video_out device is incompatible with this codec.
> Try appending the scale filter to your filter list,
> e.g. -vf spp,scale instead of -vf spp.
> Limiting audio preload to 0.4s.
> Increasing audio density to 4.
> New_Face failed. Maybe the font path is wrong.
> Please supply the text font file (~/.mplayer/subfont.ttf).
> subtitle font: load_sub_face failed.
> 
> Skipping frame!
> 
> Skipping frame!
> 
> Skipping frame!
> *****
> 
> I've deduced through reading other online posts that the video_out 
> device error is common.  It's probably a hook into mplayer as it's 
> expecting an output device to be defined (which we're not doings as the 
> output is a DVD-compatible file, not a video card).  The same with the 
> New_Face error.

It is also irrelevant, that text sometimes also appears during normal
operation, and the "Skipping frame!" later indicates that processing has
started, so the "video_out" message has no meaning and is not the cause
for any problems.

> The funny thing is that it says frames are skipped but 
> I've tld the program not to do that.

For some reason, -noskip alone does not work right, you must use
-noskip -mc 0.

> At this point I'm stumped.  The program author has given a little 
> feedback but has no more ideas.  What can I try from here?

find out if mencoder really hangs (e.g. by using highest-quality, very
slow encoding options and look at the CPU usage), and if yes, e.g. use
gdb or some other debugger to find out where it hangs.
Unfortunately I can't help you much there, I have never found a way to
debug things under Windows that isn't a huge pain (except the
IDE-integrated tools which can't be used properly in such a case).

Greetings,
Reimar Döffinger