[MEncoder-users] converting Geovision AVI files with mencoder

[Ed Ravin]

I'm new to mencoder and mplayer.  I am trying to convert Geovision
AVI files (from a CCTV system) into MPEG4 or any other format that
can be played without needing access to Geovision's software.
I'm using Ubuntu 10.10 (x86, 32 bit) and MPlayer 1.0rc4-4.4.5 from
the Maverick repositories.

The Geovision files can be viewed with mplayer without any problems.
But when I try to use mencoder to convert or copy out the video, I
get "duplicate frame" errors as shown below in the sample attempt to
extract a few seconds of video.  An output file is created, but it
is always 4108 bytes in size and contains no video.

Two listings below - first, the errors from mencoder, and after
that the output from mplayer when it successfully plays the
Geovision file.

Any suggestions on how to proceed?

Thanks,

	-- Ed

--------------------------------------------------

$ mencoder -ni -ovc copy -oac copy -ss 400 -endpos 2 testin.avi -o testout.avi
MEncoder 1.0rc4-4.4.5 (C) 2000-2010 MPlayer Team
success: format: 0  data: 0x0 - 0x168ee00
AVI file format detected.
[aviheader] Video stream found, -vid 0
[aviheader] Audio stream found, -aid 2

Badly interleaved AVI file detected - switching to -ni mode...
AVI: No audio stream found -> no sound.
VIDEO:  [GEOV]  320x240  24bpp  30.000 fps  270.3 kbps (33.0 kbyte/s)
[V] filefmt:3  fourcc:0x564F4547  size:320x240  fps:30.000  ftime:=0.0333
==========================================================================
Opening audio decoder: [pcm] Uncompressed PCM audio decoder
AUDIO: 8000 Hz, 1 ch, u8, 64.0 kbit/100.00% (ratio: 8000->8000)
Selected audio codec: [pcm] afm: pcm (Uncompressed PCM)
==========================================================================
videocodec: framecopy (320x240 24bpp fourcc=564f4547)
audiocodec: framecopy (format=1 chans=1 rate=8000 bits=8 B/s=8000 sample-1)
Pos:   0.7s     21f (41%)  0.00fps Trem:   0min   0mb  A-V:-0.067 [0:0]
1 duplicate frame(s)!
Pos:   1.1s     31f (41%)  0.00fps Trem:   0min   0mb  A-V:-0.067 [182:0]
1 duplicate frame(s)!
Pos:   1.4s     41f (41%)  0.00fps Trem:   0min   0mb  A-V:-0.067 [171:0]
1 duplicate frame(s)!
Pos:   1.8s     51f (41%)  0.00fps Trem:   0min   0mb  A-V:-0.067 [165:0]
1 duplicate frame(s)!
Writing index...57f (41%)  0.00fps Trem:   0min   0mb  A-V:-0.053 [161:0]
Writing header...
ODML: Aspect information not (yet?) available or unspecified, not writing vprp header.

Video stream:  161.532 kbit/s  (20191 B/s)  size: 41056 bytes  2.033 secs  57 frames

Audio stream:     -nan kbit/s  (-2147483648 B/s)  size: 0 bytes  0.000 secs

--------------------------------------------------

$ mplayer -ss 400 -endpos 2 testin.avi
MPlayer 1.0rc4-4.4.5 (C) 2000-2010 MPlayer Team
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 testin.avi.
AVI file format detected.
[aviheader] Video stream found, -vid 0
[aviheader] Audio stream found, -aid 2

Badly interleaved AVI file detected - switching to -ni mode...
AVI: No audio stream found -> no sound.
VIDEO:  [GEOV]  320x240  24bpp  30.000 fps  270.3 kbps (33.0 kbyte/s)
open: No such file or directory
[MGA] Couldn't open: /dev/mga_vid
open: No such file or directory
[MGA] Couldn't open: /dev/mga_vid
[VO_TDFXFB] Can't open /dev/fb0: Permission denied.
[VO_3DFX] Unable to open /dev/3dfx.
Failed to open VDPAU backend libvdpau_nvidia.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
[vdpau] Error when calling vdp_device_create_x11: 1
==========================================================================
Opening video decoder: [vfw] Win32/VfW video codecs
Loading codec DLL: 'GeoCodec.dll'
Loaded DLL driver GeoCodec.dll at 10000000
[PP] Using codec's postprocessing, max q = 9.
Could not find matching colorspace - retrying with -vf scale...
Opening video filter: [scale]
Opening video filter: [flip]
Movie-Aspect is undefined - no prescaling applied.
[swscaler @ 0x940ab70]using unscaled bgr24 -> yuv420p special converter
VO: [xv] 320x240 => 320x240 Planar YV12 
Selected video codec: [geov] vfm: vfw (GeoCodec)
==========================================================================
==========================================================================
Opening audio decoder: [pcm] Uncompressed PCM audio decoder
AUDIO: 8000 Hz, 1 ch, u8, 64.0 kbit/100.00% (ratio: 8000->8000)
Selected audio codec: [pcm] afm: pcm (Uncompressed PCM)
==========================================================================
AO: [pulse] 8000Hz 1ch u8 (1 bytes per sample)
Starting playback...
A:   0.0 V: 402.0 A-V:-402.000 ct:-60.100 12061/12061  8% 12%  0.0% 0 0 

Exiting... (End of file)