get detailed information about a video file

Here are a few ways to get detailed information about a video file using mplayer, ffmpeg or mencoder.  Pardon the format weirdness..blogger tries to overthink things and ends up screwing things up.
- mplayer
- ffmpeg
- mencoder
- ffprobe

1) mplayer: simple inspection
[sodo@computer tmp]$ mplayer -vo null -benchmark part1.mp4 
MPlayer SVN-r33996-4.6.1 (C) 2000-2011 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.

# PLAYBACK STARTS
Playing part1.mp4.
# CONTAINER INSPECTION
libavformat file format detected.
# MPLAYER USES libavformat PLAYBACK for this VIDEO STREAM
[lavf] stream 0: video (h264), -vid 0
[lavf] stream 1: audio (aac), -aid 0, -alang und
VIDEO:  [H264]  1280x720  24bpp  29.970 fps  2946.5 kbps (359.7 kbyte/s)
Clip info:
 major_brand: mp42
 minor_version: 0
 compatible_brands: isommp42
 creation_time: 2012-02-18 19:44:00
# CHECK FOR SUBTITLES
Load subtitles in ./
# DECODE VIDEO USING FFMPEG
==========================================================================
Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family
Selected video codec: [ffh264] vfm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg H.264)
==========================================================================
# DECODE AUDIO USING FFMPEG

==========================================================================
Opening audio decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg/libavcodec audio decoders
AUDIO: 44100 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 152.0 kbit/10.77% (ratio: 18997->176400)
Selected audio codec: [ffaac] afm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg AAC (MPEG-2/MPEG-4 Audio))
==========================================================================
# USE DISCOVERED AUDIO DEVICE
AO: [pulse] 44100Hz 2ch s16le (2 bytes per sample)
Starting playback...
Unsupported PixelFormat 61
Unsupported PixelFormat 53
Movie-Aspect is undefined - no prescaling applied.
VO: [null] 1280x720 => 1280x720 Planar YV12 
A:   1.3 V:   1.3 A-V:  0.001 ct:  0.033   0/  0 23%  0%  0.4% 0 0                                                                                                                
Exiting... (Quit)

2) mplayer: detailed information
[sodo@computer tmp]$ mplayer -v part1.mp4 -frames 0
MPlayer SVN-r33996-4.6.1 (C) 2000-2011 MPlayer Team
# YOUR COMPUTER STATS
CPU vendor name: GenuineIntel  max cpuid level: 10
CPU: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU           E5310  @ 1.60GHz (Family: 6, Model: 15, Stepping: 7)
extended cpuid-level: 8
extended cache-info: 268468288
Detected cache-line size is 64 bytes
CPUflags:  MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 0 3DNowExt: 0 SSE: 1 SSE2: 1 SSSE3: 1
# MPLAYER BUILD STATS
Compiled with runtime CPU detection.
get_path('codecs.conf') -> '/home/sodo/.mplayer/codecs.conf'
Reading optional codecs config file /home/sodo/.mplayer/codecs.conf: No such file or directory
Reading optional codecs config file /etc/mplayer/codecs.conf: No such file or directory
Using built-in default codecs.conf.
init_freetype
Using MMX (with tiny bit MMX2) Optimized OnScreenDisplay
get_path('fonts') -> '/home/sodo/.mplayer/fonts'
Configuration: --prefix=/usr --bindir=/usr/bin --datadir=/usr/share/mplayer --mandir=/usr/share/man --confdir=/etc/mplayer --libdir=/usr/lib64 --codecsdir=/usr/lib64/codecs --extra-cflags=-O2 -g -pipe -Wall -Wp,-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -fexceptions -fstack-protector --param=ssp-buffer-size=4 -m64 -mtune=generic --language=all --enable-joystick --enable-lirc --enable-menu --enable-radio --enable-radio-capture --enable-runtime-cpudetection --enable-unrarexec --disable-dvdread-internal --disable-libdvdcss-internal --disable-nemesi --disable-smb --disable-ffmpeg_a --disable-faac --disable-mad --disable-libmpeg2-internal --disable-tremor-internal --disable-bitmap-font --disable-dga1 --disable-dga2 --disable-directfb --disable-svga --disable-termcap --enable-xvmc --with-xvmclib=XvMCW --disable-arts --disable-esd --disable-jack --disable-openal
CommandLine: '-v' 'part1.mp4' '-nosound' '-frames' '0'
Using nanosleep() timing
# MPLAYER CONFIG PATH SEARCH
get_path('input.conf') -> '/home/sodo/.mplayer/input.conf'
Reading optional input config file /home/sodo/.mplayer/input.conf: No such file or directory
Parsing input config file /etc/mplayer/input.conf
Input config file /etc/mplayer/input.conf parsed: 92 binds
Setting up LIRC support...
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.
get_path('part1.mp4.conf') -> '/home/sodo/.mplayer/part1.mp4.conf'

# PLAYBACK STARTS
Playing part1.mp4.
get_path('sub/') -> '/home/sodo/.mplayer/sub/'
[file] File size is 282308395 bytes
# META INFORMATION
STREAM: [file] part1.mp4
STREAM: Description: File
STREAM: Author: Albeu
STREAM: Comment: based on the code from ??? (probably Arpi)
# CONTAINER INSPECTION
LAVF_check: QuickTime/MPEG-4/Motion JPEG 2000 format
libavformat file format detected.
[mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 @ 0x35a00e4c00]ISO: File Type Major Brand: mp42
[mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 @ 0x35a00e4c00]All info found
# VIDEO STREAM INSPECTION, frame sizes/compression type
==> Found video stream: 0
======= VIDEO Format ======
  biSize 79
  biWidth 1280
  biHeight 720
  biPlanes 0
  biBitCount 24
  biCompression 875967048='H264'
  biSizeImage 2764800
Unknown extra header dump: [1] [64] [0] [1f] [ff] [e1] [0] [18] [67] [64] [0] [1f] [ac] [24] [88] [5] [0] [5b] [a1] [0] [0] [3] [3] [e9] [0] [0] [ea] [60] [f] [18] [32] [a0] [1] [0] [4] [68] [ee] [3c] [b0] 
===========================
[lavf] stream 0: video (h264), -vid 0
# AUDIO STREAM INSPECTION
==> Found audio stream: 1
======= WAVE Format =======
Format Tag: 20557 (0x504D)
Channels: 2
Samplerate: 44100
avg byte/sec: 18997
Block align: 1
bits/sample: 16
cbSize: 2
Unknown extra header dump: [12] [10] 
==========================================================================
# MPLAYER USES libavformat PLAYBACK for this VIDEO STREAM
[lavf] stream 1: audio (aac), -aid 0, -alang und
LAVF: 1 audio and 1 video streams found
LAVF: build 3436288
VIDEO:  [H264]  1280x720  24bpp  29.970 fps  2946.5 kbps (359.7 kbyte/s)
[V] filefmt:44  fourcc:0x34363248  size:1280x720  fps:29.970  ftime:=0.0334
Clip info:
 major_brand: mp42
 minor_version: 0
 compatible_brands: isommp42
 creation_time: 2012-02-18 19:44:00
# CHECK FOR SUBTITLES
Load subtitles in ./
get_path('sub/') -> '/home/sodo/.mplayer/sub/'
# CHECK X11 STATS
X11 opening display: :0
vo: X11 color mask:  FFFFFF  (R:FF0000 G:FF00 B:FF)
vo: X11 running at 2560x1024 with depth 24 and 32 bpp (":0" => local display)
[x11] Detected wm supports layers.
[x11] Using workaround for Metacity bugs.
[x11] Detected wm supports NetWM.
[x11] Detected wm supports ABOVE state.
[x11] Detected wm supports BELOW state.
[x11] Detected wm supports FULLSCREEN state.
[x11] Current fstype setting honours FULLSCREEN ABOVE BELOW X atoms
# DECODE VIDEO USING FFMPEG

==========================================================================
Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family
INFO: libavcodec init OK!
Selected video codec: [ffh264] vfm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg H.264)
==========================================================================
==========================================================================
# DECODE AUDIO USING FFMPEG
Opening audio decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg/libavcodec audio decoders
dec_audio: Allocating 192000 + 65536 = 257536 bytes for output buffer.
FFmpeg's libavcodec audio codec
INFO: libavcodec "aac" init OK!
AUDIO: 44100 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 152.0 kbit/10.77% (ratio: 18997->176400)
Selected audio codec: [ffaac] afm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg AAC (MPEG-2/MPEG-4 Audio))
==========================================================================
# PREPARE TO PLAYBACK AUDIO
Building audio filter chain for 44100Hz/2ch/s16le -> 0Hz/0ch/??...
[libaf] Adding filter dummy 
[dummy] Was reinitialized: 44100Hz/2ch/s16le
[dummy] Was reinitialized: 44100Hz/2ch/s16le
# FIND SUITABLE AUDIO DEVICE
Trying preferred audio driver 'pulse', options '[none]'
AO: [pulse] 44100Hz 2ch s16le (2 bytes per sample)
AO: Description: PulseAudio audio output
AO: Author: Lennart Poettering
Building audio filter chain for 44100Hz/2ch/s16le -> 44100Hz/2ch/s16le...
[dummy] Was reinitialized: 44100Hz/2ch/s16le
[dummy] Was reinitialized: 44100Hz/2ch/s16le
Starting playback...
Increasing filtered audio buffer size from 0 to 46144
Unsupported PixelFormat 61
Unsupported PixelFormat 53
[ffmpeg] aspect_ratio: 0.000000
# FIND SUITABLE PLAYBACK COLORSPACE
VDec: vo config request - 1280 x 720 (preferred colorspace: Planar YV12)
Trying filter chain: vo
VDec: using Planar YV12 as output csp (no 0)
Movie-Aspect is undefined - no prescaling applied.
# VIDEO OUTPUT CONFIGURATION (using NVIDIA)
VO Config (1280x720->1280x720,flags=0,'MPlayer',0x32315659)
VO: [vdpau] 1280x720 => 1280x720 Planar YV12 
VO: Description: VDPAU with X11
VO: Author: Rajib Mahapatra and others
[vdpau] Updating CSC matrix for BT.601
*** [vo] Exporting mp_image_t, 1280x720x12bpp YUV planar, 1382400 bytes
Unicode font: 5179 glyphs.
Unicode font: 5179 glyphs.
A:   1.0 V:   1.0 A-V:  0.002 ct:  0.032   0/  0 33% 10%  0.4% 0 0                                                                                                                
Uninit audio filters...
[libaf] Removing filter dummy 
Uninit audio: ffmpeg
Uninit video: ffmpeg
vo: uninit ..

3) ffmpeg
This option is nice because it gives you a count of the frames and bitrates.
[sodo@computer tmp]$  ffmpeg -i part1.mp4 -an -vcodec copy -f avi -y NUL
# FFMPEG BUILD STATS
ffmpeg version 0.7.11-rpmfusion, Copyright (c) 2000-2011 the FFmpeg developers
  built on Feb 25 2012 08:39:28 with gcc 4.6.1 20110908 (Red Hat 4.6.1-9)
  configuration: --prefix=/usr --bindir=/usr/bin --datadir=/usr/share/ffmpeg --incdir=/usr/include/ffmpeg --libdir=/usr/lib64 --mandir=/usr/share/man --arch=x86_64 --extra-cflags='-O2 -g -pipe -Wall -Wp,-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -fexceptions -fstack-protector --param=ssp-buffer-size=4 -m64 -mtune=generic' --extra-version=rpmfusion --enable-bzlib --enable-libcelt --enable-libdc1394 --enable-libdirac --enable-libfaac --enable-nonfree --enable-libfreetype --enable-libgsm --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-librtmp --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libx264 --enable-libxvid --enable-x11grab --enable-avfilter --enable-postproc --enable-pthreads --disable-static --enable-shared --enable-gpl --disable-debug --disable-stripping --shlibdir=/usr/lib64 --enable-runtime-cpudetect
  libavutil    50. 43. 0 / 50. 43. 0
  libavcodec   52.123. 0 / 52.123. 0
  libavformat  52.111. 0 / 52.111. 0
  libavdevice  52.  5. 0 / 52.  5. 0
  libavfilter   1. 80. 0 /  1. 80. 0
  libswscale    0. 14. 1 /  0. 14. 1
  libpostproc  51.  2. 0 / 51.  2. 0

# CONTAINER INSPECTION
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'part1.mp4':
# META INFORMATION: INPUT
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : mp42
    minor_version   : 0
    compatible_brands: isommp42
    creation_time   : 2012-02-18 19:44:00
  Duration: 00:12:08.29, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 3101 kb/s
# VIDEO STREAM INSPECTION: INPUT
    Stream #0.0(und): Video: h264 (High), yuv420p, 1280x720, 2946 kb/s, 29.97 fps, 29.97 tbr, 60k tbn, 59.94 tbc
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 1970-01-01 00:00:00
# AUDIO STREAM INSPECTION: INPUT
    Stream #0.1(und): Audio: aac, 44100 Hz, stereo, s16, 151 kb/s
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2012-02-18 19:44:26
# META INFORMATION: OUTPUT
Output #0, avi, to 'NUL':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : mp42
    minor_version   : 0
    compatible_brands: isommp42
    creation_time   : 2012-02-18 19:44:00
    ISFT            : Lavf52.111.0
# VIDEO STREAM INSPECTION: OUTPUT
    Stream #0.0(und): Video: libx264, yuv420p, 1280x720, q=2-31, 2946 kb/s, 29.97 tbn, 29.97 tbc
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 1970-01-01 00:00:00
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0.0 -> #0.0
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
# SUMMARY STATS: frames, bitrates
frame=21827 fps=  0 q=-1.0 Lsize=  262481kB time=00:12:08.29 bitrate=2952.4kbits/s    
video:261953kB audio:0kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead 0.201505%

4) mencoder
Mencoder's kbit/s differs from ffmpegs..hmmm?
[sodo@computer tmp]$ mencoder -nosound -ovc frameno -vc null -o /dev/null part1.mp4 
MEncoder SVN-r33996-4.6.1 (C) 2000-2011 MPlayer Team
# STARTUP STATUS
success: format: 0  data: 0x0 - 0x10d3af2b
# META INFORMATION: INPUT
libavformat file format detected.
[lavf] stream 0: video (h264), -vid 0
[lavf] stream 1: audio (aac), -aid 0, -alang und
# VIDEO STREAM INSPECTION: INPUT
VIDEO:  [H264]  1280x720  24bpp  29.970 fps  2946.5 kbps (359.7 kbyte/s)
[V] filefmt:44  fourcc:0x34363248  size:1280x720  fps:29.970  ftime:=0.0334
Writing header...
ODML: Aspect information not (yet?) available or unspecified, not writing vprp header.
Writing header...
ODML: Aspect information not (yet?) available or unspecified, not writing vprp header.
Pos: 728.3s  21827f (100%) 7165.79fps Trem:   0min   0mb  A-V:0.000 [0:0]
Writing index...
Writing header...
ODML: Aspect information not (yet?) available or unspecified, not writing vprp header.

# BITRATE CALCULATIONS FOR MEDIA BURN

Recommended video bitrate for 650MB CD: 7480

Recommended video bitrate for 700MB CD: 8055
Recommended video bitrate for 800MB CD: 9207
Recommended video bitrate for 2 x 650MB CD: 14966
Recommended video bitrate for 2 x 700MB CD: 16118
Recommended video bitrate for 2 x 800MB CD: 18422


# SUMMARY STATS: frames, bitrates
Video stream:    0.959 kbit/s  (119 B/s)  size: 87308 bytes  728.294 secs  21827 frames


5) ffprobe

[sodo@computer tmp]$  ffprobe -loglevel error -show_streams GOPR0078.MP4 
ffprobe version 0.7.13, Copyright (c) 2007-2011 the FFmpeg developers
  built on Aug  1 2012 21:08:35 with clang 3.1 (tags/Apple/clang-318.0.58)
  configuration: --prefix=/opt/local --enable-swscale --enable-avfilter --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libvorbis --enable-libtheora --enable-libdirac --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libvpx --enable-libspeex --disable-libopencore-amrnb --disable-libopencore-amrwb --mandir=/opt/local/share/man --enable-shared --enable-pthreads --cc=/usr/bin/clang --arch=x86_64 --enable-yasm --enable-gpl --enable-postproc --enable-libx264 --enable-libxvid
  libavutil    50. 43. 0 / 50. 43. 0
  libavcodec   52.123. 0 / 52.123. 0
  libavformat  52.111. 0 / 52.111. 0
  libavdevice  52.  5. 0 / 52.  5. 0
  libavfilter   1. 80. 0 /  1. 80. 0
  libswscale    0. 14. 1 /  0. 14. 1
  libpostproc  51.  2. 0 / 51.  2. 0
[STREAM]
index=0
codec_name=h264
codec_long_name=H.264 / AVC / MPEG-4 AVC / MPEG-4 part 10
codec_type=video
codec_time_base=1001/120000
codec_tag_string=avc1
codec_tag=0x31637661
width=1280
height=720
has_b_frames=1
sample_aspect_ratio=1:1
display_aspect_ratio=16:9
pix_fmt=yuv420p
r_frame_rate=60000/1001
avg_frame_rate=60000/1001
time_base=1/90000
start_time=0.000000 
duration=489.655833 
nb_frames=29350
TAG:creation_time=2012-01-08 12:43:14
TAG:language=eng
[/STREAM]
[STREAM]
index=1
codec_name=aac
codec_long_name=Advanced Audio Coding
codec_type=audio
codec_time_base=0/1
codec_tag_string=mp4a
codec_tag=0x6134706d
sample_rate=48000.000000 
channels=2
bits_per_sample=0
r_frame_rate=0/0
avg_frame_rate=375/8
time_base=1/48000
start_time=0.000000 
duration=489.642667 
nb_frames=22952
TAG:creation_time=2012-01-08 12:43:14
TAG:language=eng
[/STREAM]



Appendix
Comparing the meta info of different output video streams
a. get frame and bitrate stats for a video, ffmpeg using -f avi
[sodo@computer tmp]$  ffmpeg -i part1.mp4 -an -vcodec copy -f avi -y NUL
# META INFORMATION: OUTPUT

Output #0, avi, to 'NUL':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : mp42
    minor_version   : 0
    compatible_brands: isommp42
    creation_time   : 2012-02-18 19:44:00
    ISFT            : Lavf52.111.0
    Stream #0.0(und): Video: libx264, yuv420p, 1280x720, q=2-31, 2946 kb/s, 29.97 tbn, 29.97 tbc
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 1970-01-01 00:00:00
..
frame=21827 fps=  0 q=-1.0 Lsize=  262481kB time=00:12:08.29 bitrate=2952.4kbits/s    
video:261953kB audio:0kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead 0.201505%

b. get frame and bitrate stats for a video, ffmpeg, using -f mpeg2video
Output will be mostly the same as above, but I suspect the differences in Lsize and bitrate is due to my forcing the format of the output stream to mpeg2video
[sodo@computer tmp]$  ffmpeg -i part1.mp4 -an -vcodec copy -f mpeg2video -y NUL
..
# META INFORMATION: OUTPUT
Output #0, mpeg2video, to 'NUL':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : mp42
    minor_version   : 0
    compatible_brands: isommp42
    creation_time   : 2012-02-18 19:44:00
    encoder         : Lavf52.111.0
    Stream #0.0(und): Video: libx264, yuv420p, 1280x720, q=2-31, 2946 kb/s, 90k tbn, 29.97 tbc
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 1970-01-01 00:00:00

..
frame=21827 fps=  0 q=-1.0 Lsize=  261953kB time=00:12:08.29 bitrate=2946.5kbits/s    
video:261953kB audio:0kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead 0.000000%

c. ffmpeg, using rawvideo, -f yuv4mpegpipe
This one takes some time, as I've removed the option specifying ffmpeg to copy the same video stream so that ffmpeg actually transcodes the video stream into the raw video format, yuv4mpegpipe.
[sodo@computer tmp]$  ffmpeg -threads 8 -i part1.mp4 -an -f yuv4mpegpipe -y NUL
..
# META INFORMATION: OUTPUT

Output #0, yuv4mpegpipe, to 'NUL':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : mp42
    minor_version   : 0
    compatible_brands: isommp42
    creation_time   : 2012-02-18 19:44:00
    encoder         : Lavf52.111.0
    Stream #0.0(und): Video: rawvideo, yuv420p, 1280x720, q=2-31, 200 kb/s, 90k tbn, 29.97 tbc
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 1970-01-01 00:00:00
..
frame=21827 fps= 46 q=0.0 Lsize=29466578kB time=00:12:08.29 bitrate=331446.0kbits/s    
video:0kB audio:0kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead inf%

References

Mplayer FAQ
# convert/transcode a video to rawvideo format, but just inspect the header
ffmpeg -i part1.mp4 -pix_fmt yuv420p -f yuv4mpegpipe - | head -1

# convert/transcode a video to rawvideo format
ffmpeg -i part1.mp4 -an -f yuv4mpegpipe -y NUL

http://ffmpeg.org/faq.html
http://ffmpeg.org/ffprobe.html

recording desktop with ffmpeg

I had this idea that I'm going to start interviewing folks on different technical topics via Skype or Google Hangout.  Normally, I would use Cinelerra to perform this task, but for some reason, the recordings in Cinelerra showed some irritating sound artifacts.  Testing in audacity showed no such audio problems.  I'll bring this up on the Cin mailing list soon.

FFmpeg to the Rescue
So with Cinelerra not working for desktop recordings, I needed an alternate way to record my desktop screen as well as the audio from the person being interviewed.  After some searching a good deal of trial and error, I found from the link in the reference section at the bottom of the page, a very nice ffmpeg command.  You can save to any format you want.  The example below shows how to save the microphone audio (hw:0,0) in PCM format.  The desktop video is brought in via the xllgrab format specifier :
ffmpeg -f alsa -i hw:0,0 -ac 2 -ar 48000 -acodec pcm_s16le -f x11grab -r 24 -s 1280x720 -i :0.0 -aspect 16:9 -vcodec libx264 -vpre lossless_ultrafast -threads 8 -y output.mov

I later tweaked the command to do a bit more, using pulse audio as input as well as saving out to an iPod compatible format:
ffmpeg -f alsa -i pulse -f x11grab -s 1280x720 -r 23.98 -i :0.0 -vcodec libx264 -acodec pcm_s16le -ab 128k -ar 48000 -ac 1 -b 2000k -bt 750k -refs 1 -deblockalpha 0 -deblockbeta 0 -subq 1 -me_range 21 -bf 0 -level 30 -g 300 -keyint_min 30 -sc_threshold 40 -rc_eq 'blurCplx^(1-qComp)' -qcomp 0.7 -qmax 51 -qdiff 4 -i_qfactor 0.71428572 -maxrate 2000k -bufsize 2M -cmp 1 -threads 8 output.mov

Errors
Not sure how yet to resolve these ffmpeg errors:
[alsa @ 0x16512a0] Estimating duration from bitrate, this may be inaccurate
Input #0, alsa, from 'hw:0,0':
  Duration: N/A, start: 17479.447401, bitrate: N/A
    Stream #0.0: Audio: pcm_s16le, 32000 Hz, 2 channels, s16, 1024 kb/s
[x11grab @ 0x1650240] device: :0.0 -> display: :0.0 x: 0 y: 0 width: 1280 height: 720
[x11grab @ 0x1650240] shared memory extension found
[x11grab @ 0x1650240] Estimating duration from bitrate, this may be inaccurate
Input #1, x11grab, from ':0.0':
  Duration: N/A, start: 1327197224.425685, bitrate: 707788 kb/s
    Stream #1.0: Video: rawvideo, bgra, 1280x720, 707788 kb/s, 24 tbr, 1000k tbn, 24 tbc
Incompatible pixel format 'bgra' for codec 'libx264', auto-selecting format 'yuv420p'

Along the way, I received an error:
"unknown field slave"

Finding a bit more about ALSA
This ended up being because I had edited my /etc/asound.conf file from the default.  This corrupted my sound card settings.  I was reacquainted with some debugging commands and places where "sound stuff" lives:
[sodo@computer etc]$ arecord -l
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 0: U0x46d0x821 [USB Device 0x46d:0x821], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: MobilePre [MobilePre], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

[sodo@computer etc]$ amixer -c 2
Simple mixer control 'Speaker',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 31 [100%] [0.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 31 [100%] [0.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 25 [81%] [0.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 25 [81%] [0.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'PCM',1
  Capabilities: volume volume-joined penum
  Playback channels: Mono
  Capture channels: Mono
  Limits: 0 - 2
  Mono: 2 [100%]
Simple mixer control 'Analog In',0
  Capabilities: pvolume cvolume pswitch pswitch-joined cswitch cswitch-joined penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31 Capture 0 - 31
  Front Left: Playback 28 [90%] [6.00dB] [off] Capture 31 [100%] [12.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 28 [90%] [6.00dB] [off] Capture 31 [100%] [12.00dB] [on]

[sodo@computer ~]$ cat /proc/asound/cards
 0 [U0x46d0x821    ]: USB-Audio - USB Device 0x46d:0x821
                      USB Device 0x46d:0x821 at usb-0000:00:1d.7-6, high speed
 1 [MobilePre      ]: USB-Audio - MobilePre
                      M Audio MobilePre at usb-0000:00:1d.0-1, full speed

[sodo@computer etc]$ ls /dev/snd

by-id  by-path  controlC0  controlC2  pcmC0D0c  pcmC2D0c  pcmC2D0p  seq  timer

[sodo@computer etc]$ cat /etc/asound.conf

#

# Place your global alsa-lib configuration here...

#

@hooks [

{

func load

files [

"/etc/alsa/pulse-default.conf"

]

errors false

}

]

XWinInfo
Also, I learned about xwininfo, a cool command that shows you your desktop settings:
[sodo@computer videoConfTest]$ xwininfo
xwininfo: Window id: 0x320003b "Hak5 - Linux Screen Recording, Boxee Python Development and Qnext - YouTube - Google Chrome"

  Absolute upper-left X:  0
  Absolute upper-left Y:  53
  Relative upper-left X:  0
  Relative upper-left Y:  22
  Width: 1280
  Height: 971
  Depth: 24
  Visual: 0x21
  Visual Class: TrueColor
  Border width: 0
  Class: InputOutput
  Colormap: 0x20 (installed)
  Bit Gravity State: NorthWestGravity
  Window Gravity State: NorthWestGravity
  Backing Store State: NotUseful
  Save Under State: no
  Map State: IsViewable
  Override Redirect State: no
  Corners:  +0+53  -1280+53  -1280-0  +0-0
  -geometry 1280x971+0-0

Finally, I installed Skype and dealt with resolving a bunch of dependency problems (as usual):

http://kezhong.wordpress.com/2011/09/02/installing-skype-on-fedora-15x86_64/

VideoCamming
And a simple way to trigger mplayer to open up your videocam:
mplayer tv:// -tv driver=v4l2 device=/dev/video0

Another simple way to capture the output:
ffmpeg -f alsa -i hw:0 -f video4linux2 -s 320x240 -i /dev/video0 out.mpg

Or a more complex example, saving the video into an iPod friendly format:
ffmpeg -f alsa -i pulse -f video4linux2 -i /dev/video0 -aspect 16:9 -s 1280x720 -r 23.98 -vcodec libx264 -acodec libfaac -ab 128k -ar 48000 -ac 1 -b 2000k -bt 750k -refs 1 -deblockalpha 0 -deblockbeta 0 -subq 1 -me_range 21 -bf 0 -level 30 -g 300 -keyint_min 30 -sc_threshold 40 -rc_eq 'blurCplx^(1-qComp)' -qcomp 0.7 -qmax 51 -qdiff 4 -i_qfactor 0.71428572 -maxrate 2000k -bufsize 2M -cmp 1 -threads 8 output.mov

Finally, guvcview is a very nice program to control one's videocam:

Reference
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-newbie-8/recording-desktop-with-ffmpeg-877580/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNz5Lrc06_s
http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=256681
http://ffmpeg.org/ffprobe.html#pulse
http://alien.slackbook.org/blog/adding-an-alsa-software-pre-amp-to-fix-low-sound-levels/
http://forums.opensuse.org/english/get-technical-help-here/multimedia/471522-record-my-desktop-using-ffmpeg-post2433494.html
http://superuser.com/questions/251338/mencoder-capture-from-camera-and-microphone
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1556038 (using jack)
http://wiki.linuxaudio.org/wiki/screencasttutorial (jack_capture)
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Webcam (webcam)
http://howto-pages.org/ffmpeg/ (a nice, human readable version of the FFmpeg doc)
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Alsa-sound-6.html (amixer settings)

playing Tokyo Reality in 1080p

The guys at Akihabara News got their hands on a Canon EOS 5D Mark II and produced some beautiful (though shakey) video while running and gunning around Tokyo:


The video is on Vimeo, but the guys kindly also made the 1080p source available here. I downloaded the gigantic 1.8GB Torrent from here. That is 1.8GB for six minutes and ten seconds of video. Wow!

Linux Playback
I wanted to see which media players could handle such a large file. Here were my results on my Fedora 7 x86-64 system:
- dual quad core, 1.6Ghz
- 2GB
- NVidia 8800GT dual head system with twin Dell FP1905 monitors

mplayer played the file cleanly if the application window was stretched to a max of about 1400 pixels wide. Any wider, and mplayer would stutter.

xine couldn't play the file as it seems I do not have the correct codec installed. I got the dreaded "file uses an unsupported codec" error:


ffplay played it with slight audio stutters and the following error:
[mpeg4aac @ 0x3947e23ca0]faac: frame decoding failed: Gain control not yet implemented

I will have to investigate this.

Update 2008/11/23
Reviewing Google for this error, most of the suggestions for fixing the problem state that you should have the latest version of faad2/faac. According to the developer at www.audiocoding.com, I do:
faac x86_64 1.26-3.fc9 installed 182 k
faac-devel x86_64 1.26-3.fc9 installed 49 k
faad2 x86_64 1:2.6.1-10.fc9 installed 344 k
faad2-devel x86_64 1:2.6.1-10.fc9 installed 414 k

So, I'm at a loss why these messages are occurring.
end update

I converted Tokyo Reality using mjpeg as the video compression method:
ffmpeg -i Tokyo-Reality-h264-1080p.mp4 -b 3000k -vcodec mjpeg -ab 256k -ar 44100 -acodec mpeg4aac -coder 1 -flags +loop -cmp +chroma -partitions +parti4x4+partp8x8+partb8x8 -me hex -subq 5 -me_range 16 -g 250 -keyint_min 25 -sc_threshold 40 -i_qfactor 0.71 tokyo.mp4

On my Dell SC1430, 1.6Ghz with eight cores, the conversion took about the same time as the file was long, about 6 minutes, 10 seconds. The size of the original was 1.8GB; the size of the conversion was 1.6GB. Not much difference there.

Update 2008/11/22
I compared the output of the original to the output of the MJPEG conversion. On the left of the below screengrab is the original from Akihabara. On the right is my conversion. You'll notice that the converted image on the right is slightly more saturated than the one on the left. I'll have to play with the conversion parameters to get the colors a little more like the original.

end update

When I replayed this video, within about four minutes, I exhausted 2GB of RAM and 4GB of swap. Holy crap! The normal Cinelerra editing functions (cutting/pasting) did not exacerbate this memory issue. Only the replay function seemed to suck up all my memory:


The replay was a little choppy at the beginning, but ran at 30fps. However, as RAM filled up, playback performance dropped to 12fps, as RAM was exhausted and swap was being utilized. Once swap was exhausted, the entire box locked up! Scary!!

Update 2008/11/17
I had been planning on upgrading my system to Fedora 9 and the above memory leak was enough for me to say "fuck it" and just do the upgrade. Upgrades are increasingly complex as I've added four RAID drives to my setup. Well, just when you think it is going to be a nightmare, along comes Fedora and actually made the process pretty seemless. Within two hours, I had Fedora 9 installed, all my Cinelerra source dependencies installed, Cinelerra compiled and up and running. Of course, this is from a guy who has been doing this for how many years now? But still..two hours..I hardly believe it myself.

The icing on the cake is that my memory leak is no longer present! The below chart show CPU utilization and memory while the video plays:


So far, the system is much more responsive than the old Fedora 7, 64-bit. I guess I had some old/outdated/corrupted libraries in there. Now playback of Tokyo Reality in Cinelerra is more consistent, albeit at a slower 19fps.
end update

MacBook Pro Playback
I next copied the file to my 2GB, dual core Intel 2.2Ghz MacBook Pro 17". I attached my 42inch display to the second head on the MacBook's video card. The file played in QuickTime. It played without errors when I manually enlarged the Quicktime window to fill the screen; however, QuickTime stuttered when the video was maximized to Full Screen using the 42" monitor as the output display.

Finally, I tried to play the file on my MediaGate to absolutely no avail.

So, it looks like the only reliable players are mplayer on Fedora 7 and QuickTime on my MacBook Pro.

I think I need to upgrade my Fedora 7 system to a newer OS. Hopefully, a more recent OS and supporting encoders/decoders will do a better job of playing these large files back.

The Mule

converting 1080p video, part II

A couple nights back, I spent a few hours finding a usable intermediate format for 1080P video editing. Of course, my goal was to prove that I can still use my preferred NLE Cinelerra in order to edit the gorgeous, high definition output from the Canon EOS 5D Mark II. An alternative way of putting it is that this is my justification for purchasing what will amount to a $4000 camera!

Import: which format works well?
Since Cinelerra is rather picky about the types of video it accepts (see my original Quicktime compatability document), it was a challenge to find a Cinelerra-editable intermediate format for that test 1080p video I told you about in the first part of this two-part blog entry. The video is a five-second city scene of a bicycler launching from a stop. That video is 23MB.

Keep in mind that various versions of media encoders (like ffmpeg and mplayer) do not always implement codecs and container formats consistently. Also, program dependencies for the encoders across different Linux distros complicate matters. So what I state as working below may not work for you. (Your mileage may vary). Note that I am currently using Fedora 7, 64-bit.

Caveats aside, transcoding the biker video to the following formats did NOT work:
- I420 from ffmpeg
- rawvideo (RAW YV12) from ffmpeg

Here are a couple formats that did work:
1) MJPEG output from ffmpeg
2) RAW YV12 output from mplayer

MJPEG from FFmpeg
Playback Performance
This format seems to be a likely candidate, as I got about 15fps on my dual, quad core Dell SC1430 in Cinelerra.

File Size
The resulting file size is small..about 35MB for five seconds of 1080P.

Image Quality Compared to Original
The image quality is very good. However, the colors seem bit oversaturated and dark in contrast to the original. With a bit of tweaking to the conversion command, I might be able to get more realistic colors out of the conversion. Here's a comparison shot:


Editing Notes
No problems surfaced with a couple initial edits and renderings. As this is a compressed format, there will be some loss of quality over successive encodings.

Here is the command I used to convert the video:
ffmpeg -i Video1.MOV -b 3000k -vcodec mjpeg -ab 256k -ar 44100 -acodec mpeg4aac -coder 1 -flags +loop -cmp +chroma -partitions +parti4x4+partp8x8+partb8x8 -me hex -subq 5 -me_range 16 -g 250 -keyint_min 25 -sc_threshold 40 -i_qfactor 0.71 testmjpeg.mov

This is the same conversion command that I ran in part I of this blog entry.

Information about the file looks like this in mplayer:
Playing testmjpeg.mov. ISO: File Type Major Brand: Original QuickTime Quicktime/MOV file format detected. [mov] Video stream found, -vid 0 VIDEO: [jpeg] 1920x1080 24bpp 30.000 fps 0.0 kbps ( 0.0 kbyte/s) ========================================================================== Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family Selected video codec: [ffmjpeg] vfm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg MJPEG decoder) ==========================================================================


RAWYV12 from mplayer
Playback Performance
Playback is slow, 7fps, roughly 1/2 the speed of MJPEG. Not a show stopper.

File Size
Huge. About 450MB for about five seconds of video. Woah!

Image Quality Compared to Original
Image quality is very good as well. Less saturated then the mjpeg version. That's what almost 100MB/sec pays for.


Editing Notes
This is an uncompressed format, corresponding to the YUV 4:2:0 spec:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YUV#Y.27UV420p_.28and_Y.27V12.29

Also, here is an excellent article on understanding color sampling:
http://www.dvxuser.com/articles/colorspace/

Cinelerra loads the raw YV12 file, but the timeline does not show thumbnails. Not a show stopper, but a bit of a bummer. The one benefit of yuv4mpeg stream from mplayer is that you can feed that stream directly into mjpegtools for further processing.

Update 2008/11/22
It seems that 1080p in raw yuv format is actually unusable in my Fedora 9 Cinelerra install. When I load a project with a large raw yuv file, Cinelerra hangs for ten minutes as it loads the file. Once loaded, the GUI tends to freeze for another ten minutes. Thus, it seems that MJPEG may be my only choice for rendering 1080p.

I will continue to experiment.
end update

Here is the command I used to convert the video:
mplayer Video1.MOV -vo yuv4mpeg

I received this message while trying to convert the video
************************************************
**** Your system is too SLOW to play this! ****
************************************************
Possible reasons, problems, workarounds:
- Most common: broken/buggy _audio_ driver
- Try -ao sdl or use the OSS emulation of ALSA.
- Experiment with different values for -autosync, 30 is a good start.

So, I amended my command to add the autosync feature, which gradually adjusts the audio/video synchronization based on audio delay:
mplayer Video1.MOV -autosync 30 -vo yuv4mpeg

That seemed to alleviate the messages. Without redirecting to a specified filename, Mplayer outputs a file called "stream.yuv".

Information about the file looks like this in mplayer:
Playing stream.yuv. YUV4MPEG2 file format detected. YUV4MPEG2 Video stream 0 size: display: 1920x1080, codec: 1920x1080 VIDEO: [YV12] 1920x1080 12bpp 30.000 fps 0.0 kbps ( 0.0 kbyte/s) ========================================================================== Opening video decoder: [raw] RAW Uncompressed Video VDec: vo config request - 1920 x 1080 (preferred colorspace: Planar YV12) VDec: using Planar YV12 as output csp (no 0) Movie-Aspect is 1.78:1 - prescaling to correct movie aspect. VO: [xv] 1920x1080 => 1920x1080 Planar YV12 [ASPECT] Warning: No suitable new res found! [ASPECT] Warning: No suitable new res found! Selected video codec: [rawyv12] vfm: raw (RAW YV12) ==========================================================================

Quality
There seem to be quite a difference in the colors rendered by each format. The MJPEG-formatted file seems to much closer to the original than the raw YV12.

Applying Effects

For fun, I applied an oil painting effect to this five seconds of video. I then rendered the output to MJPEG format. I was disappointed to find out that five seconds of video with the oil paint effect applied takes a full three minutes and twenty seconds to render at 1080p in my dual, quad core Dell SC1430. Holy cow! I guess I won't be doing Star Wars green screens in 1080p!


In the interest of full disclosure, the oil paint effect is a notorious CPU hog and is not indicative of the type of work the average editor will perform. Another note: while rendering the output, all eight CPUs were maxed out at 95% utilization. Kowabunga!

To give people hope, applying a simple title to the image doesn't do too much damage to load on the CPU. The video with a title rendered to MJPEG format took twenty seconds.

Thoughts
My goal is to get some really fantastic looking video rendered from Cinelerra. In combination with the new Canon and some wise encoding choices, I believe I should be able to do this. This article shows that I'm getting closer, but I'm not there yet. I'm hoping to get closer with another round of experimentation.

One final thing..be ready to spend money on RAM. I noticed my paltry 2GB was immediately sucked up by Cinelerra when I was doing these various test videos. I'm going to get another 4GB and will let you know if that helps.

more to come.
The Mule