How does one view .avi video files on a Pi running Buster?

I've an old Canon A460 that captures video clips in .avi
format. When I connect the camera to the Pi it's recognized
and I can copy the files to the Pi, but when I try to open
them vlc player comes up with a black screen showing an orange
and white traffic cone.

Thanks for reading, any suggestions appreciated!

bob prohaska

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On a sunny day (Tue, 2 Aug 2022 15:30:48 -0000 (UTC)) it happened bob prohaska <bp@www.zefox.net> wrote in <tcbfv8$1in57$1@dont-email.me>:

How does one view .avi video files on a Pi running Buster?

I've an old Canon A460 that captures video clips in .avi
format. When I connect the camera to the Pi it's recognized
and I can copy the files to the Pi, but when I try to open
them vlc player comes up with a black screen showing an orange
and white traffic cone.

Thanks for reading, any suggestions appreciated!

bob prohaska

I seem to be using ffplay for videos on my Pi4 these dsys

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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bob prohaska wrote:

How does one view .avi video files on a Pi running Buster?

VLC

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On Tue, 2 Aug 2022 15:30:48 -0000 (UTC), bob prohaska wrote:

How does one view .avi video files on a Pi running Buster?

I've an old Canon A460 that captures video clips in .avi format. When I connect the camera to the Pi it's recognized and I can copy the files to
the Pi, but when I try to open them vlc player comes up with a black
screen showing an orange and white traffic cone.

Thanks for reading, any suggestions appreciated!

bob prohaska

AVI is not a format, it is a wrapper around the file that specifies many
things including the format & codec in use
you probably do not have the correct codec installed




--
Be careful! Is it classified?

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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alister <alister.ware@ntlworld.com> wrote:

On Tue, 2 Aug 2022 15:30:48 -0000 (UTC), bob prohaska wrote:

How does one view .avi video files on a Pi running Buster?

AVI is not a format, it is a wrapper around the file that specifies many things including the format & codec in use
you probably do not have the correct codec installed

If I open the media file using VLC Media player and open tools > codec I see: stream 0
Codec Motion JPEG Video (MJPEG)
Video reolustion 64x480
Buffer dimensions 640x480
Frame rate 10
orientation top left

stream 1
Codec: Araw
Type: Audio
Sample rate 11024 Hz
Bits per sample: 8
Bitrate: 88kb/s


Meanwhile the progress bar moves back and forth, as if something's
running. If I click the play button nothing changes.

There's no prompt or error message saying a codec is needed.
If I open current media information all values are zero.
The file size is nearly six MB, so it's not empty.

I'm baffled.

Any suggestions appreciated!

bob prohaska

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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bob prohaska <bp@www.zefox.net> wrote:

alister <alister.ware@ntlworld.com> wrote:

On Tue, 2 Aug 2022 15:30:48 -0000 (UTC), bob prohaska wrote:

How does one view .avi video files on a Pi running Buster?

AVI is not a format, it is a wrapper around the file that specifies many
things including the format & codec in use
you probably do not have the correct codec installed

If I open the media file using VLC Media player and open tools > codec I see:
stream 0
Codec Motion JPEG Video (MJPEG)
Video reolustion 64x480
Buffer dimensions 640x480
Frame rate 10
orientation top left

stream 1
Codec: Araw
Type: Audio
Sample rate 11024 Hz
Bits per sample: 8
Bitrate: 88kb/s

That's a prime example of "AVI is not a format". MJPEG is quite
unusual and only commonly used by cameras/webcams. VLC probably
should play it, but there may be some bug being triggered,
especially if the video data from the device isn't 100% to spec.

You could try mplayer or ffplay. Personally I'd focus on converting
it into a normal format (mpeg4, etc.) and playing that. Try ffmpeg
with "-acodec [codec]" and "-vcodec [codec]" to set the format to
something you like. I'd use "libmp3lame" and "mpeg4".

Meanwhile the progress bar moves back and forth, as if something's
running. If I click the play button nothing changes.

I've had that a lot in VLC over the years, it seems to be common
behaviour when a particular part of the decoding chain is broken.
Sometimes the audio plays without the video. Re-encoding the video
in a more common format as described above is my usual solution.

--
__ __
#_ < |\| |< _#

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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bob prohaska wrote:

If I open the media file using VLC Media player [...]
the progress bar moves back and forth, as if something's running.

IME when the progress bar bounces backward and forward it's bad news. Usually a
stream failing to connect, don't think I've ever seen it for a local file.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> wrote:

You could try mplayer or ffplay. Personally I'd focus on converting
it into a normal format (mpeg4, etc.) and playing that. Try ffmpeg
with "-acodec [codec]" and "-vcodec [codec]" to set the format to
something you like. I'd use "libmp3lame" and "mpeg4".

You need those options if you want a specific encoder, yes, but if you just want a compatible format, simply specify .mp4 as the extension of the
output file: "ffmpeg -i input.avi output.mp4".

Most examples will use -c:v and -c:a now instead of -vcodec and -acodec.
Also the thing to remember is that these can be input or output options; to choose their function, specify them before the input file name (-i
srcfile.avi) or before the output file name (dstfile.mp4), or both. But
really, using them as input options should "never" be necessary because
ffmpeg is good at automatically determining the decoders needed, and they
need to be exactly right.

To see what ffmpeg thinks of a file, don't specify an output file name:
"ffmpeg -hide_banner -i input.avi" (hide_banner just to skip the annoying program info header). But really, that should be the same as the stream
info from VLC.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> wrote:

bob prohaska <bp@www.zefox.net> wrote:

How does one view .avi video files on a Pi running Buster?

You could try mplayer or ffplay. Personally I'd focus on converting
it into a normal format (mpeg4, etc.) and playing that. Try ffmpeg
with "-acodec [codec]" and "-vcodec [codec]" to set the format to
something you like. I'd use "libmp3lame" and "mpeg4".

Mplayer can display my camera's video capture directly. Unfortunately,
the video performance is very poor; either 640x480 at 10 Hz or 320x240
at 30 Hz. Your recipe for using ffmpeg seemed to work, but the 10 Hz
videos don't seem to play and the 30 Hz videos aren't sharp enough.

An old iPhone6 takes much better videos, but my Pi4 freezes instantly
when the iPhone is connected. Any hope of connecting to the iPhone?

The reason for the videos is to let tech support look at the panel
display of a piece of equipment. They want to see lights flash and
numbers change. I may start with stills and hope that's good enough.
10 Hz is fast enough to show the action, but unless there's a 10 Hz
viewer readily available (probably for Windows) I'm kinda stuck.

Thanks for writing!

bob prohaska



--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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bob prohaska <bp@www.zefox.net> wrote:

Your recipe for using ffmpeg seemed to work, but the 10 Hz
videos don't seem to play and the 30 Hz videos aren't sharp enough.

Set the output frame rate to 24! "ffmpeg -i src.avi -r 24 dst.mp4"

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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A. Dumas <alexandre@dumas.fr.invalid> wrote:

Set the output frame rate to 24! "ffmpeg -i src.avi -r 24 dst.mp4"

Or 30 for a smoother up-rating if the source is 10 Hz, but 24 is the most compatible frame rate number.

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On a sunny day (3 Aug 2022 07:33:26 +1000) it happened not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) wrote in <62e99826@news.ausics.net>:

bob prohaska <bp@www.zefox.net> wrote:

alister <alister.ware@ntlworld.com> wrote:

On Tue, 2 Aug 2022 15:30:48 -0000 (UTC), bob prohaska wrote:

How does one view .avi video files on a Pi running Buster?

AVI is not a format, it is a wrapper around the file that specifies many >>> things including the format & codec in use
you probably do not have the correct codec installed

If I open the media file using VLC Media player and open tools > codec I see:
stream 0
Codec Motion JPEG Video (MJPEG)
Video reolustion 64x480
Buffer dimensions 640x480
Frame rate 10
orientation top left

stream 1
Codec: Araw
Type: Audio
Sample rate 11024 Hz
Bits per sample: 8
Bitrate: 88kb/s

That's a prime example of "AVI is not a format". MJPEG is quite
unusual and only commonly used by cameras/webcams. VLC probably
should play it, but there may be some bug being triggered,
especially if the video data from the device isn't 100% to spec.

You could try mplayer or ffplay. Personally I'd focus on converting
it into a normal format (mpeg4, etc.) and playing that. Try ffmpeg
with "-acodec [codec]" and "-vcodec [codec]" to set the format to
something you like. I'd use "libmp3lame" and "mpeg4".

Meanwhile the progress bar moves back and forth, as if something's
running. If I click the play button nothing changes.

I've had that a lot in VLC over the years, it seems to be common
behaviour when a particular part of the decoding chain is broken.
Sometimes the audio plays without the video. Re-encoding the video
in a more common format as described above is my usual solution.

Yes, I have 2 A470 and these scripts I used in the past:


#canon_a470_big_to_30fps_mpeg4
if [ "$1" = "" ]
then
echo "Usage: canon_a470_big_to_30fps_mpeg4 infile.avi outfile.avi"
exit 1
fi

if [ "$2" = "" ]
then
echo "Usage: canon_a470_big_to_30fps_mpeg4 infile.avi outfile.avi"
exit 1
fi

echo "Extracting wave file."

ffmpeg -i $1 -f wav tmp.wav

sleep 1

echo "Encoding to mpeg4 at 30 fps."

ffmpeg -i $1 -f yuv4mpegpipe -b 5000 -vcodec pgmyuv -y /dev/stdout \
| \
yuvmotionfps -r 30:1 \
| \
ffmpeg -i tmp.wav -f yuv4mpegpipe -i - \
-f avi -vcodec mpeg4 -r 30 -b 1000 -g 300 -bf 2 -ar 48000 -y $2


echo "Ready, file is $2"


An other one:

#encode_a470_small
if [ "$1" = "" ]
then
echo "Usage: encode_a470_small infile.avi outfile.avi"
exit 1
fi

if [ "$2" = "" ]
then
echo "Usage: encode_a470_small infile.avi outfile.avi"
exit 1
fi

ffmpeg -i $1 -f avi -vcodec mpeg4 -r 30 -b 1000 -g 300 -bf 2 -ar 48000 -y $2


And yet an other one:

#encode_a470_big
if [ "$1" = "" ]
then
echo "Usage: encode_a470_big infile.avi outfile.avi"
exit 1
fi

if [ "$2" = "" ]
then
echo "Usage: encode_a470_big infile.avi outfile.avi"
exit 1
fi

ffmpeg -i $1 -f avi -vcodec mpeg4 -r 20 -b 1000 -g 300 -bf 2 -ar 48000 -y $2


So, his were just scripst I ued long agao, have a different small canon now. But should give some hints.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

In article <tccgul$1r3gi$1@dont-email.me>,
A. Dumas <alexandre@dumas.fr.invalid> wrote:

To see what ffmpeg thinks of a file, don't specify an output file name: >"ffmpeg -hide_banner -i input.avi" (hide_banner just to skip the annoying >program info header). But really, that should be the same as the stream
info from VLC.

Or just use

ffprobe (filename)

which dumps its opinion of the file content, streams, codecs, resolutions ...

If you are using the "other" toolset -- avprobe does similar

--
--------------------------------------+------------------------------------ Mike Brown: mjb[-at-]signal11.org.uk | http://www.signal11.org.uk

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

A. Dumas <alexandre@dumas.fr.invalid> wrote:

bob prohaska <bp@www.zefox.net> wrote:

Your recipe for using ffmpeg seemed to work, but the 10 Hz
videos don't seem to play and the 30 Hz videos aren't sharp enough.

Set the output frame rate to 24! "ffmpeg -i src.avi -r 24 dst.mp4"

I tried using
ffmpeg -i MVI_0001.AVI -r 24 2nd_home_screen.mp4

That seems to run without errors and produces a file, but still
VLC player renders a black screen. The progress bar behaves normally,
and the sound is played back. Just no picture....

If I try to use Firefox ESR to open the .mp4 file it reports the
file is corrupt. The Chrome browser reports no errors, but delivers
neither picture nor sound. Not even a progress bar.

mplayer shows the video just fine.

Am I missing a switch or option in the ffmpeg command line?
There's a -ilme option for interlace, but I can't figure where
it goes in the command line, nor whether it's relevant.

Thanks very much!

bob prohaska

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On a sunny day (Wed, 3 Aug 2022 14:45:38 +0100 (BST)) it happened mjb@signal11.invalid (Mike) wrote in <tcdu62$n0u$1@posie.signal11.org.uk>:

In article <tccgul$1r3gi$1@dont-email.me>,
A. Dumas <alexandre@dumas.fr.invalid> wrote:

To see what ffmpeg thinks of a file, don't specify an output file name: >>"ffmpeg -hide_banner -i input.avi" (hide_banner just to skip the annoying >>program info header). But really, that should be the same as the stream >>info from VLC.

Or just use

ffprobe (filename)

which dumps its opinion of the file content, streams, codecs, resolutions ...

If you are using the "other" toolset -- avprobe does similar

I use mediainfo

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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bob prohaska <bp@www.zefox.net> wrote:

I tried using
ffmpeg -i MVI_0001.AVI -r 24 2nd_home_screen.mp4

That seems to run without errors and produces a file, but still
VLC player renders a black screen. The progress bar behaves normally,
and the sound is played back. Just no picture....

If I try to use Firefox ESR to open the .mp4 file it reports the
file is corrupt. The Chrome browser reports no errors, but delivers
neither picture nor sound. Not even a progress bar.

mplayer shows the video just fine.

Huh. What does ffprobe say about both files?

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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Mike <mjb@signal11.invalid> wrote:

A. Dumas <alexandre@dumas.fr.invalid> wrote:

To see what ffmpeg thinks of a file, don't specify an output file name:
"ffmpeg -hide_banner -i input.avi" (hide_banner just to skip the annoying
program info header). But really, that should be the same as the stream
info from VLC.

Or just use ffprobe (filename)
which dumps its opinion of the file content, streams, codecs, resolutions ...

I didn't know about ffprobe, but it seems it's simply an alias for 'ffmpeg
-i' (almost; it doesn't warn about a missing output file). It even prints
the same annoying banner which can be hidden with the same option
-hide_banner.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

A. Dumas <alexandre@dumas.fr.invalid> wrote:

bob prohaska <bp@www.zefox.net> wrote:

I tried using
ffmpeg -i MVI_0001.AVI -r 24 2nd_home_screen.mp4

That seems to run without errors and produces a file, but still
VLC player renders a black screen. The progress bar behaves normally,
and the sound is played back. Just no picture....

If I try to use Firefox ESR to open the .mp4 file it reports the
file is corrupt. The Chrome browser reports no errors, but delivers
neither picture nor sound. Not even a progress bar.

I tried the conversion again using an output framerate of 30 Hz, No change. Chrome does nothing, firefox says the file is corrupt, mplayer works fine.

mplayer shows the video just fine.

Huh. What does ffprobe say about both files?

About the .AVI file ffprobe reports:
libavutil 56. 22.100 / 56. 22.100
libavcodec 58. 35.100 / 58. 35.100
libavformat 58. 20.100 / 58. 20.100
libavdevice 58. 5.100 / 58. 5.100
libavfilter 7. 40.101 / 7. 40.101
libavresample 4. 0. 0 / 4. 0. 0
libswscale 5. 3.100 / 5. 3.100
libswresample 3. 3.100 / 3. 3.100
libpostproc 55. 3.100 / 55. 3.100
Input #0, avi, from 'MVI_0003.AVI':
Metadata:
creation_time : 2022-08-03 07:37:09
encoder : CanonMVI02
Duration: 00:11:11.70, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 5060 kb/s
Stream #0:0: Video: mjpeg (MJPG / 0x47504A4D), yuvj422p(pc, bt470bg/unknown/unknown), 640x480, 4971 kb/s, 10 fps, 10 tbr, 10 tbn, 10 tbc
Stream #0:1: Audio: pcm_u8 ([1][0][0][0] / 0x0001), 11024 Hz, 1 channels, u8, 88 kb/s


About the .mp4 file ffprobe reports
libavutil 56. 22.100 / 56. 22.100
libavcodec 58. 35.100 / 58. 35.100
libavformat 58. 20.100 / 58. 20.100
libavdevice 58. 5.100 / 58. 5.100
libavfilter 7. 40.101 / 7. 40.101
libavresample 4. 0. 0 / 4. 0. 0
libswscale 5. 3.100 / 5. 3.100
libswresample 3. 3.100 / 3. 3.100
libpostproc 55. 3.100 / 55. 3.100
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from '2nd_charging_screen.mp4':
Metadata:
major_brand : isom
minor_version : 512
compatible_brands: isomiso2avc1mp41
encoder : Lavf58.20.100
Duration: 00:11:11.79, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 1534 kb/s
Stream #0:0(und): Video: h264 (High 4:2:2) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuvj422p(pc), 640x480, 1477 kb/s, 30 fps, 30 tbr, 15360 tbn, 60 tbc (default)
Metadata:
handler_name : VideoHandler
Stream #0:1(und): Audio: aac (LC) (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 11025 Hz, mono, fltp, 53 kb/s (default)
Metadata:
handler_name : SoundHandler

There's nothing I recognize as an error report. The framerate changes as expected, 10 Hz in the original and 30 Hz in the converted file.

Thanks for writing, and any further thoughts!

Would it help to put the files on a webserver so others can see them?

bob prohaska

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

bob prohaska <bp@www.zefox.net> wrote:

Would it help to put the files on a webserver so others can see them?

Perhaps, but I probably won't be able to help; the file info seems fine on first sight.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

A. Dumas <alexandre@dumas.fr.invalid> wrote:

bob prohaska <bp@www.zefox.net> wrote:

Would it help to put the files on a webserver so others can see them?

Perhaps, but I probably won't be able to help; the file info seems fine on first sight.

In searching on the web there were quite a few references to ffmpeg
conversions not playing in firefox/chrome/whatever browsers. The
claim seemed to be that it had something to do with h.264 but a
sample command line I tried (after simply trimming out unrecognized
options) didn't make any difference. It was very much a "monkey see,
monkey do" sort of experiment. Are browsers some kind of special case
for video?

Thanks for writing!

bob prohaska

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

In article <tce5q4$2ap69$1@dont-email.me>,
A. Dumas <alexandre@dumas.fr.invalid> wrote:

I didn't know about ffprobe, but it seems it's simply an alias for 'ffmpeg >-i'

Here, it's a separate binary of slightly different size to ffmpeg/ffplay
etc. but I wouldn't be surprised to find at some point a change was
made to put all the stuff into one binary and just have symlinks for compatibility reasons.

In 3.2.14 there are separate source files for ffmpeg.c and ffprobe.c
that yield separate binaries ... can't vouch for newer.


--
--------------------------------------+------------------------------------ Mike Brown: mjb[-at-]signal11.org.uk | http://www.signal11.org.uk

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

Is there any chance that a video editor on RasPiOS would be able to
help with the problem of browsers not displaying ffmpeg's .mp4 files?

Apt search finds openshot-qt, are there better choices?

Thanks for reading,

bob prohaska

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

bob prohaska <bp@www.zefox.net> wrote:

Input #0, avi, from 'MVI_0003.AVI':
Metadata:
creation_time : 2022-08-03 07:37:09
encoder : CanonMVI02
Duration: 00:11:11.70, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 5060 kb/s
Stream #0:0: Video: mjpeg (MJPG / 0x47504A4D), yuvj422p(pc, bt470bg/unknown/unknown), 640x480, 4971 kb/s, 10 fps, 10 tbr, 10 tbn, 10 tbc

Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from '2nd_charging_screen.mp4':
Metadata:
major_brand : isom
minor_version : 512
compatible_brands: isomiso2avc1mp41
encoder : Lavf58.20.100
Duration: 00:11:11.79, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 1534 kb/s
Stream #0:0(und): Video: h264 (High 4:2:2) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuvj422p(pc), 640x480, 1477 kb/s, 30 fps, 30 tbr, 15360 tbn, 60 tbc (default)

There's nothing I recognize as an error report. The framerate changes as expected, 10 Hz in the original and 30 Hz in the converted file.

One thing of note is an unsual pixel format of "yuvj422p".
Converting between pixel formats isn't something that I remember
needing to do in the past, but you can use the "-pix_fmt" option
with ffmpeg to convert the original video to another pixel format
during the conversion. Available formats are listed with
"ffmpeg -pix_fmts". A search for '"yuvj422p" VLC' picked up this
thread which suggests using "-pix_fmt yuv420p" with ffmpeg to solve
a very similar issue with VLC on a Raspberry Pi: https://github.com/RPi-Distro/vlc/issues/18

--
__ __
#_ < |\| |< _#

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On 04-08-22 01:32, Computer Nerd Kev wrote:

bob prohaska <bp@www.zefox.net> wrote:

Stream #0:0(und): Video: h264 (High 4:2:2) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuvj422p(pc), 640x480, 1477 kb/s, 30 fps, 30 tbr, 15360 tbn, 60 tbc (default)

One thing of note is an unsual pixel format of "yuvj422p".

Ah, good one. I'm afraid I'm not familar with pixel formats so I didn't
see that. I should have, though, if I had compared this output to the
format of a known good file.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

On 03/08/2022 20:44, bob prohaska wrote:

Is there any chance that a video editor on RasPiOS would be able to
help with the problem of browsers not displaying ffmpeg's .mp4 files?

Apt search finds openshot-qt, are there better choices?

Ive not found openshot much good at reading 'odd' movie formats but
HandBrake usually does and renders them into 'pretty much anyone can
read it' files.

Try both, as well as VLC
Together with ffmpeg thats about the whole emergency toolkit!

--
There is nothing a fleet of dispatchable nuclear power plants cannot do
that cannot be done worse and more expensively and with higher carbon
emissions and more adverse environmental impact by adding intermittent renewable energy.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> wrote:

bob prohaska <bp@www.zefox.net> wrote:

Input #0, avi, from 'MVI_0003.AVI':
Metadata:
creation_time : 2022-08-03 07:37:09
encoder : CanonMVI02
Duration: 00:11:11.70, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 5060 kb/s
Stream #0:0: Video: mjpeg (MJPG / 0x47504A4D), yuvj422p(pc, bt470bg/unknown/unknown), 640x480, 4971 kb/s, 10 fps, 10 tbr, 10 tbn, 10 tbc


Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from '2nd_charging_screen.mp4':
Metadata:
major_brand : isom
minor_version : 512
compatible_brands: isomiso2avc1mp41
encoder : Lavf58.20.100
Duration: 00:11:11.79, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 1534 kb/s
Stream #0:0(und): Video: h264 (High 4:2:2) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuvj422p(pc), 640x480, 1477 kb/s, 30 fps, 30 tbr, 15360 tbn, 60 tbc (default)

One thing of note is an unsual pixel format of "yuvj422p".
Converting between pixel formats isn't something that I remember
needing to do in the past, but you can use the "-pix_fmt" option
with ffmpeg to convert the original video to another pixel format
during the conversion. Available formats are listed with
"ffmpeg -pix_fmts". A search for '"yuvj422p" VLC' picked up this
thread which suggests using "-pix_fmt yuv420p" with ffmpeg to solve
a very similar issue with VLC on a Raspberry Pi: https://github.com/RPi-Distro/vlc/issues/18

The github issue was resolved nearly two years ago, at least
so far as VLC player is concered. Sudo apt update/grade has
been run many times since then. Is it possible I've still got
a stale vlc player on the system? But, vlc play isn't important:

Since browsers are widely-used for viewing content I imagine that
converting video files to browser-compatible formats is a rather
common activity. In my case I want to convert a locally-recorded
video file into a format that can be viewed on-line by somebody
halfway around the world. Surely making it easy for them is a
solved problem....no?

Thanks for writing!

bob prohaska

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

bob prohaska <bp@www.zefox.net> wrote:

Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> wrote:

bob prohaska <bp@www.zefox.net> wrote:

Input #0, avi, from 'MVI_0003.AVI':
Metadata:
creation_time : 2022-08-03 07:37:09
encoder : CanonMVI02
Duration: 00:11:11.70, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 5060 kb/s
Stream #0:0: Video: mjpeg (MJPG / 0x47504A4D), yuvj422p(pc, bt470bg/unknown/unknown), 640x480, 4971 kb/s, 10 fps, 10 tbr, 10 tbn, 10 tbc


Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from '2nd_charging_screen.mp4':
Metadata:
major_brand : isom
minor_version : 512
compatible_brands: isomiso2avc1mp41
encoder : Lavf58.20.100
Duration: 00:11:11.79, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 1534 kb/s
Stream #0:0(und): Video: h264 (High 4:2:2) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuvj422p(pc), 640x480, 1477 kb/s, 30 fps, 30 tbr, 15360 tbn, 60 tbc (default)

One thing of note is an unsual pixel format of "yuvj422p".
Converting between pixel formats isn't something that I remember
needing to do in the past, but you can use the "-pix_fmt" option
with ffmpeg to convert the original video to another pixel format
during the conversion. Available formats are listed with
"ffmpeg -pix_fmts". A search for '"yuvj422p" VLC' picked up this
thread which suggests using "-pix_fmt yuv420p" with ffmpeg to solve
a very similar issue with VLC on a Raspberry Pi:
https://github.com/RPi-Distro/vlc/issues/18

The github issue was resolved nearly two years ago, at least
so far as VLC player is concered. Sudo apt update/grade has
been run many times since then. Is it possible I've still got
a stale vlc player on the system? But, vlc play isn't important:

The thread/issue was very long so I skimmed and word-searched my
way through because I don't have time to spend hours reading this
stuff, however the impression I got was that many of the
participants were quite confused and the idea that it had really
been solved when it was marked as such didn't sound convincing to
me. I would have thought that your posts are just more evidence of
that.

The root of the issue seems to be a Pi-specific one to do with the
hardware video decoding. At one point it's suggested that "--codec
FFmpeg" is passed to VLC on the command line so that hardware
acceleration is turned off, but it sounds like that turned out to
be buggy in other ways.

I've heard about hardware acceleration being used with web browsers
for video playback (though I never play video in browsers on any
platform myself), so they're probably getting stuck at the same
bug. But it should only be a problem on the Raspberry Pi, not other
platforms. If you convert the video with ffmpeg into a different
pixel format then it shouldn't be a problem anywhere.

Since browsers are widely-used for viewing content I imagine that
converting video files to browser-compatible formats is a rather
common activity. In my case I want to convert a locally-recorded
video file into a format that can be viewed on-line by somebody
halfway around the world. Surely making it easy for them is a
solved problem....no?

What are you talking about? I just told you how to solve the
problem. You were happy before to convert the video with:
ffmpeg -i MVI_0001.AVI -r 24 2nd_home_screen.mp4

This time just do:
ffmpeg -i MVI_0001.AVI -pix_fmt yuv420p -r 24 2nd_home_screen.mp4

and it should play in VLC on the Pi.

--
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#_ < |\| |< _#

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> wrote:

What are you talking about? I just told you how to solve the
problem. You were happy before to convert the video with:
ffmpeg -i MVI_0001.AVI -r 24 2nd_home_screen.mp4

This time just do:
ffmpeg -i MVI_0001.AVI -pix_fmt yuv420p -r 24 2nd_home_screen.mp4

and it should play in VLC on the Pi.

Actually you probably didn't really need 24fps, so just:
ffmpeg -i MVI_0001.AVI -pix_fmt yuv420p 2nd_home_screen.mp4

Plus try playing the original video in VLC on PC if you're curious
whether it's the same problem that's discussed at GitHub. But it's
academic unless you want to go and report the bug.

--
__ __
#_ < |\| |< _#

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> wrote:

One thing of note is an unsual pixel format of "yuvj422p".
Converting between pixel formats isn't something that I remember
needing to do in the past, but you can use the "-pix_fmt" option
with ffmpeg to convert the original video to another pixel format
during the conversion. Available formats are listed with
"ffmpeg -pix_fmts". A search for '"yuvj422p" VLC' picked up this
thread which suggests using "-pix_fmt yuv420p" with ffmpeg to solve
a very similar issue with VLC on a Raspberry Pi: https://github.com/RPi-Distro/vlc/issues/18

Well, -pix_fmt yuv420p solved all the problems. A video created
using ffmpeg -i MVI_0002.AVI -r 30 -pix_fmt yuv420p output.mp4
displays correctly using firefox, chrome and vlc player.

Thank you _very_ much!

bob prohaska

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

On a sunny day (Thu, 4 Aug 2022 22:37:13 -0000 (UTC)) it happened bob prohaska <bp@www.zefox.net> wrote in <tchhmo$2u268$1@dont-email.me>:

Since browsers are widely-used for viewing content I imagine that
converting video files to browser-compatible formats is a rather
common activity. In my case I want to convert a locally-recorded
video file into a format that can be viewed on-line by somebody
halfway around the world. Surely making it easy for them is a
solved problem....no?

Thanks for writing!

bob prohaska

These script I have used to put my A470 videos on youtube with subtitles.
All browsers I have play those.
I do not know if youtube chaged anything to the format.

I never use VLC as it does not even run as root, neither do I use that
raspi mediaplayer that has silly error messages and plays basically nothing


## canon A470 320x240 20fps AVI conversion to youtube divx4 320x240

echo "Usage: canon_to_youtube file.avi file.ppml"

#ffmpeg -i $1 -f wav q0.wav
#ffmpeg -i $1 -f yuv4mpegpipe -b 5000 -vcodec pgmyuv -y q1.yuv

#sox q0.wav -r 44100 q1.wav resample

transcode -f 30 -g 320x240 -i q1.yuv -p q1.wav -R1 -w 350 \
-J subtitler="anti_alias font_factor=.75 font_size=14 color_depth=32 frame_offset=0 subtitle_file=$2 show_output=1" \
-x yuv4mpeg -y divx4 -o $1.avi -V -k

transcode -f 30 -g 320x240 -i q1.yuv -p q1.wav -R2 -w 350 \
-J subtitler="anti_alias font_factor=.75 font_size=14 color_depth=32 frame_offset=0 subtitle_file=$2 show_output=1" \
-x yuv4mpeg -y divx4 -o $1.avi -V -k

-----
so adds subtitles from a .ppml file

panteltje20: ~ # ls /usr/local/sbin/canon_a470_to_youtube
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 683 Jan 15 2012 /usr/local/sbin/canon_a470_to_youtube*

hehe 2012, you need to install 'transcode', I run it on this x86 laptop

'subtitler' I wrote and is somewhere on my site panteltje.com

There are a million ways I suppose to do these things...

I just write stuff when I need it.
http://panteltje.com/panteltje/subtitles/index.html
http://panteltje.com/panteltje/newsflex/download.html


Subtitles is nice on youtube to show what's happening each moment.

Anyways mplayer and ffmpeg is likely more today's way for raspi users.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

On 2022-08-02 23:11, bob prohaska wrote:

If I open the media file using VLC Media player and open tools > codec I see:
stream 0
Codec Motion JPEG Video (MJPEG)

Isn't MJPEG the DVD-format?
The one that at least early pi's needed a license for?


--
/Björn

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

On 2022-08-14 22:19, Björn Lundin wrote:

On 2022-08-02 23:11, bob prohaska wrote:

If I open  the media file using VLC Media player and open tools >
codec I see:
stream 0
Codec Motion JPEG Video (MJPEG)

Isn't MJPEG the DVD-format?
The one that at least early pi's needed a license for?

Hmm, I somehow only saw the first 5 replies to the thread.
Now I see many more and that is was resolved.
Sorry for the noise


--
/Björn

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

On Sun, 14 Aug 2022 22:19:07 +0200
Björn Lundin <bnl@nowhere.com> wrote:

Isn't MJPEG the DVD-format?
The one that at least early pi's needed a license for?

You're thinking of MPEG2.

--
Steve O'Hara-Smith
Odds and Ends at http://www.sohara.org/

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

FWIW, it turns out openshot, which is in the apt repository, converts
.avi files that aren't browser-viewable into mp4 files that play just
fine in the chrome browser.

Thanks for everyone's help!

bob prohaska

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

bob prohaska <bp@www.zefox.net> wrote:

FWIW, it turns out openshot, which is in the apt repository, converts
.avi files that aren't browser-viewable into mp4 files that play just
fine in the chrome browser.

Thanks for everyone's help!

I bet that's just an ffmpeg wrapper. Which is fine, if it works.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

On 15/08/2022 17:42, A. Dumas wrote:

bob prohaska <bp@www.zefox.net> wrote:

FWIW, it turns out openshot, which is in the apt repository, converts
.avi files that aren't browser-viewable into mp4 files that play just
fine in the chrome browser.

Thanks for everyone's help!

I bet that's just an ffmpeg wrapper. Which is fine, if it works.

Possibly. I equip myself with VLC, Openshot and Handbrake which between
them seem able to cope with everything so far thrown at them.
VLC is distinctly not the same codecs as the others.

--
For in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is the
very definition of slavery.

Jonathan Swift

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:

On 15/08/2022 17:42, A. Dumas wrote:

bob prohaska <bp@www.zefox.net> wrote:

FWIW, it turns out openshot, which is in the apt repository, converts
.avi files that aren't browser-viewable into mp4 files that play just
fine in the chrome browser.

Thanks for everyone's help!

I bet that's just an ffmpeg wrapper. Which is fine, if it works.

Possibly. I equip myself with VLC, Openshot and Handbrake which between
them seem able to cope with everything so far thrown at them.
VLC is distinctly not the same codecs as the others.

Actually they all depend on the FFmpeg project's libavcodec library. https://packages.debian.org/buster/vlc-plugin-video-output https://packages.debian.org/buster/libopenshot16 https://packages.debian.org/stable/handbrake

VLC and Handbrake (not sure about Openshot) can be built against
other codec-specific libraries as well, like FFmpeg itself can too.
The differences in use probably come down to which library
the software decides to use, including in the case of this thread,
one that uses (apparantly incorrectly) the video decoder built into
the GPU. Ideally the decoder selection could be controlled at
run-time, but in the case of forcing use of the FFmpeg codec over
hardware acceleration in the RPi OS version of VLC, that was
apparantly buggy at one point, so you'd probably have to recompile
VLC.

It could also be that there are bugs in the way the programs use
the libavcodec library. Or in this case Openshot obviously changes
the pixel format by default, whereas FFmpeg doesn't, so that's
just a design choice. They may both be using the same FFmpeg
codecs though, as might VLC if it's not built with hardware
acceleration enabled.

--
__ __
#_ < |\| |< _#

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)