Question

I’m encountering the following error when transcoding using FFMPEG. From what I’ve been able to find, I shouldn’t have to input anymore parameters or anything. I tried adding the flag “-coder 1”, which got me a file, but the video was a solid block of green.

Here’s my command:

ffmpeg -i Glueck_Newsreel.avi -vcodec ffv1 -acodec pcm_s16le mp0001.mkv

Here’s the output

ffmpeg version 0.10.4 Copyright (c) 2000-2012 the FFmpeg developers
  built on Jul 21 2012 10:40:08 with gcc 4.4.6 20110731 (Red Hat 4.4.6-3)
  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' --enable-bzlib --disable-crystalhd --enable-gnutls --enable-libass --enable-libcdio --enable-libdc1394 --disable-indev=jack --enable-libfreetype --enable-libgsm --enable-libmp3lame --enable-openal --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libpulse --enable-librtmp --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-libv4l2 --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      51. 35.100 / 51. 35.100
  libavcodec     53. 61.100 / 53. 61.100
  libavformat    53. 32.100 / 53. 32.100
  libavdevice    53.  4.100 / 53.  4.100
  libavfilter     2. 61.100 /  2. 61.100
  libswscale      2.  1.100 /  2.  1.100
  libswresample   0.  6.100 /  0.  6.100
  libpostproc    52.  0.100 / 52.  0.100
Input #0, avi, from 'Glueck_Newsreel.avi':
  Duration: 00:09:45.11, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 226508 kb/s
    Stream #0:0: Video: v210 (v210 / 0x30313276), yuv422p10le, 720x486, 29.97 fps, 29.97 tbr, 29.97 tbn, 29.97 tbc
    Stream #0:1: Audio: pcm_s16le ([1][0][0][0] / 0x0001), 48000 Hz, 2 channels, s16, 1536 kb/s
File 'mp0001.mkv' already exists. Overwrite ? [y/N] y
w:720 h:486 pixfmt:yuv422p10le tb:1/1000000 sar:0/1 sws_param:
[ffv1 @ 0x13c8340] bits_per_raw_sample of more than 8 needs -coder 1 currently
Output #0, matroska, to 'mp0001.mkv':
    Stream #0:0: Video: ffv1, yuv422p10le, 720x486, q=2-31, 200 kb/s, 90k tbn, 29.97 tbc
    Stream #0:1: Audio: none, 48000 Hz, 2 channels, s16, 128 kb/s
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (v210 -> ffv1)
  Stream #0:1 -> #0:1 (pcm_s16le -> pcm_s16le)
Error while opening encoder for output stream #0:0 - maybe incorrect parameters such as bit_rate, rate, width or height

Answer 1

Thank you for including the console output. The important message is:

[ffv1 @ 0x13c8340] bits_per_raw_sample of more than 8 needs -coder 1 currently

Meaning you have to add -coder 1 as an output option. However, there has been a good amount of work and updates to ffv1 recently, so you may want to use a newer ffmpeg.