Audio problems with DeVeDe (64-bit only)

[caitlyn]

The 64-bit devede package in the repo produces isos with loud clicking noises across the entire audio track. I've tried changing the audio settings every which way imaginable and nothing fixes it. The 32-bit package has no problem and produces a clean audio track. I can't figure this one out so...

ADDENDUM: I should add that it did work under SalixOS 13.1.2 (64-bit) and does work on the same hardware with other distros (i.e.: Pardus 2011). The machine is multi-boot between three Linux distros. Whatever the issue is, it is unique to the Salix64 13.37 package or environment.

[Shador]

I assume there's a problem in mencoder (MPlayer package) then, because mencoder is afaik used for audio/video converting by devede. I don't have time to digg into this right now. But I remember I successfully created a dvd with devede on 64bit out of some short tv news capture, which would playback fine.
What exactly were you trying to achieve?

[caitlyn]

All I was doing was burning a few avi files to DVD with a menu. It was really simple stuff. It works fine on 32-bit but not on 64-bit. The problem is there 100% of the time and is 100% reproducible no matter what avi files I use.

[Shador]

Ok, I can confirm this now with one video file. It sounds more like stuttering here though, i.e. as if the audio is hanging and thus quiet for a little moment.

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$ ffmpeg -i 0809_schuhe 
[...]
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from '0809_schuhe':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : qt  
    minor_version   : 537199360
    compatible_brands: qt  
  Duration: 00:00:50.16, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 30340 kb/s
    Stream #0.0(eng): Video: dvvideo, yuv420p, 720x576, 28800 kb/s, PAR 59:54 DAR 295:216, 25 fps, 25 tbr, 25 tbn, 25 tbc
    Stream #0.1(eng): Audio: pcm_s16le, 48000 Hz, 2 channels, s16, 1536 kb/s
    Stream #0.2(eng): Data: tmcd / 0x64636D74
At least one output file must be specified
$ file -i 0809_schuhe 
0809_schuhe: video/quicktime; charset=binary

For some reason mencoder keeps skipping frames with this video on 64bit. On 32bit it converts fine. This is the command used to convert the video on both 32- and 64-bit. Just the number of threads differ here, but changing it on 64-bit to the 32-bit value didn't solve the issue:

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mencoder -noautosub -oac lavc -aid 0 -ovc lavc -of mpeg -mpegopts format=dvd:tsaf -ofps 25 -vf harddup -lavcopts threads=4:vcodec=mpeg2video:trell:mbd=2:sc_threshold=1000000000:cgop:vstrict=0:vrc_maxrate=8500:vrc_buf_size=1835:vbitrate=8500:keyint=12:acodec=ac3:abitrate=224:aspect=4/3 -o /home/shador/movie/movie_02_01.mpg /home/shador/Videos/0809_schuhe

Another video the one I orignally tried converts just fine on both 32- and 64-bit.

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$ ffmpeg -i Rundschau_09.12.26_18-45_bay3_10_TVOON_DE.mpg.avi 
[...]
Input #0, avi, from 'Rundschau_09.12.26_18-45_bay3_10_TVOON_DE.mpg.avi':
  Metadata:
    ISFT            : transcode-1.0.6
  Duration: 00:20:03.80, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 779 kb/s
    Stream #0.0: Video: mpeg4, yuv420p, 640x360 [PAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 25 tbr, 25 tbn, 25 tbc
    Stream #0.1: Audio: mp3, 44100 Hz, 2 channels, s16, 128 kb/s
At least one output file must be specified
$ file -i Rundschau_09.12.26_18-45_bay3_10_TVOON_DE.mpg.avi 
Rundschau_09.12.26_18-45_bay3_10_TVOON_DE.mpg.avi: video/x-msvideo; charset=binary

For this file the mencoder commandline use for conversion is:

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mencoder -srate 48000 -af lavcresample=48000 -noautosub -oac lavc -aid 1 -ovc lavc -of mpeg -mpegopts format=dvd:tsaf -ofps 25 -vf scale=720:576,harddup -lavcopts threads=4:vcodec=mpeg2video:trell:mbd=2:sc_threshold=1000000000:cgop:vstrict=0:vrc_maxrate=8500:vrc_buf_size=1835:vbitrate=8500:keyint=12:acodec=ac3:abitrate=224:aspect=16/9 -o /home/shador/movie/movie_01_01.mpg /home/shador/Videos/Rundschau_09.12.26_18-45_bay3_10_TVOON_DE.mpg.avi

All in all it seems like this is a problem with mencoder as I originally assumed, but maybe there's a workaround which could be deployed with devede.
Could you also post the ffmpeg -i and file -i output of your video file(s)?
The duration of the output video is also decreased. This seems to be the same problem: https://groups.google.com/group/devede- ... 9e51c6ec9f#

[gapan]

I've never used devede, but it's not surprising to me at all that mencoder behaves erratically. It's been known that mencoder is buggy and everyone that has taken a look at the code says it's an ugly hack. That's also why the mplayer2 devs (the recent mplayer fork) have dumped mencoder altogether, they say it's completely unmaintainable and stated that they'll write a new encoder from scratch.

I would use a combination of ffmpeg and dvdauthor from command line to create DVDs. Here's a quick way to do it:

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ffmpeg -i video.avi -aspect 16:9 -target pal-dvd dvd.mpg

you might want to change the aspect ratio to 4:3 or the target to ntsc-dvd

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dvdauthor -o dvd/ -t dvd.mpg

you can add more files this way. After you've added all of them, run:

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VIDEO_FORMAT=PAL dvdauthor -o dvd/ -T

you might want to change the format to NTSC, again.
And then you can create an iso with mkisofs:

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mkisofs -dvd-video -o dvd.iso dvd/

or even burn the dvd directly with growisofs.

No menus this way though. You might want to look at dvdauthor frontends for that (qdvdauthor maybe?)

[Shador]

I know that there are other ways to create a dvd. But devede is just a lot handier when it comes to menu creation and supports a whole lot of handy options. Nevertheless I guess it could be a convenient workaround to convert the videos with ffmpeg or some gui app like Handbrake to a dvd compatible format and to instruct devede to copy audio and video data unchanged.

[caitlyn]

I really like the features and convenience of DeVeDe, which is why it has become so popular. I know it works in other distros so the problem should be fixable. I had intended to dive into this myself but I just haven't had the time. Has anyone else made any progress with this problem?

[caitlyn]

Guess what! This is supposedly fixed in version 3.17.0 which was released in July. I'm going to try building it if and when I can find the time and I'll let y'all know. In the meanwhile if you want to build an updated package it will fix other reported bugs as well... Just thought you'd want to know.

[Shador]

Guess what! This is supposedly fixed in version 3.17.0 which was released in July. I'm going to try building it if and when I can find the time and I'll let y'all know. In the meanwhile if you want to build an updated package it will fix other reported bugs as well... Just thought you'd want to know.

There's already a fixed build by me. I've been waiting for 3.17.1 though, which should fix another minor issue. Maybe I'm going to push 3.17.0 nevertheless as the promised 3.17.1 release has been delayed for a while now.
For the time being you can find packages for devede here in my personal repository: http://gaia.homelinux.org/salix/packages/
Just select your architecture and download and install the devede .txz file.

[caitlyn]

Thanks, Shador. I really appreciate it.