ffmpeg: Could not find codec parameters for stream 0 (Video: h264) unspecified size

Question

I try to convert a video from .raw to .mp4. For this reason I did download, build and install both x264 and ffmpeg. However, command:

ffmpeg -f h264 -i output.raw -vcodec copy output.mp4

fails with error (shown in picture below). Is there any way to fix this?

Commands I also run:

1

root@beagleboard:/# v4l2-ctl --list-formats
ioctl: VIDIOC_ENUM_FMT
        Index       : 0
        Type        : Video Capture
        Pixel Format: 'YUYV'
        Name        : YUV 4:2:2 (YUYV)

        Index       : 1
        Type        : Video Capture
        Pixel Format: 'MJPG' (compressed)
        Name        : MJPEG

2

root@beagleboard:/dev# v4l2-ctl --set-fmt-video=pixelformat=0

Solution

Your input is simply not an h264 stream, yet you are telling ffmpeg it is one.

You need to tell ffmpeg what it actually is: a v4l2 stream in mjpeg or yuyv format (depending on what format your camera was set to at the time of capture, of the two listed by v4l2-ctl --list-formats). If you want ffmpeg to transcode it to an h264, you need to tell it that, too.

If the input is raw YUYV frames, you want:

ffmpeg -f rawvideo -pix_fmt yuyv422 -s:v 640x480 -r 25 -i output.raw -c:v libx264 output.mp4

Replace 640x480 and 25 with the dimensions and framerate of your video.

If the input is MJPEG, you should be able to just leave out the -f and ffmpeg should figure it out:

ffmpeg -i output.raw -c:v libx264 output.mp4

Incidentally, you do not need another capture tool; ffmpeg can capture from v4l2 devices just fine:

ffmpeg -f v4l2 -r 25 -s:v 640x480 -i /dev/video0 -c:v libx264 output.mp4

Comments

[Rajib]

could you just post the output of this: ffmpeg -i output.raw, assuming you are trying to convert output.raw. Also if you try ffmpeg -i output.raw -vcodec libx264 -pix_fmt yuv420p output.mp4 what is the console output?

[dempap]

Thank's for your reply. Both outputs are exactly the same, as edited above. Do you think there is a problem in encoding, or in the file while capturing video?

[slhck]

Where did you get output.raw from and how did you create it?

[dempap]

By executing ./capture -f -c 100 -o > output.raw. capture.c downloaded from: linuxtv.org/downloads/v4l-dvb-apis/capture-example.html.