unexpected behaviour when segmenting x264 encoded rawvideo sources

[elkq]

ffmpeg fails to segment rawvideo sources that have been encoded with libx264.

The following command line fails:

ffmpeg -report -v 9 -loglevel 99 -s 352x288 -i /tmp/container_cif.yuv -c:v libx264 -an -sn -map 0 -f segment -segment_time 4 -segment_list hls.m3u8 -segment_format mpegts hls%03d.ts

But a similar command line without the segmentation suceeeds:

ffmpeg -report -v 9 -loglevel 99 -s 352x288 -i /tmp/container_cif.yuv -c:v libx264 -an -sn -map 0 -f mpegts not_hls.ts

The source YUV file in this example is one of the test sequences from the Arizona State University Video Trace Library:  http://trace.eas.asu.edu/yuv/container/container_cif.7z

Dump of failure report:

ffmpeg started on 2012-12-18 at 16:18:08
Report written to "ffmpeg-20121218-161808.log"
Command line:
ffmpeg -report -v 9 -loglevel 99 -s 352x288 -i /tmp/container_cif.yuv -c:v libx264 -an -sn -map 0 -f segment -segment_time 4 -segment_list hls.m3u8 -segment_format mpegts "hls%03d.ts"
ffmpeg version N-47415-gd913883 Copyright (c) 2000-2012 the FFmpeg developers
  built on Dec  4 2012 12:59:22 with gcc 4.7 (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.7.2-2ubuntu1)
  configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-nonfree --enable-shared --enable-libfaac --enable-libx264 --enable-libvpx
  libavutil      52. 11.101 / 52. 11.101
  libavcodec     54. 78.101 / 54. 78.101
  libavformat    54. 42.100 / 54. 42.100
  libavdevice    54.  3.102 / 54.  3.102
  libavfilter     3. 23.105 /  3. 23.105
  libswscale      2.  1.103 /  2.  1.103
  libswresample   0. 17.102 /  0. 17.102
  libpostproc    52.  2.100 / 52.  2.100
[rawvideo @ 0x135be00] Format rawvideo probed with size=2048 and score=50
[rawvideo @ 0x135be00] File position before avformat_find_stream_info() is 0
[rawvideo @ 0x135be00] All info found
[rawvideo @ 0x135be00] Estimating duration from bitrate, this may be inaccurate
[rawvideo @ 0x135be00] File position after avformat_find_stream_info() is 152064
Input #0, rawvideo, from '/tmp/container_cif.yuv':
  Duration: N/A, start: 0.000000, bitrate: N/A
    Stream #0:0, 1, 1/25: Video: rawvideo (I420 / 0x30323449), yuv420p, 352x288, 1/25, 25 tbr, 25 tbn, 25 tbc
[buffer @ 0x1358de0] Setting entry with key 'video_size' to value '352x288'
[buffer @ 0x1358de0] Setting entry with key 'pix_fmt' to value '0'
[buffer @ 0x1358de0] Setting entry with key 'time_base' to value '1/25'
[buffer @ 0x1358de0] Setting entry with key 'pixel_aspect' to value '0/1'
[buffer @ 0x1358de0] Setting entry with key 'sws_param' to value 'flags=2'
[buffer @ 0x1358de0] Setting entry with key 'frame_rate' to value '25/1'
[graph 0 input from stream 0:0 @ 0x135c640] w:352 h:288 pixfmt:yuv420p tb:1/25 fr:25/1 sar:0/1 sws_param:flags=2
[libx264 @ 0x1363840] using mv_range_thread = 24
[libx264 @ 0x1363840] using cpu capabilities: MMX2 SSE2 SSE3 Cache64 BMI1
[libx264 @ 0x1363840] profile High, level 1.3
[libx264 @ 0x1363840] 264 - core 129 r2230 1cffe9f - H.264/MPEG-4 AVC codec - Copyleft 2003-2012 - http://www.videolan.org/x264.html - options: cabac=1 ref=3 deblock=1:0:0 analyse=0x3:0x113 me=hex subme=7 psy=1 psy_rd=1.00:0.00 mixed_ref=1 me_range=16 chroma_me=1 trellis=1 8x8dct=1 cqm=0 deadzone=21,11 fast_pskip=1 chroma_qp_offset=-2 threads=6 lookahead_threads=1 sliced_threads=0 nr=0 decimate=1 interlaced=0 bluray_compat=0 constrained_intra=0 bframes=3 b_pyramid=2 b_adapt=1 b_bias=0 direct=1 weightb=1 open_gop=0 weightp=2 keyint=250 keyint_min=25 scenecut=40 intra_refresh=0 rc_lookahead=40 rc=crf mbtree=1 crf=23.0 qcomp=0.60 qpmin=0 qpmax=69 qpstep=4 ip_ratio=1.40 aq=1:1.00
[mpegts @ 0x1982060] muxrate VBR, pcr every 2 pkts, sdt every 200, pat/pmt every 40 pkts
Output #0, segment, to 'hls%03d.ts':
  Metadata:
    encoder         : Lavf54.42.100
    Stream #0:0, 0, 1/90000: Video: h264, yuv420p, 352x288, 1/25, q=-1--1, 90k tbn, 25 tbc
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (rawvideo -> libx264)
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
[libx264 @ 0x1363840] using mv_range_thread = 24
[libx264 @ 0x1363840] frame=   0 QP=23.61 NAL=3 Slice:I Poc:0   I:396  P:0    SKIP:0    size=16513 bytes
[mpegts @ 0x1982060] H.264 bitstream malformed, no startcode found, use the h264_mp4toannexb bitstream filter (-bsf h264_mp4toannexb)
av_interleaved_write_frame(): Invalid argument
Statistics: 7755264 bytes read, 0 seeks

[cehoyos]

Please add "-flags -global_header" to your command line.

[saste]

Replying to elkq:

ffmpeg fails to segment rawvideo sources that have been encoded with libx264.

The following command line fails:

ffmpeg -report -v 9 -loglevel 99 -s 352x288 -i /tmp/container_cif.yuv -c:v libx264 -an -sn -map 0 -f segment -segment_time 4 -segment_list hls.m3u8 -segment_format mpegts hls%03d.ts

This works if you specify -f ssegment, see commit a9a7e215e5207e674338b7ca9eb74e96ae5faf99.

The riddle is due to the fact that libavformat needs to know if the output is stream-based or file-based when opening the segment muxer, and this can't be known in advance with the segment muxer, when the internal muxer has not been selected yet.

Error feedback can be improved, on the other hand this behavior cannot be easily fixed.