[FFmpeg-user] Invalid pixel format string '-1'

[Tim Gustafson]

Hi,

I've been running ffmpeg to convert user-supplied videos for a while
now, and I've just come across a video that ffmpeg doesn't seem to
understand.  I'm running ffmpeg like this:

/usr/local/bin/ffmpeg -y -i '1357776129.uploaded' -threads 4 -vcodec
libx264 -vpre libx264-lossless_slow -vpre libx264-baseline -b '128000'
-ar 22050 -r 30 -g 150 -s '800x600' -f flv '1357776129.flv.tmp'
ffmpeg version 0.7.13, Copyright (c) 2000-2011 the FFmpeg developers
  built on Jan  9 2013 18:52:39 with gcc 4.2.1 20070719  [FreeBSD]
  configuration: --prefix=/usr/local --mandir=/usr/local/man
--enable-shared --enable-gpl --enable-postproc --enable-avfilter
--enable-pthreads --enable-memalign-hack --enable-runtime-cpudetect
--cc=cc --extra-cflags='-I/usr/local/include/vorbis
-I/usr/local/include' --extra-ldflags='-L/usr/local/lib '
--extra-libs=-pthread --disable-debug --disable-libaacplus
--disable-indev=alsa --disable-outdev=alsa --disable-libopencore-amrnb
--disable-libopencore-amrwb --disable-libcelt --disable-libdirac
--disable-libfaac --disable-ffserver --disable-libfreetype
--disable-frei0r --disable-libgsm --enable-libmp3lame
--disable-libopencv --disable-libopenjpeg --disable-librtmp
--disable-libschroedinger --disable-ffplay --disable-libspeex
--enable-libtheora --disable-vaapi --disable-vdpau
--disable-libvo-aacenc --disable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-libvorbis
--enable-libvpx --enable-libx264 --enable-libxvid
  libavutil    50. 43. 0 / 50. 43. 0
  libavcodec   52.123. 0 / 52.123. 0
  libavformat  52.111. 0 / 52.111. 0
  libavdevice  52.  5. 0 / 52.  5. 0
  libavfilter   1. 80. 0 /  1. 80. 0
  libswscale    0. 14. 1 /  0. 14. 1
  libpostproc  51.  2. 0 / 51.  2. 0
[avi @ 0x803a1f020] max_analyze_duration 5000000 reached at 5018000
Input #0, avi, from '1357776129.uploaded':
  Duration: 01:45:26.60, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 75 kb/s
    Stream #0.0: Video: tsc2 / 0x32637374, 1024x768, 5 fps, 5 tbr, 5 tbn, 5 tbc
    Stream #0.1: Audio: mp3, 22050 Hz, mono, s16, 40 kb/s
[buffer @ 0x803b87100] Invalid pixel format string '-1'
Error opening filters!

What does "Invalid pixel format string '-1'" mean?  Is there any way
to fix this, or is this video just not going to work in ffmpeg?

Thanks for your help!

-- 

Tim Gustafson
tjg at soe.ucsc.edu
831-459-5354
Baskin Engineering, Room 313A