Fail to set profile to high when using ffmpeg with libx264

Question

Here is my command:

ffmpeg -i input.avi -vcodec libx264 -vpre fast -vpre high -acodec copy output.avi

The output:

Input #0, avi, from 'short.avi':
  Metadata:
    encoder         : Lavf53.3.0
  Duration: 00:00:25.04, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 12705 kb/s
    Stream #0.0: Video: msmpeg4v2, yuv420p, 1920x1080, 24 tbr, 24 tbn, 24 tbc
    Stream #0.1: Audio: aac, 48000 Hz, 5.1, s16, 316 kb/s
    Metadata:
      title           : ED-CM-5.1-DVD-Final2
File for preset 'high' not found

However, I am able to successfully transcode files when setting the profile to baseline or main, from the man page of x264 it is clear that "high" should also be a valid argument. I also want to know where these preset files are located in the file system(I am running ubuntu 11.10) so that I can make sure what arguments I can actually use for presets and profiles at the moment. I am very frustrated by this issue and would really appreciate any input from you guys. Thanks in advance.

Are you using ffmpeg from the repository or did you compile it yourself? — llogan, Mar 09 '12 at 00:43

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 09 '12 at 22:44

Mine are in /usr/local/share/ffmpeg/.

From the man page:

The argument passed to the "vpre", "apre", and "spre" preset options
identifies the preset file to use according to the following rules:

First ffmpeg searches for a file named arg.ffpreset in the directories
$FFMPEG_DATADIR (if set), and $HOME/.ffmpeg, and in the datadir defined
at configuration time (usually PREFIX/share/ffmpeg) or in a ffpresets
folder along the executable on win32, in that order. For example, if
the argument is "libx264-max", it will search for the file
libx264-max.ffpreset.

If no such file is found, then ffmpeg will search for a file named
codec_name-arg.ffpreset in the above-mentioned directories, where
codec_name is the name of the codec to which the preset file options
will be applied. For example, if you select the video codec with
"-vcodec libx264" and use "-vpre max", then it will search for the file
libx264-max.ffpreset.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 09 '12 at 23:01

I'm studying the set of presets currently available with both FFmpeg and Libav (fork of FFmpeg). FFmpeg no longer includes many libx264 preset files (only 'ipod320' and 'ipod640'). Libav specifies presets for 'baseline' and 'main', but not 'high'.

So that explains why '-vpre high' is failing.

I'm not entirely sure where there are no high profile presets. It could be that the developers didn't want to make assumptions about best encoding practices for that profile.

Fail to set profile to high when using ffmpeg with libx264

2 Answers2