ffmpeg in gutsy does not recognize the -ab option

[renbag]

Binary package hint: ffmpeg

Package: ffmpeg 3:0.cvs20070307-5ubuntu4
The following command in gutsy does not work:

ubuntu@ubuntu:/home/ubuntu/Videos# ffmpeg -i sample.wav -ar 48000 -ab 384 -ac 2 sample.ac3
FFmpeg version SVN-rUNKNOWN, Copyright (c) 2000-2007 Fabrice Bellard, et al.
  configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-pp --enable-swscaler --enable-pthreads --enable-libvorbis --enable-libtheora --enable-libogg --enable-libgsm --enable-dc1394 --disable-debug --enable-shared --prefix=/usr
  libavutil version: 1d.49.3.0
  libavcodec version: 1d.51.38.0
  libavformat version: 1d.51.10.0
  built on Jun 3 2007 20:59:25, gcc: 4.1.3 20070528 (prerelease) (Ubuntu 4.1.2-9ubuntu2)
Input #0, wav, from 'sample.wav':
  Duration: 00:00:27.4, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 1536 kb/s
  Stream #0.0: Audio: pcm_s16le, 48000 Hz, stereo, 1536 kb/s
Output #0, ac3, to 'sample.ac3':
  Stream #0.0: Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, stereo, 0 kb/s
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0.0 -> #0.0
Error while opening codec for output stream #0.0 - maybe incorrect parameters such as bit_rate, rate, width or height

Removing the -ab option makes ffmpeg work with the default audio bitrate:

ubuntu@ubuntu:/home/ubuntu/Videos# ffmpeg -i sample.wav -ar 48000 -ac 2 sample.ac3
FFmpeg version SVN-rUNKNOWN, Copyright (c) 2000-2007 Fabrice Bellard, et al.
  configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-pp --enable-swscaler --enable-pthreads --enable-libvorbis --enable-libtheora --enable-libogg --enable-libgsm --enable-dc1394 --disable-debug --enable-shared --prefix=/usr
  libavutil version: 1d.49.3.0
  libavcodec version: 1d.51.38.0
  libavformat version: 1d.51.10.0
  built on Jun 3 2007 20:59:25, gcc: 4.1.3 20070528 (prerelease) (Ubuntu 4.1.2-9ubuntu2)
Input #0, wav, from 'sample.wav':
  Duration: 00:00:27.4, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 1536 kb/s
  Stream #0.0: Audio: pcm_s16le, 48000 Hz, stereo, 1536 kb/s
Output #0, ac3, to 'sample.ac3':
  Stream #0.0: Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, stereo, 64 kb/s
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0.0 -> #0.0
Press [q] to stop encoding
size= 214kB time=27.5 bitrate= 64.0kbits/s
video:0kB audio:214kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead 0.000000%

[Chris Halse Rogers (raof)]

Thank you for reporting this bug, and trying to help make Ubuntu better. However, this is not a bug - the units of all the bitrate parameters have changed from kbit/s to bits/sec. Thus, your first command line is asking for an audio bitrate of 384 bits per second, or approximately 0 kb/s, which is what ffmpeg gave you. What you obviously meant was "-ab 384000" or "-ab 384k".

[renbag (renbag)]

Thank you for the reply. I could not figure out this change. The man page still reports that bitrates are set in kbit/s:

    -ab bitrate
       Set the audio bitrate in kbit/s (default = 64).

This should be fixed.