Home » FlashVideo » Troubleshooting the Drupal FlashVideo Module

When I submit a node, a thumbnail gets created, but a 0 byte FLV file is created that is unusable...

Posted October 31st, 2007 by admin
This is probably the most popular of all issues with with FlashVideo module. What causes this issue is when your FFMPEG installation does not have an MP3 codec installed with that module. If you are using a Linux server, you can easily verify if you FFMPEG is using an MP3 codec by simply typing the following command...
/usr/bin/ffmpeg --help

If it cannot find the FFMPEG binary, then you will need to change the path. Otherwise, you should see some information about your FFMPEG installation. In this information, look for where it says --enable-mp3, or maybe --enable-libmp3lame, or something that has to do with enabling an mp3 codec. If you do not see anything in your configuration that hints that your FFMPEG has an MP3 codec, then this is your problem...
So, here is how to fix it. What you need to do is install the mp3 codec for your ffmpeg binary. There are several articles out there that I would recommend on following to solve this issue. They are as follows.
  • http://blog.gwikzone.org/articles/2006/09/25/flv-encoding-with-ffmpeg
  • http://www.travistidwell.com/node/263

      • Now, lets suppose that you DO see an MP3 codec installed in your FFMPEG binary, but still no luck. This is usually caused because in your FFMPEG Command within the FlashVideo Settings, you do not have the right name for the codec. By default, in the FFMPEG Settings within the FlashVideo Settings you will see that the FFMPEG command is set for...
      -i @input -f flv -acodec mp3 -ar 22050 -ab 64k -ac 1 @output

      What you will be most concerned with is the little part in this command that says -acodec mp3. The mp3 is the name of the codec that will be performing the mp3 conversion. So, when you called the help for the FFMPEG, you should have seen something that says something like --enable-libmp3lame or --enable-mp3, or maybe even something else that has mp3 in the name. Well, all you have to do now is change the FFMPEG command to reflect the same codec name that is given. So, for example, if your FFMPEG has enabled the libmp3lame codec, your FFMPEG command will look like the following...
      -i @input -f flv -acodec libmp3lame -ar 22050 -ab 64k -ac 1 @output

      I hope that makes sense, and I hope this resolves this problem once and for all...
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FLV file not created

On February 23rd, 2008 srimalj says:

Dear Admin

First of all cool plugin . well done !

I still had this issue however.

I had zero byte flvs and dindt have l 'lame' installed . So i followed the above instructions and now i have :
# /usr/local/bin/ffmpeg -help
FFmpeg version UNKNOWN, Copyright (c) 2000-2008 Fabrice Bellard, et al.
configuration: --enable-libfaac --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libfaac
libavutil version: 49.6.0
libavcodec version: 51.50.1
libavformat version: 52.7.0
libavdevice version: 52.0.0
built on Feb 23 2008 09:20:59, gcc: 4.1.3 20070929 (prerelease) (Ubuntu 4.1.2-16ubuntu2)
/usr/local/bin/ffmpeg: missing argument for option '-help'

Even after updateing the FFMPEG admin page for /usr/local/bin/ffmpeg and -i @input -f flv -acodec libmp3lame -ar 22050 -ab 64k -ac 1 @output

and running the cron

the flv files are still 0 bytes.

So I deleted the 0 byte files and ran the cron job again.

But no flv files are created.

The thumbnails are there. But when you click that it shows

'video not currently available'

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Srimal.

ffmpeg works in the console

On February 23rd, 2008 srimalj says:

I also copy pasted the ffmpeg command in the Admin page in the console and that created an flv file that was playable wit vlcplayer

Ex:

/usr/local/bin/ffmpeg -i letitbeme.avi -f flv -acodec libmp3lame -ar 22050 -ab 64k -ac 1 letitbeme.flv

ffmpeg keeps taking option 'mp3' nto 'libmp3lame'

On February 23rd, 2008 srimalj says:

Hi

My cron output says this:

* Command: /usr/bin/ffmpeg -y -i "/var/www/drupal-5.7/files/4_letitbeme2.avi" -vframes 1 -ss "00:00:02" -an -vcodec mjpeg -f rawvideo -s "130x100" "/var/www/drupal-5.7/files/4_letitbeme2.jpg"
* Command: /usr/bin/ffmpeg -i "/var/www/drupal-5.7/files/4_letitbeme2.avi" -f flv -acodec mp3 -ar 22050 -ab 64k -ac 1 "/var/www/drupal-5.7/files/4_letitbeme2.flv"
* Cron ran successfully

Even after I put this following line in ffmpeg option:

FFmpeg command:
-i @input -f flv -acodec libmp3lame -ar 22050 -ab 64k -ac 1 @output

It doesnt seem to be using the ffmpeg command?