FAQ: How to get FFmpeg information about a file

[Dennis]

If you are using Mezzmo v2.1.7 and above:
Right-click on the file in Mezzmo and select the "Get FFmpeg Information" command from the context menu. A dialog should appear that contains all the necessary information. After that click on the "Copy to clipboard" button and you will be able to paste it into a message to support.

If you are using Mezzmo v2.1.6 and below:
FFmpeg's information about a file is used to build the device profile - it tells Mezzmo media server which files to transcode and which to pass-through for the optimum experience.

To get file information from FFmpeg please do the following:

1) Please run the command prompt by going to your Start menu and typing "cmd" in the run prompt (it's a small text box in the Start menu). After you type it in, hit Enter and a black box with a command prompt should come up.
2) Then, please go to your Mezzmo's installation folder like this (let's assume it's installed in C:\Program Files\Conceiva\Mezzmo, please note, if you're on 64-bit Windows, then "Program Files" becomes "Program Files (x86)"):

cd "\program files\conceiva\mezzmo"

3) Then (once in that folder) type:

ffmpeg -i "<your video filename here>" and you should see output from ffmpeg that will describe the file format, codecs, etc...

For example, if your file is located in a folder "fred" on drive "G:" and is called "myfile.avi", you'd need to type it in like this:

ffmpeg -i "G:\fred\myfile.avi"

Please make sure you have quotes around the file location, because if there are any spaces in folder or filenames they won't be processed properly without quotes.

4) Please take a screenshot of that or copy and paste it and send it to support (at) conceiva (dot) com.

That information would tell me what container and audio/video codecs are in the file, because that is what needs to go into the device profile.

Dennis

[bigdog]

Dennis,

I have several video files that Mezzmo reports "file not supported"

I was able to run the commands however would prefer writing a batch file that makes a text file to avoids copy paste the screen shot which will save a lot of time

I would very much appreciate your help to finish my bat file below which does not run:

cd..
cd..
cd "\program files\conceiva\mezzmo"
ffmpeg -i "G:\Sling Blade (1996).mkv" /b /o:gn >__ffmpeg_details.txt


I have a batch file "__Make File Listings.bat" that list all my movies on a HDD which creates a text file which is great
-- I am sure your members would appreciate using this file
-- place the file in the root directory of each HDD and double click
-- add additional video extensions as required.

dir *.mkv *.avi *.mpeg *.mp4 *.mpg *.m2ts /b /o:gn >__Filelisting.txt

[Dennis]

The /b and /o commands are not part of FFmpeg's command line and I suspect that's why it fails to run. What you'd need is for your batch file to first run the "dir" command, outputting all the files to a text file, then have a loop ("for") going through that file and executing FFmpeg on each of the files. Do you need help on the loop command?

[bigdog]

[QUOTE=Dennis;6802]The /b and /o commands are not part of FFmpeg's command line and I suspect that's why it fails to run. What you'd need is for your batch file to first run the "dir" command, outputting all the files to a text file, then have a loop ("for") going through that file and executing FFmpeg on each of the files. Do you need help on the loop command?[/QUOTE]

Dennis, Yes please

The /b and /o commands were from my movie file listing which I did not create.

[Dennis]

Try something like this (after you've generated the "__Filelisting.txt" text file that contains all your files):

FOR %%G IN (__Filelisting.txt) DO ffmpeg -i %%G > __ffmpeg_details_%%~nG.txt

That should go through each line in your and write out FFmpeg info for each file to a separate text file. You can then search through file contents to find invalid ones. I suppose it'll also be possible to do this in the batch file if you have some console-based text search utility (like grep). The above is untested

[bigdog]

Dennis,

I only need to do it for individual video files, not all my files.

Can you please amend so that I can input individudal file names perhaps with a popup to input without amending the original file

John

[Dennis]

John, I'm not really sure what you need... To get FFmpeg information about a single file, you can just use the "ffmpeg -i <filename>", why would you need a batch file for that? I thought you need to go through all your files and get FFmpeg information on all of them in a single go (batch)?

[bigdog]

Dennis,

the cmd screen does not display the all ffmpeg data to the right because I can not drag the screen to the right, just up and down.
-- I can not see and paste all the data

the batch process is efficient and quick.

[Dennis]

Ok, then all you need is "ffmpeg -i <filename> > ffmpeg_info.txt", right? This'll get you information on <filename> and output it to "ffmpeg_info.txt" file.