Transmuxing Facebook MP4s creates bad mpeg-ts stream

[Neal McConnell]

OS: CentOS 6.3 64-bit
Build: N-55797-g535d9a9
Obtained from: ​http://ffmpeg.gusari.org/static/64bit/

Summary of the bug:
Attempting to transmux an MP4 file downloaded from Facebook to mpeg-ts or HLS stream results in an an invalid stream. By invalid, I mean an mpeg-ts file or pipe stream is produced that FFmpeg itself cannot use. From my brief analysis, the problem looks to be redundant PPS, one for each key-frame, a few packets prior to the one that belongs.

How to reproduce:

The command I really want to use:
ffmpeg -i transmuxme.mp4 -sn -codec copy -bsf:v h264_mp4toannexb -f mpegts pipe:1 | ffmpeg -f mpegts -i pipe:0 -codec copy -map 0 -f ssegment -segment_format mpegts -initial_offset 10 segmentName_%04d.ts

Commands that I used to make things simpler:
Go from MP4 to MPEG-TS file
ffmpeg -i transmuxme.mp4 -sn -codec copy -bsf:v h264_mp4toannexb -f mpegts mp4tots.ts

Read-in the TS file just created to segment(receive errors reading the file):
ffmpeg -i mp4tots.ts -map 0 -sn -codec copy -bsf:v h264_mp4toannexb -f ssegment -segment_format mpegts -initial_offset 10 segmentName_%04d.ts

The full console output are attached, as I used "-report". They are quite lengthy to put in-line here.

[Neal McConnell]

Report from attempting to go from MP4 to HLS, using MPEG-TS pipe

[Neal McConnell]

Report from going from MP4 to MPEG-TS pipe (step 1)

[Neal McConnell]

Report from going from MPEG-TS file to HLS (step 2)

[Neal McConnell]

Source file, as downloaded from Facebook

[Neal McConnell]

Resulting file from transmuxing MP4 to MPEG-TS file. Good for analysis.

[Carl Eugen Hoyos]

Replying to nealzebub:

Attempting to transmux an MP4 file downloaded from Facebook to mpeg-ts or HLS stream results in an an invalid stream. By invalid, I mean an mpeg-ts file or pipe stream is produced that FFmpeg itself cannot use.

I tried to remux the mp4 file you attached, and the output stream plays fine here with ffplay and can be transcoded with ffmpeg. Could you explain (again) what is wrong with the output file?

$ ffmpeg -i transmuxme.mp4 -c copy -bsf h264_mp4toannexb out.ts
ffmpeg version N-55912-gd814a83 Copyright (c) 2000-2013 the FFmpeg developers
  built on Aug 30 2013 19:39:36 with gcc 4.7 (SUSE Linux)
  configuration: --enable-gpl --disable-indev=jack
  libavutil      52. 42.100 / 52. 42.100
  libavcodec     55. 29.100 / 55. 29.100
  libavformat    55. 15.100 / 55. 15.100
  libavdevice    55.  3.100 / 55.  3.100
  libavfilter     3. 82.102 /  3. 82.102
  libswscale      2.  5.100 /  2.  5.100
  libswresample   0. 17.103 /  0. 17.103
  libpostproc    52.  3.100 / 52.  3.100
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'transmuxme.mp4':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : FACE
    minor_version   : 1337
    compatible_brands: isomavc1FACE
    creation_time   : 2013-08-30 14:15:11
  Duration: 00:00:36.80, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 292 kb/s
    Stream #0:0(und): Video: h264 (Constrained Baseline) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p, 400x224, 245 kb/s, 29.91 fps, 29.91 tbr, 29910 tbn, 59.82 tbc (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2013-08-30 14:15:11
      handler_name    : /tmp/10151818995537162_video.264 - Imported with GPAC 0.4.6-DEV-rev3544
    Stream #0:1(und): Audio: aac (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 44100 Hz, mono, fltp, 45 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2013-08-30 14:15:11
      handler_name    : /tmp/10151818995537162_audio.aac - Imported with GPAC 0.4.6-DEV-rev3544
Output #0, mpegts, to 'out.ts':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : FACE
    minor_version   : 1337
    compatible_brands: isomavc1FACE
    encoder         : Lavf55.15.100
    Stream #0:0(und): Video: h264 (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p, 400x224, q=2-31, 245 kb/s, 29.91 fps, 90k tbn, 29.91 tbc (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2013-08-30 14:15:11
      handler_name    : /tmp/10151818995537162_video.264 - Imported with GPAC 0.4.6-DEV-rev3544
    Stream #0:1(und): Audio: aac (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 44100 Hz, mono, 45 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2013-08-30 14:15:11
      handler_name    : /tmp/10151818995537162_audio.aac - Imported with GPAC 0.4.6-DEV-rev3544
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (copy)
  Stream #0:1 -> #0:1 (copy)
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
[adts @ 0x2e68be0] Encoder did not produce proper pts, making some up.
frame= 1098 fps=0.0 q=-1.0 Lsize=    1564kB time=00:00:36.80 bitrate= 348.2kbits/s
video:1098kB audio:205kB subtitle:0 global headers:0kB muxing overhead 20.054055%

[Neal McConnell]

Replying to cehoyos:

Replying to nealzebub:

Attempting to transmux an MP4 file downloaded from Facebook to mpeg-ts or HLS stream results in an an invalid stream. By invalid, I mean an mpeg-ts file or pipe stream is produced that FFmpeg itself cannot use.

I tried to remux the mp4 file you attached, and the output stream plays fine here with ffplay and can be transcoded with ffmpeg. Could you explain (again) what is wrong with the output file?

Now that you have that "out.ts", attempt to remux it to HLS(mpeg-ts) segments, like what I tried. Then you'll see the problem.

ffmpeg -i out.ts -map 0 -sn -codec copy -bsf:v h264_mp4toannexb -f ssegment -segment_format mpegts -initial_offset 10 segmentName_%04d.ts

[Neal McConnell]

A screenshot of the TS analysis tool showing redundant PPS for frame 30. Not seen with any other transmux.