Missing Output File after encoding into MP4 format with Zarx

Mitsukai Mizu Amaya · Post by **Mitsukai Mizu Amaya** » Sun Jun 01, 2008 3:43 am

It was supposed to output onto the desktop. But when the encoding got done, it wasn't there! What's worse, even when I search the computer, it's not there either! I waited two hours for it to encode; where'd it go?! HELP ZE NOOB, PLEASE!

Mitsukai Mizu Amaya · Post by **Mitsukai Mizu Amaya** » Sun Jun 01, 2008 4:13 am

I also checked for anything mp4 on my computer search and turned up nothing. Is it Vista or something?

Zero1 · Post by **Zero1** » Sun Jun 01, 2008 5:04 am

It probably is Vista. I'm not sure whether this is an issue still, but MP4Box (the muxer used in Zarx's GUI) used to use the default Windows temporary directory for the jobs it does when it's creating the MP4. Once that is done, it then copies/moves the temp file to your output location.

Well, in Microsoft's infinite wisdom, they changed the location of the temp directory in Vista, so MP4Box tries to put it in the old temp directory, but it doesn't exist in Vista.

You can edit the command line the GUI produces to overcome this. Simply look for the line starting with mp4box.exe and add:

Code: Select all

-tmp "C:\"

Your command line will probably look something like:

Code: Select all

mp4box.exe -tmp "C:\" -add "C:\video.264" -add "C:\audio.aac" -out "C:\wherevervistasdesktopis\amv.mp4"

You can put the temp files wherever you want (or in the proper temp directory if you know where it is), I just used C:\ for simplicity.

Also from the MP4Box command list:
-tmp dirname specifies directory for temporary file creation
* Note: Default temp dir is OS-dependent

Zarxrax · Post by **Zarxrax** » Sun Jun 01, 2008 10:52 am

Zero1 nice explanation but its actually completely wrong.

There was a bug in the version of mp4box that I used that causes it to not output a file on some systems. Zarx264gui does not use any special temp folder.
I've corrected the problem in my current development builds, and I think you might be able to find a link to a working one if you scour through the amvapp beta forum thread.

Mitsukai Mizu Amaya · Post by **Mitsukai Mizu Amaya** » Sun Jun 01, 2008 3:44 pm

Thank you so much, it looks like it's working now. When I try to play it though, it says I need Quicktime player plugin or something like that. Where can I get this?

Mitsukai Mizu Amaya · Post by **Mitsukai Mizu Amaya** » Sun Jun 01, 2008 3:57 pm

Wait, nevermind, I got it from Apple's Website

Zero1 · Post by **Zero1** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 2:04 pm

Zarxrax wrote:There was a bug in the version of mp4box that I used that causes it to not output a file on some systems. Zarx264gui does not use any special temp folder.

Hmm, well I didn't mean to come across as saying your GUI was using a special temp folder, I know that it just uses mp4box defaults. What I meant was that mp4box itself didn't play nicely with Vista at one time (because where mp4box was trying to store the files while it created the mp4, it didn't exist on Vista). Maybe the GPAC team has fixed this (oversight rather than a bug

).

Then again I might still be completely wrong. I'm just speculating because I've heard of the error before with Vista, mp4box and it trying to create temp files in places that don't exist on Vista.

Either way, glad it works now and hope it's not too long before it's "official".

Mitsukai Mizu Amaya wrote: Thank you so much, it looks like it's working now. When I try to play it though, it says I need Quicktime player plugin or something like that. Where can I get this?

A couple of other options apart from Quicktime. You can try VLC which is a small cross platform player. http://www.videolan.org/vlc/ No codecs to install or anything, just drop your file in it and it will most likely play.

If you prefer to use other players (Windows Media Player etc), you can install this:
http://www.cccp-project.net/
This is probably more useful as when it is installed, you can serve and convert MP4, MKV and OGM via AVIsynth.