Could not find codec parameters in ffmpeg in Windows

While trying to convert wmv to animated gif using ffmpeg in Windows 7, I ran into an issue.

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7600]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

C:\>ffmpeg -i test.wmv test.gif
ffmpeg version N-39877-g4fa706a Copyright (c) 2000-2012 the FFmpeg developers
  built on Apr 16 2012 14:57:12 with gcc 4.6.3
  configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --disable-w32threads --enable-ru
ntime-cpudetect --enable-avisynth --enable-bzlib --enable-frei0r --enable-libass
 --enable-libcelt --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable
-libfreetype --enable-libgsm --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libnut --enable-libope
njpeg --enable-librtmp --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libspeex --enable-libth
eora --enable-libutvideo --enable-libvo-aacenc --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-
libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libx264 --enable-libxavs --enable-libxvid --e
nable-zlib
  libavutil      51. 46.100 / 51. 46.100
  libavcodec     54. 14.101 / 54. 14.101
  libavformat    54.  3.100 / 54.  3.100
  libavdevice    53.  4.100 / 53.  4.100
  libavfilter     2. 70.100 /  2. 70.100
  libswscale      2.  1.100 /  2.  1.100
  libswresample   0. 11.100 /  0. 11.100
  libpostproc    52.  0.100 / 52.  0.100
[asf @ 0000000001f3ead0] Could not find codec parameters (Video: none (MTS2 / 0x
3253544D), 800x400, 30000 kb/s)
test.wmv: could not find codec parameters

What does this mean and how can I solve it?

Oskar K.

Posted 2012-09-19T15:16:53.320

Reputation: 202

Can you please download the latest static build for Windows from here and try again? Is there any way you could supply the original source file for us to download? Can you successfully convert other videos, e.g. with a different container like MP4 or MOV? Am I correct assuming these videos were created with Microsoft Expression Encoder?

– slhck – 2012-09-19T15:25:12.517

Now it's working good. But it creates a very big animated gif. I need ffmpeg to compress it while it converts. What are the parameters should I use to reach it? – Oskar K. – 2012-09-19T16:15:46.070

Depends on the dimension you want to scale. Do you want to keep the 800x400 size? If not, change it like ffmpeg -i test.wmv … -s:v 400x200 out.gif. Look at the answer you should have already seen for compression options: http://superuser.com/a/436109/48078

– slhck – 2012-09-19T17:22:32.800

Could not find codec parameters in ffmpeg in Windows

Answers