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The problem is seen well when you get video file information with ffmpeg:
ffmpeg -i [bad_file].avi
It will show something like:
Seems stream 0 codec frame rate differs from container frame rate: 30000.00 (30000/1) -> 25.00 (25/1) Input #0, avi, from '[bad_file].avi': Duration: 01:06:42.20, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 1466 kb/s Stream #0.0: Video: mpeg4, yuv420p, 608x320 [PAR 1:1 DAR 19:10], 25.00 tb(r) Stream #0.1: Audio: mp3, 44100 Hz, stereo, s16, 160 kb/s
The files like the above do not play at my WDTV device and re-encoding them in a normal way with Avidemux or HandBrake leads to some funny results.
To salvage files like these I take the following steps (though there is a zillion ways if doing that better than me).
1. Rip audio
mplayer [BAD_SOURCE].avi -ao pcm:fast:file=audio.wav -vc null -vo null
2. Encode audio (I prefer AAC encoder from Nero):
neroAacEnc -if audio.wav -q .5 -ignorelength -of audio.m4a
3. Rip and encode video with ffmpeg (I prefer x264 codec):
ffmpeg -i [BAD_SOURCE].avi -vcodec libx264 -b 1400000 -sameq -an video.m4v
Hint: choose a 15-20% lower bitrate than original (in our case above: -b 1400000).
4. Mux together into a nice matroska file
mkvmerge -o [GOOD_OUTPUT].mkv -d 1 -A -S video.m4v -a 1 -D -S audio.m4a --track-order 0:1,1:1
5. Cleanup
rm -f [BAD_SOURCE].avi video.m4v audio.m4a
Enjoy. And please do not use packed bitstream any more, it’s ugly.
I have a slightly simpler process, though I wish/hope there is a way to do it without using two tools.
Remux with mplayer:
mencoder -oac copy -ovc copy source.file -o source.avi
Then remux with ffmpeg:
ffmpeg -vcodec copy -acodec copy -o source.avi source.mp4
Interestingly, it still reports the same error message, though it does remux into a proper mp4 container.