FFMpeg working in command line but not in PHP using exec();

Question

I am using FFMpeg to covert videos and it is working fine from the command line. I am using the following command:

ffmpeg -i input.mpg  -vcodec libx264 -b 819200 -s 100x100 -g 15 -bf 3 -b_strategy 1 -coder 1 -qmin 10 -qmax 51 -sc_threshold 40 -flags +loop -cmp +chroma -me_range 16 -me_method hex -subq 5 -i_qfactor 0.71 -qcomp 0.6 -qdiff 4 -directpred 1 -flags2 +fastpskip -dts_delta_threshold 1 -acodec libfaac -ab 48000 output.m4v

However, when I run the command using PHP exec(), the output video is not encoded correctly and is distorted and cropped. I am using the following in PHP:

$output = exec($cmd . ' 2>&1', $output, $return);

The $output returns a '0' successful code.

Does any one have any suggestions?

Thank you.

ithcy · Accepted Answer · 2011-02-25 18:27:06Z

8

This is unusual. It is possible that you have more than one ffmpeg binary installed, and the one that is being called by the PHP/Apache user is not the same as the one you call as your user from the command line.

Try specifying the full path to your ffmpeg binary (/usr/bin/ffmpeg or whatever) inside your exec().

answered Feb 25, 2011 at 18:27

ithcy

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2 Comments

Kit Over a year ago

You are a legend! Upvote. Thank you so much! I don't have two versions as far as I am aware but putting the absolute path sorted it straight away. Thank you again.

Ecropolis Over a year ago

I just installed ffmpeg and suspect maybe restarting Apache would do it -- but this worked just the same! (only grabbing poster frames so execution time was not the issue).

Teddy · Accepted Answer · 2011-02-25 18:24:27Z

1

It sounds like some command line options are getting lost/altered. I would try to split this into a 2 part process:

write a shell script on-the-fly (from PHP) that has all the proper command arguments (make it executable)
execute the shell script (from PHP)

answered Feb 25, 2011 at 18:24

Teddy

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2 Comments

Teddy Over a year ago

Before you do this, make sure that replacing exec() with passthru() doesn't fix problem. This would be a faster/easier fix if it worked.

Kit Over a year ago

Thank you for the reply. Could you elaborate please on how I would write the shell script? I am not too familiar with this. Chris

horatio · Accepted Answer · 2011-02-25 18:38:03Z

0

I would probably try:

1) change ' 2>&1' to ' 2>&1 &'

Also, transcoding can take a while. Are you certain you are waiting long enough for the transcode to complete?

answered Feb 25, 2011 at 18:38

horatio

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