vlc fails to properly convert movie to mp3

This case was not really considered.

Until this is fixed, you should use the command line:
vlc $SOURCE --no-sout-video --no-sout-spu --sout "#transcode{acodec=mp3,ab=128}:standard{dst=$DESTINATION,mux=raw}"

Same problem in Ubuntu 10.04, the Save/convert dialog saves a file, but the audio in it is mangled. Saving as FLAC works correctly, and that file can subsequently be converted to MP3 with other tools (e.g. SoundConverter) that do work correctly.

This bug was fixed in the package vlc - 1.1.0-1ubuntu1

---------------
vlc (1.1.0-1ubuntu1) maverick; urgency=low

  * Merge from Debian unstable, remaining changes:
    - build and install the libx264 plugin
    - add Xb-Npp header to vlc package
    - Add apport hook to include more vlc dependencies in bug reports
  * Drop xulrunner patches.
  * Drop 502_xulrunner_191.diff.

vlc (1.1.0-1) unstable; urgency=low

  [ Christophe Mutricy ]
  * New upstream version 1.1.0 (Closes: #586760, LP: #597108)
    * Fixes many bugs (Closes: #572151, #578917, #526088, #572914, #503377;
      LP: #206152, #261001, #281478, #282215, #282966, #283379, #283855,
      #285681, #287263, #328064, #328861, #346631, #356006, #356908, #357595,
      #358461, #362793, #368599, #375854, #380077, #383443, #403135, #403657,
      #403802, #414069, #415396, #416294, #419915, #422797, #425975, #427247,
      #435225, #439271, #442038, #444795, #453928, #459515, #461443, #465687,
      #466418, #476478, #482440, #491151, #491601, #514915, #517329, #517496,
      #537627, #539406, #542293, #549029, #549902, #550468, #550485, #550599,
      #551482, #553503, #554277, #556440, #560167, #564964, #566347, #568750,
      #570666, #582785, #584009, #586692, #587528)
    * SONAME changes
    * Update symbols files
    * Refresh patches and remove the ones merged upstream
  * rules:
    * Disable projectm and sqlite
    * Upstream Makefile install icons at the good place, simplify debian/rules
    * Specify where to install solids files
    * Install the optim only if present
    * Make sure we have useful build log
  * *.install: reflect new modules path and add new files
  * Add a trigger to generate the modules' cache as root.
  * Update the doc which get installed
  * control:
    * Prefer a recent libdvbpsi
    * add lua5.1 to have luac
    * Add more build-dep: xcb*, dirac, dc1394
  * Patch to allow compilation with xul 1.9.1
  * Remove unneeded -V for dh_makeshlibs
  * Use configure option instead of patching
  * Use dh_bugfiles and update the bug control file
  * Don't advertise deprecated package in vlc's manpage
  * Add some news about lua and zvbi
  * Move the luahttp's .hosts to /etc/vlc

  [ Benjamin Drung ]
  * Switch to dpkg-source 3.0 (quilt) format.
  * Disable portaudio module.
  * Update symbols files.
  * Cleanup clean rule and other parts of debian/rules.
  * Remove default values from git-buildpackage config.
  * Change installation of man pages.
  * Remove unused ${shlibs:Depends}.
  * Sort Build-Depends and Depends.
  * Remove unused libhal-dev from Build-Depends (Closes: #580407).
  * Remove unused --enable-release configure flag.
  * Remove unused Build-Depends libid3tag0-dev, libsysfs-dev, and libxv-dev.
  * Provide VBI teletext plugin (Closes: #563873) - thanks to László
    Benedek <email address hidden> for the patch.
  * Enable atmo, fluidsynth (separate package), libproxy (Closes: #532110),
    kate (Closes: #563464), and mtp plugin.
  * Comment disabled features.
  * Explicitly enable or disable features.
  * Vcs-Browser link to summary page.
  * Convert patch header to DEP-3 and add DEP-3 to 502_xulrunner_191.diff.
  * Add myself to Uploaders.
  * ...

I don't see anything in these commits having to do with fixing mp3 encoding within VLC. I cannot confirm that this bug has been fixed. I am using vlc 1.1.2-1~ppa1 from ppa:c-korn/vlc. I have also tested vlc 1.1.3-2ubuntu1 (distributed in ubuntu 10.10) with the same result. In both cases even with lame, ffmpeg and libavcodec52, I am unable to convert an ogg to an mp3.

I get the following error:
====
Streaming / Transcoding failed:
It seems your FFMPEG (libavcodec) installation lacks the following encoder:
MPEG Audio layer 1/2/3.
If you don't know how to fix this, ask for support from your distribution.

This is not an error inside VLC media player.
Do not contact the VideoLAN project about this issue.
====

Am I missing something here? Is there a capability being removed from 'vlc (ubuntu)' compared to the upstream vlc project. If so, the status of 'vlc (ubuntu)' should not be 'Fixed Released'. If I am missing a package to encode to mp3 with vlc please let me know which package is needed to preform this action.

That's completely different. You did not install the libavcodec-unstripped run-time.

Hello Remi.
I did not know I had to install the libavcodec-unstripped runtime as the program does not indicate this when I try to preform this action. libavcodec-unstripped is not a package in Ubuntu repositories. I have tried adding the libavcodec-unstripped-52 (4:0.6-2ubuntu2) and trying to convert a wav to mp3 using vlc (1.14-1ubuntu1) from the maverick repositories. All I see in the console is "mux_dummy mux: Open" and then vlc just sits there doing nothing.

Is there something secret here that I shouldn't know or publish publicly? If this is the case could you please contact me with this secret recipe on IRC so we can end with this bug. I would think that people use vlc's framework for this task often enough that it would be properly documented in the Ubuntu wiki.

Thanks again for all your help in this matter.

On Di, Sep 28, 2010 at 00:16:06 (CEST), komputes wrote:

>
> Is there something secret here that I shouldn't know or publish
> publicly?

This is a support question. Answer is here:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats

> ** Changed in: vlc (Ubuntu)
> Status: Fix Released => Confirmed

please revert this bug status change

--
Gruesse/greetings,
Reinhard Tartler, KeyID 945348A4

Hello Reinhard, I would like to revert the status of this bug but unfortunately I have not yet received instruction on how to make VLC convert files to MP3. I have taken a look at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats which does not specify a solution for VLC conversion to mp3.

Could you please provide me with a more precise step by step guide to installing vlc, and other necessary packages on a fresh ubuntu installation. Once I am able to confirm that this feature of VLC works (even if it involves additional steps), then I can confirm that this bug has been corrected. I could then add a page to RestrictedFormats dealing with VLC.

Ok, I was able to make it work from a fresh maverick installed. I enabled the 'multiverse' software source and installed both packages in this manner:

$ sudo apt-get install libavcodec-extra-52 vlc

Then I opened VLC and did "File > Convert/Save". I was able to convert a wav to mp3 as expected.

I have added my finding to the following page:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats/MP3

Thank you all (and xtophe on IRC) for all your help in identifying the steps needed to have this feature work properly.