Apple VideoToolBox encoding failure

[grips]

Your ffmpeg is not configured with videotoolbox enabled, and current 10.8.13 dmg has a bug that cannot use the correct ffmpeg that comes with jellyfin.

A workaround is to manually download the jellyfin's ffmpeg from the repo: https://repo.jellyfin.org/?path=/ffmpeg/...6.x/x86_64

and then manually edit the encoding.xml to let jellyfin find that ffmpeg.

Alternatively you can use jellyfin's ffmpeg to replace your system's ffmpeg.

You do not have to do these in the following 10.9 release.

These errors are generated with jellfyin-ffmpeg.

Code:

xxx@Singularity bin % ll|grep ffmpeg
lrwxr-xr-x    1 xxx  admin    73 Apr 16 11:54 ffmpeg -> /Users/xxx/Downloads/jellyfin-ffmpeg_6.0.1-5_portable_mac64-gpl/ffmpeg
lrwxr-xr-x    1 xxx  admin    74 Apr 16 11:54 ffprobe -> /Users/xxx/Downloads/jellyfin-ffmpeg_6.0.1-5_portable_mac64-gpl/ffprobe
xxx@Singularity bin % pwd
/usr/local/bin
xxx@Singularity bin %

Code:

  <HardwareAccelerationType>videotoolbox</HardwareAccelerationType>
  <EncoderAppPath>/usr/local/bin/ffmpeg</EncoderAppPath>
  <EncoderAppPathDisplay>/usr/local/bin/ffmpeg</EncoderAppPathDisplay>

Core i7 is not enough. I need the specific model like "Core i3 12100". Based on what I can find for "macmini8,1" it looks like an 8th generation Intel CPU? Is that correct?

If so, uncheck MPEG4 and save. AFAIK, Intel iGPUs cannot decode that codec and your video uses MPEG4. Unchecking the box just means the CPU will decode the video.

Sorry, I edited the earlier post with the details instead of responding. It seems to be a Core i7 (I7-8700B). I tried unchecking the MPEG4 and it still failed, but the message is actually slightly different.

Input #0, avi, from 'fileVolumes/video/Series/MacGyver/Season 1/01 Pilot-C.avi':
  Metadata:
    software        : Lavf52.32.0
  Duration: 00:45:40.62, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 618 kb/s
  Stream #0:0: Video: mpeg4 (Simple Profile) (xvid / 0x6469767, yuv420p, 512x384 [SAR 1:1 DAR 4:3], 512 kb/s, 23.98 fps, 23.98 tbr, 23.98 tbn
  Stream #0:1: Audio: ac3 ([0] [0][0] / 0x2000), 44100 Hz, stereo, fltp, 96 kb/s
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (mpeg4 (native) -> h264 (h264_videotoolbox))
  Stream #0:1 -> #0:1 (ac3 (native) -> aac (native))
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
[h264_videotoolbox @ 0x7fd3a6908d80] Error: cannot create compression session: -12903
[h264_videotoolbox @ 0x7fd3a6908d80] Try -allow_sw 1. The hardware encoder may be busy, or not supported.
[vost#0:0/h264_videotoolbox @ 0x7fd3a6908a80] Error initializing output stream: Error while opening encoder for output stream #0:0 - maybe incorrect parameters such as bit_rate, rate, width or height
[aac @ 0x7fd3a6909ec0] Qavg: 921.578
[aac @ 0x7fd3a6909ec0] 2 frames left in the queue on closing
Conversion failed!