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I've got an mp4 file with these streams (avconv -i file.mp4 or ffmpeg -i file.mp4):

Stream #0.0(eng): Audio: aac, 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 125 kb/s (default)
Stream #0.1(eng): Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, 5.1, fltp, 384 kb/s
Stream #0.2(eng): Video: h264 (Main), yuv420p, 1280x568, 4027 kb/s, PAR 1:1 DAR 160:71, 23.98 fps, 2997 tbn, 50 tbc (default)
Stream #0.3(eng): Subtitle: c608 / 0x38303663, 0 kb/s
Stream #0.4(und): Subtitle: text / 0x74786574
Stream #0.5: Video: mjpeg, yuvj420p, 667x1000 [PAR 72:72 DAR 667:1000], 90k tbn

I am trying to strip out the first audio stream from the file like so:

avconv -i file.mp4 -map 0 -map -0:0 -codec copy file-out.mp4

# OR #

ffmpeg -i file.mp4 -map 0 -map -0:0 -codec copy file-out.mp4

The problem is, I get this error:

Could not write header for output file #0 (incorrect codec parameters ?): Operation not permitted

So, I checked if something's wrong with the mp4 file itself:

avprobe file.mp4

# OR #

ffprobe file.mp4

And the output says:

Unsupported codec with id 0 for input stream 3
Unsupported codec with id 94213 for input stream 4

I have no idea what that means. (Apparently something's wrong with the subtitles, but I got the video from iTunes.)

  1. What's wrong?

  2. Can I simply force avconv/ffmpeg to do what I asked of it (i.e. strip the audio stream & copy the rest as it is)? If so, how?

  3. Is there a better alternative for remuxing, that's command-line & actively developed?

Apparently I missed the other errors/warnings in the console output before the final error message, like @aergistal suggested:

[mp4 @ 0x2645420] Codec for stream 0 does not use global headers but container format requires global headers
[mp4 @ 0x2645420] Codec for stream 1 does not use global headers but container format requires global headers
[mp4 @ 0x2645420] Codec for stream 2 does not use global headers but container format requires global headers
[mp4 @ 0x2645420] Codec for stream 3 does not use global headers but container format requires global headers
[mp4 @ 0x2645420] Codec for stream 4 does not use global headers but container format requires global headers
[mp4 @ 0x2645420] track 2: could not find tag, codec not currently supported in container
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The fourth stream apparently is a CEA-608 subtitle stream, which during the days of analog television signal transmission was caption data embedded within the video data. Apparently FFmpeg can extract it but can't mux it to a new container.

As for stripping only the audio, MP4Box may be of help.

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  • So based on your answer & comment, ffmpeg currently doesn't support doing what I asked of it, and if the ticket is patched, it may in the future. No way to force ffmpeg to just do it right?
    – its_me
    Commented Nov 27, 2015 at 16:06
  • There may be a roundabout way of doing it: Mux only the AC3 and H264 streams into a new container. Try to extract the caption to a SRT e.g. ffmpeg -i file.mp4 -c:s copy file-out.srt. If this works, mux the SRT along with the streams from the new container into a final container.
    – Gyan
    Commented Nov 27, 2015 at 16:18
  • I just extracted the 2 subtitle streams as separate srt files and the command ran successfully without any issues. But when I opened them in Notepad++ I see this: i.imgur.com/j1MKW8n.png -- Any idea why? I've opened srt files before and they are supposed to show normal text.
    – its_me
    Commented Nov 27, 2015 at 16:46
  • Because they are just raw CEA608 data dumped into the output you specified. CCExtractor should be able to produce valid SRTs from them.
    – Gyan
    Commented Nov 27, 2015 at 16:54

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