ffmpeg Error initializing output stream 0:0 -- Error while opening encoder for output stream

Question

I am a newbie in terms of video processing in general and ffmpeg in particular. So this might be a real beginner's question.

I am trying to extract frames from an avi. This is the command:

ffmpeg.exe -i 123.avi -vf select='gt(scene\,0.4)',scale=1920:-1,tile=6x3 -frames:v 1 456.jpg

And this is the console output:

ffmpeg version 4.0 Copyright (c) 2000-2018 the FFmpeg developers
  built with gcc 7.3.0 (GCC)
  configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --enable-sdl2 --enable-bzlib --enable-fontconfig --enable-gnutls --enable-iconv --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libfreetype --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopus --enable-libshine --enable-libsnappy --enable-libsoxr --enable-libtheora --enable-libtwolame --enable-libvpx --enable-libwavpack --enable-libwebp --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-libxml2 --enable-libzimg --enable-lzma --enable-zlib --enable-gmp --enable-libvidstab --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-libmysofa --enable-libspeex --enable-libxvid --enable-libaom --enable-libmfx --enable-amf --enable-ffnvcodec --enable-cuvid --enable-d3d11va --enable-nvenc --enable-nvdec --enable-dxva2 --enable-avisynth
  libavutil      56. 14.100 / 56. 14.100
  libavcodec     58. 18.100 / 58. 18.100
  libavformat    58. 12.100 / 58. 12.100
  libavdevice    58.  3.100 / 58.  3.100
  libavfilter     7. 16.100 /  7. 16.100
  libswscale      5.  1.100 /  5.  1.100
  libswresample   3.  1.100 /  3.  1.100
  libpostproc    55.  1.100 / 55.  1.100
Input #0, avi, from 'C:\work\exports\123.avi':
  Duration: 00:02:12.43, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 4455 kb/s
    Stream #0:0: Video: rawvideo, pal8, 164x485, 4459 kb/s, 7 fps, 7 tbr, 7 tbn, 7 tbc
    Metadata:
      title           : FileAVI write  
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (rawvideo (native) -> mjpeg (native))
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
[swscaler @ 000000eb4f415ec0] deprecated pixel format used, make sure you did set range correctly
Error initializing output stream 0:0 -- Error while opening encoder for output stream #0:0 - maybe incorrect parameters such as bit_rate, rate, width or height
Conversion failed!

Do I need a particular encoder when working with avi files? Which one and how do I specify it?

Answer 1

Use

ffmpeg -i 123.avi -vf select='gt(scene\,0.4)',tile=6x3,scale=1920:-2 -frames:v 1 456.jpg

The scale filter should be placed after the tile. Placing it before, will lead to each selected frame being scaled to width 1920. When the tile filter stacks those frames together, your output will be 11520 pixels wide, and height being taller.