ffmpeg avcodec_open2 returns -22 if I change my speaker configuration

Question

I keep having a strange issue lately. Depending on how I set up my audio configuration in windows ( stereo/quad/5.1 ), a ffmpeg call to avcodec_open2() fails with error -22 or just works. Not being able to find much about that error, I thought I should ask about it here. The main flow goes like this:

c = st->codec;
avformat_alloc_output_context2(&oc, NULL, NULL, "video.mpeg");
oc->fmt->audio_codec = AV_CODEC_ID_MP2;
AVDictionary* dict = NULL;
ret = av_dict_set(&dict, "ac", "2", 0);
c->request_channels = 2;

ret = avcodec_open2(c, codec, &dict); //HERE IT FAILS WITH -22 if speaker configuration  is not stereo

The codec context 'c' is set up like this in a stream:

st = avformat_new_stream(oc, *codec);
c = st->codec;
c->channels     = 2;
c->channel_layout = AV_CH_LAYOUT_STEREO;
c->sample_fmt   = AV_SAMPLE_FMT_S16;
c->codec_id     = codec_id;

Most of it is copied from their one of the muxing examples found in the documentation. Everything works as expected if in windows I have set the output to stereo.

If I set my speaker configuration to 5.1 ( 6 channels ), avcodec_open2 fails with error -22.

So I have a hard time understanding what am I doing wrong. Normally it should not be any relationship between my speaker configuration and the result of avcodec_open2.

Are there some other parameters that I need to set ?

Answer 1

Here is the header for file libavcodec\avcodec.h taken from How can I find out what this ffmpeg error code means?

#if EINVAL > 0
#define AVERROR(e) (-(e)) /**< Returns a negative error code from a POSIX error code, to return from library functions. */
#define AVUNERROR(e) (-(e)) /**< Returns a POSIX error code from a library function error return value. */
#else
/* Some platforms have E* and errno already negated. */
#define AVERROR(e) (e)
#define AVUNERROR(e) (e)
#endif
#define AVERROR_UNKNOWN     AVERROR(EINVAL)  /**< unknown error */
#define AVERROR_IO          AVERROR(EIO)     /**< I/O error */
#define AVERROR_NUMEXPECTED AVERROR(EDOM)    /**< Number syntax expected in filename. */
#define AVERROR_INVALIDDATA AVERROR(EINVAL)  /**< invalid data found */
#define AVERROR_NOMEM       AVERROR(ENOMEM)  /**< not enough memory */
#define AVERROR_NOFMT       AVERROR(EILSEQ)  /**< unknown format */
#define AVERROR_NOTSUPP     AVERROR(ENOSYS)  /**< Operation not supported. */
#define AVERROR_NOENT       AVERROR(ENOENT)  /**< No such file or directory. */
#define AVERROR_EOF         AVERROR(EPIPE)   /**< End of file. */
#define AVERROR_PATCHWELCOME    -MKTAG('P','A','W','E') /**< Not yet implemented in FFmpeg. Patches welcome. */

then errno.h header file for the EINVAL

#define EINVAL          22      /* Invalid argument */

P.S. AVERROR means (-(-22)) = 22

LAYOUT for channels header channel_layout.h header file

/**
 * @file
 * audio conversion routines
 */

/* Audio channel masks */
#define AV_CH_FRONT_LEFT             0x00000001
#define AV_CH_FRONT_RIGHT            0x00000002
#define AV_CH_FRONT_CENTER           0x00000004
#define AV_CH_LOW_FREQUENCY          0x00000008
#define AV_CH_BACK_LEFT              0x00000010
#define AV_CH_BACK_RIGHT             0x00000020
#define AV_CH_FRONT_LEFT_OF_CENTER   0x00000040
#define AV_CH_FRONT_RIGHT_OF_CENTER  0x00000080
#define AV_CH_BACK_CENTER            0x00000100
#define AV_CH_SIDE_LEFT              0x00000200
#define AV_CH_SIDE_RIGHT             0x00000400
#define AV_CH_TOP_CENTER             0x00000800
#define AV_CH_TOP_FRONT_LEFT         0x00001000
#define AV_CH_TOP_FRONT_CENTER       0x00002000
#define AV_CH_TOP_FRONT_RIGHT        0x00004000
#define AV_CH_TOP_BACK_LEFT          0x00008000
#define AV_CH_TOP_BACK_CENTER        0x00010000
#define AV_CH_TOP_BACK_RIGHT         0x00020000
#define AV_CH_STEREO_LEFT            0x20000000  ///< Stereo downmix.
#define AV_CH_STEREO_RIGHT           0x40000000  ///< See AV_CH_STEREO_LEFT.

/** Channel mask value used for AVCodecContext.request_channel_layout
    to indicate that the user requests the channel order of the decoder output
    to be the native codec channel order. */
#define AV_CH_LAYOUT_NATIVE          0x8000000000000000LL

/* Audio channel convenience macros */
#define AV_CH_LAYOUT_MONO              (AV_CH_FRONT_CENTER)
#define AV_CH_LAYOUT_STEREO            (AV_CH_FRONT_LEFT|AV_CH_FRONT_RIGHT)
#define AV_CH_LAYOUT_2_1               (AV_CH_LAYOUT_STEREO|AV_CH_BACK_CENTER)
#define AV_CH_LAYOUT_SURROUND          (AV_CH_LAYOUT_STEREO|AV_CH_FRONT_CENTER)
#define AV_CH_LAYOUT_4POINT0           (AV_CH_LAYOUT_SURROUND|AV_CH_BACK_CENTER)
#define AV_CH_LAYOUT_2_2               (AV_CH_LAYOUT_STEREO|AV_CH_SIDE_LEFT|AV_CH_SIDE_RIGHT)
#define AV_CH_LAYOUT_QUAD              (AV_CH_LAYOUT_STEREO|AV_CH_BACK_LEFT|AV_CH_BACK_RIGHT)
#define AV_CH_LAYOUT_5POINT0           (AV_CH_LAYOUT_SURROUND|AV_CH_SIDE_LEFT|AV_CH_SIDE_RIGHT)
#define AV_CH_LAYOUT_5POINT1           (AV_CH_LAYOUT_5POINT0|AV_CH_LOW_FREQUENCY)
#define AV_CH_LAYOUT_5POINT0_BACK      (AV_CH_LAYOUT_SURROUND|AV_CH_BACK_LEFT|AV_CH_BACK_RIGHT)
#define AV_CH_LAYOUT_5POINT1_BACK      (AV_CH_LAYOUT_5POINT0_BACK|AV_CH_LOW_FREQUENCY)
#define AV_CH_LAYOUT_7POINT0           (AV_CH_LAYOUT_5POINT0|AV_CH_BACK_LEFT|AV_CH_BACK_RIGHT)
#define AV_CH_LAYOUT_7POINT1           (AV_CH_LAYOUT_5POINT1|AV_CH_BACK_LEFT|AV_CH_BACK_RIGHT)
#define AV_CH_LAYOUT_7POINT1_WIDE      (AV_CH_LAYOUT_5POINT1_BACK|AV_CH_FRONT_LEFT_OF_CENTER|AV_CH_FRONT_RIGHT_OF_CENTER)
#define AV_CH_LAYOUT_STEREO_DOWNMIX    (AV_CH_STEREO_LEFT|AV_CH_STEREO_RIGHT)