[Bug 749542] New: On Windows most combinations of muxers/encoders do not work

[GStreamer (GNOME Bugzilla)]

https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=749542

            Bug ID: 749542
           Summary: On Windows most combinations of muxers/encoders do not
                    work
    Classification: Platform
           Product: GStreamer
           Version: 1.4.5
                OS: Windows
            Status: NEW
          Severity: major
          Priority: Normal
         Component: don't know
          Assignee: gstreamer-bugs at lists.freedesktop.org
          Reporter: bugzilla.gnome.org at harrym.e4ward.com
        QA Contact: gstreamer-bugs at lists.freedesktop.org
     GNOME version: ---

I'm trying to convert on Windows a general-purpose C program for handling video
files of all popular formats, from a commercial product to GStreamer.
I have managed to successfully implement all the functions, except for the
transcoding of video/audio files, because I find that most combinations of
muxers/encoders do not work.

The errors come in these flavors :
- Crashes
- Endless "Redistribute latency..."
- "could not link" errors (I can understand these ones as incompatible
encoder/muxer, but why are they so frequent?)

An example for a crash :

gst-launch-1.0.exe
filesrc location="from.avi" ! decodebin name=d !
queue ! videoconvert ! x264enc ! queue ! avimux name=mux ! filesink
location="to.avi"
d. ! queue ! audioconvert ! avenc_wmav2 ! mux.

An example for endless "Redistribute latency..." :

gst-launch-1.0.exe
filesrc location="from.avi" ! decodebin name=d !
queue ! videoconvert ! x264enc ! avimux name=mux ! filesink location="to.avi"
d. ! queue ! audioconvert ! avenc_ac3 ! mux.

In fact, the only combination I found to work well is OGG/THEORA/VORBIS.
In general, avenc_* encoders don't seem to work, but for most formats they are
the only ones available.

Suggestion 1: Add to the documentation tables of compatible
file-formats/muxers/encoders combinations that are known to work, by
operating-system.

Suggestion 2: Create a new "transcode" plugin/mini-pipeline that works with
profiles and even directly with media_type strings, and that supports the
GstVideoOverlay interface for preview. It would be perfect if it could take at
a minimum only the container media_type string and supply all the missing
pieces. If decided, I would gladly add my voice when setting the specs.

This will take the black magic out of transcoding, which I currently find as
very painful (at least on Windows). In fact, I'm blocked.

Suggestion 3: Write documentation for compiling on Windows GStreamer version
1.x, currently seemingly only available for version 0.10. This will allow
Windows programmers like me to better analyze problems and even contribute.

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