Thanks for your info on this.
I am using your code from post #6 (2-pass VBR encode using parameters for "Extremely High Quality")
I changed the -me_method dia to -motion-est dia and the same error displayed. I then used the -method ds option. This did not display that error.
https://ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg-all.html#mestimate
However, it is listed under video filters and I am not too sure I should be using it. It says:
Estimate and export motion vectors using block matching algorithms. Motion vectors are stored in frame side data to be used by other filters.
This filter accepts the following options:
method
Specify the motion estimation method. Accepts one of the following values:
I used the ds value.
What are your thoughts?