Is it possible to remux wmv3 video stream into mp4 container?

[Evaldas]

Ok, so let's get back to beating the same beaten horse.

I have a Windows Media .wmv file with wmv3 video stream inside (specs bellow) and want to remux that video stream into mp4 container. Tried lots of different things with ffmpeg 3.0, but with no success. For example with ffmpeg

ffmpeg -i original.wmv -an -vcodec copy out.mp4

I get the error message (which is uderstandable to some extent):

[mp4 @ 03655420] Could not find tag for codec wmv3 in stream #0, codec not currently supported in container

Also tried dumping raw stream as .vc1:

ffmpeg -i original.wmv -an -vcodec copy out.vc1

and upon importing ffmpeg sees the .vc1 stream as the stream with resolution 6034x4098 and doesn't accept "-video_size 720x576" option, etc.

But... since VC-1 MP/SP is the same as WMV3, is it possible somehow to just change video stream Codec ID from WMV3 to WVC1 (or VC-1)? As I said, tried different things with ffmpeg, read some half decade–decade old posts http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=160693, http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=119102, but didn't find definitive answer to this question. Maybe the tooling situation changed over this time?

P.S. Never mind if WMA2 audio is not supported in mp4 container, I could just reencode it to aac, but I don't want to touch (reencode) the video stream. Side question, WMA2 audio is definitively not supported in mp4 container?

.wmv file specs:
General
Complete name : original.wmv
Format : Windows Media
File size : 518 MiB
Duration : 1h 11mn
Overall bit rate mode : Constant
Overall bit rate : 1 018 Kbps
Maximum Overall bit rate : 1 027 Kbps

Video
ID : 2
Format : VC-1
Format profile : Main
Codec ID : WMV3
Codec ID/Info : Windows Media Video 9
Codec ID/Hint : WMV3
Description of the codec : Windows Media Video 9
Duration : 1h 11mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 935 Kbps
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 576 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 5:4
Frame rate : 25.000 fps
Standard : PAL
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Compression mode : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.090
Stream size : 476 MiB (92%)

Audio
ID : 1
Format : WMA
Format version : Version 2
Codec ID : 161
Codec ID/Info : Windows Media Audio
Description of the codec : Windows Media Audio 9.1 - 80 kbps, 44 kHz, stereo (A/V) 1-pass CBR
Duration : 1h 11mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 80.0 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 44.1 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Stream size : 40.7 MiB (8%)

[Music Fan]

As the codec ID is WMV3 and not WVC1, you can't get a VC1 elementary stream with it.
If it was WVC1, you could use ASF2VC1 to extract the VC1 stream.

I'm afraid mp4 does not support wmv3 ;
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=62723
- MP4 video formats: MPEG-4 SP/ASP: XviD, DivX5, 3ivx, ffmpeg/ffdshow, NeroDigital ASP... and MPEG-4 AVC/H.264: x264, NeroDigital AVC, Apple... and MPEG-2, MPEG-1 (not DivX3/MS Mpeg-4, WM9, RV9 or VP6)

[filler56789]

But... since VC-1 MP/SP is the same as WMV3, is it possible somehow to just change video stream Codec ID from WMV3 to WVC1 (or VC-1)?

It would be a very-difficult task, and apparently nobody has cared about it. The post below might explain why:

Because WMV9 was originally developed as a codec for PC playback, it had an inherent dependency on its file container (ASF, AVI) to carry sequence header and picture size metadata necessary to correctly decode the picture. When VC-1 standardization process began and Advanced Profile was being designed, one of the key goals of Advanced Profile was to make it container and transport independent so that it could exist as a standalone elementary stream. "WMV9 classic" became VC-1 Simple/Main and most of its features were just grandfathered in.

So VC-1 Advanced Profile is the only VC-1 profile that is self-contained - it carries sequence header and picture size metadata in the bitstream. This allows the creation of VC-1 elementary streams (.vc1).

The RCV format was created to provide a lightweight encapsulation method for VC-1 Simple and Main bitstreams. It's not a full file format - it's just a simple overhead that provides sequence header and picture size information for the bitstream. Annex J and L of the SMPTE VC-1 specification describe the bitstream syntax.

Side question, WMA2 audio is definitively not supported in mp4 container?

http://forum.videohelp.com/threads/367329-ffmpeg-remux-wmv-to-mp4?p=2347503&viewfull=1#post2347503 says:

According to Ben Waggoner (a moderator at Doom9's forum, who had a job at µicro$oft),
it's possible to place WMA in MP4, but probably only some obscure nerd who still works @ µ$
knows how to do that.

[benwaggoner]

Wow, some blasts from the past there :). I left Microsoft back in Jan 2012.

I don't know if there is any way to remux an arbitrary WMV3 stream to WVC1, as there were syntactical and feature changes implemented.

There is a WMA in MP4 packing; that was what was used for early Smooth Streaming, which was WVC1 and WMA in fragmented MPEG-4. Public specs are lying around. And Microsoft's old IIS Transform Manager software can certainly repackage WMA into fMP4. I never tried it with any VC-1 variant other than WVC1. But if that can make a *.ismv from your *.wmv, then MP4 mapping is certainly possible. Maybe then remux from the fMP4 to a standard MP4.

Bigger question - why? Anything I can think of that can decode VC-1+WMA bitstreams can certainly demux a WMV file. And probably there are plenty of players that can play a WMV that wouldn't know how to play a MP4 with those codecs.

[SeeMoreDigital]

Hmmm...

I agree with Ben. I wonder why the original poster wants to place WMV3 into the .mp4 container :scared:

[Evaldas]

Sorry for the late reply, but I just wanted to say thank you for your answers. Thank you, I got it, consider this case closed.

As for why, since I need to remux this file anyway to fix wrong display aspect ratio, I thought that maybe VC1 in .mp4 would be a more viable long term storage solution than WMV3 in .wmv would be.