VLC could not open the mp4a audio encoder

I am attempting to use the Convert/Save feature of VLC to convert an mkv file to an mp4. (H.264 video with MPEG-4 AAC audio)

I get the following error:

VLC could not open the mp4a audio encoder

How can I remedy this? VLC 2.2.4 on Windows 10.

Thank you!

3 Answers

Go to Tools > Preferences > Input/Codecs > Video codecs > FFmpeg Changing the 'Strict standard compliance to -2 worked for me.

Found this method here:Streaming / Transcoding failed

On OS X, you select VLC menu and then Preferences. Then click Show All at the bottom left. Then under Video Codecs in the left pane, select FFmpeg, scroll halfway down and change Strict standard compliance to -2.

If you want to open an mpeg4 video an alternative is to use the command below:

xdg-open test_video.mp4

If you get error, you might need to install the following in CentOS:

sudo yum install gstreamer gstreamer-ffmpeg gstreamer-plugins-bad gstreamer-plugins-bad-free gstreamer-plugins-bad-nonfree gstreamer-plugins-base gstreamer-plugins-good gstreamer-plugins-ugly gstreamer-plugin-crystalhd gstreamer1-plugins-bad-freeworld gstreamer1-plugins-bad-free gstreamer1-plugins-good gstreamer1-libav ffmpeg