ffmpeg can't find output directory under cygwin - bash

Question

I'm using the windows build of ffmpeg (details below), and when I try to transcode a video with the output file NOT in the local directory, it complains with the error message :
/dtop/out.mp4: No such file or directory
My cygwin mounts are as follows - I have not found any other application which doesn't follow the mounts/links correctly...
[lwobker:/dtop/vertigo]$ mount
C:/Documents and Settings/lwobker/Desktop on /dtop type ntfs (binary)
C:/cygwin/bin on /usr/bin type ntfs (binary,auto)
C:/cygwin/lib on /usr/lib type ntfs (binary,auto)
C:/cygwin on / type ntfs (binary,auto)
C: on /cygdrive/c type ntfs (binary,posix=0,user,noumount,auto)
Here's what I've managed to figure out so far, leading me to believe that for some reason FFMPEG does not like following mount points or links in cygwin. But I'll be damned if I can figure out why...
if I do this, it WORKS:
ffmpeg -i ./input.mp4 ./out.mp4
if I do this, it WORKS (permission and mount/link check):
touch /dtop/out.mp4
however, if I give a file location that is not in the current working directory or a subdirectory of the current working directory, it pukes:
[lwobker:/dtop/vertigo]$ ffmpeg -i 00001.MTS /dtop/out.mp4
ffmpeg version N-64919-ga613257 Copyright (c) 2000-2014 the FFmpeg developers
<snip>
Input #0, mpegts, from '00001.MTS':
Duration: 00:01:41.63, start: 1.033367, bitrate: 10221 kb/s
Program 1
Stream #0:0[0x1011]: Video: h264 (High) (HDMV / 0x564D4448), yuv420p, 1440x1080 [SAR 4:3 DAR 16:9], 29.97 fps, 29.97 tbr, 90k tbn, 59.94 tbc
Stream #0:1[0x1100]: Audio: ac3 (AC-3 / 0x332D4341), 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 256 kb/s
Stream #0:2[0x1200]: Subtitle: hdmv_pgs_subtitle ([144][0][0][0] / 0x0090), 1920x1080
/dtop/out.mp4: No such file or directory
it also pukes if I give it /cygdrive/c/somefile.mp4 as an argument - it won't find that either.
Any ideas would be really appreciated. I had this working with a version of FFMPEG that I had compiled from source locally within cygwin, but when I moved machines I could not get it to recompile correctly so I'm hoping to figure this out so I can use the pre-compiled binaries for convenience...
FFMPEG version details:
[lwobker:/dtop/vertigo]$ ffmpeg
ffmpeg version N-64919-ga613257 Copyright (c) 2000-2014 the FFmpeg developers
built on Jul 23 2014 00:35:22 with gcc 4.8.3 (GCC)
configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --disable-w32threads --enable-avisynth --enable-bzlib --enable-fontconfig --enable-frei0r --enable-gnutls --enable-iconv --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libbs2b --enable-libcaca --enable-libfreetype --enable-libgme --enable-libgsm --enable-libilbc --enable-libmodplug --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopus --enable-librtmp --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libsoxr --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libtwolame --enable-libvidstab --enable-libvo-aacenc --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwavpack --enable-libwebp --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-libxavs --enable-libxvid --enable-decklink --enable-zlib
libavutil 52. 92.101 / 52. 92.101
libavcodec 55. 69.100 / 55. 69.100
libavformat 55. 48.101 / 55. 48.101
libavdevice 55. 13.102 / 55. 13.102
libavfilter 4. 11.102 / 4. 11.102
libswscale 2. 6.100 / 2. 6.100
libswresample 0. 19.100 / 0. 19.100
libpostproc 52. 3.100 / 52. 3.100
Hyper fast Audio and Video encoder
usage: ffmpeg [options] [[infile options] -i infile]... {[outfile options] outfile}...
Use -h to get full help or, even better, run 'man ffmpeg'

Answer 1

You cannot feed Windows native programs Cygwin paths, they do not understand
that. However you can put a wrapper script in the same folder as ffmpeg.exe,
and call it ffmpeg. Like this
#!/bin/sh
for each
do
foo=$(cygpath -w -- "$each")
bar+=("$foo")
done
ffmpeg.exe "${bar[#]}"
Then you go from this
$ ffmpeg.exe -i 1_Les_Nuits.mp3 /tmp/outfile.m4a
/tmp/outfile.m4a: No such file or directory
To this
$ ffmpeg -i 1_Les_Nuits.mp3 /tmp/outfile.m4a
frame=1 fps=0.1 q=33.0 Lsize=6046kB time=00:06:21.52 bitrate= 129.8kbits/s
Another option, if it works for you is to just use Windows paths when dealing
with Windows native programs, example
ffmpeg.exe -i 'C:\1_Les_Nuits.mp3' 'C:\outfile.m4a'