RE: [Fsuk-manchester] query

[Pete Morris]

ffmpeg will convert just about anything to anything, although the syntax and scruples can be a little obscure at times. It’s also very processor dependent in terms of speed, so if you are converting long HD videos, go for a box with a meaty CPU.

 

As an example, I use the following to convert mp4 from iPlayer to DivX avi to play on my usb-enabled tv:

ffmpeg -i inputfile.mp4 -vtag DIVX -f avi -sameq -vcodec mpeg4 -aspect 16:9 -b 1024k -s 640x384 -ab 128k -ac 2 outputfile.avi

 

Generally the syntax is:

ffmpeg -i <inputfile> <options> <outputfile>

 

It’s pretty good at guessing formats and options itself, so often something like this will work:

ffmpeg -i inputfile.mp4 outputfile.avi

 

The options are really only needed to control the finer details of the encoding. As a rule, whacking in “-sameq” is a good starting point (same output quality as input quality), although you might need to play with the bitrate “-b” and audio bitrate “-ab” to get good results. You might also need to play around with “-qmin” and “-qmax” to get good quality encoding – be aware that the numbers used are counter-intiutive, so qmax refers to “maximum compression”, not “maximum quality”.

 

You might need to install various restricted/universe/mediabunu repositories to get ffmpeg properly working, as the free version that ships is pretty restricted in what it can do, especially if you are wanting to encode to proprietary formats like wmv.

 

Pete

 

 

 

From: address@hidden [mailto:address@hidden On Behalf Of Anna Morris
Sent: 20 February 2011 23:30
To: address@hidden
Subject: [Fsuk-manchester] query

 

query from a pall. any answers?

"Do you know of any good Ubuntu video converters that will take formats like .wmv, .mov, .mp4 and turn them into nice .avi or .mpg files that I can play on a Windows or a Mac system? "

anna