Convert video in Linux

FFmpeg is the best open-source video converter out there. It is plain, simple, but very powerful. FFmpeg is a command line program. There are a few graphical frontends too, but they tend to be buggy. So, the easiest way to convert video in Linux is using FFmpeg in the terminal (Linux command line).

Step 1 Opening the terminal

Terminal is in the applications menu in one of the sub-categories. (Depends on the distribution and the desktop environment). In Ubuntu, it is in Applications->Accessories->Terminal.

First, cd to the directory, where your video file is (cd means change directory)
If the file is on desktop, the command would be: cd Desktop
if it's in the videos folder, it would be: cd /home/$USER/Videos

Now you're virtually inside that folder.

Comments

[instructables_user_4783]

OK, so I had a bit of a problem converting an AVI video from my camera to MP4. I kept getting an error opening output codec error message,so I had to do this:
Convert to VCD format:
ffmpeg -i MVI_1841.AVI -target ntsc-vcd firstoutput.mpg
then I converted it to MP4 format:
ffmpeg -i firstoutput.mpg -s 320x240 video.mp4
**Please note I had to set the size to 320x240 because ntsc-vcd was different and distorted the video**
It worked. Probably not the most efficient way converting the video twice but it does work. Just thought I'd let people know. Perhaps there is a way that works and requires only one conversion :)

[instructables_user_4783]

UPDATE: Here is how I did it with only one conversion.
Find the frame rate of the input video using:
ffmpeg -i MVI_1841.AVI
then convert with the frame rate parameter set to that of the input video. In my case it was 15. Use this command.
ffmpeg -i MVI_1841.AVI -r 15 output.mp4
This way only one conversion is needed.

[lokisox]

devede, makes dvd iso that play on avy dvd player, it can also convert upto 5 full movies to fit on one 4.7 dvd, it lets you resize the input image, get thru internet site or add / remove programs, never had a bad copy in the 3 years of use

[stuuf]

It's a start, but you should add some more details about how ffmpeg command line options work (especially how options apply only to files listed *after* them), how to set codecs and formats (containers) including -acodev/vcodec copy, when and when not to use -target, a/v sync, threads, 2-pass video encoding...

There are some other interesting things you can do with ffmpeg beyond simple video encoding, like extracting still frames from a video and adding/extracting an audio track to a video file.

[DrCoolSanta]

1) Not all distros come with ffmpeg
2) There is a windows version as well.

To add:

For help on ffmpeg run:
ffmpeg -h

to specify an audio codec add the argument
--acodec codec'

to specify the video codec add the argument
--vcodec codec

to check the codecs that you can use with ffmpeg, check
ffmpeg -formats

[zupHC]

Great! Thanks! Is just what I was searching for! :)