FFmpeg - Convert any audio/video format in Linux
Scribbled on Sunday, August 10th, 2008Converting an audio or video file from one format to another format is a question that every newbie asks about.
Problem:
- How do I convert flv files downloaded from Youtube ?
- How do I convert rm to mp3 ?
- How do I extract audio from a video ?
- How do I convert that friggin quicktime video to avi ?
- How do I rescale the aspect or change frame rates or audio/video bit-rate of a media file ?
So here am rolling the dice to show you a cool all in one option. Yes you don’t need to download any GUI or any bloat software. Just one command and a simple syntax to get things rolling.
Solution:
Download FFmpeg
Ubuntu users
Arch Linux users
Now once its installed, use this simple syntax:
Here -i is used to specify inputfile (inputfilename) and after that comes the outputfile (outputfilename)
For first case (flv to avi):
you can also convert it to any other video format.
For second case (rm to mp3)
now if you wanted that rm file as ogg format, then
For third case (extracting audio from video)
suppose the video file is in avi format, then
yeah there you extracted audio too, isn’t it simple 
For the fourth case (quicktime to avi):
its simple
For fifth case :
Video options-
First I would like to change the resolution, so
-s option sets the resolution, here are some other values you may find useful
qcif 176×144
cif 352×288
4cif 704×576
qqvga 160×120
qvga 320×240
vga 640×480
svga 800×600
xga 1024×768
uxga 1600×1200
qxga 2048×1536
sxga 1280×1024
qsxga 2560×2048
hsxga 5120×4096
wvga 852×480
wxga 1366×768
wsxga 1600×1024
wuxga 1920×1200
woxga 2560×1600
wqsxga 3200×2048
wquxga 3840×2400
whsxga 6400×4096
whuxga 7680×4800
cga 320×200
ega 640×350
hd480 852×480
hd720 1280×720
hd1080 1920×1080
Next sub-case is to change the aspect ratio to widescreen 16:9
Other value is 4:3, alternatively you can use 1.3333 and 1.7777 too
Now the time to change bit-rate (lets say to 400Kb/s)
yep !
This time lets change the fps (not First Person Shooter) Frames per second:
I changed frame rate to choppy 4 fps from 25 fps. Remember the option starts with r and not f.
Lets now see some options to cropping the video or apply padding:
Set top crop band size (in pixels).
-cropbottom size
Set bottom crop band size (in pixels).
-cropleft size
Set left crop band size (in pixels).
-cropright size
Set right crop band size (in pixels).
-padtop size
Set top pad band size (in pixels).
-padbottom size
Set bottom pad band size (in pixels).
-padleft size
Set left pad band size (in pixels).
-padright size
Set right pad band size (in pixels).
Audio Options-
Set the sampling rate (to 60000Hz):
Now comes the audio bitrate setting part (setting it to 196kb/s)
If you like to have only one audio channel:
List of format supported by FFmpeg
E 3g2 3GP2 format
E 3gp 3GP format
D 4xm 4X Technologies format
D IFF IFF format
D MTV MTV format
DE RoQ id RoQ format
D aac ADTS AAC
DE ac3 raw AC-3
E adts ADTS AAC
DE aiff Audio IFF
DE alaw PCM A-law format
DE amr 3GPP AMR file format
D apc CRYO APC format
D ape Monkey’s Audio
DE asf ASF format
E asf_stream ASF format
DE au SUN AU format
DE avi AVI format
E avm2 Flash 9 (AVM2) format
D avs AVS format
D bethsoftvid Bethesda Softworks VID format
D bfi Brute Force & Ignorance
D c93 Interplay C93
E crc CRC testing format
D daud D-Cinema audio format
DE dirac raw Dirac
D dsicin Delphine Software International CIN format
DE dts raw DTS
DE dv DV video format
D dv1394 DV1394 A/V grab
E dvd MPEG-2 PS format (DVD VOB)
D dxa DXA
D ea Electronic Arts Multimedia Format
D ea_cdata Electronic Arts cdata
DE ffm ffm format
D film_cpk Sega FILM/CPK format
DE flac raw FLAC
D flic FLI/FLC/FLX animation format
DE flv FLV format
E framecrc framecrc testing format
E gif GIF Animation
D gsm GSM
DE gxf GXF format
DE h261 raw H.261
DE h263 raw H.263
DE h264 raw H.264 video format
D idcin id CIN format
DE image2 image2 sequence
DE image2pipe piped image2 sequence
D ingenient Ingenient MJPEG
D ipmovie Interplay MVE format
E ipod iPod H.264 MP4 format
D lmlm4 lmlm4 raw format
DE m4v raw MPEG-4 video format
DE matroska Matroska file format
DE mjpeg MJPEG video
D mlp raw MLP
D mm American Laser Games MM format
DE mmf mmf format
E mov MOV format
D mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 QuickTime/MPEG-4/Motion JPEG 2000 format
E mp2 MPEG audio layer 2
DE mp3 MPEG audio layer 3
E mp4 MP4 format
D mpc Musepack
D mpc8 Musepack SV8
DE mpeg MPEG-1 System format
E mpeg1video MPEG video
E mpeg2video MPEG-2 video
DE mpegts MPEG-2 transport stream format
D mpegtsraw MPEG-2 raw transport stream format
D mpegvideo MPEG video
E mpjpeg Mime multipart JPEG format
D msnwctcp MSN TCP Webcam stream
DE mulaw PCM mu-law format
D mvi Motion Pixels MVI format
D mxf MXF format
D nsv NullSoft Video format
E null null video format
DE nut NUT format
D nuv NuppelVideo format
DE ogg Ogg
D oma Sony OpenMG audio
DE oss audio grab and output
E psp PSP MP4 format
D psxstr Sony Playstation STR format
D pva TechnoTrend PVA file and stream format
DE rawvideo raw video format
D redir Redirector format
D rl2 rl2 format
DE rm RM format
D rpl RPL/ARMovie format
E rtp RTP output format
D rtsp RTSP input format
DE s16be PCM signed 16 bit big-endian format
DE s16le PCM signed 16 bit little-endian format
DE s8 PCM signed 8 bit format
D sdp SDP
D shn raw Shorten
D siff Beam Software SIFF
D smk Smacker video
D sol Sierra SOL format
E svcd MPEG-2 PS format (VOB)
DE swf Flash format
D thp THP
D tiertexseq Tiertex Limited SEQ format
D tta True Audio
D txd txd format
DE u16be PCM unsigned 16 bit big-endian format
DE u16le PCM unsigned 16 bit little-endian format
DE u8 PCM unsigned 8 bit format
D vc1 raw VC-1
D vc1test VC-1 test bitstream format
E vcd MPEG-1 System format (VCD)
D video4linux video grab
D video4linux2 video grab
D vmd Sierra VMD format
E vob MPEG-2 PS format (VOB)
DE voc Creative Voice file format
DE wav WAV format
D wc3movie Wing Commander III movie format
D wsaud Westwood Studios audio format
D wsvqa Westwood Studios VQA format
D wv WavPack
D x11grab X11grab
D xa Maxis XA File Format
DE yuv4mpegpipe YUV4MPEG pipe format
Codecs:
D V 4xm 4X Movie
D V D 8bps QuickTime 8BPS video
D A 8svx_exp 8SVX exponential
D A 8svx_fib 8SVX fibonacci
D V D aasc Autodesk RLE
EA ac3 ATSC A/52 / AC-3
D A adpcm_4xm 4X Movie ADPCM
DEA adpcm_adx SEGA CRI ADX
D A adpcm_ct Creative Technology ADPCM
D A adpcm_ea Electronic Arts ADPCM
D A adpcm_ea_maxis_xa Electronic Arts Maxis CDROM XA ADPCM
D A adpcm_ea_r1 Electronic Arts R1 ADPCM
D A adpcm_ea_r2 Electronic Arts R2 ADPCM
D A adpcm_ea_r3 Electronic Arts R3 ADPCM
D A adpcm_ea_xas Electronic Arts XAS ADPCM
D A adpcm_ima_amv IMA AMV ADPCM
D A adpcm_ima_dk3 IMA Duck DK3 ADPCM
D A adpcm_ima_dk4 IMA Duck DK4 ADPCM
D A adpcm_ima_ea_eacs IMA Electronic Arts EACS ADPCM
D A adpcm_ima_ea_sead IMA Electronic Arts SEAD ADPCM
DEA adpcm_ima_qt IMA QuickTime ADPCM
D A adpcm_ima_smjpeg IMA Loki SDL MJPEG ADPCM
DEA adpcm_ima_wav IMA Wav ADPCM
D A adpcm_ima_ws IMA Westwood ADPCM
DEA adpcm_ms Microsoft ADPCM
D A adpcm_sbpro_2 Sound Blaster Pro 2-bit ADPCM
D A adpcm_sbpro_3 Sound Blaster Pro 2.6-bit ADPCM
D A adpcm_sbpro_4 Sound Blaster Pro 4-bit ADPCM
DEA adpcm_swf Shockwave Flash ADPCM
D A adpcm_thp Nintendo Gamecube THP ADPCM
D A adpcm_xa CDROM XA ADPCM
DEA adpcm_yamaha Yamaha ADPCM
D A alac ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec)
D V amv AMV Video
D A ape Monkey’s Audio
DEV D asv1 ASUS V1
DEV D asv2 ASUS V2
D A atrac3 Atrac 3 (Adaptive TRansform Acoustic Coding 3)
D V D avs AVS (Audio Video Standard) video
D V bethsoftvid Bethesda VID video
D V bfi Brute Force & Ignorance
DEV bmp BMP image
D V D c93 Interplay C93
D V D camstudio CamStudio
D V D camtasia TechSmith Screen Capture Codec
D V D cavs Chinese AVS video (AVS1-P2, JiZhun profile)
D V D cinepak Cinepak
D V D cljr Cirrus Logic AccuPak
D A cook COOK
D V D cyuv Creative YUV (CYUV)
D A dca DCA (DTS Coherent Acoustics)
DEV D dnxhd VC3/DNxHD
D A dsicinaudio Delphine Software International CIN audio
D V D dsicinvideo Delphine Software International CIN video
DES dvbsub DVB subtitles
DES dvdsub DVD subtitles
DEV D dvvideo DV (Digital Video)
D V dxa Feeble Files/ScummVM DXA
D V D eacmv Electronic Arts CMV Video
D V D escape124 Escape 124
DEV D ffv1 FFmpeg codec #1
DEVSD ffvhuff Huffyuv FFmpeg variant
DEA flac FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec)
DEV D flashsv Flash Screen Video
D V D flic Autodesk Animator Flic video
DEVSD flv Flash Video
D V D fraps Fraps
DEA g726 G.726 ADPCM
DEV gif GIF (Graphics Interchange Format)
DEV D h261 H.261
DEVSDT h263 H.263
D VSD h263i H.263i
EV h263p H.263+ / H.263 version 2
D V DT h264 H.264 / AVC / MPEG-4 AVC / MPEG-4 part 10
DEVSD huffyuv Huffyuv / HuffYUV
D V D idcinvideo id Quake II CIN video
D A imc IMC (Intel Music Coder)
D V D indeo2 Intel Indeo 2
D V indeo3 Intel Indeo 3
D A interplay_dpcm Interplay DPCM
D V D interplayvideo Interplay MVE Video
DEV D jpegls JPEG-LS
D V kmvc Karl Morton’s video codec
D A liba52 liba52 ATSC A/52 / AC-3
EA libfaac libfaac AAC (Advanced Audio Codec)
D A libfaad libfaad AAC (Advanced Audio Codec)
EA libmp3lame libmp3lame MP3 (MPEG audio layer 3)
EV libtheora libtheora Theora
EA libvorbis libvorbis Vorbis
EV libx264 libx264 H.264 / AVC / MPEG-4 AVC / MPEG-4 part 10
EV libxvid libxvidcore MPEG-4 part 2
EV ljpeg Lossless JPEG
D V D loco LOCO
D A mace3 MACE (Macintosh Audio Compression/Expansion) 3:1
D A mace6 MACE (Macintosh Audio Compression/Expansion) 6:1
D V D mdec Sony PlayStation MDEC (Motion DECoder)
D V D mimic Mimic
DEV D mjpeg MJPEG (Motion JPEG)
D V D mjpegb Apple MJPEG-B
D A mlp Meridian Lossless Packing
D V D mmvideo American Laser Games MM Video
D V D motionpixels Motion Pixels Video
DEA mp2 MP2 (MPEG audio layer 2)
D A mp3 MP3 (MPEG audio layer 3)
D A mp3adu ADU (Application Data Unit) MP3 (MPEG audio layer 3)
D A mp3on4 MP3onMP4
D A mpc7 Musepack SV7
D A mpc8 Musepack SV8
DEVSDT mpeg1video MPEG-1 video
DEVSDT mpeg2video MPEG-2 video
DEVSDT mpeg4 MPEG-4 part 2
D A mpeg4aac libfaad AAC (Advanced Audio Codec)
D VSDT mpegvideo MPEG-1 video
DEVSD msmpeg4 MPEG-4 part 2 Microsoft variant version 3
DEVSD msmpeg4v1 MPEG-4 part 2 Microsoft variant version 1
DEVSD msmpeg4v2 MPEG-4 part 2 Microsoft variant version 2
D V D msrle Microsoft RLE
D V D msvideo1 Microsoft Video 1
D V D mszh LCL (LossLess Codec Library) MSZH
D A nellymoser Nellymoser Asao
D V D nuv NuppelVideo
DEV pam PAM (Portable AnyMap) image
DEV pbm PBM (Portable BitMap) image
DEA pcm_alaw A-law PCM
D A pcm_dvd signed 16|20|24-bit big-endian PCM
DEA pcm_mulaw mu-law PCM
DEA pcm_s16be signed 16-bit big-endian PCM
DEA pcm_s16le signed 16-bit little-endian PCM
D A pcm_s16le_planar 16-bit little-endian planar PCM
DEA pcm_s24be signed 24-bit big-endian PCM
DEA pcm_s24daud D-Cinema audio signed 24-bit PCM
DEA pcm_s24le signed 24-bit little-endian PCM
DEA pcm_s32be signed 32-bit big-endian PCM
DEA pcm_s32le signed 32-bit little-endian PCM
DEA pcm_s8 signed 8-bit PCM
DEA pcm_u16be unsigned 16-bit big-endian PCM
DEA pcm_u16le unsigned 16-bit little-endian PCM
DEA pcm_u24be unsigned 24-bit big-endian PCM
DEA pcm_u24le unsigned 24-bit little-endian PCM
DEA pcm_u32be unsigned 32-bit big-endian PCM
DEA pcm_u32le unsigned 32-bit little-endian PCM
DEA pcm_u8 unsigned 8-bit PCM
DEA pcm_zork Zork PCM
D V pcx PC Paintbrush PCX image
DEV pgm PGM (Portable GrayMap) image
DEV pgmyuv PGMYUV (Portable GrayMap YUV) image
DEV png PNG image
DEV ppm PPM (Portable PixelMap) image
D V ptx V.Flash PTX image
D A qdm2 QDesign Music Codec 2
D V D qdraw Apple QuickDraw
D V D qpeg Q-team QPEG
DEV D qtrle QuickTime Animation (RLE) video
DEV rawvideo raw video
D A real_144 RealAudio 1.0 (14.4K)
D A real_288 RealAudio 2.0 (28.8K)
D V D rl2 RL2 video
DEA roq_dpcm id RoQ DPCM
DEV D roqvideo id RoQ video
D V D rpza QuickTime video (RPZA)
DEV D rv10 RealVideo 1.0
DEV D rv20 RealVideo 2.0
DEV sgi SGI image
D A shorten Shorten
D A smackaud Smacker audio
D V smackvid Smacker video
D V D smc QuickTime Graphics (SMC)
DEV snow Snow
D A sol_dpcm Sol DPCM
DEA sonic Sonic
EA sonicls Sonic lossless
D V D sp5x Sunplus JPEG (SP5X)
D V sunrast Sun Rasterfile image
DEV D svq1 Sorenson Vector Quantizer 1
D VSD svq3 Sorenson Vector Quantizer 3
DEV targa Truevision Targa image
D V theora Theora
D V D thp Nintendo Gamecube THP video
D V D tiertexseqvideo Tiertex Limited SEQ video
DEV tiff TIFF image
D V D truemotion1 Duck TrueMotion 1.0
D V D truemotion2 Duck TrueMotion 2.0
D A truespeech DSP Group TrueSpeech
D A tta True Audio
D V txd Renderware TXD (TeXture Dictionary) image
D V D ultimotion IBM UltiMotion
D V vb Beam Software VB
D V vc1 SMPTE VC-1
D V D vcr1 ATI VCR1
D A vmdaudio Sierra VMD audio
D V D vmdvideo Sierra VMD video
D V vmnc VMware Screen Codec / VMware Video
DEA vorbis Vorbis
D V vp3 On2 VP3
D V D vp5 On2 VP5
D V D vp6 On2 VP6
D V D vp6a On2 VP6 (Flash version, with alpha channel)
D V D vp6f On2 VP6 (Flash version)
D V D vqavideo Westwood Studios VQA (Vector Quantized Animation) video
D A wavpack WavPack
DEA wmav1 Windows Media Audio 1
DEA wmav2 Windows Media Audio 2
DEVSD wmv1 Windows Media Video 7
DEVSD wmv2 Windows Media Video 8
D V wmv3 Windows Media Video 9
D V D wnv1 Winnov WNV1
D A ws_snd1 Westwood Audio (SND1)
D A xan_dpcm Xan DPCM
D V D xan_wc3 Wing Commander III / Xan
D V D xl Miro VideoXL
D S xsub XSUB
DEV D zlib LCL (LossLess Codec Library) ZLIB
DEV zmbv Zip Motion Blocks Video
There is a lot more you can do with ffmpeg, including grabbing X Window and audio/video grabbing. YUV conversions too.
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7 Responses to “FFmpeg - Convert any audio/video format in Linux”
@T: how are you? Is everything ok?
*wishing you a happy week*
By Smallstar on Mon 11th Aug, 2008
Hey man! u added fuel to my burning desire to ditch WinXP and switch to linux… i did it alright! but, my RAM wouldn’t budge.
i’ve got only 256 MB and you must be knowing how things work in minimum req conditions… 
so, i’ve put off using Linux till i get some extra RAM. which may be within a week… Thnx for the extra support dude…
By Su on Mon 11th Aug, 2008
@Smallstar
Me so fine
@Su
Try it at your leisure. No haste.
By T on Mon 11th Aug, 2008
@T: and me so happy for ya!
By Smallstar on Thu 14th Aug, 2008
@Smallstar
rock on !
By T on Thu 14th Aug, 2008
YEEEAAAH MAN!! LOL
By Smallstar on Thu 14th Aug, 2008
You R The man
thanks Alot :))
By Mr.Xprt on Sat 18th Jul, 2009