Converting video for web with FFmpeg

The plight of the HTML5 video format is bad and it looks like that will soon not change.

Formats overview:

• WebM ( video codec: VP8, audio codec: Vorbis )
• OGG ( video codec: Theora, audio codec: Vorbis )
• MP4 ( video codec: H.264, audio codec: ACC/ MP3 )
• Flash video ( video codec: H.264, audio codec: ACC/ MP3 )

HTML5 tests - video

MediaInfo

MediaInfo is a tool for reading video files metadata. Using it is very simple:

FFmpeg

FFmpeg is tool for converting audio and video files. It uses libavcodec library. Converting video files with FFmpeg to required formats ist simple:

WebM

ffmpeg -i INPUT_FILE -acodec libvorbis -vcodec libvpx -b 400k OUTPUT_FILE.webm

OGG

ffmpeg -i INPUT_FILE -acodec libvorbis -vcodec libtheora -b 400k OUTPUT_FILE.ogg

MP4

ffmpeg -i INPUT_FILE -acodec libfaac -vcodec libx264 -b 400k OUTPUT_FILE.mp4

Parameters:

• -acodec: audio codec, or -c:a in new release of FFmpeg
• -vcodec: video codec, or -c:v in new release of FFmpeg
• -b: video/audio bit rate

There are a lots of others interesting parameters.

libfaac

For the libfaac codec you need the FFmpeg compiled with --enable-libfaac. For more details read FFmpeg Wiki. Or you can use libvo_aacenc codec:

-acodec libvo_aacenc

Bash script for converting video

For painless conversions you can use a prepared bash script.

Use:

• ./web_video_converter.sh MY_VIDEO_FILE.avi
• ./web_video_converter.sh FOLDER_WITH_VIDEOS