TUTORIAL: How to convert music and video files. A tutorial on FFMPEG

[_Shadow_]

So here comes something new.

Forget about expensive converters.

Forget about programs that can't export to ogg or whatever you need.

This is big so I putted it into a spoiler button. Press it to read it.

Here is what you can do:

Spoiler

Get your file and put it into your desktop. Let's assume you got an mp3 and you wanna convert it to ogg all right?

Rename your original mp3 file to "a.mp3". You do this because you will need it to have a really short name soon.

Okay you did that? Good!

If you don't have the program "7zip" then open your web browser and visit http://www.7-zip.org/download.html

Take a look at this picture:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4e1fx60a7ufk35o/1.png?dl=0

As you can see you can  download 7zip for a 32 bit system or a 64 bit system. If you are not sure which to get, take the 32 bit.

It will download an installer.

Run the installer after it finish downloading. (see peicture below)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/d7vkl9xeyniwm3t/3.png?dl=0

Press Next and go on as you would do with any other installer. Done?

Now visit  https://www.ffmpeg.org/

Click Download as seen on picture below:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bejzewmsg73bw08/11.png?dl=0

Then click the windows logo and then the text that the green arrow shows on the next picture:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/z8rxdrz5e9lc1df/12.png?dl=0

Select now 32 or 64 bit download.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3q4h1u8gwkufwjw/13.png?dl=0

It will download. After finishing downloading, you can right click and extract it using 7zip to a folder.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5ofsmvnckeq3rx1/14.png?dl=0

RENAME the folder to just ffmpeg and cut-paste it into Local Disk C:\

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lcbdq65tf973m5h/21.png?dl=0

Get into that folder. Then get into bin folder.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/yabbm5ocnnrb3wc/22.png?dl=0

You will find three programs. Those are three commands. See the picture below.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/av7d6mmy8y0u7ay/23.png?dl=0

Click Windows start button....

https://www.dropbox.com/s/f6rw90sw8l5q4kz/24.png?dl=0

Go to Search bar and type cmd. Wait for it.... comd application appears. Select it to run.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/a2ubtvd1a3djghc/25.png?dl=0

This is what we call command line.

Type cd\ and press Enter.

This command gets you on the basic folder of C:\ Hard drive, no matter wherever you are.

See? you can now use the command CD (Change DIRECTORY) to enter into the folder ffmpeg.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/x7juwaaafioumhj/32.png?dl=0

Remember I told you to rename that folder to ffmpeg? Type cd ffmpeg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/13s2d1atjyr571h/33.png?dl=0

Then again use cd to get into the folder bin.        cd bin

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mowoxlazdk0bi4i/34.png?dl=0

Just for your reference, type dir and press enter.

DIR comes from thw word DIRectory.

This command will show what is inside bin folder.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4i1kb85mjzch5xi/35.png?dl=0

I hope you got at your desktop your file a.mp3

• Go to C:\ffmpeg/bin and throw in the file
• It is time for the command that will do the magic:

ffmpeg - i a.mp3 b.ogg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/m3w710fmq3l83fz/36.png?dl=0

That will turn it into an ogg file!

• Take b.ogg and remane it now with an appropriate title. 

• Your file is ready!!!

Instead of reading the spoiler, read this pdf file I made:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/psn8ljj259nmr8c/FFMPEG%20FAST%20TUTORIAL.pdf?dl=0

 

[GrandmaDeb]

I am going to show this to my daughter. She works with engineers. She will understand what I mean.


*****


lol, Dread, I just open it in Audacity (free) and export it as an ogg.


Is the only reason to DL the unzip utility if you do not have one already? Some people may already have winzip or something. =]


It does seem like a nice little utility, though.


/me wonders about setting up batch converts easily this way

 

[_Shadow_]

@GrandmaDeb 7zip is fantastic too.

But the great fact is that ffmpeg is a great and free converter too.

Of course. Audacity HAS ogg exporting and can support many formats.

What ffmpeg can do though, is convert even VIDEO files to other video types.

 

[GrandmaDeb]

ahhh, now THAT IS useful.

 

[Far117]

Nice trick, but I usually use an even easier way: http://www.pcfreetime.com/

That thing basically converts any file type to any other file type (within reason, of course)

So between MP4/3GP/MPG/AVI/WMV/FLV/SWF

or MP3/WMA/AMR/OGG/AAC/WAV

or JPG/BMP/PNG/TIF/ICO/GIF/TGA

(Yeah that was a copy+paste from their site lol)

It does some other useful things too, but that's not really relevant to this topic

 

[Esrever]

Nice trick, but I usually use an even easier way: http://www.pcfreetime.com/

That thing basically converts any file type to any other file type (within reason, of course)

So between MP4/3GP/MPG/AVI/WMV/FLV/SWF

or MP3/WMA/AMR/OGG/AAC/WAV

or JPG/BMP/PNG/TIF/ICO/GIF/TGA

(Yeah that was a copy+paste from their site lol)

It does some other useful things too, but that's not really relevant to this topic

You do realize that Format Factory (via PCFreeTime) is just a GUI for ffmpeg, right? It actually provides you less functionality than the command line copy would due to how the software is designed.

Now if you want to use a GUI front-end for ffmpeg, that's fine, as it does make it a lot simpler to work with for users unfamiliar with how to work effectively with it or simply just don't wish to bother with the typing. That said, if you're going to go with something like this, XMedia Recode is a far better tool in my opinion.

EDIT: XMedia Recode handles audio/video media but does not handle conversions between various image formats. For image conversion specifically, I recommend Converseen. It covers over 100 different image formats and is free and open source software.

EDIT 2: It seems that Converseen's download host is setting off alerts (which I believe to be false positives / nothing to worry about) in consumer security software. Because of this, I've made a post here that provides a good (arguably better) alternative called XnConvert.

 

[Far117]

You do realize that Format Factory (via PCFreeTime) is just a GUI for ffmpeg, right?

Nope I did not read that lol. I will definitely look into ffmpeg, but hey- more options never hurt anyone. Those tools you quotes look interesting as well

 

[_Shadow_]

EDIT: XMedia Recode handles audio/video media but does not handle conversions between various image formats. For image conversion specifically, I recommend Converseen. It covers over 100 different image formats and is free and open source software.

It might be a false alert, but I was warned NOT to go to the Download page of Converseen after clicking Download button. 

I use AVG and browse on Chrome on Windows 7 at the moment.

 

[Esrever]

It might be a false alert, but I was warned NOT to go to the Download page of Converseen after clicking Download button. 

I use AVG and browse on Chrome on Windows 7 at the moment.

When you say download page, do you mean this page? Or do you mean the link thereafter for the file that is hosted on sourceforge.net? Recently, SourceForge has been taking flak for wrapping software installation packages with malware such as Bikiniland. More can be read about this here. As far as I know, this is no longer occurring (and while it was - it affected only select software titles). AVG and other security software may have a strict filter to block all requests to sourceforge.net as a result of this if definitions have been updated in the last six months or so.

If you'd like to compile the software from source, you may do so by downloading the releases from Github. I ran the file (Converseen-0.9.2-1-win32-setup.exe) through virustotal, and it seems safe after inspection. You may do with this information as you will. It is unfortunate that sourceforge.net has come to this, but it is just another failure in a seemingly increasing rate of failures by the site that have occurred in recent years. Personally, I don't think there is anything to worry about with this file - but it is up to each individual to decide whether they feel the same. Considering it is setting off alerts, it might require that users disable blocking of the sourceforge.net site through their security software. Not all users might be comfortable or knowledgeable in this, so this may not be an easy solution afterall.

A good alternative that is hosted elsewhere would be XnConvert. I'll revise my previous post to reflect this.

tl;dr Go download XnConvert instead.

 

[_Shadow_]

When you say download page, do you mean this page? 

Actually... yes.

And the correct link brought it to my plate.

It would be nice to include the direct link0 on your post so people might not get anything funny.

Thanks for clarifying this, It seems that the page contains some strange stuff, while sourceforge comes clean most of the time to me.

Edit:

Converseen says it shows ads during installation. That would be ok with me, but when I see AVG detecting it as an adware with thw word "downloader" in its detection name, well excuse me honestly but I am suspicious of them. Possible it might be a false positive but just in case we don't get an adware trojan, I will skip it.

XConvert was installed like butter on a bread slice. Smoothly and nice. 

 

[Marquise*]

My all this TIME and I should had found this TREAD!

 

[_Shadow_]

I added a pdf tutorial on the OP.

 

[Marquise*]

Merci!

 

[Marquise*]

XnConvert don't seems to do videos. I don't know what I did wrong with the original, but at least Dreadshadow tutorial application thing did produced an .ogv... except it had artefacts and shutted down after 2 or 3 notes.


Maybe the way I did my original file; it is a.mp4 with a normal RPGMaker Vx Ace screen size and I took his music.ogg also but it was recorded from my desktop so... Grrrr


At least in something like 7 solutions or hints of it there was THAT helping me read and Do something!

 

[_Shadow_]

Just use ffmepg.

 

[Marquise*]

What do I use for playbacks or to remove artefacts? Assuming I don't have to recapture again all the .ogv into .MP4 to correct the defunct .ogv by making a new .ogv of it with same artefacts that will just freeze after 2 notes again!

 

[Marquise*]

PS... I found VCL last year to do those conversions in .ogv