hpr-knowledge-base/hpr_transcripts/hpr0968.txt

Episode: 968
Title: HPR0968: FFMPEG for video Conversion
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr0968/hpr0968.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-08 05:45:26

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Hello Hacker Public Radio, Proctin Bob here.
Today's podcast we're going to take a look at converting videos from one video code
act to another using FFMPEG.
So what's this FFMPEG you ask?
Well, let me explain, FFMPEG is a program for Linux that you run from the terminal.
Now, before you shut your MP3 player off because you don't use the terminal or you're not a Linux user,
let me show you how easy it really is to use.
Also for you Windows and Mac uses, don't despair.
I have an app for you to use too.
It's called one FF and it's related to the FFMPEG program.
We'll get into this later.
So let's start.
What you need to do on your Linux computer is go to your software manager,
type in your password, hit enter,
and then you can type in the search bar FFMPEG, that's FFMPEG.
I think all Linux just throws habit in the repositories now, so no fear is there.
So I'll put a check mark next to it in the box and install it.
Once it's installed, close your software manager.
So for this example, I'm going to use download help at the download videos.
You can get download help from Firefox.
It's a plugin you can install from the Firefox plugin page.
Download it.
When it's installed, you'll see three colored balls that spin.
When you go to a website that has a video, you can download.
The only site that I found so far that download help,
I can't download video from is the PBS video website.
You'll notice that the three balls are grayed out and not moving.
So that's telling you you can't download from this site.
But there are hundreds and hundreds of other video sites to choose from.
You just have to look around, you'll find them.
So now we have FFMPEG installed and we also have download help or install.
Well, let's give it a try.
So next I'm going to go to YouTube, my favorite site.
I love to download music videos from this site.
What I'm going to do is download a Sugarland video.
I picked stuck like glue.
When you click on the video, you'll see the three colored balls of download help
are spinning.
Telling you you can download this video.
So click on the spinning balls.
You'll be presented with a drop-down list of available downloads, resolutions, and codex.
For this example, I just click on the FLV file flash video and it starts a download.
Now download help will create a folder in your home directory called DW helper
to store all your downloads.
So when your downloads done, close your browser and we'll get to work.
Now we just use download help so let's give FFMPEG a try.
So now click on your start button and let's go and open the terminal.
You'll see this is easy and fun to do.
You'll love it after a while.
With the terminal open, we want to get to the download help folder.
So now just type cd-space-dw-h-e-l-p-e-r.
That's download helper and hit enter.
Now you'll see here in the download help folder.
Now to see what's in it, now just type ls and hit enter.
You'll be presented with a list of all your videos.
Now we want our Sugar Land video to convert it from flash video, that's FLV to AVI video.
Now here's the trick I use when I know I'm going to use FFMPEG.
What I do when I download videos is I right click on them in the download help folder
and change the name to a one word title.
So for example, stuck like glue video, I just change it to glue.
I do this because FFMPEG doesn't like spaces in a title and it's easy to remember and type.
So I see my video, now named glue, let's convert it to AVI.
What you do is type FFMPEG-space-i-space-i-space-glu.lflv-spaceglu.avi and hit enter.
Wait a little while, the time it takes to convert depends on your PC and the file size.
When the conversion is done, you'll see the prompt.
Now minimize your terminal and go to your home folder and take a look inside the download
help folder.
You'll see you have two videos, glue.flv and glue.avi, that's so sweet.
Now you say you just want the music and not the video, well, FFMPEG can do this too.
Go back into terminal, make sure you're in the download help folder and just type FFMPEG-space-i-space-glu.v.
Watch I-space-glu.flv-space-glu.mp3 and hit enter.
After a minute or so, go back into your download help folder and a little one behold and I'll
have an MP3 name glue.
That's cool.
Now let's try one more conversion.
Let's take our video of glue.flv and convert it to a very high quality video and audio.
In your terminal again, make sure you're in download help folder and let's type FFMPEG-i-space-glu.flv-taget-dvdspace-output.mpg.
Hit enter and wait a while longer.
It takes a little while longer to convert it to an MPG file.
When it's done, you're looking at download help folder and you'll see you have a file
named Outputmpg.
This is HD video.
It's a lot larger in size but the quality is fantastic.
It's great for all the new HD TVs.
What I do is I always name my HD videos Output.mpg.
Then I rename them to the original name.
So this one was renamed stucklikeglu.mpg.
The next thing I do is plug my external hard drive in and scoot all the files over to it.
So now we can watch it on our set top boxes.
That's so sweet.
If you like, you can go into the Google and type FFMPEG into the search and you'll
be able to get the official FFMPEG manual.
I suggest downloading it and reading it.
It's full of helpful examples.
You'll learn a lot from that manual.
So now you say, Brockton Blum, what about us Windows and Mac users?
Well, have no fear for you.
I have WinFF.
This is actually the GUI front end for FFMPEG and it runs on Windows and Mac.
To get WinFF, use our friend Google to find it and download it and then install.
Once you've installed it, open the program, it's pretty easy to use.
Just select a file you want, open it and then click pick the codec you want to convert
it to and click convert.
Wait a little while and you'll have a converted video.
The only difference between FFMPEG and WinFF is you don't have a lot of control when
you use WinFF.
That's because it's a GUI program.
You can do so much more with FFMPEG in the terminal.
You can change video aspects, adding letterboxing or removing it, tons of stuff you can do.
In my next podcast, I'm going to talk about ripping your DVDs and converting them to smaller
files, but high quality.
So I hope this was a lot of help for you and thanks for listening.
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