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133 lines
7.1 KiB
Plaintext
133 lines
7.1 KiB
Plaintext
Episode: 968
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Title: HPR0968: FFMPEG for video Conversion
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Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr0968/hpr0968.mp3
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Transcribed: 2025-10-08 05:45:26
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---
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Hello Hacker Public Radio, Proctin Bob here.
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Today's podcast we're going to take a look at converting videos from one video code
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act to another using FFMPEG.
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So what's this FFMPEG you ask?
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Well, let me explain, FFMPEG is a program for Linux that you run from the terminal.
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Now, before you shut your MP3 player off because you don't use the terminal or you're not a Linux user,
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let me show you how easy it really is to use.
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Also for you Windows and Mac uses, don't despair.
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I have an app for you to use too.
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It's called one FF and it's related to the FFMPEG program.
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We'll get into this later.
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So let's start.
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What you need to do on your Linux computer is go to your software manager,
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type in your password, hit enter,
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and then you can type in the search bar FFMPEG, that's FFMPEG.
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I think all Linux just throws habit in the repositories now, so no fear is there.
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So I'll put a check mark next to it in the box and install it.
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Once it's installed, close your software manager.
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So for this example, I'm going to use download help at the download videos.
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You can get download help from Firefox.
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It's a plugin you can install from the Firefox plugin page.
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Download it.
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When it's installed, you'll see three colored balls that spin.
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When you go to a website that has a video, you can download.
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The only site that I found so far that download help,
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I can't download video from is the PBS video website.
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You'll notice that the three balls are grayed out and not moving.
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So that's telling you you can't download from this site.
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But there are hundreds and hundreds of other video sites to choose from.
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You just have to look around, you'll find them.
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So now we have FFMPEG installed and we also have download help or install.
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Well, let's give it a try.
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So next I'm going to go to YouTube, my favorite site.
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I love to download music videos from this site.
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What I'm going to do is download a Sugarland video.
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I picked stuck like glue.
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When you click on the video, you'll see the three colored balls of download help
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are spinning.
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Telling you you can download this video.
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So click on the spinning balls.
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You'll be presented with a drop-down list of available downloads, resolutions, and codex.
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For this example, I just click on the FLV file flash video and it starts a download.
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Now download help will create a folder in your home directory called DW helper
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to store all your downloads.
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So when your downloads done, close your browser and we'll get to work.
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Now we just use download help so let's give FFMPEG a try.
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So now click on your start button and let's go and open the terminal.
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You'll see this is easy and fun to do.
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You'll love it after a while.
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With the terminal open, we want to get to the download help folder.
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So now just type cd-space-dw-h-e-l-p-e-r.
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That's download helper and hit enter.
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Now you'll see here in the download help folder.
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Now to see what's in it, now just type ls and hit enter.
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You'll be presented with a list of all your videos.
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Now we want our Sugar Land video to convert it from flash video, that's FLV to AVI video.
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Now here's the trick I use when I know I'm going to use FFMPEG.
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What I do when I download videos is I right click on them in the download help folder
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and change the name to a one word title.
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So for example, stuck like glue video, I just change it to glue.
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I do this because FFMPEG doesn't like spaces in a title and it's easy to remember and type.
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So I see my video, now named glue, let's convert it to AVI.
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What you do is type FFMPEG-space-i-space-i-space-glu.lflv-spaceglu.avi and hit enter.
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Wait a little while, the time it takes to convert depends on your PC and the file size.
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When the conversion is done, you'll see the prompt.
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Now minimize your terminal and go to your home folder and take a look inside the download
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help folder.
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You'll see you have two videos, glue.flv and glue.avi, that's so sweet.
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Now you say you just want the music and not the video, well, FFMPEG can do this too.
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Go back into terminal, make sure you're in the download help folder and just type FFMPEG-space-i-space-glu.v.
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Watch I-space-glu.flv-space-glu.mp3 and hit enter.
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After a minute or so, go back into your download help folder and a little one behold and I'll
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have an MP3 name glue.
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That's cool.
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Now let's try one more conversion.
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Let's take our video of glue.flv and convert it to a very high quality video and audio.
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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.
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Hit enter and wait a while longer.
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It takes a little while longer to convert it to an MPG file.
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When it's done, you're looking at download help folder and you'll see you have a file
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named Outputmpg.
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This is HD video.
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It's a lot larger in size but the quality is fantastic.
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It's great for all the new HD TVs.
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What I do is I always name my HD videos Output.mpg.
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Then I rename them to the original name.
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So this one was renamed stucklikeglu.mpg.
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The next thing I do is plug my external hard drive in and scoot all the files over to it.
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So now we can watch it on our set top boxes.
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That's so sweet.
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If you like, you can go into the Google and type FFMPEG into the search and you'll
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be able to get the official FFMPEG manual.
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I suggest downloading it and reading it.
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It's full of helpful examples.
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You'll learn a lot from that manual.
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So now you say, Brockton Blum, what about us Windows and Mac users?
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Well, have no fear for you.
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I have WinFF.
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This is actually the GUI front end for FFMPEG and it runs on Windows and Mac.
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To get WinFF, use our friend Google to find it and download it and then install.
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Once you've installed it, open the program, it's pretty easy to use.
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Just select a file you want, open it and then click pick the codec you want to convert
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it to and click convert.
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Wait a little while and you'll have a converted video.
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The only difference between FFMPEG and WinFF is you don't have a lot of control when
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you use WinFF.
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That's because it's a GUI program.
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You can do so much more with FFMPEG in the terminal.
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You can change video aspects, adding letterboxing or removing it, tons of stuff you can do.
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In my next podcast, I'm going to talk about ripping your DVDs and converting them to smaller
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files, but high quality.
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So I hope this was a lot of help for you and thanks for listening.
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You have been listening to Hacker Public Radio or Hacker Public Radio.
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