flv to avi/mp4 conversion

[rocketman778]

I have a bunch of flv files that I want to convert to avi or mp4 and then to join them as one file. At first I was going to just join the flv files but the resulting file was slow to jump to different times and sometimes the audio didn't sync up. Only thing is I don't know what's better to convert to. I don't want a huge file but I also don't want to lose quality. Would converting to avi make the file smaller than mp4 conversion?

Would it be better to convert to avi or mp4? Also what program should I use to do that? I'd prefer one that lets me do a batch conversion. And then how would I join the files together? I'd prefer a program that would automatically join a list of files together.

Please help me with this, as I have a ton of files unsorted due to this problem.

[Baldrick]

Freemake video converter ( ADWARE) can easily convert and join at same time. Click at the join button at top right and then to mp4/avi.

Or batch convert all with vidcoder. Join the mp4s with mymp4boxgui.

Or give us the flv details( Use mediainfo, view->text) and we might suggest other methods that doesn't involve reconverting.

[rocketman778]

Media Info says
Video
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : Main@L4.1

Videolan says Codec H.264 MPEG-4 AVC

Yeah so I should try to convert to mp4 then right instead of avi? I mean I wouldn't mind leaving it as flv and joining them, but I tried that and the only way the audio would stay in sync was if I used a older version of videolan, and skipping to different times would make it hang for 15-20 seconds sometimes.

So I'm thinking converting should be better. I'm going to experiment with some programs and report back.

[rocketman778]

hmm converting is going a lot slower than I thought. Maybe need to just focus on the main issue. The media players that play the joined files. Is there any players that are just better at playing flv files? Like if you had a 2hr or 3 hr flv file, is there a player that can easily skip to the last 10 minutes without there being a huge 15-30 second delay. And also that wouldn't have any audio out of sync problems.

Or is there a better program to join the flv files with besides flvjoiner.

[rocketman778]

Okay I tried a bunch of different flv players: vlc, Applian FLV player, Riva FLV player, Moyea Player, Media Player Classic. The only ones that worked the best were Applian FLV and Media Player Classic.

I found out that MPC was the best because whenever you started a video and seeked a hour or 3 hours ahead, you could skip to anywhere before that time almost instantly. It's like it builds up an index for all the times before. That didn't work with videolan, you could go 1hr ahead and try to go 15 minutes earlier and it would still take the usual 8-15 seconds.

But I was wondering 2 things. Why is the MPC player so much better than all the other players? Is it building some kind of index that other players don't do? Does anyone know? And last thing is andys flv joiner program good enough for joining the flv files? It seems like it is, but maybe theres programs out there that would join better, so that any player could play the files quickly when seeking different times.

[Baldrick]

You can try remux(no video reconversion) to a mkv and see if seeks better. Open the flv in MKVtoolnix / mkvmergegui. Make a mkv. Test play it.

[rocketman778]

Wow that worked as well, thanks so much Baldrick. That's good to know if I ever want to use different players. For now I'll stick with media player classic. Glad I got everything worked out .

Any reason why the mkv muxing works so well with improving seeking times? Just curious because the whole seeking issue has been a mystery to me.

[Baldrick]

Great! You can even try join the flvs with mkvmergegui, open the first flv and then append the rest.

Nope. I don't know why the seeking works better with mkv.