Server-side Conversion?

[venumx]

Hi, I'm new to videohelp.com and I was wondering if there is any way that you can have someone upload a file then once its uploaded, it automatically converts it to .mp4 by some type of server-side software or script. I would really like to know how to do this, cause this would be really cool.

Thanks in advance for your responses,
~VenumX

[Baldrick]

You can use any converter...the tricky part is to get it automatically.

I would use mencoder to convert and mp4box to make a .mp4 file( they are available for both win and linux). They are command line apps so it would would be pretty easy to make it automatically using a batch script. See for example http://forum.doom9.org/archive/index.php/t-118930.html

[venumx]

Thanks, I'll definately look into it!

[mats.hogberg]

But it'll take quite some server horsepower, + a patient user. Hardly a process where you have the client waiting for a form post to finish. Rather more like a mailback system or something.

/Mats

[venumx]

well they just need to upload it, its not going to redownload the file, just save it on the server as .mp4

[mats.hogberg]

So, what good will it do on the server in mp4 shape, realistcally 15 minutes later (with the uploaded video around 5 minutes in length)?

/Mats

[venumx]

I posted this in another part of the forums, now im just gonna put it in here
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Hello, I was wondering if there was any way to make a website that a user would be able to upload a video in any format and the server would automatically take the uploaded file and convert it to a .mp4 and save the converted version on the server. I know that with the server converting it, it would take a while for the file to be converted for the users viewing on large files, but if there was a limit ont he filesize the users uploaded it wouldnt matter. The closest thing to what i want can be found at http://www.zamzar.com. They have done a great job getting the video conversion going, and I was wondering if there was a way I could just do the video conversion to convert straight to .mp4. Thanks in advance for your responses.
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Just a better idea of what i was looking to do. I just want to have al the videos in .mp4 format on the server but i want to be able to upload any format. If anyone has any idea of how this would or even could work it would be greatly appreciated.

[celtic_druid]

Easiest way to have a server convert uploaded files to mp4 would be ffmpeg via say php. ffmpeg supports most formats as input (not as many as mencoder) and can output directly to mp4, including audio using lame or faac for the audio and Xvid, libavcodec (MPEG-4 Part 2 and AVC) or x264 for the video. ffmpeg can also output flv, wmv, ogg, etc.

[venumx]

is there a way to do it via aspx? cause that would be much more convinient...and if there is could you point me in the right direction?

[mats.hogberg]

Sure is. We run executables from aspx in some applications. For short:

Process myProcess = new Process();
myProcess.StartInfo.FileName = executable; 
myProcess.StartInfo.Arguments = arguments;
bool result=myProcess.Start();

executable is the full path of the exe you want to run (like "c:\program files\ffmpeg.exe"), arguments are the arguments you want to pass to the executable.

As this is run by the "aspnet" user, you have to make sure that user has the right priveliges, or run it as a user with better access rights (better option) with "impersonate" (set in web.config)

/Mats

[venumx]

Interesting...thanks

[dickson]

There are some online conversion sites that can do that such as www.zamzar.com or www.heywatch.com. Alternatively, if you're a "podcaster", you can use something like http://www.podcastspot.com. THey will automatically convert whatever you upload to the popular formats.