Fully working GUI video converter for Linux?

danboid · Posted: Nov 08, 2006 03:03

Its a shame as it seems there isn't a fully functional, easy graphical interface to video conversion tools such as mencoder, ffmpeg or transcode for Linux- is there?

I've been trying to find a GUI program that would convert .flv into .avi but nothing works properly so I've ended up using a script for mencoder instead. VLC comes very close to what I want but no matter what video output format I choose I get messy green artifacts in the first few seconds of the output. Avidemux can't load .flv and all the other programs I've tried (like gtranscode, Konverter) are in a pre-alpha kind of state and either crash or don't do anything.

Any suggestions? Maybe someone here knows how to get VLC's output working correctly? This is the last hurdle stopping me having a fully graphical video production environment setup under Linux.

tekkieman · Grizzled Joined: 23 Mar 2004 Location: Over the hill

Avidemux would have been my first guess, but if that didn't work for you, or Konverter, I'm out of ideas. If mencoder can do the conversion, I might be interested in creating a simple gui for it.

I would need to get an idea of what you would want to see for options in the interface, and could probably create something that would work for you.
_________________

danboid · Posted: Nov 08, 2006 13:34

Hi Tekkieman!

The script I'm using is at

http://www.linux.com/article.pl?sid=06/08/22/2121258

I think the two most important, popular video coversions (excluding .avi to MPEG2-PS (DVD) which DeVeDe does a very good job of already) that I'd like to see in such a program are

flv to avi (Xvid, divx or mjpeg I suppose)

movie file to .3gp

3gp to avi

Thats all I'm after really

and I'll anticipate somebody asking for

movie file to ipod video / GP2X video / Zaurus / PPC video

too, but maybe somebody has already done a Linux app for making ipod vids, I've not checked

danboid · Posted: Nov 08, 2006 14:26

http://blogger.rukker.org/2006/07/12/enable-mp3-and-amr-support-i ... ntudebian/

Explains how to get 3gp sound working under Ubuntu and how to convert 3gp to avi with ffmpeg. I'm not sure if ffmpeg can convert the other way (avi to 3gp) though.

tekkieman · Grizzled Joined: 23 Mar 2004 Location: Over the hill

@ danboid - have you built ffmpeg with this support from your last link? If so, I can add an option to the interface to select either mencoder or ffmpeg. The link provided the deb, so that will work for me to experiment with, but I see you need an RPM if you're running Mandriva. This isn't really going to be elaborate, just a gui to select the encoder type and the i/o options. The first run will probably not do much more than call the scripts with the selected options. I don't have a lot of time to spend on this in the near future, just a desire to do it just to do it. If you/anyone else wants to pick it up from there, feel free.
_________________

danboid · Posted: Nov 10, 2006 01:14

Any progress tekkieman?

What toolkit are you going to use for the interface? PyGTK (or something similar) may be a good choice, that way people could run it on any distro without compiling, which is always nice.

tekkieman · Grizzled Joined: 23 Mar 2004 Location: Over the hill

No progress yet, just some research. As I mentioned above, I don't have a lot of time to play with this in the immediate future, so I will just whip up something simple to start.

I have to baby-sit a customer's database migration Sunday, so I will probably have some time then while I'm twiddling my thumbs. I might have some questions, so if you don't mind, I'll PM you with anything I need. I also have a host that I can upload any samples to, and I'll PM you that URL. Once I get something we can start working with, I'll post back in here for others who may be interested.
_________________

redtux · Member Joined: 21 Dec 2006 Location: United Kingdom

strben · Member Joined: 09 Feb 2007 Location: United States

Could one of you smart video folks help me with the proper command line options for converting MP4 to MPG or to AVI

I think I need to do this before I try to burn a video. I didn't see this thread until after posting to the following new thread::

http://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=316878

Thanks!

oldcpu · Member Joined: 26 Aug 2005 Location: Europe

jacobdorne · Member Joined: 04 Apr 2008 Location: New Zealand

I use PyTube, It does everything.

It searches Youtube videos from within the app.
It downloads videos from Google Video, Myspace TV, Metacafe and Youtube.
It saved watched videos from your Firefox cache.
It generates ringtones.
Adds an audio file into a video file.
Merges videos.
Resizes and rotates videos.
Converts any video that ffmpeg or mencoder supports into 3GP, AVI, OGM, OGG, MP3, Animated GIF Video, MP4, AMV and WAV.
Has a nice GUI.
Totally Free!

Here's the site
http://www.bashterritory.com/pytube/

I've attached a screenshot.

GMaq · Linux Member Joined: 17 Mar 2004 Location: Canada

Hello,
I'm a little late here but WinFF is a great GUI for ffmpeg, I use it to convert .flv to H.264 and XviD among many other common conversions. The latest version 0.4 has a couple of bugs in Linux, but the previous one 0.33 is rock solid. www.winff.org

@jacobdorne

Thanks for the heads up on PyTube, very cool!
_________________
"There is wisdom in a multitude of counselors"

jasoni · Member Joined: 09 May 2008 Location: India

Nice thread! I really like your provided information. It's really helpful for me.

Thanks a lot!
_________________
Video Editing Software