FFMPEG too blocky

[IMC]

Hello people,

Im new to this whole FFMPEG stuff. So please dont mind my nooby questions.

I am trying to convert .avi videos into .flv but at the same time trying to keep a small file size and a decent quality.
Here the command line im using:
ffmpeg -i video.avi -y -ab 64k -ar 44100 -ac 1 -vcodec libx264 -r 15 -s 320×240 -b 500 -vol 500 -cmp 3 -subcmp 3 -mbd 2 -partitions +parti4x4+partp8x8 -flags2 +mixed_refs -subq 5 -trellis 1 -refs 5 -me_range 16 -keyint_min 25 -sc_threshold 40 -i_qfactor 0.71 -qcomp 0.6 -coder 1 -g 250 -qblur 1.3 output.flv

That coverts the files pretty well and fast, but the problem is the videos are blocky even with qblur option.

Can anyone suggest anything?

I tried mencoder instead but its taking longer to convert the files and also about 2-3 times larger.

any help is appreciated.

[Baldrick]

what ffmpeg version? it may help to upgrade to a newer version.

[IMC]

Thanks Baldrick,
its the latest version, was just installed yesterday

[ChrissyBoy]

-b 500

shouldn't bitrate be: -b 500k for 500 kbs ?

Anyway eitherway perhaps increase this value.

[David_UK]

Hi IMC
I'm fairly new to all this too.

shouldn't bitrate be: -b 500k for 500 kbs ?
Anyway eitherway perhaps increase this value.

Definately. Using -b 500 gives a very low bitrate. It's expecting a value like -b 500k. Now, there may be issues I am unaware of, but for most of my conversions I use -qscale to determine image quality rather than specifying a bitrate (1 is perfect, 2 is very good, 5 fair etc). The resulting files will be bigger as the quality is increased. Suggest you try -qscale 5 and go from there.