free conversion software question

[sdvideo]

Which of the free software tools recommended here meets or gets closest to the following criteria. Or recommend a paid software.

Lightweight (small footprint)
portable (no install required)
can use multiple cores for faster conversion

thanks

[freebird73717]

What are your source files and what do you want for output files?

i.e. convert from "blank" to "blank"

Need more info!

[sdvideo]

sorry, I was referring to video converters for most formats. Usually I convert things to avi. For example mp4 to avi.

[jagabo]

AviDemux?

[usta]

Lightweight (small footprint)
portable (no install required)

Try Free Zune Video Converter.

[Baldrick]

ffmpeg. But command line then like ffmpeg -i video.avi video.mp4. Or use any of its GUIs.

[usta]

Baldrick, isn't it a general consensus that ffmpeg is a great decoder, but not a good encoder?

[sdvideo]

ffmpeg. But command line then like ffmpeg -i video.avi video.mp4. Or use any of its GUIs.

tried it, I don't think ffmpeg does mp4 to avi. It said "Unsupported codec for output stream #0.0"

[Baldrick]

Baldrick, isn't it a general consensus that ffmpeg is a great decoder, but not a good encoder?

Yes, it's a good encoder also as you can use x264,xvid,etc...but you probably need to adjust a lot of parameters to get the best quality.

sdvideo: what ffmpeg version? where did you download it? different versions support different video and audio codecs. But it doesn't support everything though...but almost.

[sdvideo]

I downloaded it from the ubuntu repository.

[sdvideo]

I tried it under winff now and still same problem.

Seems stream 0 codec frame rate differs from container frame rate: 47.95 (200000
00/417083) -> 23.98 (24000/1001)
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'G:\vids\Interview with the Vampire.mp4'
:
Duration: 02:02:33.38, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 1637 kb/s
Stream #0.0(und): Video: h264, yuv420p, 1280x720 [PAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 23.98 t
br, 23.98 tbn, 47.95 tbc
Stream #0.1(und): Audio: aac, 48000 Hz, 5.1, s16
Output #0, avi, to 'G:\dl\Interview with the Vampire.avi':
Stream #0.0(und): Video: msmpeg4, yuv420p, 640x480 [PAR 4:3 DAR 16:9], q=2-3
1, 1000 kb/s, 90k tbn, 23.98 tbc
Stream #0.1(und): Audio: libmp3lame, 44100 Hz, 5.1, s16, 192 kb/s
Stream mapping:
Stream #0.0 -> #0.0
Stream #0.1 -> #0.1
Error while opening codec for output stream #0.1 - maybe incorrect parameters su
ch as bit_rate, rate, width or height

[Chris K]

Seems stream 0 codec frame rate differs from container frame rate: 47.95 (200000
00/417083) -> 23.98 (24000/1001)
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'G:\vids\Interview with the Vampire.mp4'
:
Duration: 02:02:33.38, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 1637 kb/s
Stream #0.0(und): Video: h264, yuv420p, 1280x720 [PAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 23.98 t
br, 23.98 tbn, 47.95 tbc
Stream #0.1(und): Audio: aac, 48000 Hz, 5.1, s16 <=========
Output #0, avi, to 'G:\dl\Interview with the Vampire.avi':
Stream #0.0(und): Video: msmpeg4, yuv420p, 640x480 [PAR 4:3 DAR 16:9], q=2-3
1, 1000 kb/s, 90k tbn, 23.98 tbc
Stream #0.1(und): Audio: libmp3lame, 44100 Hz, 5.1, s16, 192 kb/s <========
Stream mapping:
Stream #0.0 -> #0.0
Stream #0.1 -> #0.1
Error while opening codec for output stream #0.1 - maybe incorrect parameters su
ch as bit_rate, rate, width or height

Your input stream is aac 5.1, your output is set to mp3 which doesn't support more then 2 channels (at least with FFmpeg).

[sdvideo]

how do i change the settings? I am using the standard xbox preset.

[Chris K]

how do i change the settings? I am using the standard xbox preset.

I don't think the AVI container supports 5.1 audio?
I've tried it with aac and ac3 and get corrupted playback.

If so, you'll have to down-mix the audio to two channels or use another container that xbox supports.

[deadrats]

Baldrick, isn't it a general consensus that ffmpeg is a great decoder, but not a good encoder?

want to know what the funny thing is? you just recommended Zune Video Converter to the OP and all it's a ffmpeg front end, lol.

[usta]

Yeah, I realized it later...
But it all depends on how much experience one has with video conversion. A beginner may find Free Zune Video Converter just perfect. A more experienced user may go deep into the settings..

how do i change the settings? I am using the standard xbox preset.

For XBOX you can use MP4 as a container with AAC as audio codec.
In WinFF, I would add to the audio preset command line this (audio channel 2):
-ac 2

[sdvideo]

using -ac 2, I get:

Resampling with input channels greater than 2 unsupported.
Can not resample 6 channels @ 48000 Hz to 2 channels @ 48000 Hz

you suggested I use mp4 for xbox? IS mp4 different than mpeg4?

[poisondeathray]

.mp4 is a container format and a subset of MPEG-4 (MPEG-4 part 14)

MPEG-4 encompasses about 20 different things
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPEG-4

[usta]

Well, "-ac 2" command specifies the number of output channels (stereo in this case).
I'm also just learning ffmpeg, so perhaps, someone experienced can suggest an elegant approach to handle 5.1 audio input into 2 channel audio conversion?
For now, I'd try to add this command: "-map 0:2", where 2 would the audio stream number of the input file.

[sdvideo]

i've tried several decoders and several presets and it still doesn't work. I have no idea what is left to try.

[usta]

I had similar problem, but I've solved it using Xvid4PSP software.
Open the file and in Audio Editing options, choose the source Stereo. That worked for me...