FFMPEG and other avi to flv encoders...

[sp0oon]

Hello everyone,

Right now I am using a program named Pazera Video to Flash converter.
URL: http://www.pazera-software.com/products/video-to-flash-converter/
The program is a lightweight window's program that uses FFMPEG to convert media files to flash flv files.

I've been using it for about a week now and been trying to tweek the FFMPEG commands but I can't the quality really good without the file size being really large.

-y -i <input_file> -vcodec flv -b 300k -r 14.985 -acodec libmp3lame -ab 32k -ar 44100 -ac 1 -vol 300 -s 624x352 -qmin 6 -qmax 6 -qscale .1 -i_qfactor 1 <output_file>

I really do like the program because it does a quick job of converting avi files to flv however the quality kind of stinks. I'm firstly wondering if anyone can give some command line parameters that will improve the quality of the flv file without the file being too large.

The other option is to just use another video encoder. What I would be looking for is something that can convert videos into flv while keeping relatively good quality. One of the most important things is the speed at which the program would encode the videos. I can’t wait around for 15-30 minutes to encode a large file, with FFMPEG it only takes a matter of minutes to encode large files.

Anyway, if anyone has some good information on this please do let me know. I’ve searched the forum and tried to find information but nothing has really helped. I’ve decided to ask the experts directly since you guys have the answers.

Thank you guys in advance .

[Soopafresh]

Unless you have some sort of handheld player, why even use flv any longer since Flash is h264 in MP4 compatible?

[sp0oon]

well because I convert files to flv and then upload them to certain 3rd party website and some of them will reconvert the file if its not flv and convert it into a lesser quality.

[sp0oon]

Can anyone suggest anything?

Maybe some specific command line parameters?

[ricardouk]

use mencoder:

"mencoder.exe" "123.avi" -o men.flv -af resample=22050:0:0 -sws 9 -vf scale=480:-3  -of lavf -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=flv:vbitrate=400:trell:v4mv:mv0:mbd=2:cbp:aic:cmp=3:subcmp=3 -oac mp3lame -lameopts abr:br=48:mode=3

fill in the source video name , resolution (width) and audio values.

[the_provider]

Greetings.

What about subtitles? Can those be embedded in the converted video file, too?
If yes, what are the command lines that allow control over font, size of font, position, etc?

Thank you in advance.
Best regards.

[sp0oon]

So, does anyone have any suggestions? I would like to continue using the program I am.. how can I tune in the quality????

[the_provider]

Greetings.

Please explain what "large" means to you in terms of video file. Add resolution, too.
ffmpeg mey be faster but the quality is worse when compared to mencoder, for example, there is allways a trade-off. That may be the reason whay you need a bigger bitrate hence the size of the video file is increased...
Mencoder scripts are easy to find and once you have one the rest is piece of cake. Use Ricardo's, it should be a good start.

Best regards.

[Chris K]

It's true what the_provider wrote. FFmpeg isn't the best choice for flv encoding.

If you still want to give it a try, add this to the command line;

-g 160 -cmp 3 -subcmp 3 -mbd 2 -flags aic+cbp+mv0+mv4 -trellis 1 -sws_flags lanczos

Set your bitrate to at least 500 kbps. It gives about the best you can get from FFmpeg and it's slower.

The flv command line tweaking was given by 45tripp and comes close to the mencoder example.