Avi to WMV

[Vertuas]

Hi All,

Can ffmpeg convert an AVI video to a proper WMV video file?

I found this on the net :

ffmpeg.exe -i myvideo.avi -b 500k myvideo.wmv

however windows media player refuses to play the result.

Loading the resulting file in AVI codec show that its not even a wmv file. the video is msmpeg and the audio pcm!

If ffmpeg cannot produce proper WMV files, is there something similair that can?

Thanks

Vertuas

PS i need it to work on windows, not linux

[JohnnyMalaria]

Windows Media Encoder from Microsoft can do it and it's free.

EDIT - The above bit is true. The bit below is entirely incorrect.

BTW, AVI files do not hold WMV. WMV is its own file format so any tools that look at them designed for AVIs won't give the right information.

[Baldrick]

Shouldn't

ffmpeg.exe -i file.avi -vcodec wmv2 -b 500 -acodec wmav2 file.wmv

with a newer version of ffmpeg work? I have read that it's a problem with older version of ffmpeg and wmv output.

What version of ffmpeg are you using? where did you download it?

[Vertuas]

Hi Boldrick,

I tryed the command line that you suggested and I have to say the result is better.

AVI codec report audio as Windows Media Audio V8. But the video is wmv2, and not Windows Media Video V8.

The file now plays in WMP, but is very blocky......i guess i need to up the bitrate

i got the download from http://ffdshow.faireal.net/mirror/ffmpeg/ its the newest version but one!

heres the output from ffmpeg :

C:\>ffmpeg.exe -i d\test.avi -vcodec wmv2 -b 500 -acodec wmav2 d:\test.wmv
FFmpeg version SVN-r10141, Copyright (c) 2000-2007 Fabrice Bellard, et al.
configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-pp --enable-swscaler --enable-pthreads --
enable-liba52 --enable-avisynth --enable-libamr-nb --enable-libamr-wb --enable-l
ibfaac --enable-libfaad --enable-libgsm --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libnut --en
able-libogg --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-libx264 --enable-libx
vid --cpu=i686 --enable-memalign-hack --extra-ldflags=-static
libavutil version: 49.5.0
libavcodec version: 51.41.0
libavformat version: 51.12.2
built on Aug 19 2007 19:58:01, gcc: 4.2.1
d\test.avi: no such file or directory

C:\>ffmpeg.exe -i d:\test.avi -vcodec wmv2 -b 500 -acodec wmav2 d:\test.wmv
FFmpeg version SVN-r10141, Copyright (c) 2000-2007 Fabrice Bellard, et al.
configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-pp --enable-swscaler --enable-pthreads --
enable-liba52 --enable-avisynth --enable-libamr-nb --enable-libamr-wb --enable-l
ibfaac --enable-libfaad --enable-libgsm --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libnut --en
able-libogg --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-libx264 --enable-libx
vid --cpu=i686 --enable-memalign-hack --extra-ldflags=-static
libavutil version: 49.5.0
libavcodec version: 51.41.0
libavformat version: 51.12.2
built on Aug 19 2007 19:58:01, gcc: 4.2.1
Input #0, avi, from 'd:\test.avi':
Duration: 00:00:22.5, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 30336 kb/s
Stream #0.0: Video: dvvideo, yuv420p, 720x576, 28800 kb/s, 25.00 fps(r)
Stream #0.1: Audio: pcm_s16le, 48000 Hz, stereo, 1536 kb/s
Output #0, asf, to 'd:\test.wmv':
Stream #0.0: Video: wmv2, yuv420p, 720x576, q=2-31, 0 kb/s, 25.00 fps(c)
Stream #0.1: Audio: wmav2, 48000 Hz, stereo, 64 kb/s
Stream mapping:
Stream #0.0 -> #0.0
Stream #0.1 -> #0.1
Press [q] to stop encoding
frame= 564 fps= 29 q=31.0 Lsize= 1304kB time=22.5 bitrate= 474.1kbits/s
video:1085kB audio:176kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead 3.414205%

[Baldrick]

ffmpeg are only using wmv2/wmv8 and it's not that good, if you want better results I would switch to wme as JohnnyMalaria says or wmnicenc as they support wmv3 and also vc-1.

[Midzuki]

JohnnyMalaria wrote:

BTW, AVI files do not hold WMV. WMV is its own file format
so any tools that look at them designed for AVIs
won't give the right information.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wmv#Container_format says:

Although WMV is generally packed into the ASF container format, it can also be put into the AVI or Matroska container format. The resulting files will be have the .AVI, or .MKV file extensions, respectively. WMV can be stored in an AVI file when using the WMV 9 Video Compression Manager (VCM) codec implementation. Another common way to store WMV in an AVI file is to use the VirtualDub encoder.

VirtualDub says:

[JohnnyMalaria]

Well, there you go!

I will amend my original reply.

Though if you want WMV format in a way that is most widely used, it makes sense to use the free-standing format (IMHO).

John.

[Vertuas]

AVI codec is capable of readinfo the stream info from WMV/ASF aswell as AVI containers........

[Vertuas]

Hi All,

THe two solution that I have at the moment.

1) WMEncode........good quality video, small size but take forever to encode

2) FFmpeg......if i don;t use -sameq then the video comes out blocky no matter what bit rate i enter. If i do use -sameq the files coming out are huge!
I would like use ffmpeg because of its speed of encoding, howver i need to know how to improve video quality.

Any ideas anyone?

Thanks

Vertuas

[Vertuas]

I fixed the video blockness now the F'in audio is way out of sync


C:\>ffmpeg.exe -i e:\test.avi -s 640x480 -r 30 -vcodec wmv2 -b 407000 -acodec wm
av2 e:\test-ffmpeg-1.wmv
FFmpeg version SVN-r10141, Copyright (c) 2000-2007 Fabrice Bellard, et al.
configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-pp --enable-swscaler --enable-pthreads --
enable-liba52 --enable-avisynth --enable-libamr-nb --enable-libamr-wb --enable-l
ibfaac --enable-libfaad --enable-libgsm --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libnut --en
able-libogg --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-libx264 --enable-libx
vid --cpu=i686 --enable-memalign-hack --extra-ldflags=-static
libavutil version: 49.5.0
libavcodec version: 51.41.0
libavformat version: 51.12.2
built on Aug 19 2007 19:58:01, gcc: 4.2.1
Input #0, avi, from 'e:\test.avi':
Duration: 00:07:05.2, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 27934 kb/s
Stream #0.0: Video: dvvideo, yuv411p, 720x480, 29.97 fps(r)
Stream #0.1: Audio: pcm_s16le, 44100 Hz, stereo, 1411 kb/s
Output #0, asf, to 'e:\test-ffmpeg-1.wmv':
Stream #0.0: Video: wmv2, yuv420p, 640x480, q=2-31, 407 kb/s, 30.00 fps(c)
Stream #0.1: Audio: wmav2, 44100 Hz, stereo, 64 kb/s
Stream mapping:
Stream #0.0 -> #0.0
Stream #0.1 -> #0.1
Press [q] to stop encoding
frame=11753 fps= 76 q=15.4 Lsize= 23706kB time=391.8 bitrate= 495.7kbits/s

video:19609kB audio:3317kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead 3.400150%