Convert from .mov to .mp4 (or h264) using avconv

Question

Looking at the avconv website there seem to be a vast array of options to convert video.

However, I'm getting lost in all the technical detail.

Is there a simple way to convert a .mov to a .mp4 (or h264)?

I'm happy if it's slightly lossy.

If it helps I'm on Ubuntu 12.04.2 LTS.

Gereron

refer to the H.264 Encoding Guide at trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Encode/H.264 – Quest

Answer 1

In a very basic form, it would look a bit like this:

avconv -i inputfile.mov -c:v libx264 outputfile.mp4

This will only work if you compiled avconv with libx264 support - you can see here on how to do that.

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If you're not that concerned about codecs and just need an ".mp4" file, you can also run this:

avconv -i inputfile.mov -c copy outputfile.mp4

This will copy all codec information from the .mov container and place it into the .mp4 container file.

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Just as a note, avconv is a fork of ffmpeg, many of the switches for ffmpeg will work for avconv (if that helps your search for answers)

Vaas

If you need more information, Try over at Super User - if you get a response from slhck or LordNeckBeard, they seem to be the guys who know everything about avconv/ffmpeg – Vaas

avconv should work out what you want from the filename. So avconv -i vid.mpeg vid.mp4 will convert the video to .mp4 using the defaults options. – Devaughn

@JamieTaylor Thank you dude, second command is Briliant. I needed to change mkv container into mp4 without any transcoding. I have NAS server (slow CPU) which receives .mkv files (h246) from IP camera and needed to convert it just to .mp4 container because i wanted to display videos via HTML5 Video tag (which needs mp4 container). With transcoding, converting 30sec movie to mp4 lasted 1-2min (slot CPU on NAS server). Without transcoding (second command) it's done INSTANTLY! I'm really glad i've found this great solution! – Diazine

Glad to help :) – Vaas