A new tool called WinFF does a great job of converting videos and ripping audio from videos. It is available in .deb packages, exe for Windows, RPM's for Red Hat and source code for other OS's.
Since I updated to Ibex and have the newest VLC, I have encountered a serious problem when converting videos. That problem being that I have no audio.
My previous tutorial on how to convert videos is now confined to VLC version 0.8.6
I'm not really sure whether the audio problem is with VLC or with the ffmpeg codec. There are many posts saying that due to patent conflicts, ffmeg no longer supports ac3 or mp3 audio streams. I can't verify that info at this time.
My feeling is that the problem is a bug in VLC.
WinFF however solves this problem, makes it much easier to convert a video, offers many more formats and rips audio with a few clicks.
The GUI is intuitive. It's only a matter of choosing what video you want to convert, what format you want it in and where to save it.
And the list of presets is extensive. It offers the user a choice that will suit almost every need.
The presets are as follows;
Audio formats include Mp3, m4a, Ac3, Wav and WMA
AVI including MS compatible, Xvid 4:3 and 16:9
Creative Zen in Xvid 4:3 and 16:9
DV in Raw DV 4:3 and 16:9
DVD that includes almost every format in Pal and NTSC
iPod formats in Xvid and H.264
Mobile Phones in the 3g2 and Blackberry formats
Mp4 uses the H.264 format
Other presets include formats in the Palm, PSP, Quicktime, Rockbox, VCD, FLV and WMV
As you can see, this provides you with plenty of options.
And it also rips and converts audio!!
Of course you will need all the extra codecs to access all the features.
Ubuntu users can get those codecs from Medibuntu.
Windows users can check out the packages at Free-Codecs.
Where do I get it from?
I'll give you some links that you can check out and download it from.
The creator's blog can be found here;
BiggMatt
Stop by and post a thanks for this handy tool.
Deb packages can be downloaded from this page;
WinFF .deb Downloads
Click on the arrow next to winff-0.43 to expand it then select the .deb package for either the !386 or the AMD64 depending what platform you are using.
The download page for OS's other then Ubuntu or .deb packages can be found here;
Winff Non-Deb
This is where you will find the exe, rpm and source packages.
I am very impressed with this tool and want to thank BiggMatt for all his hard work in providing the community with a very handy tool.
Enjoy!
TaZMAn
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7 comments:
Thanks for a great write up.
Some clarification though. FFmpeg's codec are compiled into it. So it doesn't matter what codecs you have on your system. FFmpeg's are completely independent. Of course, if your ffmp[eg wasn't built with all the codecs, you have to get an entirely new ffmpeg.
You're very welcome and thanks for that clarification on the FFmpeg codec.
That may explain why the FFmpeg codec in your tool properly encodes the audio whereas using the system FFmpeg codec with VLC won't encode the audio.
No matter. Your WinFF tool is much easier to use and does a fantastic job.
Thanks again!
Thanks for all that.
One question: What files, in medibuntu, should I download? there are lots of them for intrepid.
Hi Miguel,
Glad to be of help.
They do have quite a list but here is the cut down codec version.
Go to this page;
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Medibuntu
Follow the instructions under these two sections;
Playing Encrypted DVDs
Playing Non-Native Media Formats
After you get them installed,
you can now add in other items using Synaptic. Just do a search for restricted and non-free.
Also add in the gstreamer codec packages named the good, bad and ugly. A search in Synaptic for gstreamer will get you what you need.
And finally a Synaptic search for divx will give you plenty of other codecs to choose from.
The main codecs are what you are after. The complete package at Medibuntu includes plugins and other non-free items that can be useful later own but not needed for this project.
Hope this helps and enjoy!
Thanks for the tip - ffmpeg, mencoder, and VLC all failed to convert an avi video file of mine to flv, but winff worked.
Hi Doug,
Sorry for the delay in my response.
Been so busy I don't even have time to post regularly.
Glad it worked for you.
I have found that using the unstripped version of the ffmpeg and several other codecs can solve the problems when encoding with vlc and other tools.
Have fun!
Great writeup. Thanks a lot! One update to this though, with the newest upgrade to Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, you can now download the newest version of this software from the Ubuntu Software Center.
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