There are quite a few GUIs for FFmpeg out there, but I've found Sinthgunt to be the easiest to use - it requires just 3 clicks to convert a video: select the video, select the preset to which you want to convert to, and click "Convert".

FFmpeg is a complete solution to record, convert and stream audio and video from the command line. As you probably know, the FFmpeg version from the official Ubuntu repositories is compiled without support for some codecs so if you want to use them, you must compile FFmpeg for yourself.

NicoLargo (who has an awasome blog by the way) has created two scripts based on a post from the Ubuntuforums (which we've quoted several times before) to automate the process of compiling FFmpeg in Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala and Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx.

Why 2 scripts? Because one is for installing (compiling FFmpeg) and the second one is for updating it.


Basically all you have to do is run the script (and have an active Internet connection) and it will automatically download the latest SVN version of FFmpeg, compile it, create a .deb package with checkinstall and install it. The script will also download and compile the x264 library required by FFmpeg.

The script created by WebUpd8 reader Remy which we were telling you about a few days ago just got updated.

The new version can convert to / from two more formats: flv and aac (it used to work for lac, mp3, wav and ogg), and an quality selector for ffmpeg has also been added. This version also checks if a file exists and asks if you want to open Nautilus.

sudo apt-get install zenity ffmpeg 

wget http://raymii.org/cms/content/downloads/easyconverter.sh
chmod +x easyconverter.sh
./easyconverter.sh

WebUpd8 reader Remy sent us a tip with a bash script which uses Zenity and ffmpeg for easily converting various audio files. It can convert from / to flac, mp3, wav and ogg.


Using the script is very easy so it should be very useful for lots of people. The first thing you need to to to get it working is to install Zenity and ffmpeg. To do this in Ubuntu, simply paste the following command in a terminal:

Winff is a GUI fronted for the very well-known FFmpeg, which works on Windows and Linux (unfortunately it doesn't work on Mac OS X).

WinFF converts multiple different files in the same time, can convert video to audio, convert between different audio formats with no external codecs required (other than ffmpeg, of course), includes lots of presets for converting video into formats for common devices such as iPod-iTunes, Blackberry, PSP, PS3, Palm, Nokia, Creative Zen, Google Android, Rockbox, DVD and so on.

FFmpeg Little Helper is a web tool created by RodrigoPolo.com for generating FFmpeg code, meaning it creates the FFmpeg commands you need, by just selecting some options in drop-down menus.

The output can be either a command or a script you can then use to encode audio/video with FFmpeg.


Please note that you must compile FFmpeg for yourself for some of the formats. If you use Ubuntu, see this great guide on Ubuntuforums.

In case you don't know, FFmpeg is a command line tool for encoding and converting a numerous video and audio formats. x264 is a free software library (also command line) for encoding video streams into the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC format.

FFmpeg and x264 in the Ubuntu repository does not support some encoders, formats, and codecs (which are restricted).

There is a quick way of enabling the restricted encoders but it will not work for all of them. In Ubuntu Karmic, run the following command in a terminal:

sudo apt-get install ffmpeg libavcodec-extra-52

For Karmic, the libfaac codec has been disabled in the "extra" (formerly known as unstripped) libraries because it is considered non-free. The only way to get it is to compile ffmpeg yourself.