Howto: Convert video to Quictime-compatible H.264/AAC MP4 using the video2mp4 GUI

[tuxcantfly]

Description

video2mp4 is an easy-to-use graphical GUI application (no command-line needed) that can convert any video files supported by mencoder and ffmpeg to the MP4 format, with H.264 video and AAC audio, which can be playable by players such as Apple Quicktime, iPod, PSP Blu-ray players, and HD-DVD players. H.264 provides better compression than any other video codec currently available. This guide provides instructions on installing the .deb package for video2mp4, and using its graphical interface to convert video files.

Requirements

Don't bother installing these manually; GDebi will handle this all automatically.. video2mp4 depends on the following packages:

zenity, ffmpeg, mencoder, faac, gpac

Installation

1. Download the attached file, or if you're not a forum member, download from http://st0rage.org/~ubuntu/video2mp4_1.0_all.deb

2. Double-click the file you just downloaded, and it should launch the GDebi package installer.

3. Click "Install Package"

Usage

1. Launch video2mp4 (Applications -> Sound & Video -> video2mp4)

2. Select the video file you would like to convert

3. Select a location to save the mp4 file to

4. Wait while the video file is being converted. If your file is very large, it may take a while.

Removal

1. Launch Synaptic Package Manager (System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager)

2. Scroll down the list and find "video2mp4"

3. Right-click, and select "Mark for Complete Removal"

4. Click on "Installed (auto-removable)" on the left-hand sidebar

5. Select all the packages under this section, right-click, and select "Mark for Complete Removal"

6. Click Apply

Command-line version

In case any of you are interested, there is a command-line version that may fix audio problems. To install it:

1. Download the attached video2mp4-nogui.sh or, if you're not a forum member, from http://st0rage.org/~ubuntu/video2mp4-nogui.sh

2. Open a terminal (Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal)

3. Install necessary packages:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install zenity ffmpeg mencoder faac gpac

4. cd to the directory you downloaded the file to, and enter (replace filetoconvert.mpg with the path to the video):

sh video2mp4-nogui.sh filetoconvert.mpg

5. To remove video2mp4 and the packages it depends on from the terminal, type in:

sudo dpkg --purge ffmpeg mencoder faac gpac video2mp4

Notes

This guide and the video2mp4 program is written from scratch by me, although video2mp4 uses mencoder, ffmpeg, faac, and gpac to convert video, and zenity as the GUI. The command-line version was created by moaxey, based on the my GUI version. video2mp4 is licensed under the GNU GPL, and source can be obtained by viewing /usr/bin/video2mp4 (it's plain-text shell script). I have only tested this on Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy) and Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty) 32-bit, on Gnome, though it should work on other versions and desktop environments as well. Use this at your own risk.

[tuxcantfly]

subscribing to this thread

[mwolfzorn]

Your program does not work if a filename has spaces or other chars in it.

The path to my first test file was: /home/matt/Rocko's Modern Life/Season 1/1x02 - Leap Frogs ~ Bedfellows.avi

I ran it from console and got this output:

matt@pandora ~ $ video2mp4
FFmpeg version SVN-rUNKNOWN, Copyright (c) 2000-2004 Fabrice Bellard
  configuration:  --enable-gpl --enable-pp --enable-pthreads --enable-libogg --e
nable-a52 --enable-dts --enable-dc1394 --enable-libgsm --disable-debug --enable-
mp3lame --enable-faad --enable-faac --enable-xvid --enable-x264 --enable-vorbis
  libavutil version: 49.0.0
  libavcodec version: 51.11.0
  libavformat version: 50.5.0
  built on Mar 18 2007 16:55:55, gcc: 4.1.2 20060928 (prerelease) (Ubuntu 4.1.1-
13ubuntu5)
/home/matt/Rocko's: I/O error occured
Usually that means that input file is truncated and/or corrupted.
Freeware Advanced Audio Coder
FAAC 1.24

Cannot encode several input files to one output file.
/usr/bin/video2mp4: line 7:  7718 Terminated              zenity --progress --pe
rcentage 10 --text "Audio is being converted, please wait" --title "Convert Audi
o"
MEncoder 1.0rc1-4.1.2 (C) 2000-2006 MPlayer Team
CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU 3.00GHz (Family: 15, Model: 6, Stepping: 2)
CPUflags: Type: 15 MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 1 SSE2: 1
Compiled for x86 CPU with extensions: MMX MMX2 3DNow 3DNowEx SSE SSE2

File not found: '/home/matt/Rocko's'
Failed to open /home/matt/Rocko's.
Cannot open file/device.

Exiting...
/usr/bin/video2mp4: line 12:  7722 Terminated              zenity --progress --p
ercentage 30 --text "Video is being converted, please wait" --title "Convert Vid
eo"
Error - 2 input names specified, please check usage
rm: cannot remove `/home/matt/Rocko\'s': No such file or directory
rm: cannot remove `Modern': No such file or directory
rm: cannot remove `Life/Season': No such file or directory
rm: cannot remove `1/1x02': No such file or directory
rm: cannot remove `-': No such file or directory
rm: cannot remove `Leap': No such file or directory
rm: cannot remove `Frogs': No such file or directory
rm: cannot remove `~': No such file or directory
rm: cannot remove `Bedfellows.avi.wav': No such file or directory
rm: cannot remove `/home/matt/Rocko\'s': No such file or directory
rm: cannot remove `Modern': No such file or directory
rm: cannot remove `Life/Season': No such file or directory
rm: cannot remove `1/1x02': No such file or directory
rm: cannot remove `-': No such file or directory
rm: cannot remove `Leap': No such file or directory
rm: cannot remove `Frogs': No such file or directory
rm: cannot remove `~': No such file or directory
rm: cannot remove `Bedfellows.avi.aac': No such file or directory
rm: cannot remove `/home/matt/Rocko\'s': No such file or directory
rm: cannot remove `Modern': No such file or directory
rm: cannot remove `Life/Season': No such file or directory
rm: cannot remove `1/1x02': No such file or directory
rm: cannot remove `-': No such file or directory
rm: cannot remove `Leap': No such file or directory
rm: cannot remove `Frogs': No such file or directory
rm: cannot remove `~': No such file or directory
rm: cannot remove `Bedfellows.avi.h264': No such file or directory
/usr/bin/video2mp4: line 17:  7725 Terminated              zenity --progress --p                                                            ercentage 80 --text "Video is being muxed, please wait" --title "Mux Video"

But when I ran it copied over on the same file with the path /home/matt/Desktop/hi.avi it worked fine.


So I looked at your script and added a few quotes:

REMOVED, DOWNLOAD VERSION ABOVE

Thanks for your script!


Note: Using Ubuntu 6.10 Edgy AMD64 KDE

[tuxcantfly]

Thanks for the notice, mwolfzorn, I've updated the deb file with your adjustments to the script

[drews_blunted]

I love you script its the easyest way to get your movies to mp4!

The only downside is that i have not been able to watch them on my playstaion3? they dont show up on the ps3's XMB. Has the ps3 support been tested by anyone else to work? Or did i do something incorrectly? any response would be great! Thanks.

[tuxcantfly]

The only downside is that i have not been able to watch them on my playstaion3? they dont show up on the ps3's XMB. Has the ps3 support been tested by anyone else to work? Or did i do something incorrectly? any response would be great! Thanks.

Whoops, just noticed there was a little bug in the script that messes up the audio when playing under quicktime, I've fixed it, perhaps that was the issue with the PS3 as well? I've uploaded an updated version; try again with the PS3 on that. PS3 can supposedly play mp4 files, though I've never tested it (I don't have a PS3)

[mwolfzorn]

Hmm maybe we should get some kind of version scheme setup...

Also I was thinking it would be nice to be able to be able to use the script from command line, so if a file is passed to it from command line it skips calling zenity.

I think we could add a lot of options to the program:

--input  Select input file
--output Select output file
--dir Convert entire directory
--tmp Change temporary file directory
--help Show help

I'll start working on the command line options if you want me to

[SmiLey497]

hey I tried this out, the audio is not synced when i play it on my comp and all i get is a black screen when i play it on my ipod

[tuxcantfly]

hey I tried this out, the audio is not synced when i play it on my comp

Are you using the latest Quicktime 7? What format did you convert from? What ubuntu version are you using?

and all i get is a black screen when i play it on my ipod

Whoops, seems like some resolution issue, will fix it once I have time

Hmm maybe we should get some kind of version scheme setup...

Also I was thinking it would be nice to be able to be able to use the script from command line, so if a file is passed to it from command line it skips calling zenity.

I think we could add a lot of options to the program:

Code:

--input Select input file
--output Select output file
--dir Convert entire directory
--tmp Change temporary file directory
--help Show help

I'll start working on the command line options if you want me to

Idea sounds great, go for it, feel free to make a commandline version, will really appreciate it

[Heatwole]

and all i get is a black screen when i play it on my ipod

same here, conversion seems to go fine, loads fine onto ipod, but will not play on ipod. really need a program like this, what could be the solution?