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Your a Linux user and you want to convert videos from DVD to iPhone or convert video files in flash format to stream online, what are you choices? A few years back you were stuck with command line only utilities like FFmpeg, which works great but doesn’t offer the ease of use found in GUI applications. Now with the popularity of Linux, you have 3 great GUI applications that can easily handle all your video converting needs.
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Your a Linux user and you want to convert videos from DVD to iPhone or convert video files in flash format to stream online, what are you choices? A few years back you were stuck with command line only utilities like FFmpeg, which works great but doesn’t offer the ease of use found in GUI applications. Now with the popularity of Linux, you have 3 great GUI applications that can easily handle all your video converting needs.
Avidemux
avidemux
Avidemux, similar to VirtualDub in Windows, is a full fledged video editor that also converts video formats. Altough the program is user-friendly, it does have a learning curve because of its many features. Avidemux supports most major video formats like mpeg2, AVI, mp4, flv (there’s only partial support for WMV).
Avidemux can easily remove commercials from video capture files, convert video formats, convert full DVD’s to 700 mb AVI files with AC3 audio, and extract subtitles from DVD movies. Currently high definition support is limited to mpeg2 & avi, but not with mpeg TS or h.264. Avidemux uses mostly the libavcodec library from FFmpeg.
Avidemux (currently at 2.4.4) can be downloaded from your distro’s repositories or from Avidemux.
Pros - converts nearly all formats and allows advance features like cutting and pasting video segments.
Cons - higher learning curve because of its robust features.
Handbrake
handbrake
Handbrake is the open-source Video transcoder popularized on the MacOSX & Windows platforms, and recently released their own GUI enabled linux version (previously Handbrake was available on Linux in command line only version). When you need to convert video files for your portable devices like an iPod, iPhone, or PSP Handbrake works like a champ. The process is very straightforward and the program offers a wide range of presets for most situations you will encounter. Although Handbrake works with most video formats, Flash is not supported.
Handbrake (currently 0.9.3) can be downloaded from your distro’s repositories or from Handbrake.
Pros - best program to encode to iPhone / iPod.
Cons - no support for flash.
WinFF
winff
The simplest and my personal favorite converting tool is WinFF. WinFF is a frontend for FFmpeg, featuring a basic graphical user interface. The program works with all formats that are compatible with FFmpeg, so you won’t have any problems converting files for your iPhone/iPod, flash videos for the web or DVD players.
The process for converting files is straightforward. Add your files, then select the preset you want and output folder. There’s also check boxes for advance encoding features like 2 pass and deinterlace.
The latest verion of WinFF (currently 0.45) can be downloaded from your distro’s repositories or from winff.
Pros - Best tool for converting files to Flash format.
Cons - Interface is basic. Full Story |
