ffmpeg usage to encode a video to H264 codec format

Question

I have a *.mp4 video file(MPEG4 video codec) and I am trying to convert this to a H264 video codec format(raw h.264 format) using ffmpeg on Linux(Version - FFmpeg version SVN-r0.5.1-4:0.5.1-1ubuntu1, Copyright (c) 2000-2009 Fabrice Bellard,) using command line as shown below,

ffmpeg -i input .mp4 output.h264 

but I get an error saying -

Unsupported codec for output stream #0.0

Then when i try this option:

ffmpeg -i input .mp4 -formats h264 output.h264 

it still does not work, and gives -

Seems stream 0 codec frame rate differs from container frame rate: 59.94 (5994/100) -> 29.97 (30000/1001)
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'Rapture.mp4':
  Duration: 00:02:06.44, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 26574 kb/s
    Stream #0.0(eng): Video: h264, yuv420p, 1920x1080, 29.97 tbr, 29.97 tbn, 59.94 tbc
    Stream #0.1(eng): Audio: aac, 48000 Hz, stereo, s16

And then it prints out help on the formats which we get when we do ffmpeg -formats

When I checked the help, ffmpeg -formats, I see below information related to H264 file format and codec:

File format : 

DE h264            raw H.264 video format

Codecs:

D V D  h264         H.264 / AVC / MPEG-4 AVC / MPEG-4 part 10

My questions :

1. How can I convert the video to a H264 encoded video (raw H264 video format)

2. When I do ffmpeg -formats, I see many acronyms for the codecs supported, I see many acronyms before the codec name/type such as - D V D S E A, what do they stand for?

3. How to use the ffmpeg options -vcodec and -formats?

Solution 1

I believe you have libx264 installed and configured with ffmpeg to convert video to h264... Then you can try with -vcodec libx264... The -format option is for showing available formats, this is not a conversion option I think...

Solution 2

I used these options to convert to the H.264/AAC .mp4 format for HTML5 playback (I think it may help other guys with this problem in some way):

ffmpeg -i input.flv -vcodec mpeg4 -acodec aac output.mp4

UPDATE

As @LordNeckbeard mentioned, the previous line will produce MPEG-4 Part 2 (back in 2012 that worked somehow, I don't remember/understand why). Use the libx264 encoder to produce the proper video with H.264/AAC. To test the output file you can just drag it to a browser window and it should playback just fine.

ffmpeg -i input.flv -vcodec libx264 -acodec aac output.mp4

Solution 3

I believe that by now the above answers are outdated (or at least unclear) so here's my little go at it. I tried compiling ffmpeg with the option --enable-encoders=libx264 and it will give no error but it won't enable anything (I can't seem to find where I found that suggestion).

Anyways step-by-step, first you must compile libx264 yourself because repository version is outdated:

  wget ftp://ftp.videolan.org/pub/x264/snapshots/last_x264.tar.bz2
  tar --bzip2 -xvf last_x264.tar.bz2
  cd x264-snapshot-XXXXXXXX-XXXX/
  ./configure
  make
  sudo make install

And then get and compile ffmpeg with libx264 enabled. I'm using the latest release which is "Happiness":

wget http://ffmpeg.org/releases/ffmpeg-0.11.2.tar.bz2
tar --bzip2 -xvf ffmpeg-0.11.2.tar.bz2
cd ffmpeg-0.11.2/
./configure --enable-libx264 --enable-gpl
make
sudo install

Now finally you have the libx264 codec to encode, to check it you may run

ffmpeg -codecs | grep h264

and you'll see the options you have were the first D means decoding and the first E means encoding

Solution 4

"C:\Program Files (x86)\ffmpegX86shared\bin\ffmpeg.exe" -y -i "C:\testfile.ts" -an -vcodec libx264 -g 75 -keyint_min 12 -vb 4000k -vprofile high -level 40 -s 1920x1080 -y -threads 0 -r 25 "C:\testfile.h264"

The above worked for me on a Windows machine using a FFmpeg Win32 shared build by Kyle Schwarz. The build was compiled on: Feb 22 2013, at: 01:09:53

Note that -an defines that audio should be skipped.

View more solutions

Comments

[goldenmean]

I have x264 installed on this linux machine, but when I use -vcodec libx264, it gives error "Unknown encoder 'libx264' " . I guess when I installed x264 , libx264 would also have been installed. Am i right. Also what configuration is needed to use libx264 to use with ffmpeg. How to configure ffmpeg which is already installed to use this libx264?

[Muhammad Razib]

Hi, have a look at here ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=786095 . During configuration of ffmpeg you have to enable libx264 codec using --enable libx264 option

[goldenmean]

That page says, If I have ffmpeg installed previously, I need to remove/uninstall , then build the libx264 and ffmpeg from source. I can do that, but isn't there any 'easier' way to install libx264 using the ubuntu pacgae manager/install apt-get install <libx264 something>..

[Muhammad Razib]

@goldenman: I tried to use libx264 once with already installed ffmpeg, but I could not. I think ffmpeg puts only those codecs information in libavcodec that have been configured using --enable option. btw libx264 does not give much trouble installing from source :)...So better to configure and make ffmpeg newly with libx264

[Leigh Caldwell]

I found that make install for libx264 installed only the executable x264 program, but not the libraries. After I used install-lib-dev install-lib-shared and install-lib-static it worked fine (I'm not sure which of these is necessary but I succeeded with all three).

[Rafael Xavier]

Great Ubuntu installation guide ffmpeg.org/trac/ffmpeg/wiki/UbuntuCompilationGuide

[Salmaan]

when i use -vcodec mpeg4, browser only runs audio not video

[Alex K]

@Salmaan you might not have the video codec on the system, you might want to try ffmpeg -codecs to see what you have available

[malat]

Please edit your answer sameq is not what you want (See ffmpeg FAQ 3.17 Why was the ffmpeg -sameq option removed? What to use instead?)

[Don Law]

Thanks malat - I've been wasting options all this time.

[Dr.jacky]

If i'm going to compile ffmpeg for ARM processors, should I compile libx264 same as ffmpeg?! (do some specific stuff for libx264 too?).

[Ian Beyer]

@Salmaan That's because mpeg4 is not h.264/AVC.

[llogan]

This does not output H.264 video. Using mpeg4 produces the old, legacy MPEG-4 Part 2 video, not H.264 video. This will not work in HTML5 video. Change mpeg4 to libx264 to encode H.264 video.

[llogan]

Adding -movflags +faststart is recommended for HTML5 playback (and all other progressive download playback) so it can begin playing before the file is completely downloaded by the viewer.