Can anyone recommend a command-line tool for converting different video formats into MPEG-4 or h.264? I've got a tonne of MJPEG movie files from our digital camera which I'd like to convert to something smaller so I can email them to family. Thanks.
Not sure about command-line use but to convert to MPEG-4 I think you have the following 3 main options:
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Use the Nero Digital codec. It's part of Nero Recode which comes packaged with the Nero Reloaded suite.
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Use DivX (www.divx.com)
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Quicktime. I think it can be done with Quicktime Pro but Sorenson Squeeze (pricey) gives better quality.
Of course you can also encode them to the excellent Windows Media Video version 9 format and there is a FREE encoder for that available here:
microsoft.com/windows/window ... fault.aspx
It can probably convert a batch.
To be honest if they're just MPEG files from a digital camera I would use the WMV9 option and encode at something like 15 frames per second, 320x240 resolution, 83% quality-based variable bit rate. If your family have a recent version of Windows Media Player they'll play "out of the box" and no need to download codecs.
My WMV9 videos are at bubblevision.com/movie-gallery.htm if you want to see samples.
www.videohelp.com is a useful site for this sort of thing.
Nick
Thanks for the suggestions. I ended up finding RiverPast Video Cleaner which does most of what I want, and has a batch mode flexible enough for me. Very nice indeed. I'm converting the movies into XviD MPEG-4 and they're going from 4-5meg to 700kb-1meg, small enough for emailing but still good quality.
Damien