>This is a guide on how to encode audio / video in which you will find some tips & tricks for using FFmpeg and other tools.
Video Size and Aspect Ratio
iPhone:
Name Size Aspect
Wide 16:9 480×270 4:3
Old TV 4:3 427×320 16:9
Wide 16:9 /16 480×272 480:272
Old TV 4:3 /16 432×320 432:320
DV NTSC video
Name Size Aspect
Wide 16:9 720×480 16:9
Old TV 4:3 720×480 4:3
Upload to Youtube and Vimeo
Name Size Aspect
SD 4:3 640:480 4:3
HD 16:9 1280×720 16:9
HD, Blu-Ray, AVCHD
Name Size Aspect
720p 1280×720 16:9
1080p/i Anamorphic 1440×1080 16:9
1080p/i 1920×1080 16:9
Frames Per Second
Name Standard Fps FFmpeg
Movies NTSC 23.976 24000/1001
Movies QuickTime N/A 29.976 10000000/417083
TV vídeo NTSC 29.97 30000/1001
Movies PAL 25 25
TV vídeo PAL 30 30
Video encoding with FFmpeg
Config for X264
default fastfirstpass lossless_ultrafast lossless_slower
baseline slowfirstpass lossless_fast lossless_max
normal hq lossless_medium ipod320
main max lossless_slow ipod640
Location of presets in Windows:
C:usrshareffmpeg
Location of presets on Linux:
usrshareffmpeg
High Quality 2 Pass
ffmpeg -y -i INPUT -r 30000/1001 -b 2M -bt 4M -vcodec libx264 -pass 1 -vpre fastfirstpass -an output.mp4ffmpeg -y -i INPUT -r 30000/1001 -b 2M -bt 4M -vcodec libx264 -pass 2 -vpre hq -acodec libfaac -ac 2 -ar 48000 -ab 192k output.mp4
iPod iPhone-width 320
ffmpeg -i INPUT -s 320×240 -r 30000/1001 -b 200k -bt 240k -vcodec libx264 -vpre ipod320 -acodec libfaac -ac 2 -ar 48000 -ab 192k output.mp4
iPod iPhone-width 640
ffmpeg -i INPUT -s 640×480 -r 30000/1001 -b 200k -bt 240k -vcodec libx264 -vpre ipod640 -acodec libfaac -ac 2 -ar 48000 -ab 192k output.mp4
High quality, 2 pass without preconfiguration
ffmpeg -y -i input -r 24000/1001 -b 6144k -bt 8192k -vcodec libx264 -pass 1 -flags +loop -me_method dia -g 250 -qcomp 0.6 -qmin 10 -qmax 51 -qdiff 4 -bf 16 -b_strategy 1 -i_qfactor 0.71 -cmp +chroma -subq 1 -me_range 16 -coder 1 -sc_threshold 40 -flags2 -bpyramid-wpred-mixed_refs-dct8x8+fastpskip -keyint_min 25 -refs 1 -trellis 0 -directpred 1 -partitions -parti8x8-parti4x4-partp8x8-partp4x4-partb8x8-an output.mp4
ffmpeg -y -i input -r 24000/1001 -b 6144k -bt 8192k -vcodec libx264 -pass 2 -flags +loop -me_method umh -g 250 -qcomp 0.6 -qmin 10 -qmax 51 -qdiff 4 -bf 16 -b_strategy 1 -i_qfactor 0.71 -cmp +chroma -subq 8 -me_range 16 -coder 1 -sc_threshold 40 -flags2 +bpyramid+wpred+mixed_refs+dct8x8+fastpskip -keyint_min 25 -refs 4 -trellis 1 -directpred 3 -partitions +parti8x8+parti4x4+partp8x8+partb8x8-acodec libfaac -ac 2 -ar 44100 -ab 128k output.mp4
iPod, iPhone 320 off, without preconfiguration
ffmpeg -i INPUT -s 320×240 -r 30000/1001 -b 200k -bt 240k -vcodec libx264 -coder 0 -bf 0 -flags2 -wpred-dct8x8 -level 13 -maxrate 768k -bufsize 3M-acodec libfaac -ac 2 -ar 48000 -ab 192k output.mp4
iPod, iPhone 640 off, without preconfiguration
ffmpeg -i INPUT -s 320×240 -r 30000/1001 -b 200k -bt 240k -vcodec libx264 coder 0 -bf 0 -refs 1 -flags2 -wpred-dct8x8 -level 30 -maxrate 10M -bufsize 10M-acodec libfaac -ac 2 -ar 48000 -ab 192k output.mp4
iPod, iPhone, custom 2 pass
ffmpeg -y -i input -r 30000/1001 -s 480×272 -aspect 480:272 -vcodec libx264 -b 512k -bt 1024k -maxrate 4M -flags +loop -cmp +chroma -me_range 16 -g 300 -keyint_min 25 -sc_threshold 40 -i_qfactor 0.71 -rc_eq “blurCplx^(1-qComp)” -qcomp 0.6 -qmin 10 -qmax 51 -qdiff 4 -coder 0 -refs 1 -bufsize 4M -level 21 -partitions parti4x4+partp8x8+partb8x8 -subq 5 -f mp4 -pass 1 -an -title “Title” output.mp4
ffmpeg -y -i input -r 30000/1001 -s 480×272 -aspect 480:272 -vcodec libx264 -b 512k -bt 1024k -maxrate 4M -flags +loop -cmp +chroma -me_range 16 -g 300 keyint_min 25 -sc_threshold 40 -i_qfactor 0.71 -rc_eq “blurCplx^(1-qComp)” -qcomp 0.6 -qmin 10 -qmax 51 -qdiff 4 -coder 0 -refs 1 -bufsize 4M -level 21 -partitions parti4x4+partp8x8+partb8x8 -subq 5 -f mp4 -pass 2 -acodec libfaac -ac 2 -ar 44100 -ab 128k -title “Title” output.mp4
DV Video
To DV
ffmpeg -i input -target ntsc-dv -aspect 4:3 -y output.dv
Audio
AAC Stereo High Quality
-acodec libfaac -ac 2 -ar 48000 -ab 192k
AAC Stereo Standard Quality
-acodec libfaac -ac 2 -ar 44100 -ab 128k
High Quality AAC 5.1
-acodec libfaac -ac 6 -ar 48000 -ab 448k
Low Quality AAC 5.1
-acodec libfaac -ac 6 -ar 44100 -ab 224k
AAC AC3 (Recommended: use AviSynth for mapping channel)
ffmpeg -i intput.aac -vn -acodec ac3 -ac 6 -ar 48000 -ab 448k
AC3 to M4V (Mux to be open in another application)
ffmpeg -i input.ac3 -vn -acodec copy output.m4v
AC3 to AAC (does not work as expected)
ffmpeg -i input.ac3 -vn -r 30000/1001 -acodec libfaac -ac 6 -ar 48000 -ab 448k output.aac
Eac3To
AC3 5.1 channel mapping correction
eac3to true_hd.ac3 fixed_true_hd.ac3 -blu-ray -448
AAC to AC3
Open AAC in Audacity or SoundBooth
Export To Wav
Remux the Wav to Wav using FFmpeg:
ffmpeg -i audio.wav –vn -acodec copy audio-out.wav
Convert to AC3 using EAC3to
eac3to.exe audio.wav Main.ac3 -448
Other FFmpeg options
-threads thread count
-y overwrite output files
-ss time_off set the start time offset
-t duration record or transcode “duration” seconds of audio/vídeo
-ildct Interlaced
Windows builds:
http://ffmpeg.arrozcru.com/autobuilds
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=205275&package_id=248632
X264 encoding guide in English by Robert Swain:
http://rob.opendot.cl/index.php/useful-stuff/ffmpeg-x264-encoding-guide
[Credits: Rodrigo Polo]