36 votes
Accepted

How to downsample 4k to 1080p using ffmpeg while maintaining the quality?

The default settings for ffmpeg are very low quality, and since you don't specify any codec or quality parameters it's just using the defaults (I don't know why the devs don't fix that because it ...
  • 13.6k
12 votes
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Big difference in the video file size after the conversion (.mov to .mp4)

Let me explain you from scratch. MOV, MP4, AVI, MKV etc all these are just containers, It is just kind of wrapper which contains audio, video, text, metadata file together as one file. It does not ...
9 votes

How to downsample 4k to 1080p using ffmpeg while maintaining the quality?

Convert 4k to 1080 (no change in codec) ffmpeg -i input4kvid.mp4 -vf scale=1920:1080 -c:a copy output1080vid.mp4 Convert h.264 to h.265 (no change in resolution) ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:v libx265 -...
7 votes

Is there a video type for vector animation?

SVG supports animation using JavaScript and the animate element. That means using a browser or embeddable renderer like WebKit to render it, though. Older games often used their own vector animation ...
6 votes
Accepted

How are video and audio streams placed in 'container' files and what interrelations do they have?

The basics of that are actually not that complicated (while there is definitely more to know about that topic than would fit in this answer). Take a look at that graphic you can find on the w3c-...
  • 5,392
6 votes

Corrupt MP4 [recording interrupted]

I recently encountered this exact problem and I was able to repair the file using Untrunc, a program created specifically to solve this problem, as suggested by sparrowt on SuperUser: For this ...
  • 161
6 votes
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Understanding containers and codecs

MPEG-4 is not a container specification. It's a suite of specifications. Parts 12 and 14 define containers (MP4). Part 2 defines a video codec, whose encoder implementations are DivX and Xvid. Part 10 ...
  • 31.4k
6 votes

What is the most basic standard raw video format?

The reason there is no widely used uncompressed video format, as there is for audio is that the data rate for uncompressed video is so colossal that uncompressed video is kinda useless. While a ...
  • 13.6k
5 votes

What is the best universal video format / extension so that it can be viewed on iPad and PCs

h.264 is very widely supported and can be found in multiple different types of container formats. mp4 or m4v are probably the most widely used extensions, but particular support for files varies ...
  • 19.3k
5 votes

Easily convert & archive a bunch of low res Video CD DAT files MPEG 1/2 to newer better format such as MKV or others?

Using ffmpeg, a free command-line tool, you can convert these DATs to MP4 (or MKV): ffmpeg -i input.dat -c:v libx264 -crf 20 -c:a aac -b:a 128k -movflags +faststart output.mp4 Your VLC output doesn'...
  • 31.4k
5 votes
Accepted

What is the difference between VP9 and ​WebM?

VP9 is a video format. Another example is H.264. WebM is a container format that VP9 goes into. It is equivalent to the MP4 container format for the H.264 video format. libvpx is a video encoder (or ...
  • 9,604
4 votes

Corrupt MP4 [recording interrupted]

Updated: this tool can now recover files from more sources. Try with recover_mp4_to_h264. It's a command line program, and will require a good reference file. Usage as indicated: recover_mp4 ...
  • 31.4k
4 votes

Why does a video file that appears to be an MP4 not play in Windows Media Player?

Probably a fragmented MP4. Remux it using ffmpeg. ffmpeg -i filename -c copy out.mp4
  • 31.4k
4 votes
Accepted

What it means "a royalty free alternative" to video/audio (WebM format)

It's a quite complex topic, but yes, when dealing with non-royalty-free technologies you are in some cases required to pay royalties to the patent holders, depending on your usage. This usually ...
  • 700
4 votes
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Errors in converting mp4 to ts with FFmpeg

a) -bsf h264_mp4toannexb applies the filter to all output streams but it has to be applied to only video streams. b) In any case, newer versions of ffmpeg, like the one you have, will automatically ...
  • 31.4k
4 votes

What is the video equivalent of vector graphics?

The whole premise of vector graphics is that there is a drawing engine in the output device that can interpret graphical commands and output shapes and fonts at the maximum resolution of its ...
  • 171
3 votes
Accepted

I have a TS file. How do I render it?

"Raw" ususally refers to uncompressed video (though this is technically wrong), meaning you probably have a very large file. Rendering is the process of re-encoding the video using another codec, ...
  • 5,392
3 votes
Accepted

Which different EDL types exist?

CMX 3600 (or earlier 340) is very common and understood by many systems. GVG (Grass Valley Group) format is almost as common. For simple cuts, dissolves and keys the two are highly compatible, but for ...
  • 4,674
3 votes

Is there a video type for vector animation?

Here is some research about this topic: Resolution Independent 2D Cartoon Video Conversion https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305390110_Resolution_Independent_2D_Cartoon_Video_Conversion Video ...
3 votes
Accepted

Is there a video container which is able to handle segments of different video quality (or even size)?

If the only difference is bitrate, then any container which accepts variable bitrate streams, will fulfill your requirement e.g. MP4, MKV..etc Step 1 is to encode your segments, ideally using the ...
  • 31.4k
3 votes

How to: Add Chapters, Sections, markers to video files to help direct access, skipping/ fast forwarding?

MP4 format does support chapters. You can use free Drax utility to create them. Please note that not all video players support MP4 chapters. You need to find one that does (VLC ?)
  • 1,139
3 votes
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Do I have any sort of loss converting an M4V file to MKV?

Your command ffmpeg -i "path/to/file.m4v" -c:v copy -c:a copy "path/to/file.mkv" does do a lossless copy since no recompression occurs. You have to note all warning or error messages during the ...
  • 31.4k
3 votes
Accepted

Lossless color compression

Without knowing the video properties, my generic answer is ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -vf geq=lum='p(X,Y)':cb=128:cr=128 out.mp4 This will reset the color information, but pass the luma plane intact. Add -crf ...
  • 31.4k
3 votes

How to convert a 720° ".ts" video recorded with an AllieCam360?

FFmpeg can see both views as separate video streams. You can remux the file to MP4 simply by using ffmpeg -i input.ts -c copy -map 0 output.mp4 Hopefully, your video editor can work with distinct ...
  • 31.4k
3 votes

What is the best format for archiving digital movies?

Ah yes, the age-old question without a definitive answer that is straightforward and cost-effective. In short, you want to store them in the highest-quality you can, in a format that you'll hopefully ...
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3 votes

What is the best format for archiving digital movies?

If you're looking for an open source codec that is finding favour in archives and museums as an archival format, you might want to look at FFV1 from the FFMPEG project. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
  • 13.6k
3 votes

Need help to fix a broken MP4 which lacks a MOOV atom

As you said you have similar files, you may try the following: 1) any good mp4 file with the same resolution and bitrate to generate the header files: recover_mp4.exe good.mp4 --analyze 2) recover ...
3 votes

What is the most basic standard raw video format?

This topic is really complex and you have confused some things. WAV and mp4 are container formats, they can contain compressed or uncompressed data, while WMV is a series of codecs and formats. TXT ...
  • 1,391
2 votes

Change output using a .jsx script for After Effects CS6

To update @MBrizzle answer, this functionality was added to After Effects CC 2014. There are 4 new methods: RenderQueueItem object getSetting, setSetting methods OutputModule object getSetting, ...
2 votes

Video Encoding - Wasting Space

It takes a lot of bits to accurately, or nearly-accurately reproduce the input pixels, regardless of what they contain. The only exception is low-complexity stuff like a screen capture or animation, ...
  • 2,690

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