Skip to main content

ffmpeg - Convert AVI (Xvid) to MP4 (H.264) keeping the same quality


I want to compress an AVI file to MP4 using an h.264 codec. I could not get the same quality. How can I compress it?


Original Video:


Original Video Screen:



FFmpeg console output (ffmpeg -i input.avi):


FFmpeg version SVN-r26402, Copyright (c) 2000-2011 the FFmpeg developers
  built on Dec 28 2012 10:03:40 with gcc 4.4.6 20120305 (Red Hat 4.4.6-4)
  configuration: --enable-shared --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --enable-nonfree                                                                                         --enable-pthreads --enable-x11grab --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopenc                                                                                        ore-amrwb --enable-libdc1394 --enable-libfaac --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libop                                                                                        enjpeg --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-libx264                                                                                         --enable-libxvid --enable-zlib --enable-filter=drawtext
  libavutil     50.36. 0 / 50.36. 0
  libavcore      0.16. 1 /  0.16. 1
  libavcodec    52.108. 0 / 52.108. 0
  libavformat   52.93. 0 / 52.93. 0
  libavdevice   52. 2. 3 / 52. 2. 3
  libavfilter    1.74. 0 /  1.74. 0
  libswscale     0.12. 0 /  0.12. 0
[mpeg4 @ 0x626b50] Invalid and inefficient vfw-avi packed B frames detected
Input #0, avi, from 'input.avi':
  Metadata:
    encoder         : VirtualDubMod 1.5.10.2 (build 2542/release)
  Duration: 01:32:38.13, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 2094 kb/s
    Stream #0.0: Video: mpeg4, yuv420p, 720x304 [PAR 1:1 DAR 45:19], 23.98 tbr,                                                                                         23.98 tbn, 23.98 tbc
    Stream #0.1: Audio: ac3, 44100 Hz, 5.1, s16, 384 kb/s
At least one output file must be specified

Test 1


FFmpeg command:


ffmpeg -i input.avi -vcodec libx264 -vpre lossless_slow -crf 25 -acodec libfaac -threads 0 -t 60 1.mp4

Test 1 Screen:



FFmpeg console output (ffmpeg -i 1.mp4)


    FFmpeg version SVN-r26402, Copyright (c) 2000-2011 the FFmpeg developers
  built on Dec 28 2012 10:03:40 with gcc 4.4.6 20120305 (Red Hat 4.4.6-4)
  configuration: --enable-shared --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --enable-nonfree --enable-pthreads --enable-x11grab --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libdc1394 --enable-libfaac --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-libx264 --enable-libxvid --enable-zlib --enable-filter=drawtext
  libavutil     50.36. 0 / 50.36. 0
  libavcore      0.16. 1 /  0.16. 1
  libavcodec    52.108. 0 / 52.108. 0
  libavformat   52.93. 0 / 52.93. 0
  libavdevice   52. 2. 3 / 52. 2. 3
  libavfilter    1.74. 0 /  1.74. 0
  libswscale     0.12. 0 /  0.12. 0
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from '1.mp4':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : isom
    minor_version   : 512
    compatible_brands: isomiso2avc1mp41
    creation_time   : 1970-01-01 00:00:00
    encoder         : Lavf52.93.0
  Duration: 00:01:00.01, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 618 kb/s
    Stream #0.0(und): Video: h264, yuv420p, 720x304 [PAR 1:1 DAR 45:19], 437 kb/s, 23.98 fps, 23.98 tbr, 24k tbn, 47.95 tbc
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 1970-01-01 00:00:00
    Stream #0.1(und): Audio: aac, 44100 Hz, 5.1, s16, 176 kb/s
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 1970-01-01 00:00:00
At least one output file must be specified

Test 2


FFmpeg command:


ffmpeg -y -i input.avi -pass 1 -vcodec libx264 -vpre slow -b 2000k -threads 0 -t 60 -f mp4 -an -y /dev/null
ffmpeg -y -i input.avi -pass 2 -vcodec libx264 -vpre slow -b 2000k -threads 0 -t 60 -acodec libfaac -ab 128k -ac 2 2.mp4

Test 2 Screen:



FFmpeg console output (ffmpeg -i 2.mp4)


FFmpeg version SVN-r26402, Copyright (c) 2000-2011 the FFmpeg developers
  built on Dec 28 2012 10:03:40 with gcc 4.4.6 20120305 (Red Hat 4.4.6-4)
  configuration: --enable-shared --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --enable-nonfree --enable-pthreads --enable-x11grab --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libdc1394 --enable-libfaac --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-libx264 --enable-libxvid --enable-zlib --enable-filter=drawtext
  libavutil     50.36. 0 / 50.36. 0
  libavcore      0.16. 1 /  0.16. 1
  libavcodec    52.108. 0 / 52.108. 0
  libavformat   52.93. 0 / 52.93. 0
  libavdevice   52. 2. 3 / 52. 2. 3
  libavfilter    1.74. 0 /  1.74. 0
  libswscale     0.12. 0 /  0.12. 0
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from '2.mp4':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : isom
    minor_version   : 512
    compatible_brands: isomiso2avc1mp41
    creation_time   : 1970-01-01 00:00:00
    encoder         : Lavf52.93.0
  Duration: 00:01:00.01, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 1097 kb/s
    Stream #0.0(und): Video: h264, yuv420p, 720x304 [PAR 1:1 DAR 45:19], 1028 kb/s, 23.98 fps, 23.98 tbr, 24k tbn, 47.95 tbc
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 1970-01-01 00:00:00
    Stream #0.1(und): Audio: aac, 44100 Hz, stereo, s16, 63 kb/s
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 1970-01-01 00:00:00
At least one output file must be specified

Answer



First of all, install a more recent version of FFmpeg – grab a static build from the download page.


The use of vpre presets (which is a way to set default values for ffmpeg settings, not encoder settings) is not really necessary; you usually want to use the -preset options defined by the encoders.


The reasons you get low output quality are the following, for your two cases respectively:




  1. In the first case you use crf 25, a Constant Rate Factor that's going to give you worse quality than the default for the x264 encoder (which is 23). The CRF controls the quality. Try setting a lower CRF, maybe 20, 18, etc. Here, lower means better quality, but it'll increase the file size. A change of 6 in the CRF gives you twice/half the original average bitrate, roughly speaking.


    You'll have to set a lower CRF because of the generation loss. You're encoding something that was already encoded, so you're again throwing away visual information. That's never good, but if you have to, you're going to have to set a higher quality so as not to remove too much information from the input video.




  2. In the second case you're trying to set a constant bit rate of 2 MBit/s. Your input video roughly has the same bit rate. Now, x264 delivers much better visual quality than an MPEG-4 Visual encoder for the same bitrate, but due to the generation loss, again, you might want to use an even higher bitrate than the original – otherwise you'll end up compressing away too much information.


    Furthermore, constant bitrate encoding might result in some passages looking good, but other parts of the video looking worse. If you don't let the encoder freely choose the amount of bits it wants to spend on something, you're going to sacrifice quality at the expense of knowing the target file size.


    x264 does have a constant bit rate mode, but it's considered inferior to the other encoding methods. Actually, two-pass encoding isn't meant to target optimal quality, so scratch that.




That all being said, try something along the following:


ffmpeg -i input.avi -c:v libx264 -crf 19 -preset slow -c:a libfdk_aac -b:a 192k -ac 2 out.mp4

If libfdk_aac is not available, use this instead:


ffmpeg -i input.avi -c:v libx264 -crf 19 -preset slow -c:a aac -b:a 192k -ac 2 out.mp4

The main quality control knob will be your CRF setting. Experiment with that and use a lower value if you need better quality.


You can also choose the veryslow preset, which will give you better compression, but the encoding will obviously take longer.


If you can't manage to get a decent quality file at a reasonable file size, then you're out of luck. Better keep the original file as-is, without re-encoding. There's no magic "keeping the same quality" tool when you're compressing something that's already compressed.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Use Google instead of Bing with Windows 10 search

I want to use Google Chrome and Google search instead of Bing when I search in Windows 10. Google Chrome is launched when I click on web, but it's Bing search. (My default search engine on Google and Edge is http://www.google.com ) I haven't found how to configure that. Someone can help me ? Answer There is no way to change the default in Cortana itself but you can redirect it in Chrome. You said that it opens the results in the Chrome browser but it used Bing search right? There's a Chrome extension now that will redirect Bing to Google, DuckDuckGo, or Yahoo , whichever you prefer. More information on that in the second link.
Post a Comment
Read more

linux - Using an index to make grep faster?

I find myself grepping the same codebase over and over. While it works great, each command takes about 10 seconds, so I am thinking about ways to make it faster. So can grep use some sort of index? I understand an index probably won't help for complicated regexps, but I use mostly very simple patters. Does an indexer exist for this case? EDIT: I know about ctags and the like, but I would like to do full-text search. Answer what about cscope , does this match your shoes? Allows searching code for: all references to a symbol global definitions functions called by a function functions calling a function text string regular expression pattern a file files including a file
Post a Comment
Read more

How do I transmit a single hexadecimal value serial data in PuTTY using an Alt code?

I am trying to sent a specific hexadecimal value across a serial COM port using PuTTY. Specifically, I want to send the hex codes 9C, B6, FC, and 8B. I have looked up the Alt codes for these and they are 156, 182, 252, and 139 respectively. However, whenever I input the Alt codes, a preceding hex value of C2 is sent before 9C, B6, and 8B so the values that are sent are C2 9C, C2 B6, and C2 8B. The value for FC is changed to C3 FC. Why are these values being placed before the hex value and why is FC being changed altogether? To me, it seems like there is a problem internally converting the Alt code to hex. Is there a way to directly input hex values without using Alt codes in PuTTY? Answer What you're seeing is just ordinary text character set conversion. As far as PuTTY is concerned, you are typing (and reading) text , not raw binary data, therefore it has to convert the text to bytes in whatever configured character set before sending it over the wire. In other words, when y...
Post a Comment
Read more

linux - CentOs 7.1 - Install Tomcat 8

I am using this tutorial as a setup reference to getting a Tomcat 8 running on CentOs 7.1 , but after typing: [root@localhost tomcat]# sudo systemctl start tomcat I get the error: Job for tomcat.service failed. See 'systemctl status tomcat.service' and 'journalctl -xn' for details. systemctl status tomcat.service prints the following: [root@localhost tomcat]# systemctl status tomcat.service tomcat.service - Apache Tomcat Web Application Container Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/tomcat.service; disabled) Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Wed 2015-11-25 16:54:33 CET; 1min 19s ago Process: 45873 ExecStart=/opt/tomcat/bin/startup.sh (code=exited, status=203/EXEC) Nov 25 16:54:33 localhost.localdomain systemd[1]: Starting Apache Tomcat Web Application Container... Nov 25 16:54:33 localhost.localdomain systemd[1]: tomcat.service: control process exited, code=exited status=203 Nov 25 16:54:33 localhost.localdomain systemd[1]: Failed to start Apache Tomcat Web App...
Post a Comment
Read more