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theja
Asked: 2012-07-08 08:29:11 +0800 CST

Need to downsample video to a lower resolution

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I would like to convert a Mp4 file in HD into a Mp4 file of lower resolution. Is there any software that can be used for this?

video-conversion

3 Answers

  1. Terminal commands (Which by default are not installed) are:

    MENCODER

    Install it by sudo apt-get install mencoder

    mencoderInstall mencoder

    The part about mencoder that you want is the parameter -vop scale which tells mencoder to what scale you want the video to go to. This is normal if you want to reduce bandwidth use, lower video size, etc..

    mencoder input.mp4 -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mp4 -vop scale=640:480 -oac copy -o output.mp4

    or

    mencoder input.mp4 -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mp4 -vf scale=640:480 -oac copy -o output.mp4

    or a simple

    mencoder input.mp4 -vop scale=640:480 -o output.mp4

    Although from my experience is better to include additional information for video and audio like the one above.

    FFMPEG (Deprecated)

    Install it by sudo apt-get install ffmpeg

    ffmpegInstall ffmpeg

    Here is an example of ffmpeg:

    ffmpeg -i input -vf scale=iw/2:-1 output

    Where IW = Video Input Width.

    Scale = Parameter to scale to. In this case you are dividing the original size by 2 (iw/2)

    both of which can provide more information if you either execute them without parameters or variables like just mencoder or ffmpeg or type for example man mencoder or man ffmpeg which will give you a VERY extensive little manual on how to work with them.

    AVCONV <-- I love this guy!

    avconvInstall Avconv

    To Install - sudo apt-get install libav-tools

    To Run - avconv -i input.mp4 -s 640x480 output.mp4

    Where -i is for the original input file, -s is for the size for each frame and the name of the output final goes in the end.

    GUI tools which I love are:

    enter image description here

    AVIDEMUX - It can resize and lower the size which helps in cases where the objective is to lower size. avidemuxInstall avidemux

    enter image description here

    HANDBRAKE - Excellent tool for converting videos and optimizing size. I use it a lot when going from ogg to mp4 with h.264. Lowers A LOT the size. handbrakeInstall handbrake

    enter image description here

    OPENSHOT & PITIVI - Both are good video editors tha can help lower size when rendering the video. openshotInstall openshot and pitiviInstall pitivi

    So in conclusion, for direct resizing/scaling you can use the terminal ones. For size you can use all.

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  2. Use avconv. Type in terminal

    avconv -i input.mp4 -s 320x240 output.mp4

    Replace 320x240 with whatever resolution you want.

    There a lot of additional options that you can play with. Do man avconv to know more.

    Instead, if you don't have avconv, you could use ffmpeg.

    Install:

    sudo apt-get install ffmpeg

    Convert:

    ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -s 320x240 output.mp4
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  3. Use VLC.

    From the Media menu choose "Convert/Save". Add your file(s) to the input and click Convert/Save button.

    You'll then be asked to specify an output file, and you can choose a profile and tinker with it, e.g. here I scale the video by 50%:

    screenshot

    Click Save.

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