Long gone are the days when mobile phones were simply used for making telephone calls.
Nowadays these mini devices that we still call "mobile phones" more closely resemble mini-computers with many many applications from Internet browsing, email, social networking, navigation (GPS and compass based) to entertainment; both audio and visual.
Follows is my guide to converting video for natively supported playback on both Android and iPhones. That is after following this guide, you should be able to watch the converted videos using any type video player on either your Android or iPhone.
The Target Video Format: H.264
According to the specifications:
So both handsets support the H.264 video format out of the box.
OK, but what is this format? Well, if you really really want to know and have a spare 10 mins, have a look at H.264 on Wikipedia oh and yea I know, it does go on a bit!
Put simply and quickly, it's the format to use for mobile video applications ;o)
Tool to Convert Video to H.264 Format
Simple.
And here is where we get to use my favorite video conversion tool: FFMpeg
FFMpeg is free command-line software licensed under the LGPL or GPL that can be used to convert audio and video with minimal fuss. It has the advantage of being able to convert both video and audio at the same time (rather than splitting video and audio and converting them separately) which means that conversions are quick and perhaps more importantly easy. Sure it's command-line stuff but believe me; command-line is good!
It also has the advantage that under Windows it doesn't require installation. The whole tool runs from a single .exe file.
The final plus point is that FFMpeg can used to convert a plethora of different input audio and video formats. Here is a taster (as run on my Ubuntu laptop):
chris@lappy:~$ ffmpeg -formatsPhew!
FFmpeg version SVN-r26068, Copyright (c) 2000-2010 the FFmpeg developers
built on Dec 21 2010 14:01:48 with gcc 4.4.5
configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --enable-nonfree --enable-postproc --enable-libfaac --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libx264 --enable-libxvid --enable-x11grab
libavutil 50.35. 0 / 50.35. 0
libavcore 0.16. 0 / 0.16. 0
libavcodec 52.100. 0 / 52.100. 0
libavformat 52.88. 0 / 52.88. 0
libavdevice 52. 2. 2 / 52. 2. 2
libavfilter 1.69. 0 / 1.69. 0
libswscale 0.12. 0 / 0.12. 0
libpostproc 51. 2. 0 / 51. 2. 0
File formats:
D. = Demuxing supported
.E = Muxing supported
--
E 3g2 3GP2 format
E 3gp 3GP format
D 4xm 4X Technologies format
D IFF IFF format
D ISS Funcom ISS format
D MTV MTV format
DE RoQ raw id RoQ format
E a64 a64 - video for Commodore 64
D aac raw ADTS AAC
DE ac3 raw AC-3
E adts ADTS AAC
D aea MD STUDIO audio
DE aiff Audio IFF
DE alaw PCM A-law format
DE alsa ALSA audio output
DE amr 3GPP AMR file format
D anm Deluxe Paint Animation
D apc CRYO APC format
D ape Monkey's Audio
D applehttp Apple HTTP Live Streaming format
DE asf ASF format
E asf_stream ASF format
DE ass Advanced SubStation Alpha subtitle format
DE au SUN AU format
DE avi AVI format
E avm2 Flash 9 (AVM2) format
D avs AVS format
D bethsoftvid Bethesda Softworks VID format
D bfi Brute Force & Ignorance
D bink Bink
D c93 Interplay C93
D caf Apple Core Audio Format
DE cavsvideo raw Chinese AVS video
D cdg CD Graphics Format
E crc CRC testing format
DE daud D-Cinema audio format
DE dirac raw Dirac
DE dnxhd raw DNxHD (SMPTE VC-3)
D dsicin Delphine Software International CIN format
DE dts raw DTS
DE dv DV video format
D dv1394 DV1394 A/V grab
E dvd MPEG-2 PS format (DVD VOB)
D dxa DXA
D ea Electronic Arts Multimedia Format
D ea_cdata Electronic Arts cdata
DE eac3 raw E-AC-3
DE f32be PCM 32 bit floating-point big-endian format
DE f32le PCM 32 bit floating-point little-endian format
DE f64be PCM 64 bit floating-point big-endian format
DE f64le PCM 64 bit floating-point little-endian format
DE ffm FFM (FFserver live feed) format
D film_cpk Sega FILM/CPK format
DE filmstrip Adobe Filmstrip
DE flac raw FLAC
D flic FLI/FLC/FLX animation format
DE flv FLV format
E framecrc framecrc testing format
E framemd5 Per-frame MD5 testing format
DE g722 raw G.722
E gif GIF Animation
D gsm raw GSM
DE gxf GXF format
DE h261 raw H.261
DE h263 raw H.263
DE h264 raw H.264 video format
D idcin id Cinematic format
DE image2 image2 sequence
DE image2pipe piped image2 sequence
D ingenient raw Ingenient MJPEG
D ipmovie Interplay MVE format
E ipod iPod H.264 MP4 format
D iv8 A format generated by IndigoVision 8000 video server
D ivf On2 IVF
D jack JACK Audio Connection Kit
D lmlm4 lmlm4 raw format
D lxf VR native stream format (LXF)
DE m4v raw MPEG-4 video format
E matroska Matroska file format
D matroska,webm Matroska/WebM file format
E md5 MD5 testing format
DE mjpeg raw MJPEG video
DE mlp raw MLP
D mm American Laser Games MM format
DE mmf Yamaha SMAF
E mov MOV format
D mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 QuickTime/MPEG-4/Motion JPEG 2000 format
E mp2 MPEG audio layer 2
DE mp3 MPEG audio layer 3
E mp4 MP4 format
D mpc Musepack
D mpc8 Musepack SV8
DE mpeg MPEG-1 System format
E mpeg1video raw MPEG-1 video
E mpeg2video raw MPEG-2 video
DE mpegts MPEG-2 transport stream format
D mpegtsraw MPEG-2 raw transport stream format
D mpegvideo raw MPEG video
E mpjpeg MIME multipart JPEG format
D msnwctcp MSN TCP Webcam stream
DE mulaw PCM mu-law format
D mvi Motion Pixels MVI format
DE mxf Material eXchange Format
E mxf_d10 Material eXchange Format, D-10 Mapping
D mxg MxPEG clip file format
D nc NC camera feed format
D nsv Nullsoft Streaming Video
E null raw null video format
DE nut NUT format
D nuv NuppelVideo format
DE ogg Ogg
D oma Sony OpenMG audio
DE oss Open Sound System playback
E psp PSP MP4 format
D psxstr Sony Playstation STR format
D pva TechnoTrend PVA file and stream format
D qcp QCP format
D r3d REDCODE R3D format
DE rawvideo raw video format
E rcv VC-1 test bitstream
D rl2 RL2 format
DE rm RealMedia format
D rpl RPL/ARMovie format
DE rso Lego Mindstorms RSO format
DE rtp RTP output format
DE rtsp RTSP output format
DE s16be PCM signed 16 bit big-endian format
DE s16le PCM signed 16 bit little-endian format
DE s24be PCM signed 24 bit big-endian format
DE s24le PCM signed 24 bit little-endian format
DE s32be PCM signed 32 bit big-endian format
DE s32le PCM signed 32 bit little-endian format
DE s8 PCM signed 8 bit format
DE sap SAP output format
D sdp SDP
D shn raw Shorten
D siff Beam Software SIFF
D smk Smacker video
D sol Sierra SOL format
DE sox SoX native format
DE spdif IEC958 - S/PDIF (IEC-61937)
DE srt SubRip subtitle format
E svcd MPEG-2 PS format (VOB)
DE swf Flash format
D thp THP
D tiertexseq Tiertex Limited SEQ format
D tmv 8088flex TMV
DE truehd raw TrueHD
D tta True Audio
D tty Tele-typewriter
D txd Renderware TeXture Dictionary
DE u16be PCM unsigned 16 bit big-endian format
DE u16le PCM unsigned 16 bit little-endian format
DE u24be PCM unsigned 24 bit big-endian format
DE u24le PCM unsigned 24 bit little-endian format
DE u32be PCM unsigned 32 bit big-endian format
DE u32le PCM unsigned 32 bit little-endian format
DE u8 PCM unsigned 8 bit format
D vc1 raw VC-1
D vc1test VC-1 test bitstream format
E vcd MPEG-1 System format (VCD)
D video4linux Video4Linux device grab
D video4linux2 Video4Linux2 device grab
D vmd Sierra VMD format
E vob MPEG-2 PS format (VOB)
DE voc Creative Voice file format
D vqf Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) TwinVQ
D w64 Sony Wave64 format
DE wav WAV format
D wc3movie Wing Commander III movie format
E webm WebM file format
D wsaud Westwood Studios audio format
D wsvqa Westwood Studios VQA format
D wv WavPack
D x11grab X11grab
D xa Maxis XA File Format
D yop Psygnosis YOP Format
DE yuv4mpegpipe YUV4MPEG pipe format
chris@lappy:~$
Downloading and Installing FFMpeg
I've uploaded the versions of FFMpeg I use to my dropbox:
Feel free to download and use them. They may not be the latest or greatest, but both versions work perfectly in this application for me.
Installation is simple:
- Windows: Extract the zip to a folder on C:\ drive. For example C:\Conversion
- Ubuntu Linux: Extract the zip and install the 2 deb files using sudo dpkg -i filename.deb
Converting Video to H.264 Format
So we know where we are going and what to use to get there. Lets begin!
Open a command prompt or a terminal session and navigate to the folder containing the file to be converted. For ease on windows, I copy the file to be converted to the folder that also contains ffmpeg.exe. As mentioned, I use C:\Conversion.
The following commands are the same for both Windows and Linux and for example I'm going to be converting an avi video called "movie.avi".
The Basic Command:
Here's what you need. This is the killer command!
As is, this command should produce nice quality output video with stereo sound.
ffmpeg -i Movie.avi -acodec libfaac -ac 2 -ab 128k -vcodec mpeg4 -b 900k -r 25 Movie.mp4Agreed this looks like a scary hairy command-line, but it isn't really. OK, so what did all that mean? Here is the breakdown:
-i = input file [in our case Movie.avi]
-acodec = output audio codec to use for conversion [in our case libfaac]
-ac = output audio channels [in our case 2 - stereo!] [*]
-ab = output audio bitrate [in our case 128k] [*]
-vcodec = output video codec to use for conversion [in our case mpeg4]
-b = output video bitrate [in our case 900k] [*]
-r = output frames per second [in our case 25] [*]
Movie.mp4 = name of the output file
[*] - Tweak-able values. See 'Tweaking' section below.
Conversion off and running:
Testing
As a starter for ten, and as video conversion can take a while, I normally let the conversion run for 30 seconds or so, and then press "q" to quit encoding.
I then copy the resulting file to the phone just to double check that the phone will indeed play the converted file, an all looks good. The last thing you want to do is wait around for the encoding to finish and then find out that the video wont play on the target phone.
If all is good, just up arrow and hit return to kick off the conversion again, overwriting the previous output file.
Troubleshooting
On occasion I have found an issue where the output video won't play. As far as I can tell it is due to the video size being too big for the phone. In this case you need to look reduce the output frame size. Here is how:
Look at the output from original test conversion, specifically where FFMpeg tells you about the input video:
You are looking for the input video frame size. In the screenshot above it is 608 wide x 464 high.
If encoding for an iPhone, you are looking to drop these numbers to less than 640 wide x 480 high (Android varies depending on individual devices).
From there I usually breakout the calculator and equally divide numbers down. Remember whatever you divide one number by (one third, two thirds, half, etc) divide the other number by the same amount. Don't just take an arbitrary number off of the original width and height. Thats when you start getting strange stretched or compressed output videos!
The additional switch to specify output file width and height is -s. Rolling this into the original command:
ffmpeg -i Movie.avi -acodec libfaac -ac 2 -ab 128k -vcodec mpeg4 -b 900k -r 25 -s 200x400 Movie.mp4
Tweaking
Remember these:
-ac = output audio channels [*]
-ab = output audio bitrate [*]
-b = output video bitrate [*]
-r = output frames per second [*]
[*] - Tweak-able values.
Yes you guessed it, these values can be tweaked to your hearts desire! Be that to gain a better quality output file, or to reduce the H.264 output filesize down (at the expense of quality).
To save time, here are some examples.
Medium Quality Video, Stereo Sound:
ffmpeg -i Movie.avi -acodec libfaac -ac 2 -ab 128k -vcodec mpeg4 -b 500k -r 25 Movie.mp4
Low Quality Video, Mono Sound:
ffmpeg -i Movie.avi -acodec libfaac -ac 1 -ab 16k -vcodec mpeg4 -b 200k -r 13 Movie.mp4
Top Quality Video, Quality Stereo Sound*:
ffmpeg -i Movie.avi -acodec libfaac -ac 2 -ab 160k -vcodec mpeg4 -b 1500k -r 30 Movie.mp4These are the maximums for the iPhone 3GS (iPhone 4 is different). *Be careful with the -b value as FFMpeg treats this as minimum, so will typically look to encode video above this number. If output video doesn't play, tweak -b value down so that encoded output video bitrate doesn't go above 1500.
Acceptable Video, Stereo Sound (The standard command from above):
ffmpeg -i Movie.avi -acodec libfaac -ac 2 -ab 128k -vcodec mpeg4 -b 900k -r 25 Movie.mp4
Conclusion
So there you have it. You can now convert your videos for native playback on Android or iPhones.
Feel free to drop me a comment below if you have any questions and I'll do my best to help.
Happy portable viewing.
- Chris