List FFmpeg-supported file types with the command ffmpeg -formats.

Supported File Typesīefore getting started, you should know how to check for file types and codecs you may need to convert. If you don’t have FFmpeg installed on your VPS or Dedicated server, email our 24/7 Live Support to request a free installation.īelow we’ll cover supported file types and converting a file in FFmpeg. VPS / Dedicated server administrators, and Linux desktop users can install FFmpeg for in-depth recording, streaming, and conversion functions for Flac, Mp3, Ogg, Raw, Wav, Mkv, Mov, Mp4, Webm, and more. This is can be quickly achieved in a terminal with FFmpeg. Many audiophiles prefer Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) and Ogg Vorbis (OGG), but many music platforms prefer an uncompressed 16-32 bit Windows audio (Wav) file or different levels of compressed MP3.

But sometimes all you need is a different file format. Peace of mind.There are many free audio editors and video editors that can convert between multiple formats, add metadata, and add effects to improve sound quality – e.g. After re-encoding, there were no more errors. log file to see what was wrong, or do what I did and see that the presence of the log file at all means that the file needs to be re-encoded from source.Ĭhecking the integrity of the generated files themselves made me realize I had to re-encode part of my home movie library. My first pass at encoding combined find with ffmpeg to re-encode all my avi files. comment – not seen by plex but handy to know about anyway.The metadata values I ended up using were: The syntax for ffmpeg is -metadata 'key=value' Instead I discovered you can use ffmpeg to encode things like title and date taken directly into the file.

I tried to use exiftools to add metadata to the file but Plex wouldn’t read it. ffmpeg -i -acodec libfdk_aac -b:a 192k -ac 2 -vcodec libx264 -crf 18 -preset veryslow. Thanks to here and here I found a quality setting that I liked: x264 video with crf of 18 and veryslow encoder preset, AAC audio at 192kbps, mp4 container. I ended up having to re-encode most of them to have a proper codec.įfmpeg is what I ended up using.

Below are the tips and tricks I’ve learned in my quest to get all my family home movies working properly in Plex.

How to use ffmpeg to convert videos