VLC HowTo/Transcode from Flash Video format

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Revision as of 02:49, 11 November 2006 by Jefferson (talk | contribs) (Added info about scripting the conversion)
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This page describes how to fix broken .flv files. Other "how to" pages

You can use ffmpeg to change .flv files to .avi files (or one of many other types of files).

If you have problems playing .flv files, changing them to .avi will probably fix the problem.

Windows

Install

Precompiled windows binaries are avaliable at:

Pick the file ffmpeg-SVN-r6708-static-gpl-win32.zip

Extract the files from the .zip and copy ffmpeg.exe to your Windows directory (Windows folder), or somewhere else in your search path.

Run

Ffmpeg.exe is command-line based, so to use it you need to open a command prompt. In the start menu pick "Run", and type 

cmd.exe

into the box and press enter. This opens a cool black box with white text. It'll say something like C:\>.

At the prompt, type 

cd "somewhere"

where "somewhere" is the path to the folder where you saved your files, it's probably something like 

cd "c:\windows\profiles\user\Desktop\"

Then press enter. You can find out the path (location) of a file by right clicking on the file and selecting properties.

Finally type 

ffmpeg -i "your_file.flv" "your_file.avi"

and press enter. This takes "your_file.flv" as the input file and spits out "your_file.avi" as an avi file. Job done (at last!)

Close the command prompt by closing the window as normal, or typing "exit".

Automating Conversion with VBScript

If you prefer to convert a file using the right-click menu, you can try this VBScript: [ConvertAndPlayInVLC_vbs.txt].

To Install the Script

  1. Download the .txt file to the same folder where you have as ffmpeg.exe (any folder, not necessarily in the search path)
  2. Rename the file back to .vbs
  3. Right-click the file and choose Create Shortcut
  4. Copy/Paste or Drag the shortcut to your SendTo folder (c:\Documents and Settings\Username\SendTo); you can rename it to something shorter if you like

To run the script, right-click your .flv file, choose the Send To "fly-out" menu, and then your shortcut. ffmpeg.exe should open in a command window and then the converted avi file should play in VLC.

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