I have an animated commission from Twitchy that I want to upload, but e621 only accepts WebM video and my high-quality copy of the animation is an mp4. I tried using the convert/save option in VLC, but the result was a blotchy mess with a listed runtime of 105 minutes (the mp4 plays for 30 seconds). Is there a better tool for converting video files that would have a smoother result?
Topic: Is there a better way to comvert MP4 to WebM besides using VLC?
Posted under Art Talk
I recommend this one [ https://www.xmedia-recode.de/ ] which allows you to select codecs.
You might want to contact @Mairo about converting video files while still retaining proper quality. They have instructions and guides on their profile page as well.
VLC is generally borked and all uploads made with VLC usually end up corrupted in one way or another for whatever reason. There's now system in place which check the playtime of the video that it cannot exceed 1 hour, meaning that most VLC fucked up copies get stuck as their playtime usually ends up days, so we haven't had those luckily show up after that.
FFmpeg is literally the only software I trust myself, encoding information for VP9: https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Encode/VP9
Example command I used for post #2523088:
ffmpeg -y -i aln1ue.mp4 -row-mt 1 -pass 1 -quality best -c:v libvpx-vp9 -pix_fmt yuv420p -crf 14 -b:v 0 -b:a 160k -f webm TEMP.TMP ffmpeg -i aln1ue.mp4 -row-mt 1 -pass 2 -metadata title="Day off, TwitchyAnimation" -metadata url="https://twitter.com/FishPrison/status/1336706924587388929" -quality best -c:v libvpx-vp9 -pix_fmt yuv420p -crf 14 -b:v 0 -b:a 160k aln1ue.webm
XMedia Recode and WebM for Retards both utilize FFmpeg to do the encoding and have graphical interface to them, but I don't personally use either and WebM for retards is nowdays out of date with builds and it still recommends VP8. There are also other frontends for FFmpeg available, which you can try looking up.
Handbrake has updated to support WebM also as container so it can be used, however it doesn't allow two pass with quality mode and it defaults to anamorphic video files so remember to disable that setting if using it.
From commercial solutions artists really often use Adobe Media Encoder which usually works well, but it does cost and the settings differ from basically any other software (VP9 uses CRF from 1-62 where 1 is best quality, adobe encoder has quality slider from 1-100?).
thegreatwolfgang said:
You might want to contact @Mairo about converting video files while still retaining proper quality. They have instructions and guides on their profile page as well.
My profile is starting to also be really out of date. This is why I hate pointing to stuff like youtube tutorials, because they never actually explain the inner workings and will be out of date in couple years or not suitable for the useage case.
Tried to start howto:transcode and convert but hey, I suck at writing instructions and even if I didn't, I do not have the time!
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sinking_stone said:
I have an animated commission from Twitchy that I want to upload, but e621 only accepts WebM video and my high-quality copy of the animation is an mp4. I tried using the convert/save option in VLC, but the result was a blotchy mess with a listed runtime of 105 minutes (the mp4 plays for 30 seconds). Is there a better tool for converting video files that would have a smoother result?
Handbrake.
pocket_erector said:
Handbrake.
Ah you beat me to it, Dood =‿=)
But, Yeah Handbrake isn't bad as far as converting goes, Just be sure to set anamorphic to 'None' since it messes with 621 video formating.
This fucking mp4 is straight haunted. I've tried converting it using XMedia and Handbrake, but they just give me a completely different kind of blocky mess. It seems these programs have gotten the impression that the video is running at 176x144 resolution when the actual resolution is 1440p, so they just spit out a blurry piece of trash. Anyone know what the hell is going on here?
If you're the one who paid for the commission, you could always ask the artist to render in WebM instead of MP4 in the first place? It'll be higher quality than any after-the-fact conversion anyway.
sinking_stone said:
This fucking mp4 is straight haunted. I've tried converting it using XMedia and Handbrake, but they just give me a completely different kind of blocky mess. It seems these programs have gotten the impression that the video is running at 176x144 resolution when the actual resolution is 1440p, so they just spit out a blurry piece of trash. Anyone know what the hell is going on here?
That almost sounds like your settings are then not correctly set, many software default to 1mbps constant bitrate mode which with high resolutions is way too low.
Usually constant quality mode with CRF 16 is good starting point, the software then adjusts the bitrate according to the material itself instead of you needing to guess or overshoot the bitrate yourself.
wat8548 said:
If you're the one who paid for the commission, you could always ask the artist to render in WebM instead of MP4 in the first place? It'll be higher quality than any after-the-fact conversion anyway.
This would be always the ideal situation, but at the same time I know many artists who only know how to use that single MP4 export button in their software.
I use WebMConverter (AKA WebM for Retards) to make my webms. It's primarily intended for making webms that works within 4chan's limits but is fairly flexible.
VP9 or GTFO? Yeah, might want to specify audio/video CoDecs next time. Container format conversion, leaving the compressed frames intact is tsMuxer's forte, but something that FFMPEG's is also great at. Only gotcha with FFMPEG is doing variable frame rates is a chore.
https://github.com/justdan96/tsMuxer#todo Hmm, I wonder if current devs have done any of that in nightlies.
I mentioned tsMuxer because it's also open source and supports a LOT of things.
I've used VLC with stream-ripping settings instead of transcoding and it seemed OK for a TS video link from the WWW. There are tons of ways and means to get this job done, and some are better for some specific circumstances than others. VLC is great at non-protected streams.
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