Linux / Unix: Convert AVI To MOV Format Using ffmpeg Command

To convert an AVI video file to MOV format using the ffmpeg command on Linux or Unix, you can use the following command:

ffmpeg -i input.avi -c:v copy -c:a copy output.mov

Replace input.avi with the name of your input AVI file, and output.mov with the desired name for your output MOV file.

This command will use the ffmpeg utility to convert the AVI file to MOV format, while preserving the video and audio streams. The -c:v copy and -c:a copy options tell ffmpeg to copy the video and audio streams without re-encoding them, which can save time and preserve the quality of the original file.

If you want to re-encode the video and audio streams, you can use different codecs and options. For example, to convert the AVI file to MOV using the H.264 video codec and the AAC audio codec, you can use the following command:

ffmpeg -i input.avi -c:v libx264 -c:a aac -strict -2 output.mov

This command will re-encode the video and audio streams using the specified codecs, and write the output to a MOV file named output.mov.

You can also use other options to control the quality and size of the output file. For example, to specify a target bitrate for the video and audio streams, you can use the -b:v and -b:a options, respectively. For example:

ffmpeg -i input.avi -c:v libx264 -b:v 1000k -c:a aac -b:a 128k -strict -2 output.mov

This command will re-encode the video stream with a target bitrate of 1000 kbps, and the audio stream with a target bitrate of 128 kbps.

You can find more information about the ffmpeg command and its options in the ffmpeg documentation or by running the ffmpeg -h command.