Linux: Convert .AVI File To Apple iPod / iPhone MP4 [M4V] Format

To convert an .AVI file to the MP4 format for Apple iPod or iPhone on a Linux system, you can use the ffmpeg command-line utility. ffmpeg is a free and open-source tool that can be used to encode and decode audio and video files.

Here is an example of how to use ffmpeg to convert an .AVI file to the MP4 format:

1. Install ffmpeg. If ffmpeg is not already installed on your system, you can install it using the package manager for your Linux distribution (e.g., apt, yum, pacman).

For example, on a Debian-based system, you can use the following command to install ffmpeg:

$ sudo apt-get install ffmpeg

2. Run the ffmpeg command to convert the .AVI file to the MP4 format. To convert the .AVI file to the MP4 format, you can use the ffmpeg command with the -i option to specify the input file and the -c:v and -c:a options to specify the video and audio codecs, respectively. You can also use the -movflags option to optimize the MP4 file for streaming.

Here is an example of the ffmpeg command to convert an .AVI file to the MP4 format for Apple iPod or iPhone:

$ ffmpeg -i input.avi -c:v h264 -c:a aac -movflags faststart output.mp4

Replace input.avi with the path to the .AVI file and output.mp4 with the desired name and location for the output file.

3. (Optional) Use the -s option to specify the resolution of the output file. You can use the -s option to specify the width and height of the output file.

For example, to specify a resolution of 640x480 for the output file, you can use the following command:

$ ffmpeg -i input.avi -c:v h264 -c:a aac -movflags faststart -s 640x480 output.mp4

4. (Optional) Use the -b:v option to specify the bitrate of the output file. You can use the -b:v option to specify the video bitrate of the output file.

For example, to specify a video bitrate of 1 Mbps for the output file, you can use the following command:

$ ffmpeg -i input.avi -c:v h264 -c:a aac -movflags faststart -b:v 1000k output.mp4

5. (Optional) Use the -b:a option to specify the audio bitrate of the output file. You can use the -b:a option to specify the audio bitrate of the output file.

For example, to specify an audio bitrate of 128 kbps for the output file, you can use the following command:

$ ffmpeg -i input.avi -c:v h264 -c:a aac -movflags faststart -b:a 128k output.mp4

This will convert the .AVI file to the MP4 format for Apple iPod or iPhone using the ffmpeg command.