[UFO Chicago] 3G video converter

[Neil R. Ormos]

Michael Sphar wrote:
> Jay F Shachter wrote:

>> What free software is available to convert
>> videos in iPhone 3G format to the prevailing
>> Linux format (which I think is MPEG) and to the
>> prevailing format on Microsoft Windows (I have
>> no idea what that is)?  I have mencoder; will
>> mencoder do it?

> Would Handbrake fit the bill?  That's usually
> what I go to for video transcoding.  You might
> have to make it from source though for any linux
> distro besides Fedora 12, it looks like.

I find ffmpeg far easier to use than mencoder.

ffmpeg is available as a supported package in
Debian-derived distributions and many RPM-based
distributions.

And I believe the transcoding functionality of
Handbrake is provided by ffmpeg.

By the way, are you looking for "free" as in beer,
or Free as in Richard Stallman's Four Freedoms,
and if the latter, how Free must it be?  There may
not be any solutions which satisfy all of the RMS
Freedoms as some of the formats require encoding
that is encumbered by intellectual property
rights.

--Neil