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I have installed ffmpeg to convert a video. I am trying to convert a .mp4 to a .avi video with the codec wmv1. How to do this?

I am using the command avconv in a Kubuntu terminal. Last attempt I did this:

avconv new_video.avi wmv1 old_video.mp4

And I always got this message:

Unable to find a suitable output format for 'wmv1'

Anyone can help me?

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Important note: ffmpeg is not avconv – there's a difference between those. Many simple commands will just work fine in either tool, but you should always download a recent ffmpeg version instead of doing an apt-get install ffmpeg, because you won't get the "real" ffmpeg.


Your command is quite off. Have you had a look at any examples or the documentation? We also have a blog post on ffmpeg.

You first have to specify an input file with -i <file>, then the encoding parameters, and then the output file:

ffmpeg -i old_video.mp4 -c:v wmv1 new_video.avi

That's the most basic command to achieve what you want. The audio will be converted to MP3 here using the libmp3lame encoder. Choose a bitrate by setting -b:v 500k or whatever you need. Same for audio with -b:a 128k or similar.

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  • You were right, I forgot the -i and that link was what I was looking for. Thank you a lot!
    – forvas
    Feb 24, 2014 at 17:28

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