HowTo: Linux Convert .OGV Format To .AVI Video Format

I‘ve download files in ogg formats which is unrestricted by software patents. However, my video editing application is not accepting .ogv video file. How do I convert .ogv to .avi using Linux or Unix bash command line options?

You can use any one of the following command to convert .ogv to .avi video / audio format.

Converting .ogv video files to .avi using mencoder command

Type the following command:

mencoder input.ogv -ovc lavc -oac mp3lame -o output.avi

Where,

1. input.ogv : Your .ogv file.
2. -ovc lavc : Encode with the libavcodec codec.
3. -oac mp3lame : Encode with the lamp mp3 audio codec.
4. -o output.avi : Output file i.e. .avi file.

Verify file type, enter:
$ file my-demo-video.ogv
Sample outputs:

my-demo-video.ogv: Ogg data, Skeleton v3.0

Convert using mencoder, enter:
$ mencoder my-demo-video.ogv -ovc lavc -oac mp3lame -o my-demo-video.avi
Sample outputs:

MPlayer SVN-r31918 (C) 2000-2010 MPlayer Team
success: format: 0  data: 0x0 - 0x3cd7b3
libavformat file format detected.
[ogg @ 0x2b6b100] max_analyze_duration reached
[lavf] stream 1: video (theora), -vid 0
VIDEO:  [theo]  1264x848  0bpp  15.000 fps    0.0 kbps ( 0.0 kbyte/s)
[V] filefmt:44  fourcc:0x6F656874  size:1264x848  fps:15.000  ftime:=0.0667
Opening video filter: [expand osd=1]
Expand: -1 x -1, -1 ; -1, osd: 1, aspect: 0.000000, round: 1
==========================================================================
Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family
Selected video codec: [fftheora] vfm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg Theora)
==========================================================================
Movie-Aspect is 1.49:1 - prescaling to correct movie aspect.
videocodec: libavcodec (1264x848 fourcc=34504d46 [FMP4])
Writing header...
ODML: Aspect information not (yet?) available or unspecified, not writing vprp header.
Writing header...
ODML: Aspect information not (yet?) available or unspecified, not writing vprp header.
Pos:   0.1s      2f (12%)  0.00fps Trem:   0min   0mb  A-V:0.000 [0:0]
[VD_FFMPEG] DRI failure.
Pos:  42.8s    642f (100%) 143.88fps Trem:   0min   2mb  A-V:0.000 [494:0]

Flushing video frames.
Writing index...
Writing header...
ODML: Aspect information not (yet?) available or unspecified, not writing vprp header.

Video stream:  494.277 kbit/s  (61784 B/s)  size: 2644380 bytes  42.800 secs  642 frames

Converting .ogv video files to .avi using ffmpeg command

Type the following command:
$ ffmpeg -i my-demo-video.ogv -vcodec mpeg4 -sameq -acodec libmp3lame my-demo-video.avi
Sample outputs:

FFmpeg version SVN-r0.5.9-4:0.5.9-1, Copyright (c) 2000-2009 Fabrice Bellard, et al.
  configuration: --extra-version=4:0.5.9-1 --prefix=/usr --enable-avfilter --enable-avfilter-lavf --enable-vdpau --enable-bzlib --enable-libdirac --enable-libgsm --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-pthreads --enable-zlib --disable-stripping --disable-vhook --enable-runtime-cpudetect --enable-gpl --enable-postproc --enable-swscale --enable-x11grab --enable-libfaad --enable-libdc1394 --enable-shared --disable-static
  libavutil     49.15. 0 / 49.15. 0
  libavcodec    52.20. 1 / 52.20. 1
  libavformat   52.31. 0 / 52.31. 0
  libavdevice   52. 1. 0 / 52. 1. 0
  libavfilter    0. 4. 0 /  0. 4. 0
  libswscale     0. 7. 1 /  0. 7. 1
  libpostproc   51. 2. 0 / 51. 2. 0
  built on Jun 10 2012 08:33:06, gcc: 4.4.5
Input #0, ogg, from 'my-demo-video.ogv':
  Duration: 00:01:01.00, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 522 kb/s
    Stream #0.0: Invalid Codec type -1
    Stream #0.1: Video: theora, yuv420p, 1264x848, PAR 1:1 DAR 79:53, 15 tbr, 15 tbn, 15 tbc
Output #0, avi, to 'my-demo-video.avi':
    Stream #0.0: Video: mpeg4, yuv420p, 1264x848 [PAR 1:1 DAR 79:53], q=2-31, 200 kb/s, 90k tbn, 15 tbc
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0.1 -> #0.0
[mpeg4 @ 0x25ee4c0]removing common factors from framerate
Press [q] to stop encoding
frame=  642 fps=171 q=0.0 Lsize=    2114kB time=60.00 bitrate= 288.6kbits/s    
video:2087kB audio:0kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead 1.294511%

Converting many files

Create a shell script called ovg2avi as follows:

#!/bin/bash
# ovg2avi - Covert ovg to avi
# Author: Vivek Gite <www.cyberciti.biz> Under GPL 2.0+
# -------------------------------------------------------
input="$1"
output="${input%%.ogv}.avi}"
 
die(){
   echo -e "$@"
   exit 1
}
 
[ $# -eq 0 ] && die "Usage: $0 input.ovg\n\tI will convert .ovg file to .avi format."
[ ! -f "$input" ] && die "Error $input file not found."
 
if [ -f "$output" ] 
then
	read -p "Warning output file $output exists. Overwrite (y/n)? " ans
	case $ans in 
		y|Y|YES|Yes) 	mencoder "${input}" -ovc lavc -oac mp3lame -o "${output}";;
	esac
fi

To covert many files simply use bash for loop as follows:

for o in *.ogv
do
   /path/to/ovg2avi "$o"
done