If you are looking for video converter software for ubuntu 18.04, then you have come to the right place. The reason I think video converter for ubuntu is so popular is because of the numerous people who like to edit and burn their own discs. And I am just one of those people as well. In fact, if you love different types of music, then buying an audio converter can actually help save you money.
A few years ago, I had been making a lot of YouTube videos. One day, I decided that I needed to get into video editing, so I decided to add video editing software to my computer. The first question that came to mind was what is the best video converter for Ubuntu? After doing some research, I realized this wasn’t an easy question.
soundKonverter
soundKonverter is one of the best Linux audio converters available today. The free software can convert most audio files, including MP3, FLAC, WMA, AAC, M4A, and a host of others. Despite the name, the app isn’t limited to audio formats. If you install some of the many extendable plugins, it can also be a video converter for Linux. Among others, it can transform MKV, MPEG, MOV, and MP4 video files.
Some settings allow you to specify audio file bitrate, whether to use the lame or FFmpeg plugins, and output directories. Switching between output types also enable you to specify file-specific options like compression rate for FLAC files, and output quality for Ogg Vorbis formats.
The biggest draw here is the speed; soundKonverter is among the fastest Linux media converters. For those who like to keep their media organized, the app can read, write, and preserve tags as well. Although most computers don’t come with disc drives these days, you can use soundKonverter to rip audio CDs, too, thanks to the cdparanoia back end.
HandBrake
HandBrake is a well-established name in the media converter market. The app is probably best known as a Windows media converter, but the popular open-source video converter is also available for Linux, too. Unlike soundKonverter, HandBrake focuses solely on video conversion. It is also easy to use, offering built-in presets for specific devices.
These presets optimize the video conversion for your desired device, whether that be a smartphone, laptop, or TV. There’s a range of options, too, allowing you to add chapter markers, subtitles, and video filters. To help with organization, Handbrake enables you to add tags to the output file. You can crop the video and add scaling, too.
HandBrake is available for Linux, macOS, and Windows, making it among the best multi-platform video converters. This is handy if you use multiple operating systems, and would like consistency across each of them. If you have physical DVDs that you want to rip to your digital library, HandBrake can help there as well.
SoundConverter
Not to be confused with the similarly titled soundKonverter, SoundConverter is another excellent audio converter for Linux. The app is designed for GNOME Desktop and supports output to Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, MP3, and WAV audio formats.
However, it can read any audio file format supported by GStreamer. SoundConverter is a reasonably straight-forward app that allows you to convert between audio formats. The developers note that command-line tools will always be quicker, but that their app is only marginally slower and easier to use.
There are a range of options, allowing you to rename output files, adjust the bitrate, and preserve your CPU by limiting the number of parallel jobs.
FFmpeg
FFmpeg is a swiss-army knife when it comes to video-related software. It is an open-source, cross-platform project that can be a video converter, audio converter, video cropping tool, video metadata editor at the same time.FFmpeg is the underlying engine that powers many other video tools, such as Handbrake, Plex, XBMC, Perian and VLC. It’s an extremely powerful set of libraries, and all that power is available to you through a simple, command-line application.
Being a CLI application is both its strength and weakness. On one hand, newbies may experience difficulties trying to understand all of its commands and switches. On the other hand, advanced users can easily automate complex tasks by writing a script that simply run a series of FFmpeg commands to transform a video.
Some of FFmpeg’s notable features included:
- Wide range of audio and video formats supported
- Conversion of subtitle formats
- Muxers and demuxers to package and extract video formats
- Hardware acceleration.
- Supports video filters
- And many other awesome features.
Videomass
If you need the power of FFmpeg, but does not enjoy using the command line so much, then Videomass is made for you. Videomass is a cross-platform FFmpeg GUI written in Python3 with the wxPython-Phoenix toolkit. The application is designed towards users who need to manage custom profiles to automate conversion/transcoding processes.
Videomass included GUI for viewing, analyzing and processing multimedia streams. You can even download videos from online services with the help of youtube-dl or yt-dlp right in Videomass interface.
Videomass is officially available for Linux users in AppImage format that runs instantly once you’ve downloaded it. Alternatively, you can add its PPA and use apt-get to install the application by running the following commands.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jeanslack/videomass
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt install python3-videomassK3b
Although most of us now consume media on our computers, laptops, and smartphones, sometimes you’ll want to use a dedicated CD or DVD player instead. If your library is digital, though, you’ll need to convert your media to the appropriate format and burn it to a physical disk.
K3b is one of the best CD and DVD creators for Linux and was first released back in 1998. Considering this, the software is modern, fast, and uncomplicated. That doesn’t mean that it isn’t powerful or packed with features, though. The app allows you to create projects which can be single or multi-disc.
For those of us who feel comfortable with physical backups, you can also use K3b to create data-only discs for backups, as well. Although not a common sight these days, you can also use the software to erase and format rewritable discs. If you are looking for more options, there are other ways to make and play DVDs in Linux, too.
MystiQ
MystiQ is an open-source video converter written in Qt5/C++. It is available for Linux and Windows. Under the hood, MystiQ uses FFmpeg to power most of its video and audio transcoding.
MystiQ features an intuitive graphical interface and a rich set of presets to help you convert media files within a few clicks. Here’s an overview of what the application offers:
- Supports a wide range of video and audio formats
- Supports both 32-bit and 64-bit systems
- A rich set of built-in presets for easy transcoding
- Basic video editing, include clipping, cropping, scaling, etc.
- And many more
MystiQ is available for Linux in DEB/RPM and AppImage format and can be downloaded by navigating to its Releases page.
Ciano
Ciano is a video converter that claims to be focused on simplicity. It was built originally for elementary OS, but should work well with most Linux distributions. Basically, it’s a simple FFmpeg graphical user interface with an elegant interface. It supports as many codecs and containers as FFmpeg, including MPEG4, MPEG, FLV, AVI, OGG, GIF, VOB, MP3, WMA, etc.
Using Ciano, one can converts and processes many media files with using FFmpeg with no prior knowledge. elementary OS users can download Ciano from the AppCenter. Other Linux users can get the DEB or AppImage file directly from its Github page .
Cine Encoder
Cine Encoder is an open source application that leverages the power of FFmpeg, MKVToolNix and MediaInfo to build a powerful video converter. It provides a graphical user interface that allows any user, regardless of knowledge, to convert media files while preserving HDR metadata.
Here are a few notable features of the Cine Encoder:
- Supported hardware encoding NVENC for codecs H265, H264 and Intel QSV (for Windows and experimental for Linux) for H264, MPEG-2 codecs
- Many encoding modes are implemented: H265, H264, VP9, MPEG-2, XDCAM, DNxHR, ProRes
- Hardware acceleration supported.
- Wide range of built-in presets for quick conversion.
- Available for Linux and Windows.
Linux users can download the DEB/RPM installer from Cine Encoder Releases page. CentOS, Fedora Arch Linux and Manjaro Linux can follow instructions here to install Cine Encoder.
Shutter Encoder
Shutter Encoder is a cross-platform, open source, Java based video converter. It boasts itself as being designed by video editors in order to be as accessible and efficient as possible. Shutter Encoder uses FFmpeg as its underlying engine, which offer supports for almost every video and audio codec in the market.
Using Shutter Encoder, you have access to a wide range of features, including:
- Fine-tune FFmpeg options: duplicate frame detection, framerate interpolation, analytical tools, deinterlacing with a number of filters available without prior experience.
- Trim and Cut Videos: choose exactly which part of your video gets included in the output file.
- Fine-Tune Image: djust colours, apply LUTs, convert color spaces right in the application.
- Quickly Crop Images: define your frame precisely by directly writing your values in pixels.
- Powerful Video Cropping Support
- Add Logos and Watermarks
- Generate and Burn-in Clip Information
- Built-In Subtitle Editor
- Subtitle Embedding and Burn-In
- Automatic Cut Detection
- Download Web Content
- Built-in WeTransfer and FTP Server Support
- Save and Share your settings as presets
- Complete File Information Analyzing
- Powerful File Renaming
- And more…
Linux users can get either the DEB or AppIamge from Shutter Encoder homepage.
VLC
While you may already know VLC as a media player, it also has the capability to convert video and audio files to various formats. In order to access this function, simply open a VLC window and go to Media > Convert/Save or press Ctrl + R. Then proceed with the convert wizard.Despite being simple and handy, VLC lacks a lot of features when it comes to fine-tuning your videos before conversion. If you need more control over how the output video look like, you should use other tools like Handbrake or FFmpeg.VLC Homepage
Conclusion:
Learning about video converter software for ubuntu 18.04? Want to watch videos directly on your Ubuntu box or VM? Installing video converter software could be a hard task, but you’re lucky. This article will explain how to install handbrake video converter on Ubuntu using a few simple commands and terminal. You’ll also see how easy it is to put videos on Youtube or save them in other formats right from your browser.