Just released: FFmpeg Converter

FFmpeg Converter is a Drupal module that automatically converts media files to different destination formats. We've been working on it for the last couple of months for the Filmbasen project. It has been available as a development version on drupal.org for a while now, but today we finally released the first public beta!

What does it do?

Designed as an extension of the FFmpeg Wrapper module, FFmpeg Converter takes media files that you upload and alters a number of their properties, such as pixel size, frame rate, bitrate etc, and finally saves them in the format of your choice.

Additionally, if the source file is a video, three snapshot images will be generated from different instants in the video. They can later be used to represent the video before it is actually played.

Build your own YouTube?

The most common use for a module like this is to convert video files to .flv in order to be able to play them in a Flash video player. This is the most compatible and convenient way of publishing video at the moment, and it's exactly what services like YouTube use. Using FFmpeg Converter you can achieve the same kind of results while not having to rely on any external service.

It accomplishes all this through FFmpeg, a popular open source media conversion tool. All in all, FFmpeg Converter is a good example of how you can combine a number of existing open source projects and provide a powerful tool relatively quickly.

FFmpeg Converter is available for download from the project page on drupal.org.