How to play wmv video files?

dtarrant · 23 Jan 2018, 09:21

@halucigenia Many thanks for your latest input. I will certainly give it a try. In the meantime I found another recommendation with a Google search. I tried it and it appears to have worked fine (no audio/video sync problem). The command line I used was as follows:

ffmpeg -i input.wmf -c:v libx264 -crf 23 -c:a -strict -2 -q:a 100 output.mp4

This was from Jeremy Tammik. I've little understanding of what it all means, but I can play the resulting mp4 on my laptop with both videos and VLC. Now I need to try it on my tablet.

dtarrant · 23 Jan 2018, 10:23

@halucigenia Good news, the mp4 file mentioned in my previous post plays nicely on my tablet. I'll try your command line tonight and let you know how I get on. Once again, many thanks for all your support.

dtarrant · 23 Jan 2018, 15:26

@halucigenia I just tried your command line and got a message to warn aac is experimental. It advised adding "-strict -2". After adding that tweak, the conversion is ticking away nicely. I'll keep you posted.

halucigenia · 23 Jan 2018, 16:20

Another tip, while testing you might want to only transcode a portion of the source file to stop it ticking away nicely for too long before you can test it out.
You can use
-ss starttime in HH:MM:SS.xxx
-t endtime in HH:MM:SS.xxx

halucigenia · 23 Jan 2018, 16:25

@dtarrant Just seen your remark about using handbrake for transcoding in the other thread.
Did you know that hanbrake has a command line too - you could use that instead of ffmpeg.
I am sure that if you prefer the handbrake GUI you could batch up a number of transcodes using the same parameters quite easily too.

dtarrant · 23 Jan 2018, 18:09

@halucigenia Well I'm pleased to report that your command line produced an mp4 file that plays fine on my laptop. Many thanks for all your help.

halucigenia · 23 Jan 2018, 19:19

@dtarrant I am pleased for you. Do you need help with a script to process all the files one after the other?

dtarrant · 23 Jan 2018, 19:44

@halucigenia Great tip. That could save a lot of time.

dtarrant · 23 Jan 2018, 19:48

@halucigenia Thanks for the offer. Could well be. Not ready yet though. I've only downloaded 3 of the 39 wmv files so far.

halucigenia · 23 Jan 2018, 19:51

@dtarrant Just let me know, I am still working on a script that could come in handy for me if I ever need to batch convert several files after figuring out why I can't play my mkv files in UT video player.