Convert YouTube FLV files in Linux

10 thoughts on “Convert YouTube FLV files in Linux”

1. Pingback: Convert YouTube FLV files in Linux | Linux-Trickz

2. flv to mp3 January 9, 2009

   thanks for this smart flv converter,i am looking for a flv to mp3 converter for quite some time. is this suitable for mac?

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3. Craig B. February 28, 2009

   Simple and fantastic solution. Really, great job. Ever since my Vista basically stopped connecting to the Internet, I’ve switched to Fedora. FLV conversion was one of the functions I could perform on Vista with a program but had no idea how to do on Linux. With this, you’ve definitely helped make my switch to Linux a permanent one!

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4. Craig S March 9, 2009

   I am new to linux (fedora). What do you mean

   For audio:

   ffmpeg -i input.flv -ar 44100 -ab 160 -ac 2 output.mp3

   For video:

   ffmpeg -i input.flv -s 352×288 -b 512 -ab 128 output.mpg

   What are the exact steps? where do these commands go, etc?

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5. cool as ice March 13, 2009

   Hi Craig S

   suppose you have a file named party.flv
   but you only want the music not de video so you can extract the
   audio to have a file named party,mp3
   then open a terminal, go to the directory where de file party.flv is…and write in a new command line

   ffmpeg -i party.flv -ar 44100 -ab 160 -ac 2 party.mp3

   -i means the input file
   -ab is the encoding bitrate

   for more information you can type in a new command line
   man ffmpeg > ffmpegmanual

   then you will have a text file with the manual for ffmpeg
   named ffmpegmanual

   if you have an error may be you have to install ffmpeg
   I think that in fedora you have to writte
   su yum ffmpeg

   go to
   http://www.ilovetux.com/2008/05/howto-install-ffmpeg-on-fedora-linux.html

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6. Nerdiah April 10, 2009

   I found that the bit-rate was too low. I got it to work when I used:
   ffmpeg -i input.flv -ar 44100 -ab 160000 -ac 2 output.mp3

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7. Michael January 25, 2010

   If you can use GUI, avidemux is a nice tool for all audio/video conversions.

   http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux/

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8. themidget February 17, 2010

   great tip michael this worked perfectly.

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9. Marius Gedminas May 19, 2010

   FLV files don’t have good quality audio; you’d do better by downloading MP4s.

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10. Luciano January 8, 2011

    A simple script I wrote and use often. This outputs only the mp3 and deletes the .flv, but that can be easily changed….

    #!/bin/bash
    clear
    echo
    echo “~~~~~~~~YouTube to MP3~~~~~~~~”
    echo
    echo “Contents of /tmp:”
    echo
    cd /tmp && ls
    echo
    printf “Select a File to convert: ” && read FILE
    clear
    mv $FILE file.flv
    clear
    printf “Enter a name for the mp3: ” && read MP3
    ffmpeg -i file.flv -ac 2 -ar 44100 -ab 320 $MP3 && rm file.flv
    mv $MP3 $FILE
    echo
    echo “Finished”
    echo
    echo “Exiting”
    sleep 5
    exit 0

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