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I wanted an easy way to convert videos to HTML5 formats (mp4/ogg/webm). With Linux, I could easily create a bash script to do all three and even create a screencap for the poster attribute.

The install process is a bit tedious and time consuming, but after it’s all installed you’re good to run the script for all your videos. The script uses ffmpeg to convert to all 3 formats, and it supports most any video format. The script also uses ffmpeg to generate a random screenshot, and even writes the HTML5 code for you.

Installation

For the most part, this portion of the tutorial was derived from the Ubuntu Forums.

1. Uninstall Old Versions

sudo apt-get remove ffmpeg x264 libx264-dev yasm

2. Install Dependencies and Install Tools

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install build-essential git-core checkinstall texi2html libfaac-dev \
    libopencore-amrnb-dev libopencore-amrwb-dev libsdl1.2-dev libtheora-dev \
    libvorbis-dev libx11-dev libxfixes-dev zlib1g-dev

3. Install Yasm

cd ~/Downloads
wget http://www.tortall.net/projects/yasm/releases/yasm-1.2.0.tar.gz
tar xzvf yasm-1.2.0.tar.gz
cd yasm-1.2.0
./configure
make
sudo checkinstall --pkgname=yasm --pkgversion="1.2.0" --backup=no --deldoc=yes --default

4. Install x264

cd ~/Downloads
git clone git://git.videolan.org/x264
cd x264
./configure --enable-static
make
sudo mkdir /usr/local/lib/pkgconfig
sudo checkinstall --pkgname=x264 --default --pkgversion="3:$(./version.sh | \
    awk -F'[" ]' '/POINT/{print $4"+git"$5}')" --backup=no --deldoc=yes

5. Install LAME

sudo apt-get remove libmp3lame-dev
sudo apt-get install nasm
cd ~/Downloads
wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/lame/lame/3.99/lame-3.99.tar.gz
tar xzvf lame-3.99.tar.gz
cd lame-3.99
./configure --enable-nasm --disable-shared
make
sudo mkdir /usr/local/share/doc
sudo mkdir /usr/local/share/doc/lame
sudo checkinstall --pkgname=lame-ffmpeg --pkgversion="3.99" --backup=no --default \
    --deldoc=yes

6. Install libvpx

cd ~/Downloads
git clone http://git.chromium.org/webm/libvpx.git
cd libvpx
./configure
make
sudo checkinstall --pkgname=libvpx --pkgversion="$(date +%Y%m%d%H%M)-git" --backup=no \
    --default --deldoc=yes

7. Install ffmpeg

cd ~/Downloads
git clone --depth 1 git://source.ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg
cd ffmpeg
./configure --enable-gpl --enable-libfaac --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore-amrnb \
    --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx \
    --enable-libx264 --enable-nonfree --enable-postproc --enable-version3 --enable-x11grab
make
sudo checkinstall --pkgname=ffmpeg --pkgversion="$(date +%Y%m%d%H%M)-git" --backup=no \
    --deldoc=yes --default

The part that will take the longest is the ffmpeg, so be prepared to wait.

The Script

Usage:

./convertHTML5 video-file.ext

The script will output “video-file.ogv”, “video-file.webm”, “video-file.mp4″, and “video-file.html” while keeping the original video intact. The HTML document just has the plain <video> code with nothing else, easily copied and pasted.

#!/bin/bash

if [[ $1 ]]
then
    filename=$(basename "$1")
    filename=${filename%.*}
    directory=$(dirname "$1")

    duration=$(ffmpeg -i "$1" 2>&1 | grep Duration | awk '{print $2}' | tr -d ,)
    minutes=${duration%:*}
    hours=${minutes%:*}
    minutes=${minutes##*:}
    seconds=${duration##*:}
    seconds=${seconds%.*}

    hours=$((hours*3600))
    minutes=$((minutes*60))

    total=$(expr $hours + $minutes + $seconds)
    number=$RANDOM
    let "number %= $total"

    echo "Generating thumbnail"
    ffmpeg -i "$1" -deinterlace -an -ss $number -t 00:00:01 -r 1 -y -vcodec mjpeg -f mjpeg "$directory/$filename.jpg" 2>&1
    echo "Converting $filename to ogv"
    ffmpeg -i "$1" -acodec libvorbis -ac 2 -ab 96k -ar 44100 -b 345k "$directory/$filename.ogv"
    echo "Finished ogv"

    echo "Converting $filename to webm"
    ffmpeg -i "$1" -acodec libvorbis -ac 2 -ab 96k -ar 44100 -b 345k "$directory/$filename.webm"
    echo "Finished webm"

    echo "Converting $filename to h264"
    ffmpeg -i "$1" -acodec libfaac -ab 96k -vcodec libx264 -level 21 -refs 2 -b 345k -bt 345k -threads 0 "$directory/$filename.mp4"
    echo "Finished h264"

    echo "Writing HTML..."

    echo "</pre>
<video width="320" height="240" controls="controls" poster="\&quot;$filename.jpg\&quot;" preload=""><source src="\&quot;$filename.ogv\&quot;" type="\&quot;video/ogg\&quot;" /><source src="\&quot;$filename.webm\&quot;" type="\&quot;video/webm\&quot;" /><source src="\&quot;$filename.mp4\&quot;" type="\&quot;video/mp4\&quot;" />" > "$directory/$filename.html"
 echo " " >> "$directory/$filename.html"
 echo " " >> "$directory/$filename.html"
 echo " " >> "$directory/$filename.html"
 echo " Sorry, your browser does not support HTML5 video" >> "$directory/$filename.html"
 echo "</video>
<pre>" >> "$directory/$filename.html"

    echo "All Done!"
else
    echo "Usage: [filename]"
fi

Credits: McSwindler