Converting OGG Video to AVI (How-To)

By default when you create screencasts using recordmydesktop in Linux (Ubuntu specifically), the output is an OGG container file. As anyone who has tried to bring that file into Windows quickly learns, there’s not too much software out there that will “understand” OGG in Windows, and even less available if you want to edit it later on using your video editor of choice in Windows (or Mac for that matter).

So in the end you have to find some way to convert OGG to AVI while still retaining quality both for audio and video just to edit it.

While it’s true you can use ffmpeg from the command line in Linux to convert the file from OGG to another format, audio/video sync isn’t always the best and furthermore the quality is vastly inferior compared to the original OGG.

This article shows you how to get full quality conversions for OGG to AVI, both for video and audio – in sync.

When I do videos for PCMech, I use pro video editing software in Windows to produce the finalized rendered files. Linux simply does not have pro video editing suites that Windows and Mac does. Yes, they can render files until the sun comes up but you can’t edit. This is part of the command line hell that is Linux.

The default output format for video in Linux is OGG. The reason they use this is because it’s unrestricted and can be freely distributed with a Linux OS. Examples of restricted formats are:

• AVI (Microsoft Audio Video Interleave)
• MPEG (Motion Picture Entertainment Group)
• MOV (Apple QuickTime Movie)

One would think working with unrestricted formats would be wonderful, but to be blunt honest it’s a pain in the ass. Restricted formats are more desirable to work with because of one reason: You know they work. Whether it’s a Mac format, Windows format or what-have-you, the restricted stuff works the best, no question.

There are two things you need to convert OGG to AVI.

1. (Optional) The OGG Codec – free.
2. The DivX Codec – free.
3. AllToAVI, a freeware conversion utility for Windows (sorry, Mac guys).

You should only download and use the OGG codecs if AllToAVI simply doesn’t work because it can’t “understand” the OGG you’re trying to convert.

If you need them, they’re here: http://www.xiph.org/dshow/

The DivX Codec is needed for better AVI conversions. Get that from www.divx.com.

The AllToAVI software is rough around the edges – but it works. You can download it from here.

The first thing you will notice about AllToAVI are these very ridiculous Anime-style images within the software. I have no clue why it’s there but the author of the software evidently thought it was “cute”.

Before continuing, AllToAVI literally means it will convert everything. If you have the codec for a particular video format, it will convert it to AVI with no complaints – even for RealPlayer files(!)

Under Windows, AllToAVI is the absolute best tool I’ve found to do video conversions from other formats. And it’s free.

But anyway, on to the good stuff.

This is the main interface:

From here we have to add in a file. The default output file from recordmydesktop in Linux is out.ogg unless you named it differently, so go ahead and click the Add File button and load it in.

This is what happens when you do this:

This is fine. Just click OK.

On the next screen you see this:

You’ll have to excuse the absolutely ridiculous anime girl on the right – this is actually in the software and there’s no way to get rid of it.

From here, this is how we do our conversion:

1. Set the screen size (by default it’s 656×496 but this can be changed to suit).
2. Set the drop-down menu next to the screen size to Bi Cubic.
3. Set the video encoder to DIVX50 (DivX 5.0).
4. Set the bitrate to 700 (or higher if you like).
5. Set the audio bitrate to 128.

The rest can be left as is.

Finally, click Add Job.

Note the job is listed above.

Click the Convert! button.

File is converting if you see the above.

Once done, your newly-made DivX AVI will be in a directory called “Converted” under where the original OGG file was.

Like this:

Head on into the “Converted” folder and you’ve got your AVI. From here, bring it into your video editing software and have at it – you’re all set to go.