Video to MP4 via CLI

Re-encode any video to H.264 + AAC with ffmpeg.

Packages to install

You need ffmpeg with libx264 and AAC. On Ubuntu that is the ffmpeg package.

ffmpeg

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y ffmpeg

How to run the command

ffmpeg -i input.mov -c:v libx264 -preset ultrafast -crf 23 -pix_fmt yuv420p -c:a aac -b:a 128k -movflags +faststart output.mp4. The same profile works for MKV, AVI, and WebM.

ffmpeg -y -i input.mov -c:v libx264 -preset ultrafast -crf 23 -pix_fmt yuv420p -c:a aac -b:a 128k -movflags +faststart output.mp4

Dockerfile example

Build a minimal Ubuntu image with the required packages and run the conversion inside the container.

FROM ubuntu:24.04

RUN apt-get update && \
    apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
        ffmpeg && \
    rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*

WORKDIR /work

docker build -t video-to-mp4 .
docker run --rm -v "$PWD:/work" -w /work video-to-mp4 \
  ffmpeg -y -i input.mov -c:v libx264 -preset ultrafast -crf 23 -pix_fmt yuv420p -c:a aac -b:a 128k -movflags +faststart output.mp4

Example commands

Run these locally after installing the packages, or inside the container from the Dockerfile.

ffmpeg -y -i input.mov -c:v libx264 -preset ultrafast -crf 23 -pix_fmt yuv420p -c:a aac -b:a 128k -movflags +faststart output.mp4

ffmpeg -y -i input.mkv -c:v libx264 -preset ultrafast -crf 23 -pix_fmt yuv420p -c:a aac -b:a 128k -movflags +faststart output.mp4