Encoding with VP9
Starting out
In this tutorial we'll be encoding in the windows command line using FFMPEG.
Before we get started, you need to download/install the following programs:
Encoding a video into VP9
First extract x64 FFmpeg from the zip archive it comes in. If you're unsure which version of FFmpeg to download, download the FFmpeg 64-bit Static version. The x86 version of FFmpeg does not support VP9 encoding. If you're using a computer with a x86 Windows OS, then you're out of luck.
Begin by opening the windows command prompt (cmd).
First enter the path to ffmpeg.exe (e.g):
C:\Software\ffmpeg.exe
Next add the -i switch & input video file path:
C:\Software\ffmpeg.exe -i "C:\videos\my_video.mp4"
Then add the video format you wish to encode into (VP9):
C:\Software\ffmpeg.exe -i "C:\videos\my_video.mp4" -c:v libvpx-vp9
Then add the VP9\Opus encoding settings:
C:\Software\ffmpeg.exe -i "C:\videos\my_video.mp4" -c:v libvpx-vp9 -crf 22 -speed 1 -b:v 0 -c:a libopus -b:a 128k
And finally, the output path (with a .webm extention):
C:\Software\ffmpeg.exe -i "C:\videos\my_video.mp4" -c:v libvpx-vp9 -crf 22 -speed 1 -b:v 0 -c:a libopus -b:a 128k "C:\videos\my_video_in_VP9.webm"
After you have finished writing out the command to encode your video file into VP9, hit enter and watch it go! After the conversion has finshed, you should have a webm file at the output path you specified which contains VP9 video, and OPUS audio. Congratulations.
Possible VP9 encoding settings
Documentation containing the encoding parameters available for the libvpx encoder can be found here: http://www.webmproject.org/docs/encoder-parameters/
The available encoding parameters for libvpx in FFmpeg can be viewed by running FFmpeg with the following command-line:
C:\Software\ffmpeg.exe -h encoder=libvpx
