How to Use the Video Converter

This document outlines the steps required to set up and run the Video Converter application.

1. Prerequisites

Before running the application, ensure you have the following installed on your Arch Linux / CachyOS system:

ffmpeg-full: A version of ffmpeg compiled with DNxHD/HR support.
- Install from AUR: yay -S ffmpeg-full (or your preferred AUR helper).
- Note: If you use OBS Studio, refer to the README.md for potential dependency workarounds.
yt-dlp: A command-line program to download videos from YouTube and other sites.
- Install from the official repositories: sudo pacman -S yt-dlp

2. Setup

Download the application: You can either clone the repository and build the application yourself, or download the latest release from the project's Gitea page. For instructions on running the application, see Running the Application.

Building from source (optional): If you have cloned the repository, you can build the executable by running the following commands:

# Activate the virtual environment
source venv/bin/activate

# Build the executable
pyinstaller --noconfirm video-converter.spec

3. Running the Application

Once you have the executable, you can run it from your terminal.

Navigate to the dist directory:

cd /path/to/your/project/video-converter/dist

Make the executable runnable (if necessary):
```
chmod +x video-converter
```
Run the executable:
```
./video-converter
```

This will launch the graphical user interface (GUI).

4. Using the GUI

The GUI provides the following options:

Select video file or enter URL:
- Browse: Click this button to open a file dialog and select a local video file to convert.
- URL: Enter the URL of a video to download and convert.
Quality: Select the output video quality profile. The available options are low, medium, high, and archive.
Cookies from Browser: If you are downloading a video that requires you to be logged in (e.g., an age-restricted YouTube video), you can select the browser from which to extract the cookies.
Output Directory: Click the "Select Directory" button to choose the directory where the converted file will be saved.
Convert: Click this button to start the conversion process.
Cancel: This button will be enabled during the conversion process and can be used to request cancellation.
Status Bar: The status bar at the bottom of the window will show the current status of the application, including download and conversion progress.
Progress Bar: The progress bar will show the real-time progress of the conversion.

5. Logging and Error Reporting

During the conversion, ffmpeg's output is logged to a file named ffmpeg_output.log in the same directory as the executable.

If an error occurs during the conversion, a message box will appear with the error message and the last 10 lines of the log file. This can help you diagnose the problem.

3.1 KiB Raw Blame History