FFMPEG using ASP.NET

Introduction

Many of us have seen that, package like FFMPEG is quite hectic to use in our web application. Many of us have already opt different modules like Media Handler etc. to convert their video files to flv and stream it over the server.

This module will help you to convert your video files to flv which can easily stream on the server. Moreover you can can get high quality flv using this code.

Background

The very basic idea behind this article is to use the FFMPEG command line argument to fulfill the requirement. All other popular modules available in the internet are based on those command lines which you can use directly to achieve your goal.

Using the code

Here is the website which I tried to develop. Its still under construction. So some bugs you may find over there. But the conversion portion is working fine. Check it out..

http://emazeworks.net/vidshack/default.aspx

here are the steps...

Step - 1

Just download FFMPEG module from the internet. The latest version of FFMPEG will be a zip file which contains all the source code, FFMPEG.exe, FLVTOOL.exe and more. Extract those files into your application directory. FFMPEG.exe basically convert the video files into flv and FLVTOOL insert the metadata to the flv files. So that the video files will have all the video information.Without the metadata the video files won't be able to stream properly.

Step -2

Assign the exepath and directories.

      
        AppPath = Request.PhysicalApplicationPath 'Get the application path
        inputPath = AppPath & "videos\org_video" 'Path of the original file
        outputPath = AppPath & "videos\conv_video" 'Path of the converted file
        imgpath = AppPath & "videos\thumbs" 'Path of the generated thumanails
        prevpath = AppPath & "videos\preview" 'Path of the preview file

Now the main thing is the command line that executes ffmpeg.exe on the server...

string cmd as string = " -i """ & newPath & """ """ & outputPath & "\" & out & 
"""" '-i specifies the input file

Here newpath is the path of the source video file, outputpath is path of the converted video and out is the filename.

The above command line will convert the video into flv format. Now if you like to get high quality flv then use the following code..

Dim fileargs As String = "-i " & newPath & " -acodec mp3 -ab 64k -ac 2 
-ar 44100 -f flv -deinterlace -nr 500 -croptop 4 -cropbottom 8 -cropleft 
8 -cropright 8 -s 640x480 -aspect 4:3 -r 25 -b 650k -me_range 25 -i_qfactor 
0.71 -g 500 " & outputPath & "\" & out & ""

The above code will generate high quality flv. Now to insert metadata into those generated flv file use the following command line

Dim filebuffer As String = "-U """ & outputPath & "\" & out & """"

To create thumbnail use the following code....

Dim imgargs As String = " -i """ & newPath & """ -f image2 -ss 1 -vframes 1 -s 
80x60 -an """ & imgpath & "\" & thumbnm & """"

-i = input file -f = file format -vframe = video frame -s = size

Now create a function which can execute those command line

       Dim proc As New System.Diagnostics.Process()
        proc.StartInfo.FileName = exepath 
'Path of exe that will be executed, only for "filebuffer" it will be "flvtool2.exe"
        proc.StartInfo.Arguments = cmd 'The command which will be executed
        proc.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = False
        proc.StartInfo.CreateNoWindow = True
        proc.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = False
        proc.Start()

Step - 3

The above code will convert any kind of video into FLV now the only thing you have to do is to stream the video using any flash video player.

Points of Interest

You can easily develop any streaming video application using this code and easily build a site like youtube or sharkle. For any kind of help feel free to mail me at arinhere@gmail.com