// VidConverter Linux

A no-nonsense desktop media converter that wraps FFmpeg in a friendly GUI and a scriptable CLI. Point it at a video or audio file, pick a format and a quality profile, hit convert. Zero Python dependencies — it rides entirely on the standard library and whatever FFmpeg you already have installed. MIT licensed, source on GitHub.

## // WHAT IT DOES //

Formats. WebM (VP9/VP8 + Opus/Vorbis), MP4 (H.264/H.265 + AAC), MKV, MOV (including ProRes for editing), AVI, FLV, animated GIF with optimized palettes, audio-only extraction (MP3 / AAC / FLAC / WAV), professional audio (AIFF, 24-bit and 32-bit-float WAV), and TIFF/PNG image sequences.

Quality profiles. Each format ships with tuned presets — High Quality, Balanced, Fast, and format-specific specials (ProRes, HEVC, VP8). Build your own and save them; custom profiles persist between sessions and the advanced panel exposes codec, CRF, preset, and audio settings if you want to drive manually.

GUI and CLI, same engine. The Tk GUI has a built-in file browser, live progress, and an output-extension that follows your chosen format. The CLI does the same work headless — single files, shell-glob batches (--batch *.mp4), or a JSON manifest that gives every file its own format and settings.

YouTube fetch. A companion yt_fetch CLI grabs videos by URL via yt-dlp and hands them straight to the converter — audio-only (auto-MP3) or full video, with format/profile flags. Because no one should need an account to save a clip.

## // HOW IT WORKS //

It's a thin, transparent layer over FFmpeg — it builds the command, runs it, and parses progress back into the UI. No re-encoding magic, no lock-in, no telemetry. The whole app is Python standard library; FFmpeg does the heavy lifting, so output is exactly what FFmpeg would give you, just without memorizing flags.

## // GETTING STARTED //

Grab the Windows or macOS build below, or clone the repo and run python vidconverter.py on any platform (Windows, macOS, Linux). FFmpeg must be on your system — winget install Gyan.FFmpeg on Windows, brew install ffmpeg on macOS, or your package manager of choice. A Linux build of v1.0.0 will land under the same release entry once it's cut.