avconv -i foo.mkv -strict experimental -b:v 400k -c:v libx264 -b:a 80 -c:a libmp3lame -ac 1 -s 1280x720 foo-s3.mp4 I'm experimenting with avconv settings to convert movie files for watching on a mobile phone. Above is my latest experiment for converting a movie to watch on a Galaxy S3. The "-strict experimental" seems to be required to create mp4 files with the version of avconv in Debian/Unstable. The video bitrate of 400k and audio bitrate of 80k are arbitrary, I'm going to test them out and see if they are ok, as usual it's a trade-off between quality and space. The "-ac 1" sets it to a single audio channel which works well for the built-in speaker in a phone, and for a movie there isn't so much benefit in sterio (for my music video collection I use sterio because it's worth it when using headphones). Apart from tweaking the bitrates is there anything else I can do to give a better result? avconv -i foo.mkv -strict experimental -s 1280x720 foo-s3.mp4 As an aside avconv doesn't seem to work with basic commands such as the above when a mkv file is the input, but specifying video and audio encoding options separately fixes it. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/