FFmpeg - Encode Theora

Theora is a free, open, open‑source video codec developed by the Xiph.org Foundation. FFmpeg fully supports encoding to Theora through the libtheora encoder, provided your FFmpeg build is compiled with the correct external libraries.

Basic Usage

The simplest way to encode a video to Theora:

``` ffmpeg -i <input.file> -c:v libtheora -qscale:v 10 <output.file> ```

Recommended Audio Settings (Optional)

If you want to output Ogg Theora + Vorbis:

``` ffmpeg -i <input.file> -c:v libtheora -qscale:v 7 -c:a libvorbis -qscale:a 5 output.ogv ```

Two-Pass Encoding

Pass 1: ``` ffmpeg -i input.mkv -c:v libtheora -qscale:v 7 -pass 1 -an -f ogg /dev/null ``` Pass 2: ``` ffmpeg -i input.mkv -c:v libtheora -qscale:v 7 -c:a libvorbis -qscale:a 5 -pass 2 output.ogv ```

Reference

• FFmpeg Wiki — A Brief Theora and Vorbis Encoding Guide