Convert Audio / Video Files With Selene Media Encoder.

Selene is an audio/video converter for converting files to OGG/OGV/ MKV/MP4/WEBM/OPUS/AAC/FLAC/MP3/WAV formats.

It aims to provide a simple GUI for converting files to popular formats along with powerful command-line options for automated/unattended encoding.

Features.

• Encode videos to MKV/MP4/OGV/WEBM formats.
• Encode music to MP3/AAC/OGG/OPUS/FLAC/WAV formats.
• Option to pause/resume encoding
• Option to run in background and shutdown PC after encoding
• Bash scripts can be written to control the encoding process
• Commandline interface for unattended/automated encoding

Selene is an audio/video converter for Linux that uses bash scripts for transcoding the input files. The scripts can use any command line utility for encoding the input and Selene will display the progress along with options to pause/resume/shutdown, etc.

Since the conversion process is driven by bash scripts, this makes Selene extremely flexible. Bash scripts can be written for a wide variety of transcoding tasks.

Screenshots

 

Installation.

Ubuntu-based Distributions (Ubuntu, Linux Mint, etc)

Install from PPA for Ubuntu 13.10 (saucy), 14.04 (trusty), 14.10 (utopic).
Run the following commands in a terminal window:

sudo apt-add-repository -y ppa:teejee2008/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install selene


For any other Ubuntu release, you can install from the DEB files given below.

selene-latest-i386.deb (32-bit)
selene-latest-amd64.deb (64-bit)

Debian

DEB files are available from following links:

selene-latest-i386.deb (32-bit)
selene-latest-amd64.deb (64-bit)

Other Linux Distributions

An installer is available from following links:

selene-latest-i386.run (32-bit)
selene-latest-amd64.run (64-bit)

Run it from a terminal window with the following commands:

sh ./selene-latest-i386.run  #32-bit
sh ./selene-latest-amd64.run  #64-bit

Depending on the distribution that you are using, you may need to install packages for the following dependencies:

Required: libgtk-3 libgee2 libjson-glib rsync realpath libav-tools mediainfo

Optional: vorbis-tools, opus-tools, vpx-tools, x264, lame, mkvtoolnix, ffmpeg2theora, gpac, sox




AAC Encoding.

For encoding to AAC/MP4 format you need to install the NeroAAC encoder. Run the following commands in a terminal window. It will download and install the NeroAAC encoder.

cd /tmp

wget http://ftp6.nero.com/tools/NeroAACCodec-1.5.1.zip


unzip -j NeroAACCodec-1.5.1.zip linux/neroAacEnc


sudo install -m 0755 neroAacEnc /usr/bin


sudo apt-get install gpac

Usage.

Drag audio/video files to the main window, select a script or preset from the drop-down and click 'Start' to begin. The progress window will display the progress for each file along with options to pause/resume encoding. Right-click on files in the main window for more options.

Running the app in admin mode (using sudo or gksu) will enable additional options for running the conversion process with lower priority (background mode) and for shutting down the system after encoding.

Command-line Options.

Selene can also be used as a normal command-line utility. Run Selene with the '--help' argument to see the full list of options.

Using bash scripts for encoding.

Bash scripts can be written for controlling the encoding process. For example:

x264 -o "${outDir}/${title}.mkv" "${inFile}"

This script converts any given input file to an MKV file using the x264 encoder.

${inFile}, ${outDir}, ${title} are variables which refer to the input file. These variables will be inserted into the script before execution. It is mandatory to use these variables instead of hard-coding the input file names. This is the only restriction.

The script can use any command line utility (like ffmpeg, x264, etc) for converting the files. The progress percentage will be calculated automatically from the console output.

If the encoding tool is a common tool (like ffmpeg or x264), selene will provide some additional features:

• The console output displayed in the statusbar will be pretty-formatted



• The input files can be auto-cropped by replacing the cropping parameters specified in the script.

AutoCropping.

For auto-cropping the input files:

1. Select one or more files from the input list



2. Right-click and select the AutoCrop option. This will calculate the cropping parameters for the file.



3. Select any script that uses avconv, x264 or ffmpeg2theora for encoding. The script must use the cropping option for the encoder that is used. For example, we can use:
   

   x264 --vf crop:0,0,0,0 -o "${outDir}/${title}.mkv" "${inFile}"

   
   The cropping values specified in the script will be replaced with the calculated values before the script is executed.

After using the 'AutoCrop' option, the output can be previewed by right-clicking the file and selecting the 'Preview Output' option. The values can be edited directly from the input file list. Clear the values to disable the cropping option.

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