Question

I have just installed ffmpeg and I am trying to encode all my uploaded videos to .mp4 file. Most of the users currently upload .mov and I want to convert every video to .mp4.

I am running the command as follows:

ffmpeg -i movie.mov -vcodec copy -acodec cop out.mp4

But all I am getting is the following errors

ffmpeg version 0.8.5, Copyright (c) 2000-2011 the FFmpeg developers
  built on Aug 19 2012 11:38:20 with clang 3.1 (tags/Apple/clang-318.0.61)
  configuration: --enable-nonfree --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --enable-postproc --enable-swscale --enable-avfilter --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libvorbis --enable-libtheora --enable-libfaac --enable-libxvid --enable-libx264 --enable-libvpx --enable-hardcoded-tables --enable-shared --enable-pthreads --disable-indevs --cc=clang
  libavutil    51.  9. 1 / 51.  9. 1
  libavcodec   53.  7. 0 / 53.  7. 0
  libavformat  53.  4. 0 / 53.  4. 0
  libavdevice  53.  1. 1 / 53.  1. 1
  libavfilter   2. 23. 0 /  2. 23. 0
  libswscale    2.  0. 0 /  2.  0. 0
  libpostproc  51.  2. 0 / 51.  2. 0
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'movie.mov':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : qt  
    minor_version   : 537199360
    compatible_brands: qt  
    creation_time   : 2012-03-28 07:13:20
  Duration: 00:00:26.23, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 12974 kb/s
    Stream #0.0(eng): Video: mjpeg, yuvj420p, 1280x720 [PAR 72:72 DAR 16:9], 12972 kb/s, 11.67 fps, 600 tbr, 600 tbn, 600 tbc
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2012-03-28 07:13:20
File 'out.mp4' already exists. Overwrite ? [y/N] y
Output #0, mp4, to 'out.mp4':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : qt  
    minor_version   : 537199360
    compatible_brands: qt  
    creation_time   : 2012-03-28 07:13:20
    encoder         : Lavf53.4.0
    Stream #0.0(eng): Video: mjpeg, yuvj420p, 1280x720 [PAR 72:72 DAR 16:9], q=2-31, 12972 kb/s, 600 tbn, 600 tbc
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2012-03-28 07:13:20
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0.0 -> #0.0
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
frame=  121 fps=  0 q=-1.0 size=   16408kB time=00:00:10.08 bitrate=13332.2kbitsframe=  306 fps=  0 q=-1.0 Lsize=   41543kB time=00:00:26.12 bitrate=13025.0kbits/s    
video:41538kB audio:0kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead 0.012531%

Answer 1

The command to just stream it to a new container (mp4) needed by some applications like Adobe Premiere Pro without encoding (fast) is:

ffmpeg -i input.mov -qscale 0 output.mp4

Alternative as mentioned in the comments, which re-encodes with best quaility (-qscale 0):

ffmpeg -i input.mov -q:v 0 output.mp4