# Dealing with media file formats and RMagick **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [May 16, 2006, 4:00am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/dealing-with-media-file-formats-and-rmagick/60610 "2006-05-16T04:00:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![samonderous](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@samonderous](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/samonderous)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 4:00am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/dealing-with-media-file-formats-and-rmagick/60610/1 "2006-05-16T04:00:02Z")
Hello, I basically have the following problem - I have a site that will allow people to upload videos. The video may be in any format - .mov, .avi, .wmv etc… I can either use embedded Windows Media Player, or embedded Quicktime to play the files but the problem is, how do I create stills from the movies to display them as .jpg’s on my site so when somebody clicks on them, the video starts playing? RMagick only supports .avi files. Are there any other packages out there for Rails? Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![samonderous](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@samonderous](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/samonderous)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 7:35pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/dealing-with-media-file-formats-and-rmagick/60610/2 "2006-05-16T19:35:58Z")
what platform are you on? you may have some luck with the ffmpeg project which supports many video formats: [http://ffmpeg.sourceforge.net/index.php](http://ffmpeg.sourceforge.net/index.php) and then read these: [http://www.db75.com/new\_blog/?p=130](http://www.db75.com/new_blog/?p=130) [http://www.db75.com/new\_blog/?p=211](http://www.db75.com/new_blog/?p=211) I’m sure within all that there is an answer to your question. also, makes me wonder if I should be doing that for something… dorian ---
**Author:** ![samonderous](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@samonderous](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/samonderous)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2006, 8:25pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/dealing-with-media-file-formats-and-rmagick/60610/3 "2006-05-21T20:25:59Z")
> > > Thanks. +1 for ffmpeg. I’m using mencoder/mplayer in a project (which uses ffmpeg) and it handles anything I throw at it. It creates stills and can even convert to flv. I would really love a ruby friendly module though. As for windows, I’ve seen folks use Sorensen Squeeze for this sort of thing. I believe it can watch a directory and convert videos as they’re dropped in. Be prepared to pay some $$$ for anything on Windows though. ---
**Author:** ![samonderous](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@samonderous](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/samonderous)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 9:19pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/dealing-with-media-file-formats-and-rmagick/60610/4 "2006-05-16T21:19:03Z")
I’m on Windows. So I guess these may not help unless they have a windows version. Bummer, do you have anything else? A lot of the Macromedia Flash stuff could possibly help here. They have a way of doing the encoding and converting into .flv. Although, still trying to figure out how to do it automatically. Anything else on the Windows side would be helpful. Thanks a bunch. ---
**Author:** ![samonderous](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@samonderous](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/samonderous)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 10:35am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/dealing-with-media-file-formats-and-rmagick/60610/5 "2006-05-22T10:35:51Z")
One of the blog posts listed by Dorian shows how to fork off an ffmpeg process to do the conversion on-demand. Is there a way to use IO.popen to collect some kind of status after the conversion has completed to know when the conversion is done? There seems to be a ffmpeg for Windows too. Thanks.