<h2 id="context-is-everything">CONTEXT IS EVERYTHING</h2>
<h4 id="hosted-by-lostnbronx">hosted by Lostnbronx</h4>
<p>Turning a large audio file into a tiny video file for a very specific use case.</p>
<p>This solution probably won't work for you, because none of the ones I found on the Internet worked for me. Trial and error led me here, and it's probably the only guide you'll have as well.</p>
<p>Start with as high a quality audio file as you can manage. .wav is good, but it's big. Let's convert it to .flac. If you already have a .flac file, skip this part.</p>
<p>1.) Convert .wav to .flac.</p>
<pre><code>sox INPUT.wav OUTPUT.flac</code></pre>
<p>2.) Convert the .flac to a very small mono .opus. Bitrate can be even smaller. I went down to 14.</p>
<pre><code>opusenc --bitrate 18 --downmix-mono INPUT.flac OUTPUT.opus</code></pre>
<p>3.) Combine the .opus file with a single static image, and output to a .webm video. This should not be very much bigger in file size than the .opus and .jpg combined. The smaller the image file, the better. (I tried using a .gif, but it was actually bigger than the .jpg I ended up with.)</p>
<pre><code>ffmpeg -i INPUT.opus -r 1 -loop 1 -i INPUT.jpg -c:v libvpx -tune stillimage -shortest -y -c:a copy OUTPUT.webm</code></pre>
<p>The final file. It doesn't sound great, but it's listenable, which is all that was desired.</p>
<p><a href="https://social.nasqueron.org/media/pEXqQotxC5P4GNJpf9U" class="uri">https://social.nasqueron.org/media/pEXqQotxC5P4GNJpf9U</a></p>
<p>Here's a better quality version of the audiobook.</p>
<p><a href="https://downloads.cavalcadeaudio.com/stardrifter-novels/01-motherload/?p=home" class="uri">https://downloads.cavalcadeaudio.com/stardrifter-novels/01-motherload/?p=home</a></p>
<p>The process and final result can be improved upon by people smarter than I, without doubt, but this works for now.</p>
<p>SPECIAL THANKS to the Urandom guys (X1101, Thaj, and Pokey), Monsterjavaguns (Jason van Gumster), and the ever-fabulous Klaatu, for their suggestions and encouragement. I would not have found a solution to this, nor even thought to do an episode of HPR, without them!</p>
<p><small><small>Editor's Note 2018-02-15: The wrong audio was accidentally released with this show. It has been corrected and should be re-uploaded by your podcatcher.</small></small></p>
