How to get better quality converting MP4 to WMV with ffmpeg?

ffmpeg, mp4, wmv

Solution

Consider the following command instead (some outdated commands in the final answer section):

ffmpeg -i test.mp4 -c:v wmv2 -b:v 1024k -c:a wmav2 -b:a 192k test1.wmv

REFERENCES

- https://askubuntu.com/questions/352920/fastest-way-to-convert-videos-batch-or-single

Problem

I am converting MP4 files to WMV with these two rescaling commands: ``` ffmpeg -i test.mp4 -y -vf scale=-1:360 test1.wmv ffmpeg -i test.mp4 -y -vf scale=-1:720 test2.wmv ``` I've also tried: ``` ffmpeg -g 1 -b 16000k -i test1.mp4 test1.wmv ``` However, the .wmv files that are produced are "blocky and grainy" as you can see here in a small section of a video screenshot: These are the sizes: ``` test.mp4 - 106 MB test1.wmv - 6 MB test2.wmv - 16 MB ``` How can I increase the quality/size of the resulting .wmv files (the size of the .wmv files is of no concern)?

Original source