Make Videos Work in Ren’Py – FFmpeg Conversion Tutorial 

~Meowww! 💌🐾(˶^ᵕ^˶)🩵 ~Mia here!

Got a spooky playback or sound issue in your Ren’Py project? 👻 Don’t worry, it’s not that your PC is haunted... ~it’s just Ren’Py being picky if the video isn’t in a format it loves, nyaa!

But no worries — I forged a little meowgical guide to bring your Masterpiece video back to life. Let’s set off on a quest for FFmpeg, nyaaa!

💻✨(=^･^=)✨📩 I] Install & Configure FFmpeg, nyaa!

A) Download the legendary weapon 

Just like in The Matrix, we need to pick the right door...~and the right door is here:

FFmpeg builds – gyan dev: https://www.gyan.dev/ffmpeg/builds/

~Why the full? Because it includes all the meoww codecs Ren’Py adores (VP9, Opus, Vorbis...).

If you grab the essentials, it’s like going on a raid without healing potions...not recommended, nyaa!

B) Unpack the Hidden Treasure 

✨- ˕ •マ💼 ~Once downloaded, you’ll find yourself holding a sealed chest: ffmpeg-git-full.7z.

Right-click it and choose Extract All... (~Windows can usually handle this directly).

If Windows gives you that suspicious “nope, I’m not opening this chest” look, call in your allies:

7-Zip: https://www.7-zip.org/

WinRAR: https://www.win-rar.com/

Inside, you’ll uncover a folder with a... ~barbaric name:

ffmpeg-2025-09-01-git-3ea6c2fe25-full_build

And hidden within its lair, the bin/ subfolder, you’ll find the sacred relics:

- ffmpeg.exe

- ffplay.exe

- ffprobe.exe

~These three musketeers will be your faithful companions on the journey, nyaa!

C) Add the Weapon to Your Inventory (PATH) 

💾- ˕ •マ➕ ~Now it’s time to add FFmpeg to your global inventory (PATH), like a magic spell you can cast anywhere, nyaa!

1️⃣ Open the Start Menu. Search for Environment Variables and click on “Edit the system environment variables.”

2️⃣ Then click on “Environment Variables” at the bottom, just above the OK / Cancel / Apply buttons.

3️⃣ In the new Environment Variables window, look under the System Variables section. Scroll down until you find Path... ~then double-click it.

4️⃣ In the window that opens, click New and add the path to the bin/ folder inside your FFmpeg directory.

Tip – A shortcut to the meoww path!

To easily find this folder, open a File Explorer, go to your ffmpeg-2025-09-01-git-3ea6c2fe25-full_build/bin/ folder, then click the address bar (for example: Downloads > ffmpeg-2025-09-01-git-3ea6c2fe25-full_build > bin). 

This will reveal the full path. Just right-click, copy, and paste it into the New Path slot from Step 4, nyaa! 

💡 Example:

C:\Users\Your_Name\Downloads\ffmpeg-2025-09-01-git-3ea6c2fe25-full_build\ffmpeg-2025-09-01-git-3ea6c2fe25-full_build\bin

5️⃣ Finally, click OK to seal this meoww quest step! Also close the Environment Variables window to complete it. 

D) Final Test: The Victory Line

1️⃣ Open the Start Menu. Search for Terminal or Command Prompt and click on Terminal.

🖌️- ˕ •マ📜 ~Once the terminal is open, type this meoww command, nyaaa:

ffmpeg -version

If you see a flood of lines starting with ffmpeg version... ~congratulations! 

You’ve just unlocked your special power: unlimited video/audio conversion, nyaa! 

It’s like Gandalf shouting:

"You shall not pass... without the Opus codec!"

🔍(=^･^=)⚙️ II] ~Convert the Video Using FFmpeg

Meowww, now it’s time to convert your meoww video, nyaa! 

Ren’Py doesn’t like AAC (super common in MP4s)... Instead, it prefers Opus, Vorbis, MP3, MP2, FLAC, or PCM, wrapped inside containers like WebM, MKV, or Ogg.

And for video codecs? Ren’Py loves VP9, VP8, Theora, or MPEG-4... but not H.264, nyaaa! 

A) Locate your video file

It’s time to find your meoww video so you can convert it with the FFmpeg tool, nyaaa!

First, open a new terminal (or reuse the one you opened earlier to check your FFmpeg install).

✨- ˕ •マ🗂️ ~For example, if your video is inside the Videos folder on your computer, type:

cd Videos

Tips: Want an easy meoww route? 

Open your File Explorer, navigate to your video’s location, then click on the bar at the top showing the folder path (like Videos > doc). It will reveal the full path. Copy it, then paste it after cd with a meow space.

💡 Example:

cd C:\Users\Mia\Videos\doc

B) Convert your meoww video

🔦- ˕ •マ💡 ~Once you’re inside the correct folder, type this command. Replace "input.mp4" with your file’s name and "output.webm" with your new file name. I recommend WebM (VP9 + Opus) for Ren’Py, nyaa!

Tip: Keep file names in quotes (input and output), nyaaa!

ffmpeg -i "input.mp4" -c:v libvpx-vp9 -b:v 0 -crf 30 -pix_fmt yuv420p -c:a libopus -b:a 128k "output.webm"

When the process ends, your converted video appears in the same folder as the original, ~meow!

💡 Example:

ffmpeg -i "my_lovely_cookie.mp4" -c:v libvpx-vp9 -b:v 0 -crf 30 -pix_fmt yuv420p -c:a libopus -b:a 128k "convert_my_lovely_cookie.webm"

-crf 28–36 = quality/size tradeoff (lower = better quality, bigger file).

If playback stutters, try smaller resolution (e.g., -vf scale=1280:-2) or increase -crf a bit.

📀✨(=^･^=)✨📻 – III] Displaying your new meoww video in Ren’Py

After installing FFmpeg and forging your shiny new compatible video, it’s time to bring it to life inside Ren’Py, nyaa!

A) Place your meoww video in the project

Like any treasure looted from a dungeon, your video must be stored in the right place inside your Ren’Py project, nyaaa!

Drop your converted video into the game/images/ folder.

Or, if you want to keep things tidy, you can create a new folder like game/videos/.

⚠️ ~Just make sure you use the correct path to your video later in your Ren’Py script, nyaaa!

B) Play your video from script.rpy

Open script.rpy and use one of Ren’Py’s “spells” to show your masterpiece, meoww!

B1) Full-screen playback

If you want full-screen playback, use Ren’Py’s renpy.movie_cutscene().

Type this inside a label, and replace "images/your_video.webm" with your video’s correct path, filename and extension:

label start:     
    $ renpy.movie_cutscene("images/your_video.webm")     
    "Voilà c'est tout, nyaaa! J'adore les cookies, c'est délicieux, meowww!"     
    return

B2) Alternative with more control — Movie displayable

If you want customization (size, looping, positioning), use Ren’Py’s Movie displayable.

Define it, then show it in your label (and hide it when you’re done), nyaa!

image cookie_1 = Movie(size=(1920, 1080), play="images/your_video.webm", loop=True)  
label start:     
    scene cookie_1     
    "Meowww! Des cookies! Délicieux avec du meoww lait, nyaaa!"     
    return

Docs - Ren’Py Movie displayable:  

https://renpy.org/doc/html/movie.html#Movie

And that’s it, nyaaa!

If everything worked, congrats! If not, don’t worry—just let me know what’s blocking and I’ll help, nyaaa!

Thank you so much for following this little guide, nyaaa! I hope it helped you out!

If you’d like to support me, you can follow my YouTube channel and my Itch.io page—everything is 100% free, nyaaa! The more adventurers join the quest, the more motivated I am to forge new free resources for everyone, meoww!

My Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MiaCodeExpedition

My X: https://twitter.com/MiaCodeEx

Of course, you can always message me for anything if you need help (well...almost anything, fufufu). Just keep in mind it might take me a little while to reply depending on my studies—but I promise I do check my meoww messages from time to time, nyaaa! 

Wishing you tons of success with your project! Stay tuned for the next meoww adventure!

~Love youu and have a meoww Blessed day or night!

~Mia 📖✨(≧◡≦)💖🌟