diff --git a/youtube_dl/__init__.py b/youtube_dl/__init__.py
index ba435ea42..6129ae74b 100644
--- a/youtube_dl/__init__.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/__init__.py
@@ -263,6 +263,7 @@ def _real_main(argv=None):
         postprocessors.append({
             'key': 'FFmpegVideoConvertor',
             'preferedformat': opts.recodevideo,
+            'force_recode': opts.force_recode_video
         })
     # FFmpegMetadataPP should be run after FFmpegVideoConvertorPP and
     # FFmpegExtractAudioPP as containers before conversion may not support
diff --git a/youtube_dl/options.py b/youtube_dl/options.py
index e7d8e8910..4e3704282 100644
--- a/youtube_dl/options.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/options.py
@@ -794,6 +794,10 @@ def parseOpts(overrideArguments=None):
         '--recode-video',
         metavar='FORMAT', dest='recodevideo', default=None,
         help='Encode the video to another format if necessary (currently supported: mp4|flv|ogg|webm|mkv|avi)')
+    postproc.add_option(
+        '--force-recode-video',
+        action='store_true', dest='force_recode_video', default=False,
+        help='Force recoding a video if it is already in the target format')
     postproc.add_option(
         '--postprocessor-args',
         dest='postprocessor_args', metavar='ARGS',
diff --git a/youtube_dl/postprocessor/ffmpeg.py b/youtube_dl/postprocessor/ffmpeg.py
index 5bcb00ac0..7ff9d3701 100644
--- a/youtube_dl/postprocessor/ffmpeg.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/postprocessor/ffmpeg.py
@@ -350,13 +350,16 @@ class FFmpegExtractAudioPP(FFmpegPostProcessor):
 
 
 class FFmpegVideoConvertorPP(FFmpegPostProcessor):
-    def __init__(self, downloader=None, preferedformat=None):
+    def __init__(self, downloader=None, preferedformat=None, force_recode=False):
         super(FFmpegVideoConvertorPP, self).__init__(downloader)
         self._preferedformat = preferedformat
+        self._force_recode = force_recode
 
     def run(self, information):
         path = information['filepath']
-        if information['ext'] == self._preferedformat:
+        if self._force_recode:
+            self._downloader.to_screen('[ffmpeg] Forcing video file recoding as %s' % (self._preferedformat))
+        if information['ext'] == self._preferedformat and not self._force_recode:
             self._downloader.to_screen('[ffmpeg] Not converting video file %s - already is in target format %s' % (path, self._preferedformat))
             return [], information
         options = []
@@ -364,7 +367,7 @@ class FFmpegVideoConvertorPP(FFmpegPostProcessor):
             options.extend(['-c:v', 'libxvid', '-vtag', 'XVID'])
         prefix, sep, ext = path.rpartition('.')
         outpath = prefix + sep + self._preferedformat
-        self._downloader.to_screen('[' + 'ffmpeg' + '] Converting video from %s to %s, Destination: ' % (information['ext'], self._preferedformat) + outpath)
+        self._downloader.to_screen('[ffmpeg] Converting video from %s to %s, Destination: ' % (information['ext'], self._preferedformat) + outpath)
         self.run_ffmpeg(path, outpath, options)
         information['filepath'] = outpath
         information['format'] = self._preferedformat