HOWTO: Install and use the latest FFmpeg and x264

[dannyboy79]

well, after using the google bash script to update to latest svn ffmpeg and x264 git my kdenlive no longer renders files to h264. ddkennedy from kdenlive forums believes its due to me using a mlt package from sanub's PPA along with ffmpeg and x264 from svn and git. this setup was working for weeks so I am not sure what the correct course of action is. Here's what's installed:
melt = 0.5.6-0ubuntu0~sunab~lucid1
ffmpeg = FFmpeg version SVN-r25041, Copyright (c) 2000-2010 the FFmpeg developers
built on Sep 4 2010 08:58:47 with gcc 4.4.3
configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --enable-nonfree --enable-postproc --enable-pthreads --enable-libfaac --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libtheora --enable-libx264 --enable-libxvid --enable-x11grab
x264 = git
kdenlive = 7.7.1 (from ubuntu repos)

his comment on 9-5-10 is this:
"I just tested today's checkouts of x264 and ffmpeg, built from source, and it worked for me using kdenlive's render options. So, that's not it. It is possible the mlt package was not rebuilt using the version of ffmpeg that you are using. How did you install ffmpeg and x264? If they did not come from sunab's repo, then his repo may not be synchronized with whatever repo you grabbed x264 and ffmpeg from. Certainly, if you build those from source yourself, then it will be a problem. You can not arbitrarily update dependencies like that."

so, what does that mean for me? i am asking him over there but this forum is more active so I am asking here also.
-Do I rebuild mlt from source instead of using sanub's .5.6 mlt?
-do I somehow go back to a previous svn of ffmpeg? How to do that since I am using the google bash script that updates svn ffmeg and x264 from git?

I was able to render to h264/aac about 2 days ago so I am stuck now. Any help would be appreciated. Please anyone help, I need to get videos done for my youtube channel.

[prupert]

It seems you are trying to use FFmpeg for two different things:

1) Have the most recent version from SVN
2) Use it as part of kdenlive.

I am not sure what the sanub PPA is for, is this where you get kdenlive from?

If so, if you want to use the bleeding edge of kdenlive, yes, I would build from source - but even that way, you might find occasionally updating to the latest version of FFmpeg via my script (the google code one) might break kdenlive.

If I were you, the easiest solution is to stop using my script, uninstall ffmpeg and x264 and stick to just using the PPA that you were using. That way, there will never be dependency problems. You wont be using the most recent version of FFmpeg, but there will never be an issue with it not working.

[dannyboy79]

It seems you are trying to use FFmpeg for two different things:

1) Have the most recent version from SVN
2) Use it as part of kdenlive.

I am not sure what the sanub PPA is for, is this where you get kdenlive from?

If so, if you want to use the bleeding edge of kdenlive, yes, I would build from source - but even that way, you might find occasionally updating to the latest version of FFmpeg via my script (the google code one) might break kdenlive.

If I were you, the easiest solution is to stop using my script, uninstall ffmpeg and x264 and stick to just using the PPA that you were using. That way, there will never be dependency problems. You wont be using the most recent version of FFmpeg, but there will never be an issue with it not working.

i am using sanub's PPA for melt .5.6. I believe the combination of melt from his PPA and the latest svn ffmpeg is broken. I am not sure how to go back to a previous build or 2 of ffmpeg. I dont know how to install mlt from source as I have tried and I just keep getting failures. if you could tell me how to change your script to install a previous svn version of ffmpeg I would be greatful.

kdenlive is from ubuntu repo's. 7.7.1

this is weird because ffmpeg from svn at version 24084 worked just fine

[mc4man]

because ffmpeg from svn at version 24084 worked just fine

If you used this script previously then what did you do with the checkinstall .deb's for ffmpeg and x264? (maybe they're still in the source folders
If so, you can then use dpkg to downgrade your current installs to those versions.

[dannyboy79]

If you used this script previously then what did you do with the checkinstall .deb's for ffmpeg and x264? (maybe they're still in the source folders
If so, you can then use dpkg to downgrade your current installs to those versions.

awesome idea except when i check the /usr/local/src/ folder there is nothing but a ffmpeg r25042.deb. Thanks for the suggestion. I dont know how to compile mlt against this version of ffmpeg. If I did I think i could solve my issue.

ffmpeg works fine from command line, its when I try to use kdenlive which uses the mlt framework to put in transitions and what not. I get a useless file when rendering. so my last hump to get over is to compile mlt. If I knew what ./configure options I needed to run I'd be good to go.

[qyot27]

All things considered, I think this is a good reason why maintaining separate ffmpeg installations is a good idea. Use the regular kdenlive setup as needed, the stability of the components outweighs the need for bleeding edge. I'm saying this out of my own experience in video editing (albeit on Premiere 6.5 under Windows, so this doesn't apply directly to me), as well as doing fairly regular SVN compiles of ffmpeg; you don't want your editor to break, so if there's a conflict, you need to keep them separate.

Basically, keep kdenlive as it is when it's working, and then install SVN ffmpeg as static to a separate prefix (like /opt or something). Hopefully that would solve the issue, as I'm assuming the problem is arising because the SVN ffmpeg is being built shared, and that's why it's messing with kdenlive's dependencies. If you build static this shouldn't happen, and putting it in a completely different prefix is just further precaution that the two installs are kept in order. I don't know, however, if a conflict would occur with the two ffmpeg apps themselves if you added the new prefix to the $PATH, as it would have to decide which ffmpeg binary to use. But you can circumvent that by not adding the SVN ffmpeg to the $PATH and calling it manually, e.g.,

/opt/bin/./ffmpeg [options]






EDIT: Oh yeah, the way to checkout an arbitrary revision of a project from SVN is to use the -r [revision] parameter, like so:

svn checkout -r 20056 svn://svn.ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg/trunk ffmpeg

Will checkout revision 20056 instead of the latest. You just have to know what revision you need.

[andrew.46]

Hi qyot,

EDIT: Oh yeah, the way to checkout an arbitrary revision of a project from SVN is to use the -r [revision] parameter, like so:

svn checkout -r 20056 svn://svn.ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg/trunk ffmpeg

Will checkout revision 20056 instead of the latest. You just have to know what revision you need.

Mind you there is a small problem with this approach in that the syntax you have given will download revision 20056 of all of FFmpeg except libswscale which will be the latest svn HEAD, it is an external library. Failure to compile can result. A slightly unwieldy way to correct this is to download revisions by date rather than revision:

$ svn co -r '{'2010-02-18'}' svn://svn.ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg/trunk ffmpeg
$ cd ffmpeg/libswscale
$ svn up -r '{'2010-02-18'}'

although there are other methods...

Andrew

[qyot27]

Mind you there is a small problem with this approach in that the syntax you have given will download revision 20056 of all of FFmpeg except libswscale which will be the latest svn HEAD, it is an external library. Failure to compile can result.

So it seems. I never noticed that before. Then again most times I work with ffmpeg revisions that far in the past it's on other branches that are restricted to git, and you have to grab libswscale manually afterward (making date cohesion more of an obvious task).

A slightly unwieldy way to correct this is to download revisions by date rather than revision:

$ svn co -r '{'2010-02-18'}' svn://svn.ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg/trunk ffmpeg
$ cd ffmpeg/libswscale
$ svn up -r '{'2010-02-18'}'

although there are other methods...

Andrew

I suppose it could be do-able by having a script with nearly identical syntax to svn checkout that queries ffmpeg's svn log by revision, copies the date/time from the entry, and then performs the aforementioned date-based checkout.

So the command given would be something like:
ffcheckout -r 20056 svn://svn.ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg/trunk ffmpeg

But what would go on is:
svn log -r 20056 svn://svn.ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg/trunk

r20056 | mru | 2009-09-27 04:16:50 -0400 (Sun, 27 Sep 2009) | 1 line

(copies '2009-09-27 04:16:50 -400' from the log entry)

svn co -r '{'2009-09-27 04:16:50 -400'}' svn://svn.ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg/trunk ffmpeg
cd ffmpeg/libswscale
svn up -r '{'2009-09-27 04:16:50 -400'}'

[dannyboy79]

i am not building ffmpeg with shared libraries. the ./configure command is here:
./configure --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --enable-nonfree --enable-postproc --enable-pthreads --enable-libfaac --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libtheora --enable-libx264 --enable-libxvid --enable-x11grab

i understand you guys are trying to help but since I am using kdenlive which really depends on the mlt framework I am SOL at the moment because I can't seem to build a previous version of ffmpeg (r24084) and still use the sanub PPA for mlt .5.6. Kdenlive is being retrieved from normal ubuntu repos (7.7.1). all these libraries and dependencies are driving me nuts and I am just about ready to do a fresh install. I don't think that would fix my issue either though. I have tried the medibuntu repos and NO sanub PPA repo and still kdenlive won't render to h264. i noticed it was using melt .5.4.

I just wish now that I hadn't updated to the latest SVN of ffmpeg. My setup was running great 3 days ago. Now I htink I've buggered so much crap up I don't know what to do.

I tried to update the google bash script so it would download and install r24084 of ffmpeg but that didn't work either. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Dang it, I wish I understood all these libav* libraries and what not. All these guides are great for merely ffmpeg and x264 but what about the mlt framework and kdenlive. I can't believe there are more video editors out there with a similar situation. Any help would be appreciated.

[mc4man]

Well obviously your current ffmpeg and x264 are doing you no good so remove them

sudo apt-get remove ffmpeg x264

Then you could build a new x264 and ffmpeg without a script using older sources - using this guide (just different sources

What would be far easier is to just use the lucid ffmpeg, libx264, and your sunab repo with medibuntu also enabled.

To do that re-enable both sunab and medibuntu repo's, then run

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install ffmpeg libx264

and ck. in synaptic that you have the extra versions of the ffmpeg libs installed. Search ffmpeg and scroll down ( libavcodec-extra-52, libavformat-extra-52, ect. - if not just mark the extra versions for install, synaptic will upgrade for you

If you wish to try to build a newer ffmpeg and x264 than the default lucid versions then a couple of commands will do so - I'd try the default lucid libs first.

If you know you wish to try building again then just remove as noted above and post back.

(small note - maverick will have a newer ffmpeg (0.6), a newer mlt (0.5.6) and your kdenlive should work fine