HOWTO: Install and use the latest FFmpeg and x264

[robdocmagic]

Thanks for your quick response.. Configured and compiled no problem.. I will try the actual usage tonight but I am sure it will work great

[robdocmagic]

Ok, worked great!

I do have one more question, is it possible to add 2 or more text's to the image? I would like to put something in the top left and the bottom right (dynamic text generated at conversion time).

I tried adding two -vf drawtext=<params> -vf drawtext=<params2>, but it appears that my second one "wins" (and my first is lost). I was not sure if I needed 1 drawtext but maybe seperated by a ; or something like that..

Thanks!

[FakeOutdoorsman]

Filters are separated by a comma:

-vf yadif,scale,drawtext,drawtext

See the drawtext section in man ffmpeg for additional options for this filter.

[robdocmagic]

Filters are separated by a comma:

-vf yadif,scale,drawtext,drawtext

See the drawtext section in man ffmpeg for additional options for this filter.

It's working perfectly. I have multiple drawtexts going.

I do have one last question then I am on my way.. In the text I would like to have either comma's or colons but it appears that both of these characters are used for parsing the parameters of the filter. I tried putting a \ in front of them \, or \: and I also have the text in "quotes"

...:text="Day: 1, Group: 1, Team: 1":.....

Is there anything I can do to use these characters in the text of the drawtext?

[FakeOutdoorsman]

Is there anything I can do to use these characters in the text of the drawtext?

Try wrapping all filters in double-quotes and the escaping the (semi-)colons.

-vf "drawtext=...text='Example,\;\: Text'..."

[robdocmagic]

Try wrapping all filters in double-quotes and the escaping the (semi-)colons.

-vf "drawtext=...text='Example,\;\: Text'..."

Yup, worked like a charm. Wow!! Awesome.

Ok, now one more thing and then I am done with this beast.

I am setting the font to be 11 point font, but when it's rendered on the video the result is a lot smaller than an 11 point font. I did some research, looked through the man pages for this feature and my guess is that somehow the fonts are being scaled based on the video resolution (just a guess).

I believe that I need to pass in some combination of the ft_load_flags (the default being render). I pass in no_scale but when I do that, all of my text disappears (e.g it's not rendered). So I am thinking that I need to pass in both no_scale and render -- or some type of combination so it will keep the exact font size.

I need this because I am computing the width of the text within PHP and calculate the X and Y (so the text will be in the correct position)

So my questions are:

1) Do you know the correct flags that would keep the font size what I specify.
2) Do you know the correct syntax to pass in multiple flags. I can try different combinations and see if I can figure it out.

Thanks again for your time and your help.

[FakeOutdoorsman]

Sorry, but this is beyond my experience with drawtext. You could ask in the #ffmpeg IRC channel or the ffmpeg-user mailing list, but in general it seems the mailing list is a better place for filter related questions.

[FakeOutdoorsman]

I did a quick test in Natty 11.04 and it appears that FFmpeg is now able to find static x264 with no issues. I'll update the guide before the final release.

[verb3k]

Try wrapping all filters in double-quotes and the escaping the (semi-)colons.

-vf "drawtext=...text='Example,\;\: Text'..."

Also, you can use strong quoting 'filter,filter...'. This way you won't need to escape the colon characters.

[heyup]

I got an error when installing qt-faststart (on Hardy Heron):

dpkg-deb - error: (upstream) version (`UNKNOWN') doesn't contain any digits
dpkg-deb: 1 errors in control file

Installation shown as successful, but debian package failed. When I hit q key to escape got this at end:

Building file list...OK
Building Debian package... FAILED!
*** Failed to build the package
Do you want to see the log file? [y]: y
Erasing temporary files...OK
Deleting doc-pak directory...OK
Deleting temp dir...OK

Seems to be related to unknown version of ffmpeg:

:~/ffmpeg$ ffmpeg
FFmpeg version UNKNOWN, Copyright (c) 2000-2011 the FFmpeg developers
built on Mar 31 2011 12:45:43 with gcc 4.2.4 (Ubuntu 4.2.4-1ubuntu4)

FakeOutdoorsman
You may recall this from a couple of weeks ago:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...postcount=1566

Can a known version of ffmpeg be built using Hardy Heron?