HOWTO: Install and use the latest FFmpeg and x264

[qyot27]

Seems to be related to unknown version of ffmpeg:



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?

The issue is that during the ffmpeg compilation process, Git is used to generate the internal version number that ffmpeg displays and reports to the system. Hardy's version of Git is too old to do this correctly, meaning that the internal versioning will not work, producing a version tag of UNKNOWN. It's not that the version of ffmpeg is 'unknown' (it's the same version everyone else is compiling); it's only 'unknown' since Git is failing to generate the version number. This then seems to create a problem with stuff like qt-faststart that apparently rely on ffmpeg's internal versioning.

The only way to fully fix this issue is to have & use a newer version of Git. Whether by finding a PPA with one (anyone have an idea if Backports has a proper Git?), compiling it yourself, or by ditching Hardy and using a newer version of Ubuntu itself. If you're focused on Long Term Support releases, that's what Lucid (10.04) is.

It would seem that Hardy's version of Git can be upgraded through this PPA:
https://launchpad.net/~git-core/+archive/ppa

Basically, do the following:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:git-core/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

To illustrate the point though, issue the following command when inside ffmpeg's directory:

echo $(./version.sh)

If it gives you 'UNKNOWN', that's the problem. I suppose it could be possible to adjust version.sh to work with older versions of Git, but that's not as elegant a solution as just making sure that Git is properly updated.

I also suppose you could change the pkgversion command for qt-faststart to the same "git-$(date +%Y%m%d)" syntax as the adjusted ffmpeg command uses. I don't know if the package prefix needs to be there, though.

[heyup]

The only way to fully fix this issue is to have & use a newer version of Git.

It would seem that Hardy's version of Git can be upgraded through this PPA:

https://launchpad.net/~git-core/+archive/ppa

That worked for me.

I now have known version of ffmpeg and qt-faststart installed OK.

Thank you for explaining the problem and sorting a fix.

[robdocmagic]

Hi Again

I am converting a MTS file to MP4 for use on my iPad.


nice -n 19 /usr/local/bin/ffmpeg -i in.mts -y -acodec libfaac -ab 128k -ac 2 -vcodec libx264 -vpre slow -crf 22 -threads 0 -s 1280x720 out.mp4

When I do a smaller resolution, it works great. However, when I move to 1280x720 iTunes gives me an error that it cannot be played on this iPad.

In some research it's saying that movies tagged in the MP4 metadata as level 4.1 or higher won't be synced (this is about the limit of what I understand).

Does anyone know how to address this and/or create MP4 files (high def 1280x720) for their iPads?

Thanks!

[FakeOutdoorsman]

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

I added qt-faststart instructions to the Hardy guide. I just added the current date to the pkgversion. A little simpler than a new Git, but that works too.

Another option would be to copy the qt-faststart binary into ~/bin and then add that directory to your $PATH, but I like giving the option of adding it to the package management system.

Does anyone know how to address this and/or create MP4 files (high def 1280x720) for their iPads?

I have little experience with iDevices, but maybe something like this will work:

ffmpeg -i in -y -acodec libfaac -ab 128k -ac 2 -vcodec libx264 -vpre slow -vpre ipod640 -level 31 -crf 22 -threads 0 -s 1280x720 out.mp4

[dangmc]

I would like to share my solution to the problem of installing restricted presets in Winff. After spending about 3 hours with this with no success (used steps 1, 2, 3), seems after adding 'libavcodec-extra-52'it still wasn't recognized by winff even after removing old presets. (presets.xml) in both ./winff and usr/share/winff folders. My solution was to open 'nautilus' as root and rename the new preset files in both folders to: 'presets.xml'. worked!
Just want to let everybody know I spoke too soon-even though the extended preset list is present the program now doesn't work.
error: 'playff not found' or something similar. If anybody has an idea I would appreciate it. I compiled ffmpeg from source, tried to download from medibuntu, (doesn't seem to be available for maverick)

Ubuntu 10.10 amd64

[andrew.46]

I see two very interesting encoders have arrived in FFmpeg with very little fanfare: a new aac encoder and finally an amr-wb encoder, both as external libraries. This page shows the location of vo-amrwbenc and vo-aacenc:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/opencore-amr/files/

when compiled and installed FFmpeg, with the appropriate ./configure options, shows for vo-amrwbenc:

andrew@skamandros~$ ffmpeg -codecs | grep 'vo-amrwbenc'
FFmpeg version git-N-29078-gf521746, Copyright (c) 2000-2011 the FFmpeg developers
  built on Apr 13 2011 21:52:54 with gcc 4.5.2
  configuration: --prefix=/usr --mandir=/usr/man --enable-postproc --enable-avfilter --enable-pthreads --enable-shared --disable-static --disable-ffserver --enable-libvorbis --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libx264 --enable-libfaac --enable-libvpx --enable-zlib --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-libvo-aacenc --enable-libfreetype --enable-nonfree --enable-gpl --enable-version3
  libavutil    50. 40. 1 / 50. 40. 1
  libavcodec   52.119. 0 / 52.119. 0
  libavformat  52.106. 0 / 52.106. 0
  libavdevice  52.  4. 0 / 52.  4. 0
  libavfilter   1. 78. 0 /  1. 78. 0
  libswscale    0. 13. 0 /  0. 13. 0
  libpostproc  51.  2. 0 / 51.  2. 0
  EA    libvo_amrwbenc  libvo-amrwbenc Adaptive Multi-Rate (AMR) Wide-Band

and for vo-aacenc:

andrew@skamandros~$ ffmpeg -codecs | grep 'vo-aacenc'
FFmpeg version git-N-29078-gf521746, Copyright (c) 2000-2011 the FFmpeg developers
  built on Apr 13 2011 21:52:54 with gcc 4.5.2
  configuration: --prefix=/usr --mandir=/usr/man --enable-postproc --enable-avfilter --enable-pthreads --enable-shared --disable-static --disable-ffserver --enable-libvorbis --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libx264 --enable-libfaac --enable-libvpx --enable-zlib --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-libvo-aacenc --enable-libfreetype --enable-nonfree --enable-gpl --enable-version3
  libavutil    50. 40. 1 / 50. 40. 1
  libavcodec   52.119. 0 / 52.119. 0
  libavformat  52.106. 0 / 52.106. 0
  libavdevice  52.  4. 0 / 52.  4. 0
  libavfilter   1. 78. 0 /  1. 78. 0
  libswscale    0. 13. 0 /  0. 13. 0
  libpostproc  51.  2. 0 / 51.  2. 0
  EA    libvo_aacenc    libvo-aacenc AAC

The aac encoder seems at least usable with reasonable sound quality on my humble setup and the amr-wb encoder works well. I have produced and placed a sample amr-wb file (my first!) here for any interested people:

wget http://www.andrews-corner.org/tmp/luckynight.amr

For those not familiar with the fairly rigid constraints of amr-wb a typical commandline is as follows:

ffmpeg -i input.file \
       -acodec libvo_amrwbenc \
       -ar 16000 -ac 1 -ab 23.85k \
       output.amr

Interesting times

[FakeOutdoorsman]

Thanks, Andrew. Now there are three AAC encoders to choose from that FFmpeg can utilize. I'm going to make build scripts (like a slackbuild) on my other distro for these external libraries because I feel like procrastinating on a project which I don't want to deal with.

[vitorsouza]

Hello there,

Nice HOWTO. Any tips for Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty)? I'm using the beta and when I try to convert a video like this:

ffmpeg -i video.avi -an -pass 1 -vcodec libx264 -vpre slow_firstpass -b 512k -bt 512k -threads 0 video.mp4

I get an error:

Unknown encoder 'libx264'

Can I follow the same instructions that are given for Maverick?

Thanks,
- Vítor Souza

[andrew.46]

Thanks, Andrew. Now there are three AAC encoders to choose from that FFmpeg can utilize. I'm going to make build scripts (like a slackbuild) on my other distro for these external libraries because I feel like procrastinating on a project which I don't want to deal with.

Great minds think alike, I have a 3000 word assignment due soon on the Partition of India so I spent most of an evening packaging these 2 external libraries and then experimenting with them .

[FakeOutdoorsman]

Can I follow the same instructions that are given for Maverick?

Yes, the Maverick instructions should work fine on an updated Natty.