HOWTO: Install and use the latest FFmpeg and x264

[qyot27]

The problem isn't x264 (at least, not completely); calls including an SWS_ are coming from swscale. Purge ffmpeg, do a fresh clone, and compile it again. Then see if x264 compiles successfully. There were a rash of commits to fix swscale compiling problems about an hour ago or so.

Worse comes to worst, compile ffmpeg and x264 as 32-bit and wait until both have their AMD64 routines working together again.


Or, you could simply forgo compiling x264 with lavf support. --disable-lavf would probably enable it to succeed, regardless of what happens on ffmpeg's side.

[djdvant]

make install ffmpeg first, then x264, then ffmpeg.

This will ensure that that libswscale is up to date since filters/video/resize.c includes libswscale/swscale.h

[andrew.46]

I do not think it is Winff because I get a similar lack of function with the DownloadHelper GUI. My other computer running 10.10 and following the same procedures seems to work in both. Is there a way to edit the "b" out of the commands? I have tried each GUI using MP4 or FLV to MP3 audio. I may just reinstall ffmpeg on the idea that something went wrong in the process. Any other ideas?

I am pretty sure the problem is that when you install WinFF and use it with the git FFmpeg there is a problem with WinFF using older syntax. You can edit this manually but I have just installed WinFF and I see that there are some newer presets that have edited out the offending 'b's and perhaps this will be the easiest way out of your problem.

Something like the following single command should work:

cd $HOME/.winff && \
mv -v presets.xml presets.xml_bak && \
wget http://winff.googlecode.com/files/presets-libavcodec52-v6.xml.gz && \
gunzip presets-libavcodec52-v6.xml.gz && \
mv -v presets-libavcodec52-v6.xml presets.xml

Doubtless there is a better way to do this but it worked well enough on my system. I have tested several of these presets on my own system which runs the latest git FFmpeg and so far all of them are working well enough. (One small alteration required for ogg encoding is to change the codec from vorbis to libvorbis and doubtless there are other small changes needed.)

[andrew.46]

Hi, I used the Lucid guide here to install with capturing support and I can't get it to work with any options that I've tried.

Here is the command and output:

user@ubuntu:~$ ffmpeg -f alsa -ac 2 -i pulse -f x11grab -r 30 -s 640x480 -i :0.0 -acodec pcm_s16le -vcodec libx264 -vpre lossless_ultrafast -threads 0 output.mkv
[...]
File 'output.mkv' already exists. Overwrite ? [y/N] n                   
Not overwriting - exiting

Here the command fails because the file 'output.mkv' already exists, perhaps from a previous encoding effort? You can simply select 'y' to overwrite your file or add the option -y to your commandline.

[jgodwin@Minty:~$ ffmpeg -f alsa -ac 2 -i pulse -f x11grab -r 30 -s 640x480 -i :0.0 -acodec pcm_s16le -vcodec libx264 -vpre lossless_ultrafast -threads 0 output.mkv
[...]
[libx264 @ 0x9f29660] constant rate-factor is incompatible with 2pass.
Output #0, matroska, to 'output.mkv':                                   
    Stream #0.0: Video: libx264, yuv420p, 640x480, q=0-69, pass 1, pass 2, 200 kb/s, 90k tbn, 30 tbc
    Stream #0.1: Audio: pcm_s16le, 44100 Hz, 2 channels, s16, pass 1, pass 2, 1411 kb/s
Stream mapping:
  Stream #1.0 -> #0.0
  Stream #0.0 -> #0.1
Error while opening encoder for output stream #0.0 - maybe incorrect parameters such as bit_rate, rate, width or height

I suspect the problem here is the -vpre lossless_ultrafast setting, which gives similar error messages on my system. I don't know enough about lossless encoding with x264 and even less about x11grab but perhaps you could try -preset slower instead of your -vpre setting? Wiser heads than mine may suggest a better option but perhaps this will at least kickstart you screen capture . As to the pass 2 error messages, which I can duplicate here as well. I am a little puzzled as well...

[dozycat]

make install ffmpeg first, then x264, then ffmpeg.

This will ensure that that libswscale is up to date since filters/video/resize.c includes libswscale/swscale.h

Do I need to remove ffmmpeg and x264, and start again?

[vagrale13]

Something like the following single command should work:

cd $HOME/.winff && \
mv -v presets.xml presets.xml_bak && \
wget http://winff.googlecode.com/files/presets-libavcodec52-v6.xml.gz && \
gunzip presets-libavcodec52-v6.xml.gz && \
mv -v presets-libavcodec52-v6.xml presets.xml

Doubtless there is a better way to do this but it worked well enough on my system. I have tested several of these presets on my own system which runs the latest git FFmpeg and so far all of them are working well enough. (One small alteration required for ogg encoding is to change the codec from vorbis to libvorbis and doubtless there are other small changes needed.)

What the difference if run

cp /usr/share/winff/presets-libavcodec52-v*.xml ~/.winff/presets.xml
sed -i 's/kb /k /g' ~/.winff/presets.xml

[andrew.46]

What the difference if run

cp /usr/share/winff/presets-libavcodec52-v*.xml ~/.winff/presets.xml
sed -i 's/kb /k /g' ~/.winff/presets.xml

Indeed I did not notice that presets-libavcodec52-v6.xml is packaged in /usr/share/winff/ . You will not need the sed command though as this change is already present in the preset. So to modify your command slightly:

mv -v ~/.winff/presets.xml ~/.winff/presets.xml_bak && \
cp -v /usr/share/winff/presets-libavcodec52-v6.xml ~/.winff/presets.xml

should be enough to get started with the git FFmpeg. To alter the ogg preset I would suggest:

sed -i_oggchange 's/-acodec vorbis/-acodec libvorbis/g' ~/.winff/presets.xml

and then possible more changes, I have only just started looking at the newer presets. Thanks for pointing out that the newer presets were already installed .

[FakeOutdoorsman]

How can I install multiple versions of FFmpeg?

I have the GIT version as my primary version (used instructions from the original post) but I need to compile a special version for a piece of software that I use (AirVideo).

How should I configure/compile this special FFmpeg build so it can exist alongside the GIT version?

Perhaps you could use a local installation of FFmpeg for AirVideo as andrew.46 shows in Howto: Build the development version of vlc under Ubuntu.

Not a great idea, it seems apt freaks out a little bit if it finds a version of FFmpeg installed that doesn't correspond to the naming scheme for FFmpeg it expects. It isn't a deal breaker, it just throws a warning when running apt-get update.

The guide should get around this by changing the epoch number in the pkgversion to be "(current epoch number for package in repo) + 1". From the Debian Policy Manual:

[Epoch] is provided to allow mistakes in the version numbers of older versions of a package, and also a package's previous version numbering schemes, to be left behind.

I previously used ~ffmpeg/version.sh to provide a pkgversion, but changed to using the date as the pkgversion, because as of Natty the version number must start with a digit. Annoying.

I came across the same problem and haven't got round to fixing it yet.

What is the problem exactly? I'd like to try to duplicate it.

by the way , does anyone know if it is also necessary to add --enable-static to the x264 ./configure line in step 7 ?

Yes, it was missing that and I added it. Thanks. Unfortunately, lavf support will currently not work until x264 catches up with some FFmpeg changes. I'm guessing it will be fixed in the next series of updates.

[FakeOutdoorsman]

Also, I owe andrew.46 a beer for answering so many questions while I was playing tourist.

[andrew.46]

Also, I owe andrew.46 a beer for answering so many questions while I was playing tourist.

Welcome back!! I shall now slide into the background again .