HOWTO: Install and use the latest FFmpeg and x264

[andrew.46]

Do I even have x264.

And for x264:

andrew@skamandros~$ x264 --version
x264 0.119.2106 07efeb4
(libswscale 2.1.0)
built on Nov  5 2011, gcc: 4.5.2
configuration: --bit-depth=10 --chroma-format=all
x264 license: GPL version 2 or later
libswscale license: nonfree and unredistributable
WARNING: This binary is unredistributable!

I did a check of formats currently supported and found what seems to cover just about everything.. I don't wish to reinvent the wheel if my wheel isn't broken.

If your current FFmpeg fills your needs I would suspect there is no need to build your own. But in time you will find the substantial limitations of the Ubuntu packaged FFmpeg and that is where this guide comes into its own.

[ron999]

... wmal is detected properly & not rejected by either ffplay or ffmpeg, just can't do a decode atm...

Hi
In the meantime... mPlayer will convert these wma lossless to wav.
(Maybe it uses the extra all-20110131 codecs, not sure.)
Also there are some wma2wav.exe programs that might work with WINE.
Then afterwards convert from wav to the required format.

This is a method using mPlayer, FFmpeg and a named pipe.
Does the job in one operation.
(Change the red parts to suit).

# Make sure no pipe.pipe file already exists. && \
rm -f pipe.pipe && \
# && \
mkfifo pipe.pipe && \
mplayer -noconsolecontrols \
-vc null -vo null \
-ao pcm:fast:file=pipe.pipe \
luckynight.wma & \
ffmpeg -y -i pipe.pipe -acodec libmp3lame -aq 4 luckynight.mp3 && \
rm -f pipe.pipe

Borrowed the idea from here:- http://incise.org/transcoding-music.html

...

[andrew.46]

Or perhaps:

transcode -H 0 -x null,mplayer -i luckynight.wma -y null,tcaud \
          --lame_preset standard -E 44100,16,2 -m luckynight.mp3

but only for the 32bit MPlayer of course and Transcode's MPlayer import module:

andrew@skamandros~$ ls -1 $( tcmodinfo -p )/import*.so | grep mplayer
/usr/lib/transcode/import_mplayer.so

[PayPaul]

I did get a nice long description of all the add-ons that are included with ffmpeg including some warnings about mismatches. What sort of problems could those cause? How do I fix them? I just did some security updates but I'm not certain if anything associated with ffmpeg was in those updates.

                                  FFmpeg version 0.6.2-4:0.6.2-1ubuntu1.1, Copyright (c) 2000-2010 the Libav developers 
   built on Sep 16 2011 17:00:39 with gcc 4.5.2 
   configuration: --extra-version=4:0.6.2-1ubuntu1.1 --prefix=/usr --enable-avfilter --enable-avfilter-lavf --enable-vdpau --enable-bzlib --enable-libgsm --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-pthreads --enable-zlib --enable-libvpx --disable-stripping --enable-runtime-cpudetect --enable-vaapi --enable-gpl --enable-postproc --enable-swscale --enable-x11grab --enable-libdc1394 --enable-shared --disable-static 
   WARNING: library configuration mismatch 
   libavutil   configuration: --extra-version=4:0.6.2-1ubuntu2 --prefix=/usr --enable-avfilter --enable-avfilter-lavf --enable-vdpau --enable-bzlib --enable-libdirac --enable-libgsm --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-pthreads --enable-zlib --enable-libvpx --disable-stripping --enable-runtime-cpudetect --enable-vaapi --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-gpl --enable-postproc --enable-swscale --enable-x11grab --enable-libfaad --enable-libdirac --enable-libfaad --enable-libmp3lame --enable-librtmp --enable-libx264 --enable-libxvid --enable-libdc1394 --enable-shared --disable-static 
   libavcodec  configuration: --extra-version=4:0.6.2-1ubuntu2 --prefix=/usr --enable-avfilter --enable-avfilter-lavf --enable-vdpau --enable-bzlib --enable-libdirac --enable-libgsm --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-pthreads --enable-zlib --enable-libvpx --disable-stripping --enable-runtime-cpudetect --enable-vaapi --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-gpl --enable-postproc --enable-swscale --enable-x11grab --enable-libfaad --enable-libdirac --enable-libfaad --enable-libmp3lame --enable-librtmp --enable-libx264 --enable-libxvid --enable-libdc1394 --enable-shared --disable-static 
   libavformat configuration: --extra-version=4:0.6.2-1ubuntu2 --prefix=/usr --enable-avfilter --enable-avfilter-lavf --enable-vdpau --enable-bzlib --enable-libdirac --enable-libgsm --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-pthreads --enable-zlib --enable-libvpx --disable-stripping --enable-runtime-cpudetect --enable-vaapi --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-gpl --enable-postproc --enable-swscale --enable-x11grab --enable-libfaad --enable-libdirac --enable-libfaad --enable-libmp3lame --enable-librtmp --enable-libx264 --enable-libxvid --enable-libdc1394 --enable-shared --disable-static 
   libavutil     50.15. 1 / 50.15. 1 
   libavcodec    52.72. 2 / 52.72. 2 
   libavformat   52.64. 2 / 52.64. 2 
   libavdevice   52. 2. 0 / 52. 2. 0 
   libavfilter    1.19. 0 /  1.19. 0 
   libswscale     0.11. 0 /  0.11. 0 
   libpostproc   51. 2. 0 / 51. 2. 0 
 Hyper fast Audio and Video encoder 
 usage: ffmpeg [options] [[infile options] -i infile]... {[outfile options] outfile}...

Thanks for that nice simple command.

[FakeOutdoorsman]

...including some warnings about mismatches. What sort of problems could those cause? How do I fix them?

You can ignore those warnings. They are a result from the way the maintainer created the package and will not cause you any issues.

[PayPaul]

You can ignore those warnings. They are a result from the way the maintainer created the package and will not cause you any issues.

I don't mean to fuss about it and appreciate the heads up but do those warnings indicate that the maintainer created a faulty package? Weird.

[beew]

Hi,

I have followed your great tutorial to install ffmpeg and x264 on Ubuntu 11.04. It went through very smoothly and so far everything seems to be working. Thanks a lot!

I have a few questions though, I would greatly appreciate your thoughts on them.

I notice that ffmpeg is installed in /usr/local/bin/. Now many applications use ffmpeg as backend, do I need to make a symbolic like to /usr/bin/, since it may be where ffmpeg is expected to be?

When compiling ffmpeg I saw that it was building libvacodec and some othe libva packages. Prior to building ffmpeg with your instructions I have installed libvacodecs-extra52 (and other libva--extra packages) from Ubuntu restricted extras and Medibuntu. I think with your method of building ffmpeg the extra codecs are already built into the libraries. So far i haven't notice any conflict with my previously installed "extra" packages.. I am wondering if I have to install these packages in the future if I plan to build ffmpeg this way, would they be superfluous?

Has there been report of compatibility issue in using this build as the "system" ffmpeg? I was building k3b from debian source and was told that if I have installed ffmpeg from this tutorial I would have to revert to the old "stripped" version first and then rebuild ffmpeg after compiling k3b. I am wondering if this example may indicate some compatibility issues in system-wide deployment of this build.

Finally, I have pinned ffmpeg and x264 so that they won't get "upgraded' by the package manager. Would they get out of sync with the rest of the system when other things are getting updated, or are these packages pretty self contain?

Thanks again.

[mc4man]

Has there been report of compatibility issue in using this build as the "system" ffmpeg? I was building k3b from debian source and was told that if I have installed ffmpeg from this tutorial I would have to revert to the old "stripped" version first and then rebuild ffmpeg after compiling k3b. I am wondering if this example may indicate some compatibility issues in system-wide deployment of this build.

beew -
Just to 'clear' that up for anyone answering this - this issue building k3b wasn't 'stripped', ect.
k3b uses libavcodec/libavformat-dev, with the ffmpeg static build installed it was using those headers instead of the ones in /usr/include
It's possible k3b could be statically linked but even then it would need patching for newer ffmpeg sources, it was easier & probably better to get ffmpeg 'out of the way' during the build.

[beew]

Hi, mc4man.

Thanks for the clarification. So does it mean that the same would apply for building other programs that would use those dev files unless they are statically linked to their own version of ffmpeg?

Now I think I have two sets of libavcodecs, one statically built with ffmpeg following this guide and then there is another installed with restricted extras and Medibuntu before. But I have to make sure when I go home later. One of my questions was basically I am not sure which one will be used by what...

Thanks again.. this is all kind of new to me and I easily get confused..

[andrew.46]

Just to add a little more confusion, it is possible to direct the application you are compiling to use a specific version of FFmpeg + friends by explicitly giving PKG_CONFIG_PATH before compiling. On my own system I use this to give SoX, Transcode and a few other applications an FFmpeg that they will compile against:

export PKG_CONFIG_PATH="/home/andrew/source/ffmpeg_old/usr/lib/pkgconfig"

This copy of FFmpeg is a bare-bones copy without FFmpeg/FFplay/FFserver/docs etc and is a very useful technique when you wish to run the git FFmpeg as your 'system' copy. Currently my 'ffmpeg_old' is 0.7.6 as this maintains features of 0.6 while containing multiple bugfixes and improvements.