HOWTO: Install and use the latest FFmpeg and x264

[mc4man]

Just to mention (& possibly not all that useful..
In preparing a new x264 package I noticed Ubuntu now builds x264 for both 8 & 10 bit, the 10 bit .so goes into for example -
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/x264-10bit/libx264.so.142
The question here was how to use it when desired (with a static ffmpeg built off of

Using an exported LIBRARY_PATH=blah,blah or starting ffmpeg with an env is ineffectual, ffmpeg uses the default 8 bit .so, but this does seem to work ok
export LD_PRELOAD='/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/x264-10bit/libx264.so.142'
ffmpeg -i ect., ect.

[oleg2]

I was getting an ld error that 'dlopen' is not found. I had to add -ldl to ld flags to fix that:

./configure --prefix=$HOME/ffmpeg_build --extra-cflags="-I$HOME/ffmpeg_build/include" --extra-ldflags="-ldl -L$HOME/ffmpeg_build/lib" --bindir=$HOME/bin --enable-gpl --enable-libass --enable-libfaac --enable-libfdk-aac --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-x11grab --enable-libx264  --enable-nonfree

After that I was able to configure and compile ffmpeg and use it for x264 codecs. My OS is Debian/Sid.

[andrew.46]

Had another look at FFmpeg and x265 and I have to say that things ae looking very nice at the moment. Most striking thing since last time I had a decent look is that there has been a huge encoding speed increase, the following took 47m32.668s:

ffmpeg -y -ss 00:48:58 -t 00:04:42 -i matrix_working_version.mkv \
       -map_metadata -1 \
       -metadata title="Matrix: Sparring Scene" \
       -metadata comment="FFmpeg with libx265 1.1+170-c2ebebb66bf4" \
       -metadata date="June 21, 2014" \
       -metadata encoded_by="andrew.46" \
       -c:v libx265 -preset veryslow -x265-params crf=28 -threads 0 \
       -vf "yadif=0:-1:0,crop=1920:784:0:148,scale=1024:trunc(ow/a/2)*2" \
       -c:a libfdk_aac -b:a 128k -ac 2 \
       -af aresample=resampler=soxr -ar 44100 \
       -af "volume=1.25" \
       sparring_1.1+170-c2ebebb66bf4.mkv

Feel free to pick holes in the syntax I have used, still looking at making the audio filters syntax a little cleaner . I have left the output file here for any who are interested:

http://www.datafilehost.com/d/80ef585f

Looks pretty reasonable on my system...

[FakeOutdoorsman]

Hi Andrew,

...still looking at making the audio filters syntax a little cleaner

Since I know little of libx265 I'll try to help with the filters with an untested example:

ffmpeg -y -ss 00:48:58 -t 00:04:42 -i matrix_working_version.mkv \
       -map_metadata -1 \
       -metadata title="Matrix: Sparring Scene" \
       -metadata comment="FFmpeg with libx265 1.1+170-c2ebebb66bf4" \
       -metadata date="June 21, 2014" \
       -metadata encoded_by="andrew.46" \
       -filter_complex "[0:v]yadif=0:-1:0,crop=1920:784:0:148,scale=1024:-2[vid]; [0:a]aresample=44100:resampler=soxr,volume=1.25[aud]" \
       -map "[vid]" -map "[aud]"
       -c:v libx265 -preset veryslow -x265-params crf=28 -threads 0 \
       -c:a libfdk_aac -vbr 5 -ac 2 \
       sparring_1.1+170-c2ebebb66bf4.mkv

• I tend to use one instance of -filter_complex instead of -vf and -af. In fact, I've never even tried using both -vf and -af or with multiple instances of each, so I don't know how ffmpeg behaves with multiples.
  
• The "-2" option for scale is handy: "If one of the values is -n with n > 1, the scale filter will also use a value that maintains the aspect ratio of the input image, calculated from the other specified dimension. After that it will, however, make sure that the calculated dimension is divisible by n and adjust the value if necessary." For those who don't know, libx264 requires that width and height be divisible by 2 for YUV 4:2:0 chroma subsampled outputs.
  
• Maybe you can declare the audio rate in aresample without the need for -ar and tell it to use soxr, but I didn't get to try and could be wrong.
  
• I prefer to explicitly map my filtergraph inputs and outputs so the defaults don't do something unexpected, but most of the time the defaults work fine for most users.
  
• I changed -b:v 128k to -vbr 5 just for an example to show another method.

[andrew.46]

FakeOutDoorsman you are the man!!

1. I have not used filter_complex before but I can see that I will from here on in. I presume the [vid] and [aud] labels are simply arbitrary labels that you then map into the output container?
2. Should I have abandoned the complex maths and been using -2 for the scaling some time ago?
3. You are perfectly correct with the aresample syntax and it is encoding as we speak.
4. VBR fdk_aac had a few warnings:
   
   

   [libfdk_aac @ 0xe07260] Note, the VBR setting is unsupported and only works with some parameter combinations

   but I could find no information regarding these parameter combinations, only a few mutterings which pretty much echoed the FFmpeg warning.
   

Thanks for the tips, I am head down and tail up in the filtering documentation at the moment....

[digitall.h]

Hello, and thank you for keep supporting latest ffmpeg compilation.

I followed the guide in: https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/CompilationGuide/Ubuntu

I obtained yasm 1.3.0 and compiled it without problems.
I don't know if it was needed, but I copied it under /user/bin, renaming previous version.

I then compiled libx264 (latest x264-r2453 from Videolan) with no problems.

I also compiled libxml2-2.9.1.

I then downloaded libbluray-0.6.0 and compiled it with

PKG_CONFIG_PATH="$HOME/ffmpeg_build/lib/pkgconfig"
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH
./configure --prefix="$HOME/ffmpeg_build" --bindir="$HOME/ffmpeg_build/bin" --disable-shared
make
make install
make distclean

And it did also compile without a problem.

But when I then try to compile ffmpeg with libbluray support, it fails.
If I try:

PKG_CONFIG_PATH="$HOME/ffmpeg_build/lib/pkgconfig"
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH
./configure --prefix="$HOME/ffmpeg_build" --extra-cflags="-I$HOME/ffmpeg_build/include" \
   --extra-ldflags="-L$HOME/ffmpeg_build/lib" --bindir="$HOME/ffmpeg_build/bin" --extra-libs=-ldl --enable-gpl \
   --enable-libass --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libtheora --enable-libbluray \
   --enable-libvorbis --enable-libx264 --enable-nonfree --enable-x11grab

It complains that cannot find libbluray.
And if I use:

--extra-libs='-ldl -lxml2'

instead of just -ldl, as advised in Zeranoe forum some time ago, and adjust libbluray.pc, it then complains taht GCC cannot create an executable...

I also tried with previous libbluray-0.5.0 version with the same result.
I managed some time ago, with libbluray-0.4.0 and Zeranoe's forum recomendation, but it is not working with current versions.

How can I compile latest ffmpeg with --enable-libbluray?.
My ubuntu version is Precise.

[SeijiSensei]

Where did it put libbluray? If it's not in a standard location, you may need to add an entry in /etc/ld.so.conf.d/. You might also try running "sudo ldconfig" before compiling ffmpeg.

[digitall.h]

--deleted, wrong post format--

[digitall.h]

Thank you SeijiSensei for your answer.

I have libbluray.a and libbluray.la in HOME/ffmpeg_build/lib folder, and a libbluray folder (with bluray.h and so) in HOME/ffmpeg_build/include folder.
That's where --extra-cflags and --extra-ldflags are pointing in ./configure

And it worked with previous libbluray and ffmpeg versions, locally, without further messing my system.

Did you manage to compile ffmpeg with libbluray?

[FakeOutdoorsman]

Seems to work for me (up to make install at least).

libbluray:

sudo apt-get install libxml2-dev
cd ~/ffmpeg_sources
wget ftp://ftp.videolan.org/pub/videolan/libbluray/0.6.0/libbluray-0.6.0.tar.bz2
tar xjvf libbluray-0.6.0.tar.bz2
cd libbluray-0.6.0
./configure --prefix="$HOME/ffmpeg_build" --bindir="$HOME/ffmpeg_build/bin" --disable-shared
make
make install

ffmpeg:

$ cd ffmpeg
PATH="$PATH:$HOME/bin" PKG_CONFIG_PATH="$HOME/ffmpeg_build/lib/pkgconfig" ./configure \
  --prefix="$HOME/ffmpeg_build" \
  --extra-cflags="-I$HOME/ffmpeg_build/include" \
  --extra-ldflags="-L$HOME/ffmpeg_build/lib" \
  --bindir="$HOME/bin" \
  --enable-libbluray
make
make install

I do not own a blu-ray player so I could not test.

Update: Nevermind. I was building in and pointing to unclean and incorrect directories causing it to link to the wrong (shared) libbluray libraries. It's been a long time since I've used Ubuntu and forgot how much of a slob I was in my VM. I ran out of time now, so I'll have to take a look later.