HOWTO: Install and use the latest FFmpeg and x264

[FakeOutdoorsman]

I got one more question about ffmpeg on ubuntu. Just to see if there is anyone have any idea about this problem.

I am using a quad core (q9450) cpu. But ffmpeg only utilize 25% cpu usage. I already add "-threads 4" or even "-threads 8" in the command line. But I don't see any increase in speed.

I used to have over 200-250 fps in windows (320x240 video encoding). But I got only 100-150 fps in ubuntu (same video, same encoder setting.....).

What is your ffmpeg command and the full ffmpeg ouput?

[nowhere@cox.net]

Hey guys, I'm not very knowledgeable on video encoding and such. Just having a look in synaptic I see

libx264-57
x264 video coding library

is the only x264 thing I have installed. If I mark it for removal, it takes a TON of stuff with it, including ffmpeg. So, it seems to me that the repo ffmpeg should have x264 already built in, yah? Why do I need to recompile it?

I am trying to convert avi's encoded with xvid into something my iPhone will play but without luck so far. I have avidemux installed but using the ipod preset just gives an error

Encoder initialization failed

Not activated.

Is this related to this x264 thing this HowTo is addressing?

Thanks,
Eric

[FakeOutdoorsman]

Hey guys, I'm not very knowledgeable on video encoding and such. Just having a look in synaptic I see
is the only x264 thing I have installed. If I mark it for removal, it takes a TON of stuff with it, including ffmpeg. So, it seems to me that the repo ffmpeg should have x264 already built in, yah?

The repo ffmpeg does not support restricted formats due to legal reasons and has not been configured to support h264 encoding. You have to use a different repo or compile ffmpeg yourself to encode to ipod compatible formats if you want to use ffmpeg.

Why do I need to recompile it?

You don't need to recompile it. I'm not familiar with avidemux, but I believe it uses a built in version of the ffmpeg libavcodec library, so you don't need to install ffmpeg to use avidemux.

I am trying to convert avi's encoded with xvid into something my iPhone will play but without luck so far. I have avidemux installed but using the ipod preset just gives an error

Is this related to this x264 thing this HowTo is addressing?

Thanks,
Eric

You are encoding to XVID so x264 is not even being called by avidemux, so the problem probably isn't with x264. I suggest running avidemux from the command-line to see additional errors that it may spit out in the terminal. You should also take a look at the Ubuntu Wiki page: Encoding Video for the iPod Video.

[mocha]

Using the compiled x264 I get

[libx264 @ 0x8466530]no ratecontrol method specified

when I try to encode something with ffmpeg. Was this a bug in x264 a few weeks ago, because that's when I built it. I went back to an ffmpeg not built with this newer version of the x264 libs.

EDIT: I had to uninstall the git x264 and ffmpeg, and then recompile ffmpeg with only the libx264 from the Ubuntu repository.

Another thing I noticed is that svn ffmpeg 14xxx won't compile with the Ubuntu libx264, only svn 13xxx will compile. I'm really confused with these x264 issues. I'm having the same problems with svn mplayer/mencoder.

I'm curious how a fresh checkout of x264 and ffmpeg are working for other folks. Do you get ratecontrol errors when you try to encode a video?

Regarding mplayer/mencoder, I cannot get it to complie with "--enable-x264".

Any comments would be appreciated. Thanks.

[FakeOutdoorsman]

What FFmpeg command are you using and what s the full FFmpeg output? There was an issue with FFmpeg and the rate control option a few threads back and some people on the ffmpeg-user mailing list have the same error as you: Error: "no ratecontrol method specified".

I compiled today's FFmpeg (r14466) and x264 (r920) and encoded a few videos without any problem using a simple command and a more complex one with "-rc_eq 'blurCplx^(1-qComp)'".

There was probably another bug with FFmpeg or the same one from earleir, and it looks like it's already been fixed, but I'd like to try your command to make sure I didn't miss anything.

I don't use libx264 from the stock Ubuntu repo, so I'm unsure why FFmpeg svn won't work with it anymore.

[mocha]

When I get home later I'll post my ffmpeg command for you to try.

I found out that in additon to the 14xxx ffmpeg, the mplayer 27xxx will also not compile with libx264 support from the libx264 in the Ubuntu repository. I had to revert to an mplayer 26xxxx to get it to work.

In summary, I'm using the Ubuntu libx264, ffmpeg 13060, and mplayer 26672, both ffmpeg and mencoder have working x264 encoding with this version configuration.

If I have time later I'll pull the recent versions of x264, ffmpeg, mplayer and try everything again.

[lunaz]

i'm trying to compile this and got stuck at configuring, i tried it a couple times with same error; tried google but dont know wot to search for.. 'not working' wont help ;p

luna@sux:~$ cd ffmpeg

luna@sux:~/ffmpeg$ ./configure --enable-gpl --enable-postproc --enable-libvorbis --enable-libtheora --disable-debug --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libfaad --enable-libfaac --enable-pthreads --enable-libx264
FAAD test failed.
If you think configure made a mistake, make sure you are using the latest
version from SVN.  If the latest version fails, report the problem to the
ffmpeg-user@mplayerhq.hu mailing list or IRC #ffmpeg on irc.freenode.net.
Include the log file "config.err" produced by configure as this will help
solving the problem.

luna@sux:~/ffmpeg$ make
Makefile:1: config.mak: No such file or directory
libavdevice/Makefile:1: libavdevice/../config.mak: No such file or directory
libavformat/Makefile:1: libavformat/../config.mak: No such file or directory
libavcodec/Makefile:1: libavcodec/../config.mak: No such file or directory
libavutil/Makefile:1: libavutil/../config.mak: No such file or directory
> vhook/watermark.d
> vhook/null.d
> vhook/fish.d
> libavutil/tree.d
> libavutil/string.d
> libavutil/sha1.d
> libavutil/rc4.d
> libavutil/rational.d
> libavutil/random.d
> libavutil/mem.d
> libavutil/md5.d
> libavutil/mathematics.d
> libavutil/lzo.d
> libavutil/log.d
> libavutil/lls.d
> libavutil/intfloat_readwrite.d
> libavutil/fifo.d
> libavutil/des.d
> libavutil/crc.d
> libavutil/base64.d
> libavutil/aes.d
> libavutil/adler32.d
make: *** No rule to make target `libavutil/../config.mak'.  Stop.

luna@sux:~/ffmpeg$ ./configure --enable-gpl --enable-postproc --enable-libvorbis --enable-libtheora --disable-debug --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libfaad --enable-libfaac --enable-pthreads --enable-libx264
FAAD test failed.
If you think configure made a mistake, make sure you are using the latest
version from SVN.  If the latest version fails, report the problem to the
ffmpeg-user@mplayerhq.hu mailing list or IRC #ffmpeg on irc.freenode.net.
Include the log file "config.err" produced by configure as this will help
solving the problem.
luna@sux:~/ffmpeg$

[FakeOutdoorsman]

Did you install "libfaad-dev"? The error message is saying that FFmpeg can't find the necessary files to build itself with support for FAAD. FAAD is a decoder (like a file reader) for AAC audio. If you're not planning on decoding AAC files or transcoding videos with AAC audio then you can remove "--enable-libfaad" from the FFmpeg configure line and "libfaad-dev" will not be needed.

[lunaz]

i installed libfaad2-0 stuff from synaptic

luna@sux:~/ffmpeg$ ./configure --enable-gpl --enable-postproc --enable-libvorbis --enable-libtheora --disable-debug --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libfaad2-0 --enable-libfaac --enable-pthreads --enable-libx264
Unknown option "--enable-libfaad2-0".
See ./configure --help for available options.
luna@sux:~/ffmpeg$

i tried the above line w libfaad also, and w/o the option, still not working --disable libfaad doesn't do any diferent either.

do i have to start all over after installing libfaad2-0 packages?

[mocha]

What FFmpeg command are you using and what s the full FFmpeg output?

Here is the command that was failing with "no ratecontrol method specified"

ffmpeg -threads 2 -i INPUT_FILE -vcodec libx264 -aspect 4:3 -flags +loop -cmp +chroma -deblockalpha 0 -deblockbeta 0 -b 1000k -maxrate 1250k -bufsize 4M -bt 256k -refs 1 -coder 0 -me umh -me_range 16 -subq 7 -partitions +parti4x4+parti8x8+partp8x8 -g 250 -keyint_min 25 -level 30 -qmin 10 -qmax 51 -qcomp 0.6 -trellis 2 -sc_threshold 40 -i_qfactor 0.71 -acodec libfaac -ac 2 OUTPUT_FILE

Can you give this a try with the latest x264 and ffmpeg? Thanks!