HOWTO: Install and use the latest FFmpeg and x264

[andrew.46]

The way I see it, mplayer is failing because it is using the old, external libavcodec instead of the compiled ffmpeg which uses a newer, internal libavcodec.

Mind you I run the latest MPlayer compiled against new internal libavcodec and MPlayer still fails on the stream, hanging indefinitely after the following:

mplayer 'rtsp://rs-au.JewishAudio.org:554/ohr-tmimim/gafne-sz/5760-ki-setse-1.mp3'
MPlayer SVN-r34067-4.5.2 (C) 2000-2011 MPlayer Team
Loading extension-related profile 'extension.mp3'

Playing rtsp://rs-au.JewishAudio.org:554/ohr-tmimim/gafne-sz/5760-ki-setse-1.mp3.
Resolving rs-au.JewishAudio.org for AF_INET6...

Couldn't resolve name for AF_INET6: rs-au.JewishAudio.org
Resolving rs-au.JewishAudio.org for AF_INET...
Connecting to server rs-au.JewishAudio.org[75.99.96.252]: 554...

rtsp_session: session can not be established.
STREAM_LIVE555, URL: rtsp://rs-au.JewishAudio.org:554/ohr-tmimim/gafne-sz/5760-ki-setse-1.mp3
Stream not seekable!
 file format detected.
Initiated "audio/X-MP3-DRAFT-00" RTP subsession on port 56308

and the alternative command is not much better:

mplayer 'ffmpeg://rtsp://rs-au.JewishAudio.org:554/ohr-tmimim/gafne-sz/5760-ki-setse-1.mp3'

[ron999]

Mind you I run the latest MPlayer compiled against new internal libavcodec and MPlayer still fails on the stream, hanging indefinitely...

Perhaps it's a geographical reason.
Does it play with ffplay or cvlc?

[andrew.46]

That stream plays OK for me with mPlayer.
I compiled mPlayer using the tutorial here:- http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1542240
This method compiles mPlayer with it's own version of FFmpeg codecs.
Maybe this is the route to follow instead of messing with your own FFmpeg.

Hmmm..... but I follow this tutorial as well and the stream does not play for me . Not sure about the geographical issue, plays with FFplay but fails on vlc. Interesting.....

[mc4man]

Hmmm..... but I follow this tutorial as well and the stream does not play for me . Not sure about the geographical issue, plays with FFplay but fails on vlc. Interesting.....

See the same here, pretty much as shown by menachem, this is with a couple of different mplayers & mplayer2
Just won't play.

Worst case you could use ffmpeg to grab the stream, either to save & playback at leisure or play while grabbing (give it a min or so headstart, then start player on the .wav or .mp3

ffmpeg to wav wouldn't produce to big a file, maybe about 2MB per min.
Or you could let ffmpeg convert back to mp3 or pipe to lame
Ex.

ffmpeg -i  rtsp://rs2.SichosInEnglish.org:554/sie/heritage/01.mp3  heritage-1.wav
or
ffmpeg -i  rtsp://rs2.SichosInEnglish.org:554/sie/heritage/01.mp3  -f wav - |lame -V6 - heritage-1.mp3

Another possibility, while not ideal, is to pipe directly from ffmpeg to a player - ex. (maybe there's a way to get vlc to cache a bit?

ffmpeg -i  rtsp://rs2.SichosInEnglish.org:554/sie/heritage/01.mp3  -f wav - |vlc -

[andrew.46]

See the same here, pretty much as shown by menachem, this is with a couple of different mplayers & mplayer2
Just won't play.

Glad it is not just me

[FakeOutdoorsman]

Wanted: FFmpeg Maintainer for Ubuntu (or Debian)
As of Natty, Ubuntu (and Debian unstable) has switched from FFmpeg to the libav fork. The "ffmpeg" package and binary is available, but it is from libav and not FFmpeg. In my opinion, forcing users to switch to the fork instead of providing both packages for the user to decide what to use was an unfortunate decision.

Currently, as far as I know, FFmpeg is not available for Natty+. See Ubuntu renaming FFmpeg to libav for a few more details.

I don't know much about maintaining a package, but I (and the FFmpeg developers) would be glad to offer any help for those interested.

[ashwin_cse]

FFmpeg is a versatile tool to encode and decode a multitude of video and audio formats. x264 encodes high-quality H.264 video.

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Install x264
3. Get the current source files, compile, and install x264.

cd
git clone git://git.videolan.org/x264
cd x264
./configure --enable-static
make
sudo checkinstall --pkgname=x264 --pkgversion="3:$(./version.sh | \
    awk -F'[" ]' '/POINT/{print $4"+git"$5}')" --backup=no --deldoc=yes \
    --fstrans=no --default

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Adding lavf support to x264 (optional)
7. This allows x264 to accept just about any input that FFmpeg can handle and is useful if you want to directly use x264.

cd ~/x264
make distclean
./configure --enable-static
make
sudo checkinstall --pkgname=x264 --pkgversion="3:$(./version.sh | \
    awk -F'[" ]' '/POINT/{print $4"+git"$5}')" --backup=no --deldoc=yes \
    --fstrans=no --default

That's it for installation. You can keep the x264, libvpx, and ffmpeg directories in your home directory if you plan on updating later. See Updating FFmpeg and x264 below for more details.

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What is the difference between above two steps ? I see only the codec name changed except that we are cd'ing in to the same directory and running the same set of commands (essentially). Since distclean does nothing but clean up previous run of ./configure. So how is it providing new feature by running the same compilation process again and creating and installing the same deb package. Since it says optional and issues as stated above, i choose to skip. If clarification can be provided it will be great.

Thanks,

with regards,
ashwin

[ron999]

What is the difference between above two steps ?

I asked that question in post #1812

[qyot27]

What is the difference between above two steps ? I see only the codec name changed except that we are cd'ing in to the same directory and running the same set of commands (essentially). Since distclean does nothing but clean up previous run of ./configure. So how is it providing new feature by running the same compilation process again and creating and installing the same deb package. Since it says optional and issues as stated above, i choose to skip. If clarification can be provided it will be great.

x264 can use LAVF input if it detects a usable install of FFmpeg. Notice that the first x264 set was issued before compiling FFmpeg, therefore it will not have the option of using LAVF to open files. The later step recompiles x264 after FFmpeg is installed, detecting LAVF automatically.

LAVF input (and FFMS input, if that had been covered) allows the user to give x264 any general video file directly. Any way you look at the steps though, a recompile is going to be necessary somewhere in the process. Either x264 has to be rebuilt (as per this guide), or FFmpeg has to be rebuilt (in cases where the user wants to keep the LAVF and FFMS components streamlined, and needs a stripped-down version of FFmpeg).

[ashwin_cse]

x264 can use LAVF input if it detects a usable install of FFmpeg. Notice that the first x264 set was issued before compiling FFmpeg, therefore it will not have the option of using LAVF to open files. The later step recompiles x264 after FFmpeg is installed, detecting LAVF automatically.

LAVF input (and FFMS input, if that had been covered) allows the user to give x264 any general video file directly. Any way you look at the steps though, a recompile is going to be necessary somewhere in the process. Either x264 has to be rebuilt (as per this guide), or FFmpeg has to be rebuilt (in cases where the user wants to keep the LAVF and FFMS components streamlined, and needs a stripped-down version of FFmpeg).

Thanks qyot27 for the beautiful explanation. That clears the air. Thanks.

with regards,
ashwin