HOWTO: Install and use the latest FFmpeg and x264

[qyot27]

On July 23rd, x265 was announced (also here for more discussion). This has the tentative blessing of the x264 devs, and the hope is to eventually integrate it with the other projects on Videolan. It's still in an early stage (and pretty slow at the moment), and actively in the process of taking the HM reference code and rewriting/optimizing it to properly be GPL rather than the 3-clause BSD, but it is possible to generate samples with it that Mediainfo recognizes as HEVC/H.265.

[snipped out]

The remaining pieces that need to fall into place for proper support of the format are the decoder currently in OpenHEVC's libav branch to get committed (and then make its way into FFmpeg, most likely through qatar), and for the draft that MPEG put out for putting HEVC into MP4 to be officially approved, which will allow L-SMASH to implement it (GPAC already has somewhat, but they aren't known for being absolutely spec-compliant; plus, GPAC is ridiculously bloated and finicky to cross-compile). The method for storing it in MP4 will also be necessary for it being officially added to Matroska.

2013-08-04: Removed the -DNO_EARLY_RDO_EXIT option; it's been removed from x265's build system too.
2013-10-15: Updated instructions here. There's proper install rules now.

[FakeOutdoorsman]

Interesting post, and thanks for the info. Admittedly I haven't been following this very closely...yet.

[jgcsd]

I tried the compilation guide on the ffmpeg website, but it fails on the fdk-aac step.

Can't exec "libtoolize": No such file or directory at /usr/bin/autoreconf line 195.
Use of uninitialized value in pattern match (m//) at /usr/bin/autoreconf line 195.
autoreconf: Entering directory `.'
autoreconf: configure.ac: not using Gettext
autoreconf: running: aclocal --force -I m4
autoreconf: configure.ac: tracing
autoreconf: configure.ac: not using Libtool
autoreconf: running: /usr/bin/autoconf --force
autoreconf: configure.ac: not using Autoheader
autoreconf: running: automake --add-missing --copy --force-missing
Makefile.am:31: Libtool library used but `LIBTOOL' is undefined
Makefile.am:31:   The usual way to define `LIBTOOL' is to add `LT_INIT'
Makefile.am:31:   to `configure.ac' and run `aclocal' and `autoconf' again.
Makefile.am:31:   If `LT_INIT' is in `configure.ac', make sure
Makefile.am:31:   its definition is in aclocal's search path.
autoreconf: automake failed with exit status: 1

Anybody know what's up, or how I can fix it?

[FakeOutdoorsman]

What's your Ubuntu version? The "Get the Dependencies" step installs libtool. Did this not get installed? Try this:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install libtool
cd ~/ffmpeg_sources/fdk-aac
make distclean
autoreconf -fiv
./configure --prefix="$HOME/ffmpeg_build" --disable-shared
make
make install
make distclean

[qyot27]

x265 recently got proper install rules (finally) and some of the asm-related commits seemed to speed things up pretty well on my ancient PIII-era Celeron (I was pulling about 0.20 fps with the default settings, up from something like 0.04 fps some time ago), so here's a new set of instructions:

EDIT 2014-02-13: Updated instructions here.

The decoder is getting closer and closer to being committed, as frustrating as it is having to wait for it. Testing with the development branches, though, x265's output can be decoded just fine. L-SMASH and GPAC both support muxing HEVC into MP4 now, and the Matroska devs are fleshing it out also (although the mailing list is still silent since the last posts on this topic back in September; the DivX team's branch of mkvmerge has a draft of it). Part of the dev branches for getting the decoder in libav include patches for playing it from MP4 and MKV. The MP4-related ones weren't working when I tested, but MKV did (as did playing back the .265 files straight out of the encoder). There is also a patch that adds libx265 to libavcodec's external libs, but I have a feeling that it'll be held back even further than the decoder is and won't get committed at the same time.

[qyot27]

Speak of the devil...

So, the HEVC decoder got committed on FFmpeg's side first, just about an hour or so ago. It's there in git right now.

[mc4man]

For a small personal project that will likely stay that way, (personal ppa), am curious about some other deps that i've see in various places.
The one I can't figure is there any real use to libbz2 in ffmpeg? (libbz2-dev

The other thing that does come up is texi2html is being obsoleted in favor of textinfo. It appears that to use textinfo some change would be needed in ffmpeg source ??, though atm it doesn't really matter as texi2html is still available.

[FakeOutdoorsman]

...is there any real use to libbz2 in ffmpeg? (libbz2-dev

As far as I know it is suggested, but not required, by the Matroska demuxer. I'm guessing it's for compressed (data) streams but I'm not totally sure. I don't have any samples with these characteristics but I'm not really into "the scene".

The other thing that does come up is texi2html is being obsoleted in favor of textinfo. It appears that to use textinfo some change would be needed in ffmpeg source ??, though atm it doesn't really matter as texi2html is still available.

See ticket #3232: Use texi2any instead of texi2html for documentation generation.

[mc4man]

As far as I know it is suggested, but not required, by the Matroska demuxer. I'm guessing it's for compressed (data) streams but I'm not totally sure. I don't have any samples with these characteristics but I'm not really into "the scene".



See ticket #3232: Use texi2any instead of texi2html for documentation generation.

Thanks, may or may not include it (bz2
(- for various reasons have decided to let LP build/store/organize most changes or add. things I want rather to do so locally. FFmpeg (binary) was the exception so am exploring what a static FFmpeg debian ppa package entails. Actually works out ok, the libs/includes are somewhat worthless as is & while I've no intention of using them because ppa's are public may go ahead & make them usable by adding a static x264 package
Better current option for no build users are the FFmpeg standalone binaires or there are a couple of ffmpeg shared ppa's

Side note -
not sure if anyone actually reads manpages anymore, I do but not thru a terminal (too many lines, ect.) & I assume there is an online version somewhere or users can open the .html files in a browser instead.
Another option for those following the current wiki who want access, - I've found non standard man locations can be easily added to /etc/manpath.config in various ways

[FakeOutdoorsman]

I assume there is an online version somewhere or users can open the .html files in a browser instead.

HTML formatted documentation should be available in ~/ffmpeg_build/share/doc/ffmpeg for those who compile. Or you can get the FFmpeg source code and run "make doc" after configuring (assuming you have texi2html). Or simply refer to the online docs if you're using a very recent build (these docs are re-generated and synced to code nightly).

Another option for those following the current wiki who want access, - I've found non standard man locations can be easily added to /etc/manpath.config in various ways

This is something I meant to deal with but never did altough it isn't really a complicated task...I just keep forgetting or putting it off. I wanted "man ffmpeg" and such to work without too much trouble. I was messing around with adding MANPATH to .pam_environment instead of .profile, but AFAICT it required a re-login as opposed to using .profile and just sourcing it. pam was also annoying because it was no longer accepting $PATH as expected resulting in different behavior between Ubuntu releases. Admittedly, I don't remember why I was trying .pam_environment.

I didn't use /etc/manpath because I wanted to limit the need for superuser and I didn't want to mess with system stuff.