HOWTO: Install and use the latest FFmpeg and x264

[phiri]

I seem to have issues with optional Step# 4 (Install libvpx (optional))
It would seem as though the repository is down; or could I be doing something wrong?

lphiri@mufasa:~/proj$ git clone http://git.chromium.org/webm/libvpx.git
Initialized empty Git repository in /home/lphiri/proj/libvpx/.git/

error: Failed connect to git.chromium.org:80; Operation now in progress while accessing http://git.chromium.org/webm/libvpx.git/info/refs

fatal: HTTP request failed

I tried the other protocols (https and git) and I am still getting errors.

[ron999]

Hi
libvpx is working OK for me.
Delete the libvpx folder and try again.

ron@ubuntu:~$ git clone http://git.chromium.org/webm/libvpx.git
Cloning into libvpx...
remote: Counting objects: 13892, done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (3311/3311), done.
remote: Total 13892 (delta 10755), reused 13466 (delta 10392)
Receiving objects: 100% (13892/13892), 5.06 MiB | 422 KiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (10755/10755), done.

[phiri]

Hi
libvpx is working OK for me.
Delete the libvpx folder and try again.

ron@ubuntu:~$ git clone http://git.chromium.org/webm/libvpx.git
Cloning into libvpx...
remote: Counting objects: 13892, done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (3311/3311), done.
remote: Total 13892 (delta 10755), reused 13466 (delta 10392)
Receiving objects: 100% (13892/13892), 5.06 MiB | 422 KiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (10755/10755), done.

Yep. Its working now; the repo must have been down at the time. Thank you.

[liutszho]

Hi all!

Just tried playing with ffmpeg in making prores today.

Was really happy with the new feature, worked for both Windows and Linux (Ubuntu 11.10)

However, when I brought them back to my mac Final Cut Pro, I notice a slight color shift when compared to the original clip, seems like saturation was bumped up a bit. It is also apparent in the RGB Mixer scopes too.

I tried using "-pxl_fmt yuv422p" and "-dct8x8" but none of them fixed the issue.

Here is the command I entered: ffmpeg -i prores_test.mov -vcodec prores prores_test_output.mov

I even tried "-vcodec copy" but it did not work

And here is the info for both clips through ffmpeg:

ORIGINAL CLIP
-----------------

ffmpeg version git-2012-01-05-7f83db3, Copyright (c) 2000-2012 the FFmpeg developers
built on Jan 4 2012 17:58:18 with gcc 4.6.1
configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-libfaac --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-libx264 --enable-nonfree --enable-postproc --enable-version3 --enable-x11grab
libavutil 51. 34.100 / 51. 34.100
libavcodec 53. 53.100 / 53. 53.100
libavformat 53. 29.100 / 53. 29.100
libavdevice 53. 4.100 / 53. 4.100
libavfilter 2. 57.101 / 2. 57.101
libswscale 2. 1.100 / 2. 1.100
libswresample 0. 5.100 / 0. 5.100
libpostproc 51. 2.100 / 51. 2.100
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'prores_test.mov':
Metadata:
major_brand : qt
minor_version : 537199360
compatible_brands: qt
creation_time : 2012-01-04 21:32:19
Duration: 00:00:03.00, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 168154 kb/s
Stream #0:0(eng): Video: prores (apch / 0x68637061), yuv422p10le, 1920x1080, 166554 kb/s, SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9, 23.98 fps, 23.98 tbr, 23976 tbn, 23976 tbc
Metadata:
creation_time : 2012-01-04 21:32:19
handler_name : ?Apple Alias Data Handler
Stream #0:1(eng): Audio: pcm_s16le (sowt / 0x74776F73), 48000 Hz, 1 channels, s16, 768 kb/s
Metadata:
creation_time : 2012-01-04 21:32:19
handler_name : ?Apple Alias Data Handler
Stream #0:2(eng): Audio: pcm_s16le (sowt / 0x74776F73), 48000 Hz, 1 channels, s16, 768 kb/s
Metadata:
creation_time : 2012-01-04 21:32:19
handler_name : ?Apple Alias Data Handler
Stream #0:3(eng): Data: none (tmcd / 0x64636D74)
Metadata:
creation_time : 2012-01-04 21:32:24
handler_name : ?Apple Alias Data Handler

OUTPUTTED CLIP
-----------

ffmpeg version git-2012-01-05-7f83db3, Copyright (c) 2000-2012 the FFmpeg developers
built on Jan 4 2012 17:58:18 with gcc 4.6.1
configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-libfaac --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-libx264 --enable-nonfree --enable-postproc --enable-version3 --enable-x11grab
libavutil 51. 34.100 / 51. 34.100
libavcodec 53. 53.100 / 53. 53.100
libavformat 53. 29.100 / 53. 29.100
libavdevice 53. 4.100 / 53. 4.100
libavfilter 2. 57.101 / 2. 57.101
libswscale 2. 1.100 / 2. 1.100
libswresample 0. 5.100 / 0. 5.100
libpostproc 51. 2.100 / 51. 2.100
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'prores_test_output.mov':
Metadata:
major_brand : qt
minor_version : 512
compatible_brands: qt
creation_time : 2012-01-04 21:32:19
encoder : Lavf53.29.100
Duration: 00:00:03.02, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 144974 kb/s
Stream #0:0(eng): Video: prores (apcn / 0x6E637061), yuv422p10le, 1920x1080, 146154 kb/s, 23.98 fps, 23.98 tbr, 2997 tbn, 2997 tbc
Metadata:
creation_time : 2012-01-04 21:32:19
handler_name :
DataHandler
Stream #0:1(eng): Audio: aac (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 48000 Hz, mono, s16, 83 kb/s
Metadata:
creation_time : 2012-01-04 21:32:19
handler_name :
DataHandler


Anyone else run into this?

[qyot27]

However, when I brought them back to my mac Final Cut Pro, I notice a slight color shift when compared to the original clip, seems like saturation was bumped up a bit. It is also apparent in the RGB Mixer scopes too.

Sounds like a range issue. I'm not versed in that area well enough to actually figure out what action to take, but it may be a problem on ffmpeg's side (which may or may not have a parameter to adjust how it gets treated), or it could be due to Final Cut having some kind of errant setting regarding range or not liking the bitstream that ffmpeg outputs.

[kesten]

Hi,
Sorry i didn't go through all 208 pages to see if this has been answered already
But i find that generally, ffmpeg and ubuntu change so quickly, unless it's less than 3 months (?weeks) old, a post never works.

I did a sudo apt-get for ffmpeg today (jan 15 2012)

ffmpeg -f alsa -ac 2 -i pulse -f x11grab -r 30 -s 1024x768 -i :0.0 -acodec pcm_s16le -vcodec libx264 -vpre lossless_ultrafast -threads 0 output.mkv

gives errors:

Stream #1.0: Video: rawvideo, bgra, 1024x768, 754974 kb/s, 30 tbr, 1000k tbn, 30 tbc
Unknown encoder 'libx264'

despite the fact that i have them installed...
/usr/lib/libx264.a
/usr/lib/libx264.so
/usr/lib/libx264.so.116


complete error message at
http://paste.ubuntu.com/806805/

thanks,

kesten

[FakeOutdoorsman]

This thread is about using recent, compiled ffmpeg, not the repository version. You probably need to install one more package to enable libx264 in the repository ffmpeg. See Option B here:

HOWTO: Easily enable MP3, MPEG4, AAC, and other restricted encoders in FFmpeg

[mc4man]

Just to note some continuing nonsense & an upcoming change as of 12.04

ffmpeg (the package) is becoming a transitional package that pulls in libavtools.
libavtools contains, among other things, the new 'preferred' commands -
/usr/bin/avconv
/usr/bin/avplay
/usr/bin/avprobe
/usr/bin/avserver

AND symlinks to them using FFmpeg's names

/usr/bin/ffmpeg
/usr/bin/ffplay
/usr/bin/ffprobe
/usr/bin/ffserver

So the 1st section will need to remove ffmpeg & libavtools to achieve what previously was done by removing ffmpeg.

When running ffmpeg from a terminal you not surprisingly get this inaccurate & somewhat misleading message -

This program is not developed anymore and is only provided for compatibility. Use avconv instead (see Changelog for the list of incompatible changes).

Of interest here - when attempting to build a ffmpeg supported current audacious-plugins, (which ffmpeg support is not available in Debian/Ubuntu packages), it appears audacious is basing min shared libavcodec53 version on FFmpeg's, ie. 53.40.0. Even the latest PP package, (libav) of 01/24/12 is only up to 53.34.0, so configure fails (can be fixed but not the point.
I would suspect that aud won't be the only that bases off of FFmpeg....

[FakeOutdoorsman]

So the 1st section will need to remove ffmpeg & libavtools to achieve what previously was done by removing ffmpeg.

Thanks for the update. I haven't investigated 12.04 yet. I hope they iron out some of the Unity issues. Natty's performance was atrocious on some older, yet still useful computers that I recycled for relatives and friends.

When running ffmpeg from a terminal you not surprisingly get this inaccurate & somewhat misleading message -

This program is not developed anymore and is only provided for compatibility. Use avconv instead (see Changelog for the list of incompatible changes).

I'm not very fond of the wording. To general users it may imply that the "ffmpeg" project is dead.

[mc4man]

I'm not very fond of the wording. To general users it may imply that the "ffmpeg" project is dead.

I think, just because, I'll file a bug on that shortly. Want to first find where it is in the source, (upstream or Debian/Ubuntu) & possibly offer a better/truer message of which haven't thought of one yet.
(odds of garnering a response are probably less than 50-50 anyway, the who cares is likely minuscule