HOWTO: Install and use the latest FFmpeg and x264

[mc4man]

For local builds make install or checkinstall don't mind split up prefixes so I've used this to put the mans in an accessible place (the .html go to ffmpeg's install dir.
--mandir=/usr/local/share/man
--datadir=/usr/local/share/ffmpeg

[qyot27]

Only thing I'd suggest is to use --enable-avisynth. There's really not much of a reason not to include it, IMO.



In other news, x264 mainlined support for L-SMASH with the big commit push back in October, so MP4 muxing doesn't have to rely on GPAC anymore. It prefers L-SMASH if it finds it, and only links to GPAC if L-SMASH isn't present or the user disables it with the --disable-lsmash option.

[spvkgn]

Hello! I'm a newbie and looking for some help. I've compiled latest ffmpeg, x264, ffms2 and avxsynth from git. Is there a way to input .avs with ffmpeg and x264 ? I've tried as follows but have no success.

$ x264 --preset ultrafast --crf 18 -v -o out.mkv ./test.avs
avs [error]: failed to load avisynth
x264 [error]: could not open input file `./test.avs'

$ x264 --version
x264 0.140.2 1ca7bb9
(libswscale 2.5.101)
(libavformat 55.22.102)
(ffmpegsource 2.18.0.0)
built on Jan  6 2014, gcc: 4.6.3
configuration: --bit-depth=8 --chroma-format=all
x264 license: GPL version 2 or later
libswscale/libavformat/ffmpegsource license: GPL version 3 or later

$ ffmpeg -i ./test.avs -v debug
ffmpeg version N-40499-g4ced5d7 Copyright (c) 2000-2014 the FFmpeg developers
  built on Jan  6 2014 13:16:27 with gcc 4.6 (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.6.3-1ubuntu5)
  configuration: --prefix=/home/pavel/apps/ffmpeg_build --extra-cflags=-I/home/pavel/apps/ffmpeg_build/include --extra-ldflags=-L/home/pavel/apps/ffmpeg_build/lib --bindir=/home/pavel/apps/bin --extra-libs=-ldl --enable-gpl --enable-libass --enable-libfdk-aac --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopus --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libx264 --enable-nonfree --enable-x11grab --enable-avisynth --enable-libbluray --enable-libquvi
  libavutil      52. 62.100 / 52. 62.100
  libavcodec     55. 47.100 / 55. 47.100
  libavformat    55. 22.102 / 55. 22.102
  libavdevice    55.  5.102 / 55.  5.102
  libavfilter     4.  0.103 /  4.  0.103
  libswscale      2.  5.101 /  2.  5.101
  libswresample   0. 17.104 /  0. 17.104
  libpostproc    52.  3.100 / 52.  3.100
Splitting the commandline.
Reading option '-i' ... matched as input file with argument './test.avs'.
Reading option '-v' ... matched as option 'v' (set logging level) with argument 'debug'.
Finished splitting the commandline.
Parsing a group of options: global .
Applying option v (set logging level) with argument debug.
Successfully parsed a group of options.
Parsing a group of options: input file ./test.avs.
Successfully parsed a group of options.
Opening an input file: ./test.avs.
[avisynth @ 0x9d3dec0] Format avisynth probed with size=2048 and score=50
[AVIOContext @ 0x9d47fc0] Statistics: 180 bytes read, 0 seeks
./test.avs: Unknown error occurred

AVS script file contains:

FFVideoSource("/path/to/file.mkv")

And the script works fine when I launch it with avxsynth as "avxFrameServer ./test.avs"

Sorry, English is not my native language. Thanks.

[qyot27]

Did you run 'sudo ldconfig' after installing AvxSynth? Did you build FFMS2 as static (it has to be built as shared)? And there's no reason to use ./ before the name of the script - AviSynth scripts aren't executed like shell scripts.

[andrew.46]

In other news, x264 mainlined support for L-SMASH with the big commit push back in October, so MP4 muxing doesn't have to rely on GPAC anymore. It prefers L-SMASH if it finds it, and only links to GPAC if L-SMASH isn't present or the user disables it with the --disable-lsmash option.

Thanks for that tip, I have built l-smash and recompiled x264:

andrew@skamandros~$ x264 --help | head -n 12
x264 core:140 r2377 1ca7bb9
Syntax: x264 [options] -o outfile infile

Infile can be raw (in which case resolution is required),
  or YUV4MPEG (*.y4m),
  or Avisynth if compiled with support (yes).
  or libav* formats if compiled with lavf support (yes) or ffms support (no).
Outfile type is selected by filename:
 .264 -> Raw bytestream
 .mkv -> Matroska
 .flv -> Flash Video
 .mp4 -> MP4 if compiled with GPAC or L-SMASH support (lsmash)

and now I will have a closer look at it. The muxer for l-smash is simply called 'muxer' I note

[andrew.46]

Perhaps this might be a starting point for anybody interested in exploring l-smash?

sudo apt-get -y install build-essential git-core checkinstall && \
mkdir -pv $HOME/l-smash_build && cd $HOME/l-smash_build && \
git clone https://code.google.com/p/l-smash/ && cd l-smash && \
./configure && make && \
mkdir -vp doc-pak && cp -v LICENSE doc-pak && \
sudo checkinstall --pakdir "$HOME/l-smash_build" --backup=no --deldoc=yes --pkgname lsmash \
                   --pkgversion "0:$(git rev-list --count HEAD)-g$(git rev-parse --short HEAD)" \
                   --fstrans=no --deldesc=yes --delspec=yes --default --strip=yes --stripso=yes \
                   --addso=yes && \
make distclean

Edit: Altered the checkinstall syntax as suggested by qyot27 && FO......

[qyot27]

IMO, it's preferable to stop using the the wc -l method and just use git itself:

git rev-list --count HEAD

returns the revision number, and

git rev-parse --short HEAD

returns the 7-character abbreviated git hash.

For example (slightly adapted from my cross-compiling instructions for it),

sudo checkinstall --pkgname=lsmash --pkgversion="0:$(git rev-list --count HEAD)-g$(git rev-parse --short HEAD)" --backup=no --deldoc=yes --delspec=yes --deldesc=yes --strip=yes --stripso=yes --addso=yes --fstrans=no --default

(if I'm not mistaken, --addso will automatically run sudo ldconfig)

[FakeOutdoorsman]

git rev-list --count HEAD

returns the revision number, and

git rev-parse --short HEAD

returns the 7-character abbreviated git hash.

I use the same commands in PKGBUILD files for Arch Linux.

[andrew.46]

Sounds like a great improvement so I have not only altered the checkinstall syntax as suggested but I will use the git commands for my slackbuild script of l-smash. I am typing this surreptitiously from work on a Windows computer so I will test when I get home just to be sure...

[qyot27]

I use the same commands in PKGBUILD files for Arch Linux.

Truth be told, I initially found out about the --count parameter from seeing it used in either some of your PKGBUILD files or from divVerent's PKGBUILD for mpv-git. One of these days I'll have to actually do something with Arch...probably when I finally manage to get my hands on a Raspberry Pi.