HOWTO: Install and use the latest FFmpeg and x264

[andrew.46]

libfaac support will be removed once the native encoder gets a speedup. As usual there is no timeline for that, however. I see no need for it with aac and libfdk_aac available.

That is big news, faac has been grumbling along for a long time now....

[goofprog]

It is easy to install the latest ffmpeg by downloading it from ffmpeg.org and adding ffmpeg to /usr/sbin.
Well that is when I believe they use to compile it too but now it is a source code thing. Oh well. I just use wine and ffmpeg like so wine ffmpeg -i thefile.mkv -vf scale=-1:720 thefile.mp4

[FakeOutdoorsman]

It is easy to install the latest ffmpeg by downloading it from ffmpeg.org and adding ffmpeg to /usr/sbin.
Well that is when I believe they use to compile it too but now it is a source code thing.

FFmpeg has never released binaries; just source code. Binaries are available from volunteers and third-parties however. For example, Linux users can get binaries from:
http://johnvansickle.com/ffmpeg/

Oh well. I just use wine and ffmpeg like so wine ffmpeg -i thefile.mkv -vf scale=-1:720 thefile.mp4

There is no need to use Wine to run ffmpeg. Since you're apparently using 15.10, just install ffmpeg from the repo, or download the binary from the link above.

[andrew.46]

I am a little puzzled about nvenc and FFmpeg. I have a GeForce GTX 750 Ti with the binary blob drivers 367.44 and I note that I have access with no further effort to nvenc:

andrew@ilium~$ ffmpeg -encoders 2>/dev/null | grep nvenc
 V..... h264_nvenc           NVIDIA NVENC H.264 encoder (codec h264)
 V..... nvenc                NVIDIA NVENC H.264 encoder (codec h264)
 V..... nvenc_h264           NVIDIA NVENC H.264 encoder (codec h264)
 V..... nvenc_hevc           NVIDIA NVENC hevc encoder (codec hevc)
 V..... hevc_nvenc           NVIDIA NVENC hevc encoder (codec hevc)
andrew@ilium~$

and certainly seems to work well enough although I have not tested efficiency. Why do I have access to this without going through the athletics of downloading the NVidia Codec SDK, manually copying headers etc?

I suspect I am missing something here...

[FakeOutdoorsman]

Unfortunately my hardware is too old to try nvenc so I have no experience with it and am unable to try it.

As a starting point I recommend rooting around in the FFmpeg configure file to see what header files are required, and then see what packages provide these files.

Not very helpful.

Edit: I just remembered that "rooting" is Oz slang for something entirely different. Not what I meant...

[andrew.46]

Edit: I just remembered that "rooting" is Oz slang for something entirely different. Not what I meant...

It is indeed

[qyot27]

It's because the correct header for nvenc got added to compat/ a little over a month ago. In other words, FFmpeg supplies their own local copy of it now, removing the need for end users to go spelunking for mystery headers and fiddle with precarious system setups to make sure the headers can be found when required.

The commit itself.

[andrew.46]

@qyot27 Thanks for that information, you have made my day!! Now to experiment with FFmpeg and nvenc encoding, I knew there was a reason I picked up a decent graphics card! My only regret is that I did not shell out for one of the newer ones with hevc hardware support...

[FakeOutdoorsman]

That is big news, faac has been grumbling along for a long time now....

libfaac has now been removed.

It's because the correct header for nvenc got added to compat/ a little over a month ago.

Makes sense. Didn't even notice that commit.

[andrew.46]

So I have created a little time now in which I would like to test out nvenc and perhaps write up a page of the comparison. I am a little lucky in having a GTX 750 Ti GM107-400-A2 which for me means I have a card with Maxwell microarchitecture and a good run at nvenc.

How to test could get a good start here:

http://developer.download.nvidia.com...ntu_UG_v01.pdf

but I am curious to know if anybody here has already done some testing?