This guide supports Ubuntu Precise Pangolin 12.04, Ubuntu Oneiric Ocelot 11.10, Ubuntu Natty Narwhal 11.04, and Ubuntu Maverick Meerkat 10.10. Separate guides are available for Ubuntu Lucid Lynx 10.04 and Ubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04. This guide will enable several external encoding and decoding libraries: libfaac (AAC encoder), libfdk-aac (AAC encoder), libmp3lame (MP3 encoder), libopencore-amr (AMR encoder/decoder), librtmp (for additional RTMP protocols), libtheora (Theora encoder), libvorbis (Vorbis encoder), libvpx (VP8 encoder/decoder), and libx264 (H.264 encoder). These are optional and may be omitted if desired. This guide will also install many filters (see the filter list in the Filtering Guide).
Note: Copy and paste the whole code box for each step.
Remove any existing packages:
sudo apt-get remove ffmpeg x264 libav-tools libvpx-dev libx264-dev
Get the dependencies (Ubuntu Desktop users):
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get -y install build-essential checkinstall git libfaac-dev libgpac-dev \
libjack-jackd2-dev libmp3lame-dev libopencore-amrnb-dev libopencore-amrwb-dev \
librtmp-dev libsdl1.2-dev libtheora-dev libva-dev libvdpau-dev libvorbis-dev \
libx11-dev libxfixes-dev pkg-config texi2html yasm zlib1g-dev
Get the dependencies (Ubuntu Server or headless users):
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get -y install build-essential checkinstall git libfaac-dev libgpac-dev \
libmp3lame-dev libopencore-amrnb-dev libopencore-amrwb-dev librtmp-dev libtheora-dev \
libvorbis-dev pkg-config texi2html yasm zlib1g-dev
H.264 video encoder. The following commands will get the current source files, compile, and install x264. See the x264 Encoding Guide for some usage examples.
cd
git clone --depth 1 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"$5}')" --backup=no --deldoc=yes \
--fstrans=no --default
Note: You can download the nightly x264 source snapshot as an alternative to using git.
AAC audio encoder.
cd
wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/opencore-amr/fdk-aac-0.1.0.tar.gz
tar xzvf fdk-aac-0.1.0.tar.gz
cd fdk-aac-0.1.0
./configure
make
sudo checkinstall --pkgname=fdk-aac --pkgversion="0.1.0" --backup=no \
--deldoc=yes --fstrans=no --default
VP8 video encoder and decoder.
cd
git clone --depth 1 http://git.chromium.org/webm/libvpx.git
cd libvpx
./configure
make
sudo checkinstall --pkgname=libvpx --pkgversion="1:$(date +%Y%m%d%H%M)-git" --backup=no \
--deldoc=yes --fstrans=no --default
Note: You can download a libvpx source snapshot as an alternative to using git.
cd
git clone --depth 1 git://source.ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg
cd ffmpeg
./configure --enable-gpl --enable-libfaac --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore-amrnb \
--enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-librtmp --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis \
--enable-libvpx --enable-libx264 --enable-nonfree --enable-version3 --enable-x11grab
make
sudo checkinstall --pkgname=ffmpeg --pkgversion="5:$(date +%Y%m%d%H%M)-git" --backup=no \
--deldoc=yes --fstrans=no --default
hash x264 ffmpeg ffplay ffprobe
Note: You can download the nightly FFmpeg source snapshot as an alternative to using git.
Note: Ubuntu Server users should omit --enable-x11grab.
Installation is now complete and FFmpeg is now ready for use. You can keep the x264, libvpx, and ffmpeg directories in your home directory if you plan on updating later. See Updating FFmpeg below for more details. Some optional steps are next followed by instructions on updating FFmpeg and finally instructions on reverting all changes made by this guide.
This is a useful tool if you're showing your H.264 in MP4 videos on the web. It relocates some data in the video to allow playback to begin before the file is completely downloaded. Usage: qt-faststart input.mp4 output.mp4.
cd ~/ffmpeg
make tools/qt-faststart
sudo checkinstall --pkgname=qt-faststart --pkgversion="$(date +%Y%m%d%H%M)-git" --backup=no \
--deldoc=yes --fstrans=no --default install -Dm755 tools/qt-faststart \
/usr/local/bin/qt-faststart
This allows x264 to accept just about any input that FFmpeg can handle and is useful if you want to use x264 directly. See a more detailed explanation of what this means.
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
Development of FFmpeg and x264 is active and an occasional update can give you new features and bug fixes. First, remove some packages and then update the dependencies:
sudo apt-get -y remove ffmpeg x264 libx264-dev libvpx-dev
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get -y install build-essential checkinstall git libfaac-dev libgpac-dev \
libjack-jackd2-dev libmp3lame-dev libopencore-amrnb-dev libopencore-amrwb-dev \
librtmp-dev libsdl1.2-dev libtheora-dev libva-dev libvdpau-dev libvorbis-dev \
libx11-dev libxfixes-dev texi2html yasm zlib1g-dev
cd ~/x264
make distclean
git pull
Now run ./configure, make, and make install as shown in the install x264 section.
cd ~/libvpx
make clean
git pull
Now run ./configure, make, and make install as shown in the install libvpx section.
cd ~/ffmpeg
make distclean
git pull
Now run ./configure, make, and make install as shown in the install FFmpeg section.
To remove FFmpeg/x264 and other packages added for this guide:
sudo apt-get -y autoremove build-essential checkinstall fdk-aac ffmpeg git libfaac-dev libgpac-dev \
libjack-jackd2-dev libmp3lame-dev librtmp-dev libsdl1.2-dev libtheora-dev libva-dev libvdpau-dev \
libvorbis-dev libvpx libx11-dev libxfixes-dev pkg-config qt-faststart texi2html x264 yasm zlib1g-dev
Lastly, delete the x264, fdk-aac, libvpx, and ffmpeg directories in your home folder.
Feel free to ask your questions at the #ffmpeg IRC channel or the ffmpeg-user mailing list.