source: multimedia/videoutils/ffmpeg.xml@ faec3f7

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<!DOCTYPE sect1 PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
   "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd" [
  <!ENTITY % general-entities SYSTEM "../../general.ent">
  %general-entities;

  <!ENTITY ffmpeg-download-http
    "http://ffmpeg.org/releases/ffmpeg-&ffmpeg-version;.tar.bz2">
  <!ENTITY ffmpeg-download-ftp  " ">
  <!ENTITY ffmpeg-md5sum        "775d184933f71ff44a2fff4968e78b2b">
  <!ENTITY ffmpeg-size          "5.6 MB">
  <!ENTITY ffmpeg-buildsize     "244 MB">
  <!ENTITY ffmpeg-time          "3.7 SBU">
]>

<sect1 id="ffmpeg" xreflabel="FFmpeg-&ffmpeg-version;">
  <?dbhtml filename="ffmpeg.html"?>

  <sect1info>
    <othername>$LastChangedBy$</othername>
    <date>$Date$</date>
  </sect1info>

  <title>FFmpeg-&ffmpeg-version;</title>

  <indexterm zone="ffmpeg">
    <primary sortas="a-FFmpeg">FFmpeg</primary>
  </indexterm>

  <sect2 role="package">
    <title>Introduction to FFmpeg</title>

    <para>
      <application>FFmpeg</application> is a solution to record, convert and
      stream audio and video. It is a very fast video and audio converter and it
      can also acquire from a live audio/video source. Designed to be intuitive,
      the command-line interface (<command>ffmpeg</command>) tries to figure out
      all the parameters, when possible. <application>FFmpeg</application> can
      also convert from any sample rate to any other, and resize video on the
      fly with a high quality polyphase filter.
      <application>FFmpeg</application> can use a video4linux compatible video
      source and any Open Sound System audio source.
    </para>

    &lfs71_checked;

    <bridgehead renderas="sect3">Package Information</bridgehead>
    <itemizedlist spacing="compact">
      <listitem>
        <para>Download (HTTP): <ulink url="&ffmpeg-download-http;"/></para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>Download (FTP): <ulink url="&ffmpeg-download-ftp;"/></para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>Download MD5 sum: &ffmpeg-md5sum;</para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>Download size: &ffmpeg-size;</para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>Estimated disk space required: &ffmpeg-buildsize;</para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>Estimated build time: &ffmpeg-time;</para>
      </listitem>
    </itemizedlist>

    <bridgehead renderas="sect3">FFmpeg Dependencies</bridgehead>

    <bridgehead renderas="sect4">Recommended</bridgehead>
    <para role="recommended"><xref linkend="yasm"/></para>

    <bridgehead renderas="sect4">Optional</bridgehead>
    <para role="optional">
      <xref linkend="faad2"/>, 
      <xref linkend="lame"/>,
      <xref linkend="libtheora"/>, 
      <xref linkend="libvorbis"/>,
      <xref linkend="libvpx"/>, 
      <xref linkend="x-window-system"/>,
      <ulink url="http://www.videolan.org/developers/x264.html">x264</ulink>
      <xref linkend="xvid"/>,
      <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/opencore-amr">OpenCore AMR</ulink>,
      <xref linkend="faac"/>, 
      <xref linkend="freetype2"/>,
      <ulink url="http://libgsm.sourcearchive.com/">GSM</ulink>,
      <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/libdc1394">libdc1394</ulink>,
      <ulink url="http://svn.mplayerhq.hu/nut/src/trunk/">libnut</ulink>
         (SVN checkout),
      <ulink url="http://xavs.sourceforge.net/">libxavs</ulink>
         (SVN checkout),
      <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/librtmp">librtmp</ulink>,
      <ulink url="http://diracvideo.org/">libschroedinger</ulink>,
      <ulink url="http://medialibrary.sourceforge.net/">MediaLibrary</ulink>,
      <ulink
      url="http://connect.creativelabs.com/openal/default.aspx">OpenAL</ulink>,
      <ulink url="http://tipok.org.ua/node/17">libaacplus</ulink>,
      <ulink url="http://code.google.com/p/libass/">libass</ulink>,
      <ulink url="http://www.celt-codec.org/">libcelt</ulink>,
      <ulink url="http://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/libcdio/">libcdio</ulink>,
      <ulink
      url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/opencvlibrary/">libopencv</ulink>,
      <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/libdc1394/">libdc1394</ulink>,
      <ulink url="http://linuxtv.org/downloads/v4l-utils/">libv4l2</ulink>,
      <xref linkend="openjpeg"/>
        (<application>FFmpeg</application> includes code for it's own jpeg2000
        encoder and decoder which is enabled by default),
      <xref linkend="speex"/>,
      <xref linkend="gnutls"/>,
      <xref linkend="openssl"/>,
      <xref linkend="sdl"/> and
      <ulink url="http://www.nongnu.org/texi2html">texi2html</ulink>
        (to build HTML documentation).</para>

    <para condition="html" role="usernotes">
      User Notes: <ulink url="&blfs-wiki;/ffmpeg"/>
    </para>
  </sect2>

  <sect2 role="installation">
    <title>Installation of FFmpeg</title>

    <para>
      Install <application>FFmpeg</application> by running the following
      commands:
    </para>

<screen><userinput>mkdir build &amp;&amp;
cd build &amp;&amp;
../configure --prefix=/usr --enable-shared --disable-static --enable-gpl &amp;&amp;
make</userinput></screen>

    <para>
      The <application>FFmpeg</application> source contains a tool called
      <command>qt-faststart</command> that can modify QuickTime formatted movies
      (mov or mp4) so that the header information is located at the beginning of
      the file instead of the end. This allows video players to begin playing
      the content before the entire file has been downloaded. An example of
      where this is useful for preparing videos before uploading them to
      YouTube. If need <command>qt-faststart</command>, you can compile it with
      gcc:
    </para>

<screen><userinput>gcc ../tools/qt-faststart.c -o qt-faststart</userinput></screen>

    <para>
      If you have <xref linkend="doxygen"/> installed and wish to create the API
      documentation (takes about 150 MB of space), issue the command
      <command>doxygen</command>.
    </para>

    <para>This package does not come with a test suite.</para>

    <para>Now, as the <systemitem class="username">root</systemitem>
    user:</para>

<screen role="root"><userinput>make install &amp;&amp;
mkdir /usr/share/doc/ffmpeg-&ffmpeg-version; &amp;&amp;
cp ../doc/*.txt /usr/share/doc/ffmpeg-&ffmpeg-version;</userinput></screen>

    <para>
      If you used <command>doxygen</command> to create the API documentation,
      install it by issuing the following commands as the
      <systemitem class="username">root</systemitem> user:
    </para>

<screen role="root"><userinput>mkdir /usr/share/doc/ffmpeg-&ffmpeg-version;/api &amp;&amp;
cp -v doxy/* /usr/share/doc/ffmpeg-&ffmpeg-version;/api</userinput></screen>

    <para>
      If you compiled <command>qt-faststart</command> install it as the
      <systemitem class="username">root</systemitem> user:
    </para>

<screen role="root"><userinput>cp qt-faststart /usr/bin</userinput></screen>
  </sect2>

  <sect2 role="commands">
    <title>Command Explanations</title>

    <para>
      <command>mkdir build</command> and <command>cd build</command>: This
      ensures that we compile the <application>FFmpeg</application> object
      files in a separate directory to the source files.
    </para>
    
    <para>
      <option>--enable-shared</option>: This switch is needed to build the
      shared libraries, otherwise only static libraries are built and installed.
    </para>

    <para>
      <option>--disable-static</option>: This switch prevents the static
      libraries from being built.
    </para>

    <para>
      <option>--enable-gpl</option>: This switch enables the use of GPL code and
      permits support for postprocessing, swscale and many other features.
    </para>

    <para>
      <option>--enable-<replaceable>&lt;codec&gt;</replaceable></option>:
      <application>FFmpeg</application> comes with code to compile decoders for
      almost every codec you could think of. The only reason to enable a
      specific codec (and make <application>FFmpeg</application> link to the
      prerequisite shared library installed on your system) is to make ffmpeg
      compile an <emphasis>encoder</emphasis> for that codec. Encoding video is
      a specialist job. If that is what you want to do with
      <command>ffmpeg</command>, study the output of <command>configure
      --help</command>. Remember, the dependencies all install their own
      encoders (that are often better than <application>FFmpeg</application>'s).
      <application>FFmpeg</application> is an excellent collection of decoders.
      If you just want to use <application>FFmpeg</application> to watch video
      or listen to music (via other applications like
      <application>Gstreamer</application>) then you will not benefit from
      linking it to another library.
    </para>

    <para>
      <option>--disable-yasm</option>: use this option if you've not installed
      yasm and you want what configure describes as "a crippled build".
    </para>
  </sect2>

  <sect2 role="configuration">
    <title>Configuring FFmpeg</title>

    <sect3 id="ffmpeg-config">
      <title>Config Files</title>

      <para><filename>/etc/ffserver.conf</filename> and
      <filename>~/.ffmpeg/ffserver-config</filename></para>

      <indexterm zone="ffmpeg ffmpeg-config">
        <primary
        sortas="e-AA.ffmpeg-ffserver-config">~/.ffmpeg/ffserver-config</primary>
      </indexterm>

      <indexterm zone="ffmpeg ffmpeg-config">
        <primary sortas="e-etc-ffserver.conf">/etc/ffserver.conf</primary>
      </indexterm>

      <para>
        You'll find a sample <command>ffserver</command> configuration file at
        <filename>doc/ffserver.conf</filename> in the source tree.
      </para>
    </sect3>
  </sect2>

  <sect2 role="content">
    <title>Contents</title>

    <segmentedlist>
      <segtitle>Installed Programs</segtitle>
      <segtitle>Installed Libraries</segtitle>
      <segtitle>Installed Directories</segtitle>

      <seglistitem>
        <seg>
          ffmpeg,
          ffplay,
          ffprobe,
          ffserver and
          qt-faststart
        </seg>
        <seg>
          libavcodec.so,
          libavdevice.so,
          libavfilter.so,
          libavformat.so,
          libavutil.so,
          libpostproc.so and
          libswscale.so
        </seg>
        <seg>
          /usr/include/libavcodec,
          /usr/include/libavdevice, 
          /usr/include/libavfilter,
          /usr/include/libavformat,
          /usr/include/libavutil,
          /usr/include/postproc,
          /usr/include/libswscale,
          /usr/share/ffmpeg and
          /usr/share/doc/ffmpeg-&ffmpeg-version;
        </seg>
      </seglistitem>
    </segmentedlist>

    <variablelist>
      <bridgehead renderas="sect3">Short Descriptions</bridgehead>
      <?dbfo list-presentation="list"?>
      <?dbhtml list-presentation="table"?>

      <varlistentry id="ffmpeg-prog">
        <term><command>ffmpeg</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            is a command-line tool to convert video files, network streams and
            input from a TV card to several video formats.
          </para>
          <indexterm zone="ffmpeg ffmpeg-prog">
            <primary sortas="b-ffmpeg">ffmpeg</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="ffplay">
        <term><command>ffplay</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            is a very simple and portable media player using the
            <filename>ffmpeg</filename> libraries and the SDL library.
          </para>
          <indexterm zone="ffmpeg ffplay">
            <primary sortas="b-ffplay">ffplay</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="ffprobe">
        <term><command>ffprobe</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            gathers information from multimedia streams and prints it in a human
            and machine-readable fashion.
          </para>
          <indexterm zone="ffmpeg ffprobe">
            <primary sortas="b-ffprobe">ffprobe</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="ffserver">
        <term><command>ffserver</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            is a streaming server for everything that <command>ffmpeg</command>
            could use as input (files, streams, TV card input, webcam, etc).
          </para>
          <indexterm zone="ffmpeg ffserver">
            <primary sortas="b-ffserver">ffserver</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="qt-faststart">
        <term><command>qt-faststart</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            moves the index file to the front of quicktime (mov/mp4) videos.
          </para>
          <indexterm zone="ffmpeg qt-faststart">
            <primary sortas="b-qt-faststart">qt-faststart</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="libavcodec">
        <term><filename class="libraryfile">libavcodec.so</filename></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            is a library containing the <application>FFmpeg</application> codecs
            (both encoding and decoding).
          </para>
          <indexterm zone="ffmpeg libavcodec">
            <primary sortas="c-libavcodec">libavcodec.so</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="libavdevice">
        <term><filename class="libraryfile">libavdevice.so</filename></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            is the <application>FFmpeg</application> device handling library.
          </para>
          <indexterm zone="ffmpeg libavdevice">
            <primary sortas="c-libavdevice">libavdevice.so</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="libavfilter">
        <term><filename class="libraryfile">libavfilter.so</filename></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            is a library of filters that can alter video or audio between the
            decoder and the encoder (or output).
          </para>
          <indexterm zone="ffmpeg libavfilter">
            <primary sortas="c-libavfilter">libavfilter.so</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="libavformat">
        <term><filename class="libraryfile">libavformat.so</filename></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            is a library containing the file formats handling (mux and demux
            code for several formats) used by <command>ffplay</command> as well
            as allowing the generation of  audio or video streams.
          </para>
          <indexterm zone="ffmpeg libavformat">
            <primary sortas="c-libavformat">libavformat.so</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="libavutil">
        <term><filename class="libraryfile">libavutil.so</filename></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>is the <application>FFmpeg</application> utility library.</para>
          <indexterm zone="ffmpeg libavutil">
            <primary sortas="c-libavutil">libavutil.so</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="libpostproc">
        <term><filename class="libraryfile">libpostproc.so</filename></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            is the <application>FFmpeg</application> post processing library.
          </para>
          <indexterm zone="ffmpeg libpostproc">
            <primary sortas="c-libpostproc">libpostproc.so</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="libswscale">
        <term><filename class="libraryfile">libswscale.so</filename></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            is the <application>FFmpeg</application> image rescaling library.
          </para>
          <indexterm zone="ffmpeg libswscale">
            <primary sortas="c-libswscale">libswscale.so</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>
    </variablelist>
  </sect2>
</sect1>