FFmpeg README

FFmpeg is a collection of libraries and tools to process multimedia content such as audio, video, subtitles and related metadata.

Libraries

• libavcodec provides implementation of a wider range of codecs.
• libavformat implements streaming protocols, container formats and basic I/O access.
• libavutil includes hashers, decompressors and miscellaneous utility functions.
• libavfilter provides a mean to alter decoded Audio and Video through chain of filters.
• libavdevice provides an abstraction to access capture and playback devices.
• libswresample implements audio mixing and resampling routines.
• libswscale implements color conversion and scaling routines.

Tools

• ffmpeg is a command line toolbox to manipulate, convert and stream multimedia content.
• ffplay is a minimalistic multimedia player.
• ffprobe is a simple analisys tool to inspect multimedia content.
• Additional small tools such as aviocat, ismindex and qt-faststart.

Documentation

• The offline documentation is available in the doc/ directory.
• The online documentation is available in ffmpeg website and in the ffmeg wiki.

Examples

• Coding examples are available in the doc/example directory.

Notes on Building on Linux

• Download and install the NVIDIA NVENC SDK for Windows (Yes, that is correct). Extract the SDK's content then navigate to nvenc-xx.0/samples/nvEncoder/inc and copy the header files therein to /usr/include.

• Ensure that the NVIDIA CUDA SDK is installed, and copy cuda.h to /usr/include.

• You can then run ./configure with your customization options as is deemed necessary.

• In my case, I built it with NVENC enabled with the following configuration options on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS:

   ./configure --enable-nonfree --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --enable-libass \
   --enable-libbluray --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencv --enable-libopenjpeg \
   --enable-libopus --enable-libfaac --enable-libfdk-aac --enable-libtheora \
   --enable-libvpx --enable-libwebp --enable-opencl --enable-x11grab --enable-opengl \
   --enable-openssl --cpu=native --enable-libnvenc
  

Result:

• The build was successful, and here's sample output:

   lin@mordor:~$ ffmpeg
   ffmpeg version git-2014-10-24-3b5a7bd Copyright (c) 2000-2014 the FFmpeg developers
   built on Nov 21 2014 09:57:10 with gcc 4.8 (Ubuntu 4.8.2-19ubuntu1)
   configuration: --enable-nonfree --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencv --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopus --enable-libfaac --enable-libfdk-aac --enable-libtheora --enable-libvpx --enable-libwebp --enable-opencl --enable-x11grab --enable-opengl --enable-openssl --cpu=native --enable-libnvenc
   libavutil 54. 10.100 / 54. 10.100
   libavcodec 56. 8.102 / 56. 8.102
   libavformat 56. 9.101 / 56. 9.101
   libavdevice 56. 1.100 / 56. 1.100
   libavfilter 5. 1.106 / 5. 1.106
   libswscale 3. 1.101 / 3. 1.101
   libswresample 1. 1.100 / 1. 1.100
   libpostproc 53. 3.100 / 53. 3.100
   Hyper fast Audio and Video encoder
   usage: ffmpeg [options] [[infile options] -i infile]... {[outfile options] outfile}...
  
   Use -h to get full help or, even better, run 'man ffmpeg'
  

• Here's a log of the awesome FFmpeg build with libnvenc selected as the encoder. The source file used is a 4k video, transcoded to H.264 AVC via libnvenc at a lower bitrate.

Hint: It was a great success!

Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from '/media/lin/AUXILLIARY/Extended Media Libraries/More Video/Sample 3D/sintel_4k.mp4':
Metadata:
major_brand : avc1
minor_version : 0
compatible_brands: isomavc1
creation_time : 2014-08-26 07:57:06
encoder : Hybrid 2013.12.06.2
Duration: 00:14:48.02, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 49126 kb/s
Stream #0:0(eng): Video: h264 (High) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p(tv, bt709/unknown/unknown), 3840x1744 [SAR 1:1 DAR 240:109], 48956 kb/s, 24 fps, 24 tbr, 24k tbn, 48 tbc (default)
Metadata:
creation_time : 2014-08-26 07:57:06
Stream #0:1(eng): Audio: aac (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 44100 Hz, stereo, fltp, 167 kb/s (default)
Metadata:
creation_time : 2014-08-26 01:42:44
handler_name : Sound Media Handler
Output #0, matroska, to '/home/lin/Desktop/Encodes/traGtor.output.mkv':
Metadata:
major_brand : avc1
minor_version : 0
compatible_brands: isomavc1
encoder : Lavf56.9.101
Stream #0:0(eng): Video: h264 (libnvenc) (H264 / 0x34363248), yuv420p, 3840x1744 [SAR 1:1 DAR 240:109], q=-1--1, 25000 kb/s, 24 fps, 1k tbn, 24 tbc (default)
Metadata:
creation_time : 2014-08-26 07:57:06
encoder : Lavc56.8.102 libnvenc
Stream #0:1(eng): Audio: ac3 ([0] [0][0] / 0x2000), 44100 Hz, stereo, fltp, 160 kb/s (default)
Metadata:
creation_time : 2014-08-26 01:42:44
handler_name : Sound Media Handler
encoder : Lavc56.8.102 ac3
Stream mapping:
Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (h264 (native) -> h264 (libnvenc))
Stream #0:1 -> #0:1 (aac (native) -> ac3 (native))
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
video:2505473kB audio:17344kB subtitle:0kB other streams:0kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead: 0.016179%

Caveats

• Extra notes: NVIDIA added NVENC support to GeForce GPUs on Linux in the R346 Beta driver.
• Earlier drivers will NOT work.
• Also, NVENC works only with NVIDIA Kepler, Maxwell and (possibly) future iterations of NVIDIA GPU architectures.
• Unlike NVCUVENC, NVENC is a dedicated SIP block for accelerated video processing, and as such, is independent of CUDA cores.

License

FFmpeg codebase is mainly LGPL-licensed with optional components licensed under GPL. Please refer to the LICENSE file for detailed information.