How-to Guide: Compiling and Installing the FFmpeg Suite and Audio Video Codecs from Source on the Raspberry Pi
 

The goals of the following guide are two-fold: Firstly, to install a software package called FFmpeg, which contains numerous tools to facilitate the recording and manipulation of audio-video materials, along with several optional packages known as codecs.

Secondly, I aim not only to present a series of steps and commands, but also to provide a little illumination into the process, providing an overview of some of the key tools and concepts behind obtaining, building, and installing software on a Linux platform.

For those eager to get up and running as quickly as possible, please see the related page: Compiling FFmpeg and Codecs from Source Code: All-in-One Script

• A Little Background Information
• Linux Software Installation
• FFmpeg Compilation and Installation
• Compiling Shared Libraries
• Compiling From Source: The Make Command
• A Note Before Proceeding
• Installing Prerequisite Build Tools
• Installing the YASM Assembler
• Compiling and Installing FFmpeg Codecs
  • X264 Codec
  • Libfdk-aac Codec
  • Libmp3lame Codec
  • Libopus Codec
  • Libvpx Codec
• The FFmpeg Suite
• Compiling and Installing FFmpeg
  • Checking the FFmpeg Build
• All-in-One FFmpeg Build and Installation Script
• Using FFmpeg to Transcode Files: Examples
• Related Posts
• External Links

My primary motivation for installing FFmpeg was to be able to capture real-time footage of gameplay from various console systems available in the RetroPie emulator suite, a number of which utilise the RetroArch framework that provides a facility to make live audio-video recordings.

Whilst at the time of writing this facility is not enabled, it is possible to modify RetroArch, rebuilding it to allow recording to be switched on. I detail the steps required to enable and configure this feature in my guide: Recording Live Gameplay in RetroPie’s RetroArch Emulators Natively on the Raspberry Pi

A key component, FFmpeg, is required for in-game recording to work; unfortunately Raspbian, the operating system based on Debian Linux which underpins RetroPie, does not come with this package pre-installed; this limitation can be overcome, albeit with a little effort.

For those users coming from a Windows background, installing software on the Raspberry Pi can seem a little complicated, certainly in comparison to simply downloading and double-clicking a file.

Software installation on the Pi can, however, be very straightforward, thanks to the Advanced Packing Tool (APT) provided by the Raspbian Linux operating system. Rather than downloading a file in a browser, with APT the command line is used to request a package from a repository, a catalogue of software known to be compatible with the specific installation of Raspbian being used.

Not all compatible software is available in the repository, and, as is conventional in the Linux world, often packages need to be compiled from raw source code. This is the case with several of the FFmpeg codecs, and indeed the FFmpeg suite itself.

The following does not necessarily represent the most optimal way to achieve the aim of obtaining and installing a custom version of FFmpeg, as with all things Linux there are many different approaches to reach a goal.

I’d like to note that the foundation of this post was the Ubuntu FFmpeg Compilation Guide, which I have expanded and adapted for specific compatibility with the Raspberry Pi in general, and the RetroArch emulator core in particular.

FFmpeg can utilise a vast array of codecs; when building the suite from source code we are free we are free to include or exclude these at will.

Some components required by FFmpeg are available from Raspbian’s APT repository, whilst others, especially codecs, must be built from source code. Of the components available via APT, these are not necessarily the latest versions, as is the case with the x264 codec, in which case we may choose to build from source.

When compiling FFmpeg it is necessary to have installed all required codec components prior to the building and installation of FFmpeg itself. For compatibility with RetroArch the codecs utilised by FFmpreg must be built as shared, as opposed to static, libraries.

When building from source, to generate a shared library the configure script must specify the parameter: --enable-shared

This causes the build process for the component to create shared library file(s), which can be linked to by FFmpeg; conventionally such files have an extension of .so.

Rather than using the configure script paramater --prefix to specify a destination folder for the result of the component build, we must remove this to cause each component we build to be output to the default directory of /usr/local.

This prevents difficulties later with ffmpeg, and other software, being unable to locate the library files; whilst this issue can be overcome by setting search paths, this requires additional effort and introduces the risk of incorrect configuration.

Thus, rather than a configure command appearing like this…
./configure --prefix="$HOME/ffmpeg_build" --enable-shared

…it should appear like this:
./configure --enable-shared

The make command triggers the compilation of source code into executable files or libraries by executing a makefile script which has been built by the configure script.

On a multicore Raspberry Pi (model 2 and 3 Pis have four cores) the build process can be greatly accelerated by utilising more than a single core. The -j parameter specifies how many cores to use. For example, to use three cores:
sudo make -j3

Note: on a Raspberry Pi 3, running multiple cores at 100 % CPU greatly increases the temperature of the system, leading to ‘thermal regulation’ which reduces the clock speed of the CPU, defeating the gains of using multiple cores. When building software such as FFmpeg, which takes approximately 35 minutes on an overclocked Pi 3, I use:
make -j2

Using two cores balances the speed and temperature to allow the CPU to run at full overlcock speed (1350mhz on my system) whilst staying below 80 degrees Celsius (the default cut-off point at which thermal regulation forces the CPU to underclock; often the CPU reduces to 600mhz – half the 1.2ghz default speed)

For more information regarding overclocking and underclocking, please see my previous post entitled Overclocking the Raspberry Pi 3: Thermal Limits and Optimising for Single vs Multicore Performance.

I strongly advise that a full backup be made of the system, as there is no simple method to reverse the actions of the compilation and installation processes described below.

A full image of the Raspberry Pi’s SD Card can be made using a tool such as Win32DiskImager.

Firstly, update the APT repository information to ensure the system can retrieve the latest version of components:

sudo apt-get update

Set up working directories to be used during the installation and build process:

cd ~
mkdir ~/ffmpeg_sources
mkdir ~/ffmpeg_build

Install various tools and packages, including audio-video codecs, required for building FFmpeg:

sudo apt-get -y install autoconf automake build-essential libass-dev libfreetype6-dev \
  libsdl1.2-dev libtheora-dev libtool libva-dev libvdpau-dev libvorbis-dev libxcb1-dev libxcb-shm0-dev \
  libxcb-xfixes0-dev pkg-config texinfo zlib1g-dev

For a description of each package contained in the above command, please see the supplementary information page.

Description from APT: Modular assembler with multiple syntax support

Yasm is a complete rewrite of the NASM assembler. It supports multiple assembler syntaxes (eg, NASM, GAS, TASM, etc.) in addition to multiple output object formats (binary objects, COFF, Win32, ELF32, ELF64) and even multiple instruction sets (including AMD64). It also has an optimiser module.

sudo apt-get install yasm

Minimum version required: 1.2.0
Version installed at time of writing: 1.2.0-2

Description from APT: video encoder for the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC standard

x264 is an advanced commandline encoder for creating H.264 (MPEG-4 AVC) video streams

The x264 package is available in the APT repository, however it is not the latest version (which contains experimental support for Raspberry Pi x264 hardware encoding). To benefit from the latest features, I chose to build x264 from source.

If you require libx264 for your FFmpeg build, the following parameter must be passed to the the FFmpeg configure script (see the FFmpeg build section, below):

--enable-libx264

To utilise the latest x264 library, obtain and build the source code, and install x264 by issuing the following commands at the console or a terminal window:

cd /home/pi/ffmpeg_sources
git clone git://git.videolan.org/x264
cd x264
./configure --host=arm-unknown-linux-gnueabi --enable-shared --disable-opencl
sudo make -j2
sudo make install
sudo make clean
sudo make distclean

Description from Wikipedia:

Fraunhofer FDK AAC is an open-source software library for encoding and decoding Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) format audio, developed by Fraunhofer IIS… It supports several Audio Object Types including MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 AAC LC, HE-AAC (AAC LC + SBR), HE-AACv2 (LC + SBR + PS) and AAC-LD (low delay) for real-time communication

If you require libfdk-aac for your FFmpeg build, the following parameter must be passed to the the FFmpeg configure script (see the FFmpeg build section, below):

--enable-libfdk-aac

To obtain, compile, and install libfdk-aac, issue the following commands from the console or a terminal session:

cd ~/ffmpeg_sources
wget -O fdk-aac.tar.gz https://github.com/mstorsjo/fdk-aac/tarball/master
tar xzvf fdk-aac.tar.gz
cd mstorsjo-fdk-aac*
autoreconf -fiv
./configure  --enable-shared
sudo make -j2
sudo make install
sudo make clean
sudo make distclean

Description from APT: MP3 encoding library (development)

MP3 audio encoder.

If you require libmp3lame for your FFmpeg build, the following parameter must be passed to the the FFmpeg configure script (see the FFmpeg build section, below):

--enable-libmp3lame

To obtain, compile, and install libmp3lame, issue the following command from the console or a terminal session:

sudo apt-get install libmp3lame-dev

Version required: 3.98.3 or later
Version installed: 3.99.5+repack1-7+deb8u1

Description from APT: Opus codec library development files

Opus audio decoder and encoder.

If you require libopus for your FFmpeg build, the following parameter must be passed to the the FFmpeg configure script (see the FFmpeg build section, below):

--enable-libvorbis

To obtain, compile, and install libopus, issue the following command from the console or a terminal session:

sudo apt-get install libopus-dev

Version required: 1.1 or later
Version installed: 1.1-2

Description from APT: VP8 and VP9 video codec (development files)

VP8 and VP9 are open video codecs, originally developed by On2 and released as open source by Google Inc. They are the successor of the VP3 codec, on which the Theora codec was based.

If you require libvpx for your FFmpeg build, the following parameter must be passed to the the FFmpeg configure script (see the FFmpeg build section, below):

--enable-libvpx

To obtain, compile, and install libvpx, issue the following commands from the console or a terminal session:

cd ~/ffmpeg_sources
wget http://storage.googleapis.com/downloads.webmproject.org/releases/webm/libvpx-1.5.0.tar.bz2
tar xjvf libvpx-1.5.0.tar.bz2
cd libvpx-1.5.0
PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH" ./configure --enable-shared --disable-examples --disable-unit-tests
PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH" make -j2
sudo make install
sudo make clean
sudo make distclean

The following code builds FFmpeg from scratch, using the latest source version, and utilising shared libraries for codec components.

The current versions of required codecs and components are used in most instances in a bid to rule out incompatibilities due to mix-and-match versions of components.

Note: the directory /home/pi/bin is not required to exist before running the FFmpeg compilation routine.

As noted in each codec-specific section, above, if a specific codec is required in your build of FFmpeg, the appropriate parameter must be passed to FFmpeg's configure script.

Once completed, FFmpeg installs four executable files within the /usr/local/bin directory:

ffmpeg
a very fast video and audio converter that can also grab from a live audio/video source. It can also convert between arbitrary sample rates and resize video on the fly with a high quality polyphase filter.

ffprobe
gathers information from multimedia streams and prints it in human- and machine-readable fashion. For example it can be used to check the format of the container used by a multimedia stream and the format and type of each media stream contained in it.

ffserver
a streaming server for both audio and video. It supports several live feeds, streaming from files and time shifting on live feeds. You can seek to positions in the past on each live feed, provided you specify a big enough feed storage.

ffplay
a very simple and portable media player using the FFmpeg libraries and the SDL library. It is mostly used as a testbed for the various FFmpeg APIs.

All descriptions are from the FFmpeg project's official documentation.

Note: during the compilation process, expect to see a number of warning messages emitted by the compiler - these are normal, and do not indicate failure.

To compile and build FFmpeg, issue the following commands at the console, or in a terminal emulator:

cd ~/ffmpeg_sources
wget http://ffmpeg.org/releases/ffmpeg-snapshot.tar.bz2
tar xjvf ffmpeg-snapshot.tar.bz2
cd ffmpeg

PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH" ./configure \
  --pkg-config-flags="--static" \
  --extra-cflags="-fPIC -I$HOME/ffmpeg_build/include" \
  --extra-ldflags="-L$HOME/ffmpeg_build/lib" \
  --enable-gpl \
  --enable-libass \
  --enable-libfdk-aac \
  --enable-libfreetype \
  --enable-libmp3lame \
  --enable-libopus \
  --enable-libtheora \
  --enable-libvorbis \
  --enable-libvpx \
  --enable-libx264 \
  --enable-nonfree \
  --enable-pic \
  --extra-ldexeflags=-pie \
  --enable-shared

PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH" make -j2
sudo make install
sudo make distclean
hash -r

The final, critical step, is to update the links between FFmpeg and the shared codec libraries, by using ldconfig to configure the dynamic linker run-time bindings:

sudo ldconfig

When the ffmpeg command is issued at a terminal a successful build should output information similar to that shown in the following screen:

If the aforementioned step is omitted, when issuing the ffmpeg command an error similar to the following may be experienced:

ffmpeg: error while loading shared libraries: libavdevice.so.57: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

On some builds the ffmpeg command may run correctly, but the error may be triggered when a parameter is passed, for example to query the codecs available within the ffmpeg installation:

ffmpeg -codecs

The same solution applies, namely rebuilding the library cache using the ldconfig command.

A complete all-in-one script of the above code is available here, along with instructions for creating and executing the script file.

The FFmpeg suite facilitates the modification and transcoding (conversion between formats) of audio and/or video files with almost unlimited flexibility, and as such is a huge topic in its own right. The following are some examples to introduce the basic concepts and functionality.

Note: The order of the parameters is significant

Set input and output file names:
The extension of the output file is used to automatically set the format, however this can be explicitly specified:
Parameter: -i
(if the output file is specified as the last item, it does not require a specific parameter)
ffmpeg -i input.mkv output.mp4

Set video and audio format of output file:
Parameters: -c:v, -c:a
ffmpeg -i input.mkv -c:v libx264 -c:a aac output.mp4

Set a specific format for x264 video - planar 4:2:0 (for Twitter and Omxplayer compatibility):
Parameter: -pix_fmt
ffmpeg -i input.mkv -c:v libx264 -pix_fmt yuv420p -c:a aac output.mp4

Set the quality of the video using near-lossless compression:
Parameter: -qp
ffmpeg -i input.mkv-c:v libx264 -qp 1 -c:a aac output.mp4

alternatively, use Constant Rate Factor:
Parameter: -crf
ffmpeg -i input.mkv-c:v libx264 -crf 1 -c:a aac output.mp4

Note: both qp and crf specify a value of 0 for lossless, however this causes corrupt video when played back using the Raspberry Pi's default Omxplayer; the video is however fine when viewed using other software, for example VLC.

Set number of threads to utilise when processing:
Parameter: -threads
ffmpeg -i input.mkv -threads 2 -c:v libx264 -c:a aac output.mp4

Set framerate of output file:
Parameter: -r
ffmpeg -i input.mkv -c:v libx264 -r 30 -c:a aac output.mp4

Set a start position and a duration, both in seconds, to process a portion of the input file:
Parameters: -ss, -t
ffmpeg -ss 11 -t 42 -i input.mkv -threads 2 -c:v libx264 -qp 1 -r 30 -pix_fmt yuv420p -vf scale=-1:ih*2 -c:a aac output.mp4

Set a combination of parameters to output a file suitable for uploading to Twitter:
(4:2:0 Planar x264 video, at 30 fps, with near-lossless compression, scaled to twice the input file resolution, with aac encoded audio)

ffmpeg -i input.mkv -threads 2 -c:v libx264 -qp 1 -r 30 -pix_fmt yuv420p -vf scale=-1:ih*2 -c:a aac output.mp4

A Labour of Love

Retro Resolution is entirely a labour of love. Please consider offering a donation if the information here has helped illuminate, enlighten, or otherwise assisted you!

• Links: Raspberry Pi and Gaming Emulation via RetroPie
• Raspbian Linux Shell Commands and Tools – Part 1: Just the Basics
• Navigating the Raspberry Pi’s File System. Raspbian Linux Shell Commands and Tools – Part 2
• Recording Live Gameplay in RetroPie’s RetroArch Emulators Natively on the Raspberry Pi

• Overclocking and Stability Testing the Raspberry Pi 2: Overclocking in Depth
• Overclocking the Raspberry Pi 3: Thermal Limits and Optimising for Single vs Multicore Performance

• Jeff Thompson: Installing FFmpeg for Raspberry Pi
• FFmpeg.org Ubuntu Compilation Guide
• Compiling FFmpeg with Shared Libraries: Stackoverflow.com

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