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I know about the long history of ffmpeg and libav. Personally, I preferred to use Jon Severinsson's PPA, as suggested in many answers here on stackoverflow or askubuntu. However, recently this PPA seems to have gone down recently (this page, which is the link everyone always gives, is dead). I don't see if he put up a newer version, although I admit I find launchpad hard to navigate. Did it get replaced with this one from Doug McMahon or this one from Sam Rog?

Ok, so maybe I need to download it myself. I visit the releases page for ffmpeg, and there seems to be simultaneous development of releases from v2 (2.6.2), v1 (1.2.12, from February), and v0 (0.10.16, from March of this year). 0.10 isn't even the newest of the v0 series, and yet it seems to be the most recently updated of that series, and (coincidentally?) also the version that I most recently got from the PPA. Admittedly this was on a slightly older distribution (Linux Mint 16).

ffmpeg -version
ffmpeg version 0.10.12-7:0.10.12-1~saucy1

So, which version should I download, now that the PPA is gone? Does it depend on the distribution I'm using?

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cxrodgers
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1 Answers1

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Did it get replaced with this one from Doug McMahon or this one from Sam Rog?

Personal Package Archives (PPA) are independent of each other, so (ignoring what a user does to their own system) one PPA does not really replace another.

I visit the releases page for ffmpeg, and there seems to be simultaneous development of releases

Releases are maintained for downstream distributors, such as various Linux distros. A release branch will be maintained and supported as long as it is being used by the downstream user; such as until the EOL of a distro version. You can see a list of some downstream users to see who uses what.

Jon Severinsson's PPA used older branches to correlate with the version of the Libav fork that Ubuntu offered. Since FFmpeg is API compatible with Libav, and because his PPA also provided the binaries and libraries, this generally allowed other repository packages to use FFmpeg instead of the Libav stuff.

Doug's PPA (for 14.04 users) provides static builds, from the most recent release, of the FFmpeg cli tools. It also provides support for libfdk_aac (an excellent, but "non-free" AAC encoder), and 8-bit/10-bit x264. It should not interfere with official repository packages.

So, which version should I download, now that the PPA is gone?

FFmpeg recommends that general users use the latest code available. FFmpeg development is very active, and using "git master" will have more bug fixes and features than any release. Also, if you need help or experience a bug it is requested that you test git master for those same reasons (often users find that their issue is resolved when they try a recent version).

Does it depend on the distribution I'm using?

Looks like you're using Mint? That's basically Ubuntu, so no, in this case it does not matter. Just make sure the PPA is compatible by correlating your Mint version with whatever Ubuntu version it was derived from.

Getting FFmpeg

You have four main options that all provide recent FFmpeg:

  • Compile. You can follow a step-by-step guide. It will not interfere with the system or repository packages. You can customize the build. However, it can take some time (15 mins or less?). If you can copy and paste you can compile.

  • Static build. Just a binary you can download, extract, and run. Put it somewhere in your PATH, or provide the full path to it (such as /home/cxrodgers/ffmpeg), or navigate to its directory and run ./ffmpeg. Easy, but no support for non-free encoders or x11grab (a screen grabber).

  • PPA. Doug's PPA is good and he's active on Ubuntuforums if you need help, or contact him via Launchpad. For Ubuntu Trusty 14.04 users.

  • Wait for Ubuntu Vivid 15.04 when FFmpeg returns to Ubuntu.

llogan
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  • Thanks, this clarifies a lot! I have to say that the compilation could be a bit more straightforward: the instructions on the website (http://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/CompilationGuide/Ubuntu) do not use the highly recommended git version, and they require creating directories in my $HOME. Whereas the git instructions (https://github.com/FFmpeg/FFmpeg/blob/master/INSTALL.md) do not enable a lot of the useful features by default. Oh well, I can probably figure it out... – cxrodgers Apr 12 '15 at 17:25
  • @cxrodgers The guide on trac uses a current git snapshot. This is slightly simpler than using the git cli tool to clone the repository, and is a much smaller file size because it does not include the extra git data (commit history, etc). Also, it does not require the user to install git beforehand. General users don't need to use git to clone the repository, but if you want to contribute to FFmpeg development then it is recommended to use git to clone the repository instead of using the snapshot. – llogan Apr 12 '15 at 18:06