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.

alanzw/ffmpeg_libnvenc