How To Install FFmpeg on Debian 9 (Stretch)

FFmpeg is a cross-platform solution for streaming audio and video as well as recording and conversion. It’s also useful to convert multimedia files between various formats. FFmpeg includes libavcodec audio/video codec library in it.

This tutorial will help you to install FFmpeg on Debian 9 (Stretch) system with apt-get.

Step 2 – Install ffmpeg on Debian 9

After enabling the PPA, Lets exec below commands to install FFmpeg on Debian 9 system. This will also install many packages for the dependencies.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install ffmpeg

Step 3 – Check FFmpeg Version

After successfully install FFmpeg, let’s check the version installed on the system.

ffmpeg -version

ffmpeg version 3.2.12-1~deb9u1 Copyright (c) 2000-2018 the FFmpeg developers
built with gcc 6.3.0 (Debian 6.3.0-18+deb9u1) 20170516
...

Step 4 – FFmpeg Basic Commands

Here is the list of the ffmepg basic command options used with ffmpeg command line tool.

ffmpeg -version:            show version
ffmpeg -formats:            show available formats
ffmpeg -codecs:             show available codecs
ffmpeg -decoders:           show available decoders
ffmpeg -encoders:           show available encoders
ffmpeg -bsfs:               show available bit stream filters
ffmpeg -protocols:          show available protocols
ffmpeg -filters:            show available filters
ffmpeg -pix_fmts:           show available pixel formats
ffmpeg -layouts:            show standard channel layouts
ffmpeg -sample_fmts:        show available audio sample formats

Click here to read more about ffmpeg on its official site.

Step 5 – Basic Examples

Below are some examples of uses of ffmpeg command line.

Reduce .mov File Size:

ffmpeg -i in.mov -c:v libx264 -c:a copy -crf 20 out.mov

Convert .move To .mp4

ffmpeg -i in.mov -vcodec copy -acodec aac -strict experimental -ab 128k out.mp4