How to Install FFmpeg on Ubuntu 18.04 & 16.04

    By 2 Mins Read

    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.

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    install ffmpeg on Ubuntu

    This tutorial will help you to install FFmpeg on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS & 16.04 LTS systems with easy steps.

    Step 1 – Setup FFmpeg PPA

    FFmpeg 4 is the latest available version for installation on Ubuntu. To install the latest version, you need to configure PPA on your system. Execute below command to add FFmpeg PPA on Ubuntu system.

    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jonathonf/ffmpeg-4

    This PPA contains packages for Ubuntu 18.04 (Bionic) and 16.04 LTS (Xenial) only.

    Step 2 – Install FFmpeg on Ubuntu

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

    sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ffmpeg

    Step 3 – Check FFmpeg Version

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

    ffmpeg -version

ffmpeg version 4.2.2-0york0~16.04 Copyright (c) 2000-2019 the FFmpeg developers
built with gcc 5.4.0 (Ubuntu 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.12) 20160609
...

    Step 4 – FFmpeg Basic Commands

    Here is the list of the FFmpeg basic command options used with FFmpeg command-line tool.

    FFmpeg command examples
      
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

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    8 Comments

    1. Shane on

      just change the /etc/apt/sources.list.d for the ppa:jonathonf/ffmpeg-4 to xenial within the .list file and list.save file. you may need to obtain the gpg key again, google: “checkaptgpg .deb” its from mx-linux, it’s a fantastic script for filling in missing repository keys within ubuntu, etc.

      Reply
    5. Hitesh on

      Hi ,

      I have tried above steps successfully done everything , I am able to check FFMPEG verion and basic command as well but when I check when I am checking the extension ” extension_loaded(‘ffmpeg’) or die(‘Error in loading ffmpeg’);” — it throws error “Error in loading ffmpeg” .

      Also I tried checking “phpinfo();” , but it does not shows that ffmpeg is installed. What else I need to do to configure FFMPEG in cent OS 6.5 , PHP 5.5 .

      Question : http://stackoverflow.com/questions/27226157/how-to-setup-ffmpeg-for-centos-release-6-5-server

      Reply
    6. someone on

      Dear sysadmin

      Thank you very much, i tried a lot of site to install the new ffmpeg those code were not working, maybe old or mine had problem.
      but this code you posted i tried this and it worked the new ffmpeg install to my vps.
      thanks for your help

      Reply

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