General Documentation
FFmpeg can be hooked up with a number of external libraries to add support for more formats. None of them are used by default, their use has to be explicitly requested by passing the appropriate flags to `./configure'.
AMR comes in two different flavors, wideband and narrowband. FFmpeg can make
use of the AMR wideband (floating-point mode) and the AMR narrowband
(floating-point mode) reference decoders and encoders.
Go to http://www.penguin.cz/~utx/amr and follow the instructions for
installing the libraries. Then pass --enable-libamr-nb
and/or
--enable-libamr-wb
to configure to enable the libraries.
Note that libamr is copyrighted without any sort of license grant. This means
that you can use it if you legally obtained it but you are not allowed to
redistribute it in any way. Any FFmpeg binaries with libamr support
you create are non-free and unredistributable!
You can use the -formats
option to have an exhaustive list.
FFmpeg supports the following file formats through the libavformat
library:
Name | Encoding | Decoding | Comments |
4xm | X | 4X Technologies format, used in some games. | |
ADTS AAC audio | X | X | |
American Laser Games MM | X | Multimedia format used in games like Mad Dog McCree. | |
ASF | X | X | |
AVI | X | X | |
AVM2 (Flash 9) | X | X | Only embedded audio is decoded. |
AVS | X | Multimedia format used by the Creature Shock game. | |
Bethsoft VID | X | Used in some games from Bethesda Softworks. | |
BFI | X | Brute Force & Ignorance, used in Flash Traffic: City of Angels. | |
C93 | X | Used in the game Cyberia from Interplay. | |
CIN | X | Multimedia format used by Delphine Software games. | |
Creative VOC | X | X | Created for the Sound Blaster Pro. |
CRYO APC | X | Audio format used in some games by CRYO Interactive Entertainment. | |
DV | X | X | |
DXA | X | This format is used in the non-Windows version of the Feeble Files game and different game cutscenes repacked for use with ScummVM. | |
Electronic Arts Multimedia | X | Used in various EA games; files have extensions like WVE and UV2. | |
FLIC | X | .fli/.flc files | |
FLV | X | X | Macromedia Flash video files |
GXF | X | X | General eXchange Format SMPTE 360M, used by Thomson Grass Valley playout servers. |
id Cinematic | X | Used in Quake II. | |
id RoQ | X | X | Used in Quake III, Jedi Knight 2, other computer games. |
IFF | X | Interchange File Format | |
Interplay MVE | X | Format used in various Interplay computer games. | |
LMLM4 | X | Used by Linux Media Labs MPEG-4 PCI boards | |
Matroska | X | X | |
MAXIS EA XA | X | Used in Sim City 3000; file extension .xa. | |
Monkey's Audio | X | ||
Motion Pixels MVI | X | ||
MOV/QuickTime | X | X | |
MPEG audio | X | X | |
MPEG-1 systems | X | X | muxed audio and video |
MPEG-2 PS | X | X | also known as VOB file
|
MPEG-2 TS | X | also known as DVB Transport Stream | |
MPEG-4 | X | X | MPEG-4 is a variant of QuickTime. |
MSN TCP webcam | X | Used by MSN Messenger webcam streams. | |
MXF | X | X | Material eXchange Format SMPTE 377M, used by D-Cinema, broadcast industry. |
Nullsoft Video | X | ||
NUT | X | X | NUT Open Container Format |
OMA | X | Audio format used in Sony Sonic Stage and Sony Vegas. | |
PlayStation STR | X | ||
PVA | X | Used by TechnoTrend DVB PCI boards. | |
raw AC-3 | X | X | |
raw CRI ADX audio | X | X | |
raw MJPEG | X | X | |
raw MPEG video | X | X | |
raw MPEG-4 video | X | X | |
raw PCM 8/16/32 bits, 32/64-bit floating point, mu-law/A-law | X | X | |
raw Shorten audio | X | ||
RealMedia | X | X | |
RL2 | X | Audio and video format used in some games by Entertainment Software Partners. | |
Sega FILM/CPK | X | Used in many Sega Saturn console games. | |
SEQ | X | Tiertex .seq files used in the DOS CD-ROM version of the game Flashback. | |
Sierra Online | X | .sol files used in Sierra Online games. | |
Sierra VMD | X | Used in Sierra CD-ROM games. | |
SIFF | X | Audio and video format used in some games by Beam Software. | |
Smacker | X | Multimedia format used by many games. | |
SUN AU format | X | X | |
THP | X | Used on the Nintendo GameCube. | |
WAV | X | X | |
WC3 Movie | X | Multimedia format used in Origin's Wing Commander III computer game. | |
Westwood Studios VQA/AUD | X | Multimedia formats used in Westwood Studios games. |
X
means that encoding (resp. decoding) is supported.
FFmpeg can read and write images for each frame of a video sequence. The following image formats are supported:
Name | Encoding | Decoding | Comments |
.Y.U.V | X | X | one raw file per component |
animated GIF | X | X | Only uncompressed GIFs are generated. |
JPEG | X | X | Progressive JPEG is not supported. |
PAM | X | X | PAM is a PNM extension with alpha support. |
PCX | X | PC Paintbrush | |
PGM, PPM | X | X | |
PGMYUV | X | X | PGM with U and V components in YUV 4:2:0 |
PNG | X | X | 2/4 bpp not supported yet |
PTX | X | V.Flash PTX format | |
RAS | X | Sun Rasterfile | |
SGI | X | X | SGI RGB image format |
Targa | X | Targa (.TGA) image format | |
TIFF | X | X | YUV, JPEG and some extension is not supported yet. |
X
means that encoding (resp. decoding) is supported.
Name | Encoding | Decoding | Comments |
4X Video | X | Used in certain computer games. | |
American Laser Games Video | X | Used in games like Mad Dog McCree. | |
AMV | X | Used in Chinese MP3 players. | |
Apple Animation | X | X | fourcc: 'rle ' |
Apple Graphics | X | fourcc: 'smc ' | |
Apple MJPEG-B | X | ||
Apple QuickDraw | X | fourcc: qdrw | |
Apple Video | X | fourcc: rpza | |
Asus v1 | X | X | fourcc: ASV1 |
Asus v2 | X | X | fourcc: ASV2 |
ATI VCR1 | X | fourcc: VCR1 | |
ATI VCR2 | X | fourcc: VCR2 | |
Autodesk RLE | X | fourcc: AASC | |
AVID DNxHD | X | X | aka SMPTE VC3 |
AVS video | X | Video encoding used by the Creature Shock game. | |
Bethsoft VID | X | Used in some games from Bethesda Softworks. | |
C93 video | X | Codec used in Cyberia game. | |
CamStudio | X | fourcc: CSCD | |
Cin video | X | Codec used in Delphine Software games. | |
Cinepak | X | ||
Cirrus Logic AccuPak | X | fourcc: CLJR | |
Creative YUV | X | fourcc: CYUV | |
Dirac | E | E | supported through external libdirac/libschroedinger libraries |
Duck TrueMotion v1 | X | fourcc: DUCK | |
Duck TrueMotion v2 | X | fourcc: TM20 | |
DV | X | X | |
DXA Video | X | Codec originally used in Feeble Files game. | |
Electronic Arts CMV | X | Used in NHL 95 game. | |
Electronic Arts TGV | X | ||
Electronic Arts TGQ | X | ||
FFmpeg Video 1 | X | X | experimental lossless codec (fourcc: FFV1) |
Flash Screen Video | X | X | fourcc: FSV1 |
FLIC video | X | ||
FLV | X | X | Sorenson H.263 used in Flash |
Fraps FPS1 | X | ||
H.261 | X | X | |
H.263(+) | X | X | also known as RealVideo 1.0 |
H.264 | E | X | encoding supported through external library libx264 |
HuffYUV | X | X | |
IBM Ultimotion | X | fourcc: ULTI | |
id Cinematic video | X | Used in Quake II. | |
id RoQ | X | X | Used in Quake III, Jedi Knight 2, other computer games. |
Intel Indeo 3 | X | ||
Interplay Video | X | Used in Interplay .MVE files. | |
JPEG-LS | X | X | fourcc: MJLS, lossless and near-lossless is supported. |
KMVC | X | Codec used in Worms games. | |
LOCO | X | ||
lossless MJPEG | X | X | |
Microsoft RLE | X | ||
Microsoft Video-1 | X | ||
Mimic | X | Used in MSN Messenger Webcam streams. | |
Miro VideoXL | X | fourcc: VIXL | |
MJPEG | X | X | |
Motion Pixels Video | X | ||
MPEG-1 | X | X | |
MPEG-2 | X | X | |
MPEG-4 | X | X | |
MSMPEG4 V1 | X | X | |
MSMPEG4 V2 | X | X | |
MSMPEG4 V3 | X | X | |
MSZH | X | Part of LCL | |
On2 VP3 | X | still experimental | |
On2 VP5 | X | fourcc: VP50 | |
On2 VP6 | X | fourcc: VP60,VP61,VP62 | |
planar RGB | X | fourcc: 8BPS | |
QPEG | X | fourccs: QPEG, Q1.0, Q1.1 | |
RealVideo 1.0 | X | X | |
RealVideo 2.0 | X | X | |
RealVideo 3.0 | X | still far from ideal | |
RealVideo 4.0 | X | ||
Renderware TXD | X | Texture dictionaries used by the Renderware Engine. | |
RTjpeg | X | Video encoding used in NuppelVideo files. | |
Smacker video | X | Video encoding used in Smacker. | |
Snow | X | X | experimental wavelet codec (fourcc: SNOW) |
Sony PlayStation MDEC | X | ||
Sorenson Video 1 | X | X | fourcc: SVQ1 |
Sorenson Video 3 | X | fourcc: SVQ3 | |
Sunplus MJPEG | X | fourcc: SP5X | |
TechSmith Camtasia | X | fourcc: TSCC | |
Theora | E | X | encoding supported through external library libtheora |
THP | X | Used on the Nintendo GameCube. | |
Tiertex Seq video | X | Codec used in DOS CD-ROM FlashBack game. | |
VC-1 | X | ||
VMD Video | X | Used in Sierra VMD files. | |
VMware Video | X | Codec used in videos captured by VMware. | |
Westwood VQA | X | ||
Winnov WNV1 | X | ||
WMV7 | X | X | |
WMV8 | X | X | |
WMV9 | X | not completely working | |
Xan/WC3 | X | Used in Wing Commander III .MVE files. | |
ZLIB | X | X | part of LCL, encoder experimental |
ZMBV | X | X | Encoder works only in PAL8. |
X
means that encoding (resp. decoding) is supported.
E
means that support is provided through an external library.
Name | Encoding | Decoding | Comments |
4X IMA ADPCM | X | ||
8SVX audio | X | ||
AAC | E | X | encoding supported through external library libfaac |
AC-3 | IX | IX | |
AMR-NB | E | E | supported through external library libamrnb |
AMR-WB | E | E | supported through external library libamrwb |
AMV IMA ADPCM | X | Used in AMV files | |
Apple lossless audio | X | X | QuickTime fourcc 'alac' |
Apple MACE 3 | X | ||
Apple MACE 6 | X | ||
ATRAC 3 | X | ||
CD-ROM XA ADPCM | X | ||
Cin audio | X | Codec used in Delphine Software International games. | |
Creative ADPCM | X | 16 -> 4, 8 -> 4, 8 -> 3, 8 -> 2 | |
CRI ADX ADPCM | X | X | Used in Sega Dreamcast games. |
DSP Group TrueSpeech | X | ||
DTS Coherent Audio | X | ||
Duck DK3 IMA ADPCM | X | Used in some Sega Saturn console games. | |
Duck DK4 IMA ADPCM | X | Used in some Sega Saturn console games. | |
DV audio | X | ||
Electronic Arts ADPCM | X | Used in various EA titles. | |
Enhanced AC-3 | X | ||
FLAC lossless audio | IX | X | |
G.726 ADPCM | X | X | |
GSM | E | E | supported through external library libgsm |
GSM_MS | E | E | supported through external library libgsm |
id RoQ DPCM | X | X | Used in Quake III, Jedi Knight 2, other computer games. |
Intel Music Coder | X | ||
Interplay MVE DPCM | X | Used in various Interplay computer games. | |
MAXIS EA ADPCM | X | Used in Sim City 3000. | |
Microsoft ADPCM | X | X | |
MLP/TrueHD | X | Used in DVD-Audio and Blu-Ray discs. | |
Monkey's Audio | X | Only versions 3.97-3.99 are supported. | |
MPEG audio layer 3 | E | IX | encoding supported through external library LAME |
MPEG audio layer 2 | IX | IX | |
MS IMA ADPCM | X | X | |
Musepack | X | SV7 and SV8 are supported. | |
Nellymoser ASAO | X | X | |
QCELP / PureVoice | X | ||
Qdesign QDM2 | X | There are still some distortions. | |
QT IMA ADPCM | X | X | |
RA144 | X | Real 14400 bit/s codec | |
RA288 | X | Real 28800 bit/s codec | |
RADnet | IX | IX | Real low bitrate AC-3 codec |
Real COOK | X | All versions except 5.1 are supported. | |
Shorten | X | ||
Sierra Online DPCM | X | Used in Sierra Online game audio files. | |
Smacker audio | X | ||
SMJPEG IMA ADPCM | X | Used in certain Loki game ports. | |
Sonic | X | X | experimental codec |
Sonic lossless | X | X | experimental codec |
Speex | E | supported through external library libspeex | |
THP ADPCM | X | Used on the Nintendo GameCube. | |
True Audio (TTA) | X | ||
Vorbis | X | X | |
WavPack | X | ||
Westwood Studios IMA ADPCM | X | Used in Westwood Studios games like Command and Conquer. | |
WMA v1/v2 | X | X | |
Xan DPCM | X | Used in Origin's Wing Commander IV AVI files. |
X
means that encoding (resp. decoding) is supported.
E
means that support is provided through an external library.
I
means that an integer-only version is available, too (ensures high
performance on systems without hardware floating point support).
Name | Muxing | Demuxing | Encoding | Decoding | Rendering |
ASS/SSA | X | X | |||
DVB | X | X | X | X | X |
DVD | X | X | X | X | X |
X
means that the feature is supported.
BSD make will not build FFmpeg, you need to install and use GNU Make (`gmake').
To get help and instructions for building FFmpeg under Windows, check out the FFmpeg Windows Help Forum at http://ffmpeg.arrozcru.org/.
FFmpeg can be built to run natively on Windows using the MinGW tools. Install the latest versions of MSYS and MinGW from http://www.mingw.org/. You can find detailed installation instructions in the download section and the FAQ. FFmpeg does not build out-of-the-box with the packages the automated MinGW installer provides. It also requires coreutils to be installed and many other packages updated to the latest version. The minimum version for some packages are listed below:
You will also need to pass -fno-common
to the compiler to work around
a GCC bug (see http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=37216).
Within the MSYS shell, configure and make with:
./configure --enable-memalign-hack --extra-cflags=-fno-common make make install
This will install `ffmpeg.exe' along with many other development files
to `/usr/local'. You may specify another install path using the
--prefix
option in `configure'.
Notes:
./configure --enable-shared
when configuring FFmpeg,
you can build libavutil, libavcodec and libavformat as DLLs.
As stated in the FAQ, FFmpeg will not compile under MSVC++. However, if you want to use the libav* libraries in your own applications, you can still compile those applications using MSVC++. But the libav* libraries you link to must be built with MinGW. However, you will not be able to debug inside the libav* libraries, since MSVC++ does not recognize the debug symbols generated by GCC. We strongly recommend you to move over from MSVC++ to MinGW tools. This description of how to use the FFmpeg libraries with MSVC++ is based on Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition. If you have a different version, you might have to modify the procedures slightly.
Assuming you have just built and installed FFmpeg in `/usr/local'.
inline
keyword used by
FFmpeg, so you must add this line before #include
ing libav*:
#define inline _inline
This is how to create DLL and LIB files that are compatible with MSVC++:
call "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\bin\vcvars32.bat"Alternatively, you may start the `Visual Studio 2005 Command Prompt', and run `c:\msys\1.0\msys.bat' from there.
lib.exe
. If you get a help message
from `Microsoft (R) Library Manager', this means your environment
variables are set up correctly, the `Microsoft (R) Library Manager'
is on the path and will be used by FFmpeg to create
MSVC++-compatible import libraries.
./configure --enable-shared --enable-memalign-hack make make installYour install path (`/usr/local/' by default) should now have the necessary DLL and LIB files under the `bin' directory.
To use those files with MSVC++, do the same as you would do with the static libraries, as described above. But in Step 4, you should only need to add the directory where the LIB files are installed (i.e. `c:\msys\usr\local\bin'). This is not a typo, the LIB files are installed in the `bin' directory. And instead of adding `libxx.a' files, you should add `avcodec.lib', `avformat.lib', and `avutil.lib'. There should be no need for `libmingwex.a', `libgcc.a', and `wsock32.lib', nor any other external library statically linked into the DLLs. The `bin' directory contains a bunch of DLL files, but the ones that are actually used to run your application are the ones with a major version number in their filenames (i.e. `avcodec-51.dll').
You must use the MinGW cross compilation tools available at http://www.mingw.org/. Then configure FFmpeg with the following options:
./configure --target-os=mingw32 --cross-prefix=i386-mingw32msvc-
(you can change the cross-prefix according to the prefix chosen for the MinGW tools). Then you can easily test FFmpeg with Wine (http://www.winehq.com/).
The main issue with the 1.5.x Cygwin versions is that newlib, its C library, does not contain llrint(). You need to upgrade to the unstable 1.7.x versions, or leverage the implementation in MinGW (as explained below). Just install your Cygwin with all the "Base" packages, plus the following "Devel" ones:
binutils, gcc-core, make, subversion, mingw-runtime, diffutils
The experimental gcc4 package is still buggy, hence please use the official gcc 3.4.4 or a 4.2.x compiled from source by yourself. Install the current binutils-20080624-2 as they work fine (the old binutils-20060709-1 proved buggy on shared builds). Then create a small library that just contains llrint():
ar x /usr/lib/mingw/libmingwex.a llrint.o ar cq /usr/local/lib/libllrint.a llrint.o
Then run
./configure --enable-static --disable-shared --extra-ldflags='-L /usr/local/lib' --extra-libs='-l llrint'
to make a static build or
./configure --enable-shared --disable-static --extra-ldflags='-L /usr/local/lib' --extra-libs='-l llrint'
to build shared libraries. If you want to build FFmpeg with additional libraries, download Cygwin "Devel" packages for Ogg and Vorbis from any Cygwin packages repository:
libogg-devel, libvorbis-devel
These library packages are only available from Cygwin Ports (http://sourceware.org/cygwinports/) :
yasm, libSDL-devel, libdirac-devel, libfaac-devel, libfaad-devel, libgsm-devel, libmp3lame-devel, libschroedinger1.0-devel, speex-devel, libtheora-devel, libxvidcore-devel
The recommendation for libnut and x264 is to build them from source by yourself, as they evolve too quickly for Cygwin Ports to be up to date.
With Cygwin you can create Windows binaries that do not need the cygwin1.dll. Just install your Cygwin as explained before, plus these additional "Devel" packages:
gcc-mingw-core, mingw-runtime, mingw-zlib
and add some special flags to your configure invocation. For a static build run
./configure --target-os=mingw32 --enable-memalign-hack --enable-static --disable-shared --extra-cflags=-mno-cygwin --extra-libs=-mno-cygwin
and for a build with shared libraries
./configure --target-os=mingw32 --enable-memalign-hack --enable-shared --disable-static --extra-cflags=-mno-cygwin --extra-libs=-mno-cygwin
BeOS support is broken in mysterious ways.
For information about compiling FFmpeg on OS/2 see http://www.edm2.com/index.php/FFmpeg.
You can integrate all the source code of the libraries to link them statically to avoid any version problem. All you need is to provide a 'config.mak' and a 'config.h' in the parent directory. See the defines generated by ./configure to understand what is needed. You can use libavcodec or libavformat in your commercial program, but any patch you make must be published. The best way to proceed is to send your patches to the FFmpeg mailing list.
FFmpeg is programmed in the ISO C90 language with a few additional features from ISO C99, namely:
These features are supported by all compilers we care about, so we will not accept patches to remove their use unless they absolutely do not impair clarity and performance. All code must compile with GCC 2.95 and GCC 3.3. Currently, FFmpeg also compiles with several other compilers, such as the Compaq ccc compiler or Sun Studio 9, and we would like to keep it that way unless it would be exceedingly involved. To ensure compatibility, please do not use any additional C99 features or GCC extensions. Especially watch out for:
Indent size is 4. The presentation is the one specified by 'indent -i4 -kr -nut'. The TAB character is forbidden outside of Makefiles as is any form of trailing whitespace. Commits containing either will be rejected by the Subversion repository. The main priority in FFmpeg is simplicity and small code size in order to minimize the bug count. Comments: Use the JavaDoc/Doxygen format (see examples below) so that code documentation can be generated automatically. All nontrivial functions should have a comment above them explaining what the function does, even if it is just one sentence. All structures and their member variables should be documented, too.
/** * @file mpeg.c * MPEG codec. * @author ... */ /** * Summary sentence. * more text ... * ... */ typedef struct Foobar{ int var1; /**< var1 description */ int var2; ///< var2 description /** var3 description */ int var3; } Foobar; /** * Summary sentence. * more text ... * ... * @param my_parameter description of my_parameter * @return return value description */ int myfunc(int my_parameter) ...
fprintf and printf are forbidden in libavformat and libavcodec, please use av_log() instead. Casts should be used only when necessary. Unneeded parentheses should also be avoided if they don't make the code easier to understand.
We think our rules are not too hard. If you have comments, contact us. Note, these rules are mostly borrowed from the MPlayer project.
First, (see section 4.3 Coding Rules) above if you did not yet. When you submit your patch, try to send a unified diff (diff '-up' option). We cannot read other diffs :-) Also please do not submit a patch which contains several unrelated changes. Split it into separate, self-contained pieces. This does not mean splitting file by file. Instead, make the patch as small as possible while still keeping it as a logical unit that contains an individual change, even if it spans multiple files. This makes reviewing your patches much easier for us and greatly increases your chances of getting your patch applied. Run the regression tests before submitting a patch so that you can verify that there are no big problems. Patches should be posted as base64 encoded attachments (or any other encoding which ensures that the patch will not be trashed during transmission) to the ffmpeg-devel mailing list, see http://lists.mplayerhq.hu/mailman/listinfo/ffmpeg-devel It also helps quite a bit if you tell us what the patch does (for example 'replaces lrint by lrintf'), and why (for example '*BSD isn't C99 compliant and has no lrint()') Also please if you send several patches, send each patch as a separate mail, do not attach several unrelated patches to the same mail.
make checkheaders
pass with the patch applied?
patch -p0
?
All patches posted to ffmpeg-devel will be reviewed, unless they contain a clear note that the patch is not for SVN. Reviews and comments will be posted as replies to the patch on the mailing list. The patch submitter then has to take care of every comment, that can be by resubmitting a changed patch or by discussion. Resubmitted patches will themselves be reviewed like any other patch. If at some point a patch passes review with no comments then it is approved, that can for simple and small patches happen immediately while large patches will generally have to be changed and reviewed many times before they are approved. After a patch is approved it will be committed to the repository. We will review all submitted patches, but sometimes we are quite busy so especially for large patches this can take several weeks. When resubmitting patches, please do not make any significant changes not related to the comments received during review. Such patches will be rejected. Instead, submit significant changes or new features as separate patches.
Before submitting a patch (or committing to the repository), you should at least test that you did not break anything. The regression tests build a synthetic video stream and a synthetic audio stream. These are then encoded and decoded with all codecs or formats. The CRC (or MD5) of each generated file is recorded in a result file. A 'diff' is launched to compare the reference results and the result file. The regression tests then go on to test the FFserver code with a limited set of streams. It is important that this step runs correctly as well. Run 'make test' to test all the codecs and formats. Run 'make fulltest' to test all the codecs, formats and FFserver. [Of course, some patches may change the results of the regression tests. In this case, the reference results of the regression tests shall be modified accordingly].
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