FFmpeg

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Resources

FFmpeg is a cross platform, free, open source media encoder/decoder toolkit. It contains the programs and libraries necessary to convert audio and video into a wide range of formats. FFmpeg was written by Fabrice Bellard (creator of QEMU and BPG).

Installation

USE flags

Some packages know the ffmpeg USE flag for enabling ffmpeg/libav-based audio/video codec support.

USE flags for media-video/ffmpeg Complete solution to record/convert/stream audio and video

`+dav1d`	Enable AV1 decoding support via media-libs/dav1d
`+drm`	Enable use of x11-libs/libdrm for various hardware accelerated functions and Kernel Mode Setting screen capture
`+fontconfig`	Support for configuring and customizing font access via media-libs/fontconfig
`+gnutls`	Enable using net-libs/gnutls for TLS/HTTPS support and other minor functions (has no effect if USE=openssl is set)
`+gpl`	Enable use of GPL licensed code, should be kept enabled unless LGPL binaries are needed
`+libass`	SRT/SSA/ASS (SubRip / SubStation Alpha) subtitle support
`+postproc`	Enable libpostproc video post processing library support (should not disable this unless need to disable USE=gpl)
`+truetype`	Enable drawtext filter support via media-libs/freetype and media-libs/harfbuzz
`+xml`	Enable Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH) stream support using dev-libs/libxml2
`+zlib`	Add support for zlib compression
`X`	Add support for X11
`alsa`	Add support for media-libs/alsa-lib (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture)
`amf`	Enable AMD's Advanced Media Framework support via media-video/amdgpu-pro-amf
`amr`	Enable Adaptive Multi-Rate Audio support via media-libs/opencore-amr
`amrenc`	Enable Adaptive Multi-Rate Audio encoding support via media-libs/vo-amrwbenc
`appkit`	Enable Apple AppKit framework
`bluray`	Enable Blu-ray filesystems reading support via media-libs/libbluray
`bs2b`	Enable Bauer Stereo-to-Binaural filter support via media-libs/libbs2b
`bzip2`	Enable bzip2 compression support
`cdio`	Enable audio CDs reading via dev-libs/libcdio-paranoia
`chromaprint`	Enable audio fingerprinting support via media-libs/chromaprint
`chromium`	Builds libffmpeg.so to enable media playback in Chromium-based browsers like Opera and Vivaldi.
`codec2`	Enable codec2 low bit rate speech codec support via media-libs/codec2
`cuda`	Enable support for various GPU-accelerated filters using NVIDIA PTX compiled with llvm-core/clang
`doc`	Add extra documentation (API, Javadoc, etc). It is recommended to enable per package instead of globally
`dvd`	Add support for DVDs
`fdk`	Enable AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) encoding support via media-libs/fdk-aac in addition to FFmpeg's own implementation (warning: if USE=gpl is enabled, this produces a non-redistributable build)
`flite`	Enable text-to-speech filter support via app-accessibility/flite
`frei0r`	Enable use of filters through media-plugins/frei0r-plugins
`fribidi`	Enable Bidi support for the drawtext filter via dev-libs/fribidi
`gcrypt`	Enable using dev-libs/libgcrypt for rtmp(t)e support (not needed if using any of USE=gmp,librtmp,openssl), and for obtaining random bytes (not needed if USE=openssl)
`gme`	Enables various game music formats support via media-libs/game-music-emu
`gmp`	Add support for dev-libs/gmp (GNU MP library)
`gsm`	Add support for the gsm lossy speech compression codec
`iec61883`	Enable FireWire DV/HDV input device support via media-libs/libiec61883
`ieee1394`	Enable FireWire/iLink IEEE1394 support (dv, camera, ...)
`jack`	Add support for the JACK Audio Connection Kit
`jpeg2k`	Support for JPEG 2000, a wavelet-based image compression format
`jpegxl`	Add JPEG XL image support
`kvazaar`	Enable H.265/HEVC encoding support via media-libs/kvazaar
`ladspa`	Enable the ability to support ladspa plugins
`lame`	Add support for MP3 encoding using LAME
`lcms`	Enable ICC profile support via media-libs/lcms
`libaom`	Enable AV1 de/encoding via media-libs/libaom (warning: this is the reference implementation and is slower than the alternatives)
`libaribb24`	Enable ARIB text and caption decoding via media-libs/aribb24
`libcaca`	Add support for colored ASCII-art graphics
`libilbc`	Enable internet Low Bitrate Codec de/encoding support via media-libs/libilbc
`liblc3`	Enable Low Complexity Communication Codec de/encoding support via media-sound/liblc3
`libplacebo`	Enable use of GPU-accelerated filters from media-libs/libplacebo
`librtmp`	Enable Real Time Messaging Protocol support via media-video/rtmpdump in addition to FFmpeg's own implementation
`libsoxr`	Enable use of the audio resampler from media-libs/soxr
`libtesseract`	Enable Optical Character Recognition (OCR) filter support via app-text/tesseract
`lv2`	Enable use of filters through media-libs/lv2
`lzma`	Support for LZMA compression algorithm
`modplug`	Add libmodplug support for playing SoundTracker-style music files
`npp`	Enable Nvidia Performance Primitives-based filters via dev-util/nvidia-cuda-toolkit (warning: if USE=gpl is enabled, this produces non-redistributable build)
`nvenc`	Add support for NVIDIA Encoder/Decoder (NVENC/NVDEC) API for hardware accelerated encoding and decoding on NVIDIA cards (requires x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers)
`openal`	Add support for the Open Audio Library
`opencl`	Enable OpenCL support (computation on GPU)
`opengl`	Add support for OpenGL (3D graphics)
`openh264`	Enable H.264 encoding support via media-libs/openh264
`openmpt`	Enable MPTM tracked music files decoding support via media-libs/libopenmpt
`openssl`	Enable using dev-libs/openssl for TLS/HTTPS support and other minor functions (USE=gnutls has no effect if set)
`opus`	Enable Opus audio codec support
`pulseaudio`	Add sound server support via media-libs/libpulse (may be PulseAudio or PipeWire)
`qrcode`	Enable QR encode generation support via media-gfx/qrencode
`qsv`	Enable Intel Quick Sync Video support via media-libs/libvpl
`quirc`	Enable QR decoding support via media-libs/quirc
`rabbitmq`	Enable AMQP stream support via net-libs/rabbitmq-c
`rav1e`	Enable AV1 encoding support via media-video/rav1e
`rubberband`	Enable time-stretching and pitch-shifting audio filter support via media-libs/rubberband
`samba`	Add support for SAMBA (Windows File and Printer sharing)
`sdl`	Enable use of the Simple Direct Layer library (required for the ffplay command)
`shaderc`	Enable support for various GPU-accelerated filters using Vulkan compiled with media-libs/shaderc
`snappy`	Enable Snappy compression support via app-arch/snappy (required for Vidvox Hap encoder support)
`sndio`	Enable audio output support via media-sound/sndio
`soc`	Apply additional patches for efficient playback on some SoCs (e.g. ARM, RISC-V)
`speex`	Add support for the speex audio codec (used for speech)
`srt`	Enable Secure Reliable Transport (SRT) support via net-libs/srt
`ssh`	Enable SSH/SFTP support via net-libs/libssh
`svg`	Add support for SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics)
`svt-av1`	Enable AV1 encoding support via media-libs/svt-av1
`theora`	Add support for the Theora Video Compression Codec
`twolame`	Enable MP2 encoding support via media-sound/twolame in addition to FFmpeg's own implementation
`v4l`	Enable support for video4linux (using linux-headers or userspace libv4l libraries)
`vaapi`	Enable Video Acceleration API for hardware decoding
`vdpau`	Enable the Video Decode and Presentation API for Unix acceleration interface
`verify-sig`	Verify upstream signatures on distfiles
`vidstab`	Enable video stabilization filter support via media-libs/vidstab
`vmaf`	Enable Netflix's perceptual video quality assessment filter support via media-libs/libvmaf
`vorbis`	Add support for the OggVorbis audio codec
`vpx`	Enable VP8 and VP9 de/encoding support via media-libs/libvpx in addition to FFmpeg's own implementation (for decoding only)
`vulkan`	Add support for 3D graphics and computing via the Vulkan cross-platform API
`webp`	Add support for the WebP image format
`x264`	Enable h264 encoding using x264
`x265`	Enable H.265/HEVC encoding support via media-libs/x265
`xvid`	Add support for xvid.org's open-source mpeg-4 codec
`zeromq`	Enable ZMQ command receiver filter and streaming support via net-libs/zeromq
`zimg`	Enable zscale filter support using media-libs/zimg
`zvbi`	Enable teletext decoding support via media-libs/zvbi

Data provided by the Gentoo Package Database · Last update: 2025-04-01 02:27 More information about USE flags

The above list is non-comprehensive. Use equery (part of app-portage/gentoolkit) to see all available flags:

user $equery uses media-video/ffmpeg

Emerge

If not already pulled in as a dependency of other packages, and after setting appropriate USE flags, emerge FFmpeg:

root #emerge --ask media-video/ffmpeg

Configuration

This section needs some help.

Usage

Media player (ffplay)

If built with USE=sdl, a command line media player called ffplay is available.

user $curl http://www.dradio.de/streaming/dlf_hq_ogg.m3u | xargs ffplay

For more information consult the following commands:

user $man 1 ffplay

user $ffplay -h

External resources