Installing FFmpeg

This is a new blog. I'm blogging
to help myself understand how to
install and use FFmpeg.

I know next to nothing about FFmpeg.
My understanding is that it can
be used to convert one video format
to another.

I hope it can also be used to convert
an mp3 file into a slide show movie that
exhibits photos. This is what I
hope to use it for.

I hope that the overall time of the movie
is controlled by the mp3 and that the timing
of each of the slides can be controlled by
suggesting to FFmpeg how long each slide
should stay on screen. If these 2 timing
issues can be controlled, I can make myself
a slide-show movie.

My first task is to install FFmpeg. I'm going
to use the standard Debian installer for this
purpose. I'm a Debian Linux user.

To get started, I type the following command
under Debian Lenny:

rootprompt# aptitude search ffmpeg

The output to the above command is several
packages that are relevant to FFmpeg. Here's
the package that actually contains FFmpeg:

p   ffmpeg  - multimedia player, server and encoder

Just to make sure I've not already installed FFmpeg,
I type the following command:

rootprompt# aptitude show FFmpeg

The above command comes back with the following
2 lines of information that tells me that
FFmpeg is not yet installed:

Package: ffmpeg
State: not installed

Note that the above aptitude show ffmpeg
command gives a lot of information that I've
chosen not to show here.

Since I've not yet installed FFmpeg, I'll
go ahead and install it:

rootprompt# aptitude install ffmpeg

OK. Now I ask what version number I just
installed:

ffmpeg -version

The answer that comes back has a the following
copyright notice:

Copyright (c) 2000-2008 Fabrice Bellard, et al

Looks like I have installed software that is
approxmately 3 years old. Here's what appears
to be the revision number:

FFmpeg version r11872

I've googled the above revision number and
it appears this revision dates from 2008.
Here's what googling r11872 ffmpeg
gives as a result:

Author: reimar
Date: Tue Feb  5 19:39:55 2008
New Revision: 11872

Looks like Debian has installed a version of
FFmpeg that is 3 years old. I'll see if this
version does what I want it to.

If it does not, I may have to install ffmeg from
source code. I don't like to do that but I will
do it if I have to.

On further investigation, I find the following
date on the last line of the man page for FFmpeg.
The man page was automatically installed when I
installed FFmpeg.

2011-02-13

Perhaps the version of FFmpeg that I've installed
is more up-to-date than I think it is. It would
make no sense to install an up-to-date man page with
out-of-date software.

Ed Abbott