How to install ffmpeg, mencoder and flvtool2 on Mac OSX Leopard, convert an AVI to FLV, and view the FLV video with FlowPlayer

2 This is a short tutorial on how to quickly get up to speed with FLV movie creation (transcoding) and viewing (Flash player). I tried to install ffmpeg using ports and fink, but had problems. The instructions I found "here":http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20061220082125312 work though. The following is my adaptation of the instruction, where I show you how to install both ffmpeg and flvtool2. First, download ffmpegx, which contains ffmpeg from "http://ffmpegx.com/download.html":http://ffmpegx.com/download.html Then, mount the .dmg file, navigate to the mounted disk, and control-click on the ffmpegX application (ffmpegX.app), choose Show Package Contents from the pop-up menu, and copy the ffmpeg binary to, for example, /tmp. Now execute the following commands in a terminal shell: <code> # Move ffmpeg to /usr/local/bin: sudo mv /tmp/ffmpeg /usr/local/bin/ # Change owner and make executable sudo chown root:wheel /usr/local/bin/ffmpeg sudo chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/ffmpeg </code> You're now ready to use ffmpeg; the following command lists all the supported input and output formats: <code> ffmpeg -formats </code> Use the following command to transcode an AVI to FLV (Flash video) format: <code> fmpeg -i mymovie.avi -s 320x240 -ar 44100 -r 12 mymovie.flv cat mymovie.flv | flvtool2 -U stdin mymovie.flv </code> To add metadata to the FLV file—such as video length, which is required for the Flash player progress bar—you need to install "flvtool2":http://rubyforge.org/projects/flvtool2/. This is done with the following command (note this requires Ruby and RubyGems, which are not part of all OSX Leopard installations): <code> sudo gem install flvtool2 </code> Now add the metadata to the FLV file: <code> flvtool2 -UP mymovie.flv </code> To test the FLV movie you just created, download and extract "FlowPlayer":http://flowplayer.org to your folder of choice. Now create a page that loads your FLV movie; note that you need to update the paths: <code> <html> <head> <script type="text/javascript" src="../flowplayer/html/swfobject.js"></script> </head> <body> <div id="flowplayerholder"> This will be replaced by the player. </div> <script type="text/javascript"> // <![CDATA[ var fo = new SWFObject("../flowplayer/FlowPlayerDark.swf", "FlowPlayer", "468", "350", "7", "#000000", true); // need this next line for local testing, it's optional if your swf is on the same domain as your html page fo.addParam("allowScriptAccess", "always"); fo.addVariable("config", "{ countryCode: 'fi', playList: [ {overlayId: 'play' }, { url: '/mockup/mymovie.flv' } ], initialScale: 'scale', fullScreenScriptURL: 'fullscreen.js' }"); fo.write("flowplayerholder"); // ]]> </script> </body> </html> </code> I've "been told":http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20060923203722112&query=dec that "mencoder":http://www2.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/releases/ produces higher quality FLV videos, so lets compare the mencoder output to ffmpeg by first downloading and extracting mencoder to /tmp. Now move mencoder to /usr/local/bin: <code> sudo mv /tmp/mencoder /usr/local/bin/ sudo chown root:wheel /usr/local/bin/mencoder sudo chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/mencoder </code> Next transcode the video to FLV format using mencoder: <code> mencoder mymovie.avi -ofps 12 -o mymovie.flv -of lavf -lavfopts \ i_certify_that_my_video_stream_does_not_use_b_frames -oac lavc -lavcopts \ acodec=mp3:abitrate=32 -srate 22050 -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=flv:\ vbitrate=100:mbd=2:mv0:trell:v4mv:cbp:last_pred=3:predia=2:dia=2:\ vmax_b_frames=0:vb_strategy=1:precmp=2:cmp=2:subcmp=2:preme=2:qns=2 \ -vop scale=360:240 </code> View the video in the Flash player; you should notice the difference in quality... For even higher quality encode the videos using the H.264 format, which FlowPlayer also supports; instructions can be found "here":http://www.brad-x.com/2007/05/19/yet-another-linuxnix-video-h264-howto/. 0

2008-02-06T22:18:11+02:00

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This is a short tutorial on how to quickly get up to speed with FLV movie creation (transcoding) and viewing (Flash player). I tried to install ffmpeg using ports and fink, but had problems. The instructions I found <a href="http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20061220082125312">here</a> work though. The following is my adaptation of the instruction, where I show you how to install both ffmpeg and flvtool2. First, download ffmpegx, which contains ffmpeg from <a href="http://ffmpegx.com/download.html">http://ffmpegx.com/download.html</a> Then, mount the .dmg file, navigate to the mounted disk, and control-click on the ffmpegX application (ffmpegX.app), choose Show Package Contents from the pop-up menu, and copy the ffmpeg binary to, for example, /tmp. Now execute the following commands in a terminal shell: <pre class="active4d"> 1 # Move ffmpeg to /usr/local/bin: 2 sudo mv /tmp/ffmpeg /usr/local/bin/ 3 4 # Change owner and make executable 5 sudo chown root:wheel /usr/local/bin/ffmpeg 6 sudo chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/ffmpeg </pre> You’re now ready to use ffmpeg; the following command lists all the supported input and output formats: <pre class="active4d"> 1 ffmpeg -formats </pre> Use the following command to transcode an AVI to FLV (Flash video) format: <pre class="active4d"> 1 fmpeg -i mymovie.avi -s 320x240 -ar 44100 -r 12 mymovie.flv 2 cat mymovie.flv | flvtool2 -U stdin mymovie.flv </pre> To add metadata to the FLV file—such as video length, which is required for the Flash player progress bar—you need to install <a href="http://rubyforge.org/projects/flvtool2/">flvtool2</a>. This is done with the following command (note this requires Ruby and RubyGems, which are not part of all OSX Leopard installations): <pre class="active4d"> 1 sudo gem install flvtool2 </pre> Now add the metadata to the FLV file: <pre class="active4d"> 1 flvtool2 -UP mymovie.flv </pre> To test the FLV movie you just created, download and extract <a href="http://flowplayer.org">FlowPlayer</a> to your folder of choice. Now create a page that loads your FLV movie; note that you need to update the paths: <pre class="active4d"> 1 <html> 2 <head> 3 <script type="text/javascript" src="../flowplayer/html/swfobject.js"></script> 4 </head> 5 <body> 6 <div id="flowplayerholder"> 7 This will be replaced by the player. 8 </div> 9 10 <script type="text/javascript"> 11 // <![CDATA[ 12 var fo = new SWFObject("../flowplayer/FlowPlayerDark.swf", "FlowPlayer", "468", "350", "7", "#000000", true); 13 // need this next line for local testing, it's optional if your swf is on the same domain as your html page 14 fo.addParam("allowScriptAccess", "always"); 15 fo.addVariable("config", "{ countryCode: 'fi', playList: [ {overlayId: 'play' }, { url: '/mockup/mymovie.flv' } ], initialScale: 'scale', fullScreenScriptURL: 'fullscreen.js' }"); 16 fo.write("flowplayerholder"); 17 // ]]> 18 </script> 19 </body> 20 </html> </pre> I’ve <a href="http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20060923203722112&query=dec">been told</a> that <a href="http://www2.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/releases/">mencoder</a> produces higher quality FLV videos, so lets compare the mencoder output to ffmpeg by first downloading and extracting mencoder to /tmp. Now move mencoder to /usr/local/bin: <pre class="active4d"> 1 sudo mv /tmp/mencoder /usr/local/bin/ 2 3 sudo chown root:wheel /usr/local/bin/mencoder 4 sudo chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/mencoder </pre> Next transcode the video to FLV format using mencoder: <pre class="active4d"> 1 mencoder mymovie.avi -ofps 12 -o mymovie.flv -of lavf -lavfopts \ 2 i_certify_that_my_video_stream_does_not_use_b_frames -oac lavc -lavcopts \ 3 acodec=mp3:abitrate=32 -srate 22050 -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=flv:\ 4 vbitrate=100:mbd=2:mv0:trell:v4mv:cbp:last_pred=3:predia=2:dia=2:\ 5 vmax_b_frames=0:vb_strategy=1:precmp=2:cmp=2:subcmp=2:preme=2:qns=2 \ 6 -vop scale=360:240 </pre> View the video in the Flash player; you should notice the difference in quality… For even higher quality encode the videos using the H.264 format, which FlowPlayer also supports; instructions can be found <a href="http://www.brad-x.com/2007/05/19/yet-another-linuxnix-video-h264-howto/">here</a>.

How to install ffmpeg, mencoder and flvtool2 on Mac OSX Leopard, convert an AVI to FLV, and view the FLV video with FlowPlayer

2008-07-08T22:02:24+03:00