In case you don't know, FFmpeg is a command line tool for encoding and converting a numerous video and audio formats. x264 is a free software library (also command line) for encoding video streams into the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC format.

FFmpeg and x264 in the Ubuntu repository does not support some encoders, formats, and codecs (which are restricted).

There is a quick way of enabling the restricted encoders but it will not work for all of them. In Ubuntu Karmic, run the following command in a terminal:

sudo apt-get install ffmpeg libavcodec-extra-52

For Karmic, the libfaac codec has been disabled in the "extra" (formerly known as unstripped) libraries because it is considered non-free. The only way to get it is to compile ffmpeg yourself.

SUPER (Simplified Universal Player Encoder & Renderer) is a GUI to FFmpeg, MEncoder, MPlayer, x264, musepack, monkey's audio, true audio, wavpack, ffmpeg2theora and the theora/vorbis RealProducer plug-in.


SUPER can manipulate and produce many multimedia file formats supported by its back-end programs. Back-end program features supported by SUPER include saving various streaming protocols (mms, rtsp, and http), conversion of Flash Video to other formats, and user-controlled conversion of video between different container formats. Users can chose between various lossless direct audio/video transfers between container formats or lossy video/audio encoding, with encoding possessing the added ability to change video and audio specifications such as bitrate, frame rate, audio channels, resolution, sampling rate, and aspect ratio.

As you probably know, certain codecs are not activated in FFmpeg in Ubuntu Jaunty (Note: ffmpeg is a command line tool to convert one video file format to another).

To install a 'fixed' version of ffmpeg for Ubuntu Jaunty:
1.

sudo apt-get purge ffmpeg x264 libx264-dev

2. And then install these packages to resolve dependencies:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install build-essential libfaac-dev libfaad-dev libmp3lame-dev libtheora-dev libxvidcore4-dev

3. Then download and install: ffmpeg and x264 for Ubuntu Jaunty (download both packages - x86 only). If the download does not work for some reason, see the credits at the bottom of the post -> you will find more download links there.

You may also want to read about a nautilus script that makes encoding a lot easier.


[ credits: ubublog via novatillasku ]