Ubuntu – build of Audacity for Ubuntu that can use a local version of FFMpeg

audacityffmpeg

Audacity builds on Ubuntu no longer support FFMpeg because of the libav foolishness.

Is there maybe a PPA or something with a build of Audacity that supports using a local build of FFMpeg? I could compile it myself, but it would be a set back in terms of being time consuming, especially if there are errors.

P.S.

Please do not suggest the nightly PPA, it doesn't support FFMpeg.

Best Answer

Looks like Audacity will actually build against ffmpeg-0.10.12. I have written it all up here:

Audacity under Trusty Tahr: Building it with FFmpeg http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2219907

Test it out and let me know if it all works out...

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to determine which version of FFMPEG comes by default

Yours is a PPA version, which is most probably similar to the official version. See below, from Precise (Ubuntu 12.04):

$ dpkg --list ffmpeg
ii  ffmpeg                                 4:0.8.1-0ubuntu1                        
Multimedia player, server, encoder and transcoder (transitional package)

$ apt-cache policy ffmpeg
ffmpeg:
  Installed: 4:0.8.1-0ubuntu1
  Candidate: 4:0.8.1-0ubuntu1

$ ffmpeg

ffmpeg version 0.8.1-4:0.8.1-0ubuntu1, Copyright (c) 2000-2011 the Libav developers
  built on Mar 22 2012 05:09:06 with gcc 4.6.3

.....

To reinstall the official version over the PPA version, you can either use the ppa-purge script (install that first!), or if you have already deleted the PPA, use

sudo apt-get install ffmpeg=4:0.8.1-0ubuntu1

You may have to throw a --reinstall switch in there if it fails.

ffmpeg – How to Send Video to /dev/video0 on Ubuntu Using ffmpeg

You can do this with v4l2loopback. First you need to install it:

Install v4l2loopback

Method 1: Install v4l2loopback from the repository

sudo apt install v4l2loopback-dkms
sudo modprobe v4l2loopback

This is easy but older versions of v4l2loopback have some known bugs, so consider compiling it instead if you encounter any issues.

Method 2: Compile v4l2loopback

If it's not in the repository for your Ubuntu version, or you want the latest version, you can compile it:

sudo apt-get install build-essential checkinstall
wget https://github.com/umlaeute/v4l2loopback/archive/main.zip
unzip main.zip
cd v4l2loopback-main
make
sudo checkinstall --pkgname=v4l2loopback --pkgversion="$(date +%Y%m%d%H%M)-git" --default
sudo modprobe v4l2loopback

Uninstalling

If you want to remove the package you compiled:

sudo apt-get remove v4l2loopback

Examples

Note that the actual video number may vary depending if an existing device is already using /dev/video0. Check output of ls /dev/video* or v4l2-ctl --list-devices.

Desktop to virtual camera

Now run ffmpeg. Example for desktop using x11grab:

ffmpeg -f x11grab -framerate 15 -video_size 1280x720 -i :0.0 -f v4l2 /dev/video0

Video file (MP4) to virtual camera

ffmpeg -re -i input.mp4 -map 0:v -f v4l2 /dev/video0

Image to virtual camera

ffmpeg -re -loop 1 -i input.jpg -vf format=yuv420p -f v4l2 /dev/video0

Webcam → ffmpeg → Virtual webcam

Add text

With drawtext filter:

ffmpeg -f v4l2 -i /dev/video0 -vf "drawtext=text='Hello World':fontsize=12:fontcolor=white:font=Arial:x=w-tw-10:y=h-th-10,format=yuv420p" -f v4l2 /dev/video1

See How to position drawtext text?

Greenscreen / chroma key / replace background

Using chromakey, overlay, and format filters:

ffmpeg -re -i background.jpg -f v4l2 -i /dev/video0 -filter_complex "[1]chromakey=color=#326964:similarity=0.07:blend=0.02[fg];[0][fg]overlay=(main_w-overlay_w)/2:(main_h-overlay_h)/2:format=auto,format=yuv420p" -f v4l2 /dev/video1

See How to position overlay?

Preview with `ffplay`

ffplay /dev/video0

Common errors

Unable to open V4L2 device '/dev/video0'
Failed to open /dev/video0: No such file or directory
Unknown V4L2 pixel format equivalent for yuvj422p

See this answer for solutions.