Best FFMPEG builds for Windows, OSX and Linux

[airon]

The Wiki page is sending people to the FFMPEG download page.

The build from Btbn are nightly builds as user Fijifuko pointed out to me.

Most of you here have way more experience encoding video in Reaper than I do, so I'd like to know what you fine folks have been using to encode your video.

One of us will then update the Wiki to make sure folks use the best FFMPEG libraries that work well with the current Reaper versions.

So, what do you use ?

[Dstruct]

4.3.2 from https://www.gyan.dev/ffmpeg/builds/


Newer versions have issues with audio.

[FIXED] (REAPER 6.43)

[Fabian]

I reported here https://forum.cockos.com/showthread....06#post2412306 some issues with ffmpeg v4.3.0 and 4.3.1 on Windows.
I still use v4.2.3 that can be found on WaybackMachine https://web.archive.org/web/20200918...oe.com/builds/

[urednik]

For me the new reaper v6.43 and FFMPEG 4.4.1 work. Here are instructions by Jon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWSum2b_Wcg

[EpicSounds]

Originally Posted by urednik

For me the new reaper v6.43 and FFMPEG 4.4.1 work. Here are instructions by Jon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWSum2b_Wcg

thank you!

[Phazma]

Any advantage for mac users to update ffmpeg? Don't remember how long ago it was that I have installed it..

[EpicSounds]

for h.264 the FFMPEG render was slower than avfoundation. I didn't really test beyond that. That was maybe 2yrs ago

[Phazma]

I habitually always used ffmpeg.. don't remember exactly why, but perhaps I should be switching to avfoundation.

A question that may be a bit off topic but perhaps you Jon may be able to answer it:
I have noticed that the h.246 video codec defaults to 2048kbps when using avfoundation and to 95% when using ffmpeg. I don't know much about video en/decoding so I am wondering, is 2048kbps the same as 95%? Should these values be left at default or are there situations where I will benefit from changing them (and how can I find out the right value for a specific video render)?

[EpicSounds]

2048 is really low for youtube.
I change the bitrate to 8000 for 1080p and 12-16000 for 1440p

I think the 95% quality is roughly 5500 kbps but I don't have a good memory for this stuff.

You can go above 100% with ffmpeg also.

You can render a file and then check in VLC what the bitrate is.

[Phazma]

Ok thanks for the advice! I will experiment with this and see what works best for my purposes.

[Phazma]

If it interests you, I have done some test renders and got some interesting results:



The bitrate values come from the static calculations by QT but the dynamic calculations in VLC seem to hover around these values too so I guess they are averages.

I find it interesting, that there is not much difference by setting higher/lower percentages for the ffmpeg render. One could think that 50%->100% or 100%->200% would double the bitrate but that is not the case. And it seems from 95% to 100% there is no difference at all.

The avfoundation render is indeed much faster. The calculated bitrate seems to make sense more or less, it is slightly higher than the sum of the chosen video + audio bitrate.

I have no idea what the difference between avfoundation's "MPEG-4 Video" and "MPEG-4 Video (streaming optimized) is. All my measured stats are identical and I can't detect any difference by looking at the image. Jon, maybe you know more about that?

[EpicSounds]

That's some good stuff right there. I did similar tests a long time ago but didn't document it well.

I *think* the streaming optimized option reduces the decoding effort required for playback. YouTube takes less time in the processing stage between upload and HD playback ready. I bet I or someone else asked this back in in the v5.0 betas.

[Phazma]

Originally Posted by EpicSounds

I *think* the streaming optimized option reduces the decoding effort required for playback. YouTube takes less time in the processing stage between upload and HD playback ready. I bet I or someone else asked this back in in the v5.0 betas.

Going to be hard to find this in the v5 threads.. but surely it will have some drawbacks too (otherwise it would be the only option). I wish Cockos documented these things properly so it doesn’t take hours of nerding to find out what which option does.