FFmpeg is a program that can be used to convert many multimedia formats to different formats, which may allow you to use them with different devices and players. The program is used exclusively in the command line. Installing it may seem daunting, but follow this guide and you’ll have FFmpeg up and running in just a few minutes!
1Download the FFmpeg program. When you visit the download page, you will see a variety of options. Download the latest Static version in either 32-bit or 64-bit, depending on your operating system.
2Download and install 7-Zip. 7-Zip is a free archive program that you will need to open the FFmpeg file.
3Extract the FFmpeg folder. When you use 7-Zip to extract a file, it will create a new folder in the same location as the downloaded file. The folder will be named something like “ffmpeg-20130731-git-69fe25c-win32-static”. Open the folder and move it to the side.
4Open your C: drive. Click Start and then click Computer. Select the hard drive where Windows is installed (typically C:). At the base of the C: drive, where you see folders such as Windows and Program Files, right-click and select New Folder. Name the folder “ffmpeg”.
5Open the new “ffmpeg” folder. Copy the contents of the extracted folder into the new “ffmpeg” folder.
Enabling FFmpeg in the Command Line
1Click the Start button and right-click on Computer. Select Properties from the right-click menu. In the System window, click on the “Advanced system settings” link in the left frame.
2Click the Environmental Variables button in the System Properties window. It will be located at the bottom of the window.
3Select the PATH entry in the "User variables" section. This is located in the first frame in the Environmental Variables window. Click the Edit button.
- In the “Variable value” field, enter ;c:\ffmpeg\bin after anything that's already written there. If you copied it to a different drive, change the drive letter.
- Click OK to save your changes. If anything is entered incorrectly in this screen, it could cause Windows to be unable to boot properly.
- If there is no PATH entry in the "User variables" setting, click the New button and create one. Enter PATH for the variable name.
- This method will enable FFmpeg for the current user. Other Windows users will not be able to run it from the command line. To enable it for everyone, enter ;c:\ffmpeg\bin in the PATH entry in "System variables". Be very careful not to delete anything that is already in this variable.
4Open the command prompt. Enter the command “ffmpeg –version”. If the command prompt returns the version information for FFmpeg, then the installation was successful, and FFmpeg can be accessed from any folder in the command prompt.
- If you receive a “libstdc++ -6 is missing” error, you may need to install the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable Package, which is available for free from Microsoft.
5Use FFmpeg to convert your media files. You can do a variety of media conversion processes using FFmpeg. You will be using the command line to perform FFmpeg commands.
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