FFMPEG Installation

FFMPEG Installation

How to install:

Download links here. Note which version you need in instructions below!

MacOS

  1. Download ffmpeg
    1. Go to https://ffmpeg.org/download.html and click the Apple logo in the “Get packages & executable files” section.
    2. Click “Static builds for macOS 64-bit”.
    3. You’ll see two options for downloading ffmpeg. Choose the one with the shorter filename; this will look like ffmpeg-<versionNumber>.7z, where <versionNumber> is something like 5.1.2.7z.
    4. Underneath this heading, click “Download as ZIP”.
    5. If a popup appears after clicking the download link, press “allow” or “save”.
    6. Open your Downloads folder, and double-click ffmpeg-<versionNumber>.zip. This will extract it using the Archive Utility and create an executable ffmpeg file in Downloads.
    7. You should now have a file called ffmpeg .
  2. Move the downloaded files to the right location.
    1. Open your home folder.
      • Your home folder has the same name as your user account. The easiest way to find it is to open Finder, and use the keyboard shortcut command + shift + H or in the menu bar select Go > Home.
      • You should see folders such as Desktop, Applications, and Downloads in this folder.
    2. Create a new folder called ffmpeg in your home folder.
      • Go to File > New folder or use the shortcut command + shift + N, type or enter the folder name, and press return to confirm.
    3. Open your new ffmpeg folder by double-clicking it.
    4. Create a new folder called bin in ffmpeg.
    5. Move the ffmpeg file from Downloads into this bin folder.
    6. You should now ffmpeg in your ~/ffmpeg/bin/ folder.

     

  3. Authorise ffmpeg.
    1. Double-click the file called ffmpeg.
    2. You should see an error message “ffmpeg can’t be opened because it is from an unidentified developer”. Click “OK”.
    3. Go to System Preferences > Security and Privacy and click on the General tab.
    4. At the bottom of the window you will see a message saying that ffmpeg was blocked. Click “Open Anyway”.
      • If you do not see this message in the General tab, double-click ffmpeg again.
      • You may have to click the “unlock” button and enter your password to be able to click “Open Anyway”.
    5. If you see another popup that says “ffmpeg is from an unidentified developer. Are you sure you want to open it?”, click “Open”. If you don’t get this popup, just go to the same file and double-click it again.
    6. When you double-click the file, a Terminal window may open. Keep the terminal open until you see a message confirming you can close it.

Windows

  1. Download the ffmpeg distribution.
    1. Go to https://ffmpeg.org/download.html and click the Windows logo in the “Get packages & executable files” section.
    2. You’ll find multiple options for downloading Windows EXE Files. On the linked sites, look for a download named release-essentials-zip or ffmpeg-{version}-win64-{version}.zip and download the .ZIP file.
    3. In the popup, choose Open with Windows Explorer.
  2. Move the downloaded files to the right location.
    1. Open a second Windows Explorer window
    2. In the address bar, enter the path %HOME% and press Enter to open your user’s home directory. Alternatively, you can browse to C:\Users\<your name> (it’s the folder that contains Desktop, Documents, Downloads, etc.).
    3. Create a new folder in your home directory and name it ffmpeg
    4. Move the contents of the ffmpeg directory from the downloaded .ZIP file into ffmpeg (there may be several files and a folder called bin).
    5. You should now have ffmpeg.exe and ffprobe.exe in the folder %HOME%\ffmpeg\bin. If your ffmpeg download only contained the .exe files, you may have to create the bin\ folder yourself.

Optional

You may want to use the Friendly Interactive Shell.