[FFmpeg-user] Encoding h264 with 4:4:4 chroma

[Thomas Worth]

On Mon, Oct 31, 2011 at 4:22 PM, Phil Rhodes <phil_rhodes at rocketmail.com> wrote:
>
>>> That is why a snapshot is offered on http://ffmpeg.org/download.html (it
>>> contains current git head).
>
> What on earth am I supposed to do with that? I am not a software engineer.
> If it was a Visual Studio project, I might just about be able to load it
> into the IDE and hit F6. But it isn't. So I can't.
>
>>> PS: Compiling natively on mingw for Windows if far easier imo than
>>> cross-compiling.
>>
>> Interesting that you should say that as I have heard others say quite the
>> reverse...
>
> Me too.
>
>> the inconsistent build requirements and need to 'tweak' Makefile's and the
>> like to accommodate complier version issues etc. (Not all libraries have as
>> refined a configure system as ffmpeg's)
>
> It's my direct experience that this is the case with almost all opensource
> software. Much as the configure/make/install line is given out quite a lot,
> from what I've seen it works rather rarely. Works, I mean, implying that all
> of the advertised features are available, it's properly integrated with the
> desktop environment, properly configured with sensible defaults, etc.

I sympathize. Compiling FFmpeg on Windows is much harder than on a
Unix-ish sytem.

However, it can be done. You'll want to install MinGW and MSYS, which
give you the GNU utilities you need and a shell. You'll need to run
configure from the MSYS shell. It won't work using the Windows command
prompt, although you can run stuff you compile through the command
prompt. Once you get MSYS working, it acts pretty much like a Unix
system.

I haven't tried cross-compiling. My own software uses Windows
libraries, so I need to develop from the Windows machine anyway.