[FFmpeg-user] Unknown encoder 'libx264'

[Lou Logan]

On Fri, Aug 31, 2012, at 05:27 PM, blacky94 wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have a problem with ffmpeg, always when i try to encode a video with
> this line: ffmpeg -i "mov.mkv" -an -b 700k -r 25 -vcodec libx264
> "output.mp4" on my vserver (debian 6.0), the error message Unknown
> encoder 'libx264' appears. I used this tutorial to install ffmpeg
> http://www.zoharbabin.com/build-and-install-ffmpeg-and-x264-on-debian-squeeze-the-dumb-guide.

This is a terrible guide:
* Development packages for x264 and ffmpeg are listed as dependencies
  although you are going to be compiling x264 and ffmpeg from source.

* It installs stuff outside of the package management system.

* '--enable-shared' is used for almost everything for no apparent
reason.

* Several useless packages are installed (libfaad-dev) and some
  external libraries are very questionable as to their usefulness for
  the general public.

Most importantly (and the reason for your error):
* None of the many external libraries that are installed are actually
  enabled in the ffmpeg configure step! To enable libx264 you need
  '--enable-
  gpl' and '--enable-libx264'.

I recommend reverting everything the guide does and adapting this sane
guide for Ubuntu:
http://ffmpeg.org/trac/ffmpeg/wiki/UbuntuCompilationGuide

...or the Hardy version might be more suitable for you (I'm not sure of
the status of Yasm in Squeeze):
http://ffmpeg.org/trac/ffmpeg/wiki/UbuntuCompilationGuideHardy