Install ffmpeg, flvtool2, mplayer, mencoder and ffmpeg-php in Cpanel, CentOS, RHEL

This is by far the easiest way to get up and running with ffmpeg and assorted tools on a Cpanel / RHEL / CentOS server. I can’t take credit for all of it, however the original site where I found it has long since been offline with nothing similar replacing it. Hopefully these instructions help others as they have helped me.

First, install rpmforge so you don’t have to compile a bunch of components from scratch:

cd /usr/src
wget http://dag.wieers.com/rpm/packages/rpmforge-release/rpmforge-release-0.3.6-1.el5.rf.x86_64.rpm
rpm -ivh rpmforge-release-0.3.6-1.el5.rf.x86_64.rpm

Now, edit ‘/etc/yum.conf’ and remove ‘ruby*’ from the excludes list. This is just to get past the next step; we must restore it later.

Now, install the required packages:

yum install ffmpeg ffmpeg-devel flvtool2 mplayer mencoder lame libogg libvorbis libtheora swftools amrnb amrwb transcode x264

Now, add ‘ruby*’ back to the excludes list in ‘/etc/yum.conf’ to keep Cpanel happy.

Install Mplayer directly from source:

wget http://www.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/releases/codecs/essential-20071007.tar.bz2
tar xjf essential-20071007.tar.bz2
mv essential-20071007 /usr/lib/codec
mkdir /usr/local/include/ffmpeg/
cp -par /usr/include/lib{avcodec,avdevice,avformat,avutil,swscale} /usr/local/include/ffmpeg/
cp -pa /usr/include/lib{avcodec,avdevice,avformat,avutil,swscale}/*.h /usr/local/include/ffmpeg/

Same with the ffmpeg PHP module:

wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/ffmpeg-php/ffmpeg-php-0.6.0.tbz2
tar xjf ffmpeg-php-0.6.0.tbz2
cd ffmpeg-php-0.6.0
phpize
./configure && make
make install

Add after the ‘extension_dir’ and ‘zend_extension’ entries in the php.ini:

extension="ffmpeg.so"

Test your installation with the following command. I’ve included the raw shell output so you know what you should be seeing:

root@server [~]# php -i | grep ffmpeg
ffmpeg
ffmpeg-php version => 0.6.0-svn
ffmpeg-php built on => Apr 28 2010 15:40:49
ffmpeg-php gd support  => enabled
ffmpeg libavcodec version => Lavc52.20.0
ffmpeg libavformat version => Lavf52.31.0
ffmpeg swscaler version => SwS0.7.1
ffmpeg.allow_persistent => 0 => 0
ffmpeg.show_warnings => 0 => 0

Update

In certain situations, you may end up with the following error:

/usr/src/ffmpeg-php-0.6.0/ffmpeg_frame.c: In function âzim_ffmpeg_frame_toGDImageâ:
/usr/src/ffmpeg-php-0.6.0/ffmpeg_frame.c:336: error: âPIX_FMT_RGBA32â undeclared (first use in this function)
/usr/src/ffmpeg-php-0.6.0/ffmpeg_frame.c:336: error: (Each undeclared identifier is reported only once
/usr/src/ffmpeg-php-0.6.0/ffmpeg_frame.c:336: error: for each function it appears in.)
/usr/src/ffmpeg-php-0.6.0/ffmpeg_frame.c: In function âzim_ffmpeg_frame_ffmpeg_frameâ:
/usr/src/ffmpeg-php-0.6.0/ffmpeg_frame.c:421: error: âPIX_FMT_RGBA32â undeclared (first use in this function)
make: *** [ffmpeg_frame.lo] Error 1

To resolve this, search for all instance of “PIX_FMT_RGBA32″ and replace with “PIX_FMT_RGB32″ in ffmpeg_frame.c and recompile:

perl -pi -e "s/PIX_FMT_RGBA32/PIX_FMT_RGB32/g" ffmpeg_frame.c
make clean
phpize
./configure && make
make install