My ambition to modify software is driving me insane

chiwut

[RANTING HARD] I am quite ready to bash my head against a brick wall. I should probably just give up and move on, but the urge to complete the task at hand will not go away. I am making strides towards the end product but FFS, I wish I was more computer programming smart to know what I am doing…

So, my journey into torrenting led me to using FFmpeg. I have maybe opened the command prompt like 5 times in my life. Using FFmpeg is cool and I like it better than using Handbrake to convert stuff or to make modifications to videos. I can't even remember trying to install it the first time (which probably took a while because I think I had to find a website that had step-by-step pictures) but got it to work eventually!

So in recent days I have been intrigued by this whole libfdk_aac (because it sounded interesting when I was looking up audio encoding). Oh...I need to compile FFmpeg since it's not a standard library... how hard can that be right?

Whoever writes scripts/creates installers/does anything to help brain-dead people like me to install software...thank you for making it easy. Seriously. I'm like on day 3 of trying to figure out how to still get a build of FFmpeg with this friggin libfdk_aac installed.

I have probably downloaded like 12 pieces of software, sifted through countless Google searches finding answers to any error messages I have received, I probably would understand more if I knew particular nuances or just had a basic level of understanding of how software works. So quite a lot of trial and error & reading has led me to this point of frustration.

I'm going to figure this out if it friggin' kills me. :nutki: :balls2: /endrant

Now to go find some porn to alleviate the stress from this silly project :dick:

unpleased

FFmpeg is one of the most great software I have ever seen (:love:), it's even used by YouTube.
In fact, every time you upload something your video is

divided in chunks
distributed in the cluster
transcoded
joined together again
and lastly (finally :cheers:) showed to you

Given the wide & great community support

VLC is using it
Handbrake is essentially a GUI for it
Chrome/Chromium use it to support HTML5 streaming
and so so on

it can read quite every video formats/codecs users like to throw into a transcoder.

Do not bother you trying to compile libfdk_aac, you don't need it anymore :
since the third version the native AAC encoder has no longer been considered experimental.

Fraunhofer FDK AAC (Full title Fraunhofer FDK AAC Codec Library for Android) is an open-source[4] software library for encoding and decoding Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) format audio, developed by Fraunhofer IIS, and included as part of Android. It supports several Audio Object Types including MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 AAC LC, HE-AAC (AAC LC + SBR), HE-AACv2 (LC + SBR + PS) as well AAC-LD (low delay) and AAC-ELD (enhanced low delay) for real-time communication. The encoding library supports sample rates up to 96 kHz and up to eight channels (7.1 surround).[5]

The fdk library used by ffmpeg is the portable version maintained by mstorsjo [ [url=https://github.com/mstorsjo/fdk-aac]https://github.com/mstorsjo/fdk-aac ]
It was useful in a common transcoding practise when the native aac encoder was considered experimental.
The guide states that libfdk_aac produces higher quality audio then the aac encoder, well in reality it depends on the profile used and the tracks you are working on :

aac_lc (optimal for variable bitrates > 192kbps )
aac_he ( optimal for 50-80 constant kbps )
aac_he_v2 ( optimal for bitrate under 50 kbps )
Be aware that to gain optimal results you should set an optimal cutoff ! ::)

In the real world libfdkaac has some issues (one of the biggest is that the aac_he_v2 profile is not able to encode audio with 6+ channels).
So, in the real world, based on the output of ffprobe <file path=""> you should choose the right profile …
The advantage is that when you are able to use the high efficient profile, you will have a smaller output file.
A benchmark for the processor is not really useful here: your mileage may vary depending on your track.

For me, it's usage is not worth it, the native encoder is safe, robust and case-free (just use the -c:a aac flag and that's it).

To download prebuilt binaries :
Windows zeranoe builds: [https://ffmpeg.zeranoe.com/builds/]
macOS: [http://evermeet.cx/ffmpeg/]
Debian: (just use the backports repo if in stable) [https://backports.debian.org]
Ubuntu: [http://wiki.ubuntu-it.org/Repository/Backports]
You just have to be sure to install the 3.0 version (or an earlier one).

If you just wanna transcode your (peaceful) porno to mp4 h264/aac.
`ffmpeg -i -map 00 -map 00 -c:v libx264 -c:a aac -movflags +faststart

unpleased

If you really want to use the Fraunhofer encoder, you could have a more relaxed experience using [home/linux]brew
brew install ffmpeg –with-fdk-aac

chiwut

Thanks for the info

I abandoned my quest not too long after I posted my rant. I figured the incremental gain of compiling FFmpeg with that library was not worth the effort. Compiling is definitely a viable barrier to entry for noobs like me who don't really know how computer software really works haha.

So just happily converting my videos using the basic build. I suppose this detour in video editing/formatting was just a distraction from my earlier project of cataloging the collection.