To Compile ffmpeg with MinGW

ffmpeg is an important component of many open-source projects, such as MPlayer and VLC. I am compiling ffmpeg so that I can use it to transcode multimedia files. This guide shows how to use MinGW to compile ffmpeg either statically or dynamically. Installation of MinGW is explained in this post. The example commands below are meant to be entered into an MSYS window (not Command Prompt). I downloaded the FFmpeg source and unpacked it.

Preparing External Libraries for FFMpeg

FFMpeg can be linked with external libraries to add features to FFmpeg. I am adding most features to FFMpeg by compiling additional libraries. Most of these libraries are also covered in my posts on compiling MPlayer and Mencoder.

1. Compression Libraries: Zlib and bzLib
   
   Get the zlib source (zlib127.zip), unzip and compile it:
   
   

   unzip zlib127.zip
   cd zlib-1.2.7/
   make -f win32/Makefile.gcc
   cp -iv zlib1.dll /mingw/bin
   cp -iv zconf.h zlib.h /mingw/include
   cp -iv libz.a /mingw/lib
   cp -iv libz.dll.a /mingw/lib

   
   
   

   Optionally, get bzip2 source from bzip.org and compile it like this:

   
   

   tar xzvf bzip2-1.0.6.tar.gz
   cd bzip2-1.0.6
   make
   cp bzlib.h /mingw/include/
   cp libbz2.a /mingw/lib

   
   
   
2. libgsm
   
   Download gsm-1.0.13.tar.bz2, unpack and compile it as follows:
   
   

   tar xzvf gsm-1.0.13.tar.bz2
   cd gsm-1.0-pl13/
   make

   
   

   Just ignore the compile errors with fchmod and fchown when trying to build applications. Copy the header and static library to /mingw:

   
   

   mkdir /mingw/include/gsm
   cp inc/gsm.h /mingw/include/gsm
   cp lib/libgsm.a /mingw/lib

   
   
   
3. LAME is an excellent MP3 encoder. LAME makes use of the nasm assembler if available. So download yasm and save it as /mingw/bin/nasm.exe. Then, download the LAME source from lame.sf.net and compile it like this.
   
   

   ./configure --prefix=/mingw --enable-expopt=full
   
   make
   
   make install

   
   
   
4. OGG, Vorbis, Speex and Theora
   

   The source code for these libraries can be obtained from xiph.org. Compile them each like this:

   
   

   ./configure --prefix=/mingw
   make
   make install

   
   

   As for speex, use the version 1.2rc1 or later.

   
   
   
5. FAAC
   

   FAAC is an MPEG-4 AAC audio encoder. Get the source (faac-1.28.tar.gz) and unpack the package. Then, edit Makefile.am:
   

   SUBDIRS = include libfaac

   
   

   Also, edit the line beginning with AC_OUTPUT in the file configure.in:
   

   AC_OUTPUT(libfaac/Makefile include/Makefile Makefile)

   
   

   Then, compile FAAC like this
   

   sh bootstrap
   ./configure --prefix=/mingw
   make
   make install

   
   
   
6. XviD is a popular video encoder used to create movie files distributed in p2p networks. Xvid can use yasm assembler to build optimized binaries if found (/mingw/bin/yasm.exe). Get the XviD source from xvid.org and compile as follows:
   
   

   tar xzvf xvidcore-1.3.2.tar.gz
   cd xvidcore/build/generic
   ./configure --prefix=/mingw
   make
   make install

   
   
   

   If you encounter "unrecognized command-line option -mno-cygwin" errors, open the file platform.inc in a text editor and delete "-mno-cygwin". Then, run make and make install again.

   
   
   

   Copy the import library for xvidcore.dll:

   
   

   cp -iv \=build/xvidcore.dll.a /mingw/lib/libxvidcore.a

   
   
   
7. x264 is yet another good video encoder. x264 requires YASM to build an optimized executable. So get yasm and save it as /mingw/bin/yasm.exe. Then, compile x264 like this:
   
   

   configure --prefix=/mingw --enable-win32thread --extra-cflags="-DX264_VERSION=20100422"
   
   make
   
   make install
   
   cp -iv x264.h x264_config.h /mingw/include
   
   cp -iv libx264.a /mingw/lib
   
   cp -iv x264.pc /mingw/lib/pkgconfig

   
   
   
8. Compile librtmp as shown in this post.
   
   

Building FFMpeg Statically

You need pr.exe from MYS coreutils package (coreutils-5.97-3-msys-1.0.13-ext.tar.lzma). I configured ffmpeg with the following command:

CPPFLAGS='-DHAVE_INT32_T' ./configure --prefix=/mingw --enable-gpl --enable-nonfree --enable-postproc --enable-avfilter --enable-w32threads --enable-runtime-cpudetect --enable-memalign-hack --enable-bzlib --enable-libfaac --enable-libgsm --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-libx264 --enable-libxvid --enable-zlib --disable-debug

-DHAVE_INT32_T is used to allow static FAAC to be linked. Then, I began compilation and installation:

make
make install

Compiling FFmpeg Dynamically

Some Windows applications, such as Audacity, uses FFmpeg libraries when available. If you want to compile FFmpeg dynamically, append --enable-shared --disable-static to the ./configure command for FFmpeg.

./configure --prefix=/mingw --enable-gpl --enable-nonfree --enable-postproc --enable-avfilter --enable-w32threads --enable-runtime-cpudetect --enable-memalign-hack --enable-bzlib --enable-libfaac --enable-libgsm --enable-libmp3lame --enable-librtmp --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-libx264 --enable-libxvid --enable-zlib --enable-shared --disable-static --disable-debug

If you get "int32_t" error when compiling libfaac.o, open /mingw/include/faac.h and insert the following line:

#include <stdint.h>

When I built mplayer with --enable-static and --disable-ffmpeg_a options to force linking with shared ffmpeg libraries, I had to rename ffmpeg libraries so their names end in *.a.

cd /mingw/lib
cp -iv libavcodec.dll.a libavcodec.a
cp -iv libavformat.dll.a libavformat.a
cp -iv libavutil.dll.a libavutil.a
cp -iv libpostproc.dll.a libpostproc.a
cp -iv libswscale.dll.a libswscale.a