Hi there, and thank you Fabio (and Vernon) for the great job you've been doing. I wish I could help Mac users.

By now I'm a trainee with a very short term mission. I have to set up a document management intranet system, handling videos. I'm moving from Flashvideo (the first video module I came accross) to Video because I don't get much support over there:
http://drupal.org/node/137203#comment-254666

Currently, I'm trying to use ffmpegX, which latest release is october 2, 2006. But it's not working for me. Probably outdated. I'm looking for devs elsewhere that could work on Mac OS X. Depending on the release used, one major issue at my stage will be which "bin" to use.

As an example, for Flashvideo, only mpeg2enc, in the /Library/Application\ Support/ffmpegX/ directory did "answer" the commands from the Flashvideo module (I got this thanks to its 'useful-for-debug' ffmpeg_data table) although it did not make any conversion, not even in the mpeg2 format when I chose it through the command line of the admin settings.
(have a look at my 'ffmeg_database table' screenshots in the post linked above)

Meanwhile the /Applications/ffmpegX.app/ package or some of its included components wouldn't "answer" the commands...

I tried the same "bin" paths with Video but nothing tells me why nothing is happening. Any hint (debug or other) would be appreciated for me or others to contribute this post.

As I really need this great "backend transcoding" to .flv file format feature, I'll try to make ffmpeg work for me and then letting everyone know about it. But I need some ffmpeg support for Mac OS X.

I would gladfully let you know more about the context. I use OS X v10.4.9 on an Intel Core Duo minimac. I don't have the Apple Dev's tools yet, but I could get it. Getting X11 to work would be harder.

Many thanks in advance,

Arsène

Comments

fax8’s picture

fax8 commented

Hi Arsène,

unfortunately, as I don't have any macs here, I can't help you a lot.
Please have a look at the drupal logs (watchdog) and search for video rendering lines.

You should find the command executed there. Try to launch the same command logged
from the command line interface. It should print something.. at least some error messages..

Maybe if you can post it here I can give you some advices.

tor’s picture

tor commented

Look at MacPorts http://www.macports.org/, download the basic ports system and build ffmpeg form there.

doc2@drupalfr.org’s picture

doc2@drupalfr.org commented

I'll keep ffmpeg away for the moment, focusing on other matters. But yet thank you very much for your support already, it'll certainly be useful sometime later, especially if I'm reconduced.

doc2@drupalfr.org’s picture

doc2@drupalfr.org commented

Reconduced! And FFMPEG X updated!!!

That should help us now, after 2 years waiting for it! (as of Feb 2008)

fax8’s picture

fax8 commented

good. do you have a guide for that we can link to?

doc2@drupalfr.org’s picture

doc2@drupalfr.org commented

Unfortunately, I haven't tried to build this new ffmpeg X yet. Therefore no guide to suggest. A server migration may give me some surprises. What's more, I've downgraded to my last 2007 stable version of the video.module, because I don't have time right now to test your new developments. Good luck with them anyways. You (all of you behind it) and your module rock!

If ever I try ffmpegX with the previous version and I get it working, I will talk about it. The problem is that I won't be able to release any official version of the video.module patched my way (the 2007 version) with a version number or so. No way to refer to it properly. Anyways, I hope this new version of FFMPEG X will be useful for your new developments. I'd be glad to test the new module when it'll get a bit more stable, just the way I did before.

Regards

hypertext200’s picture

hypertext200
he/him
Primary language Singhalese
Location New York City
commented
Status: Active » Fixed

Status: Fixed » Closed (fixed)

Automatically closed -- issue fixed for 2 weeks with no activity.

hgneng’s picture

hgneng commented

I would like to share my experience on using Video/FFMPEG on Mac OS X here:
1. I installed the software stack with MAMP.
2. I installed FFMPEG with `sudo port install ffmpeg`. I have tried FFMPEG X. It doesn't work on VIdeo module. I guess it's because the version is too old (seems it's a version released in 2004). I have also tried fink. It fail to install.
3. Video fail to detect ffmpeg at the first time. It caused by a linking error. I have to remove /Applications/MAMP/Library/lib to avoid some of the system libraries link to MAMP. I don't know why and don't know whether there is side effect on MAMP.

Cameron

michael.k’s picture

michael.k commented

Wow, D5? Is that for development? I don't think Video version 5.x is supported anymore. But why D5? What version of OS X are you using?

I highly suggest that you use Drupal 7 and the latest Video and Videojs modules. D7 is easier than ever to set up, and the latest Video module is quite different from those early versions and has many improvements. In other words, this Video module is really shaping up -- that is, version 7.x-2.x.

In case it helps, I use FFmpeg on Mac OS X 10.6.8 with MAMP PRO and a custom build of FFmpeg (based on an installation script I created). It's important to know that no pre-configured version of FFmpeg on any platform is likely to have what you need because of licensing restrictions that prevent it from being redistributable. So in order to get the right codecs for your project and a "non-redistributable" version of FFmpeg, you will probably have to compile it yourself. It's not a fun process by any means, but once that's done, you're golden.

Good luck!

hgneng’s picture

hgneng commented

Oh... Sorry. I should have mentioned that I am using D7. I just thought that the key issue of this thread is FFMPEG not Drupal. I didn't tested any function other than thumbnails. Thanks @michael.k for reminding me the codecs issue. And also thanks for let me know the installation script works on Mac (I have tried it on Linux but fail before).

michael.k’s picture

michael.k commented

A Linux script will have to be modified for Mac OS X, but once you get wget and git you're well on your way.

I highly recommend Homebrew for your Mac development environment, which will help for many of the dependencies you'll need:
http://mxcl.github.com/homebrew/