Fix FFmpeg Errors: Libs/Files not Found not Working | Converted Videos not Playing

FFmpeg Issues during Downloading

I am a first-timer to FFmpeg. After I downloaded the file from the official site onto my Windows 10 PC, I totally had no clue on how to install and use it. There is no single instruction on the website. Then I searched for guides online and got promoted that I shall input some common lines on Command Prompt of my computer. But unluckily, I found no Bin path or no exe at all. So the downloaded file is useless for me.

Try the solution:

The initial download page of free software project is confusing. Some noobs will go to the first big button by mistake and only get an incorrect package. Since it is cross-platform, you should glide down and select the corresponding version according to your computer OS. For example, Windows user should click on the second button (Windows button) below the "Get the package" under "More downloading options" and hit "Windows Builds" that lead you to another page https://ffmpeg.zeranoe.com/builds/.

For own use of this program, please choose the right bit (32 or 64) according to your computer configuration. There are three linkings type: "Static" is exe for each program (ffmpeg.exe, ffprobe.exe) [Recommended]; "Shared" is dll for each library, and exe for each program and "Dev" containing h, lib and dll.a files is not commended for the use of video conversion, media playing, etc. As for version, you can choose between 20161221-54931fd and 3.2.2 currently. The former one is the nightly git builds contain more features that are usually stable and are the required version when submitting bugs; the latter is recommended for distributors, but cannot be used when submitting bugs.

FFmpeg Issues during Installing

Improper installation will cause unsuccessfully use of the program, so please make sure the following steps are executed:

1. Find the downloaded zip folder, extract it;
2. Select all files;
3. Build a new folder in Disk C (better having "FFmpeg"), paste all the files into the new folder. It is vital to prevent any problems in executing CMD commands for video conversion.

The installation seems daunting. You should be very cautious not to delete anything that is already in and not to spell incorrectly in command that will cause an error.

Missing FFmpeg dll

ffmpeg.dll is a decisive registry file in a computer. The absence of which may make some games or software not able to open, with the prompt "no ffmpeg.dll" is found. How to fix FFmpeg dll missing error?

Try the solution:
1. Extract the downloaded zip folder;
2. Copy "ffmpeg.dll" into the system directory, for example, C:\WINNT\System32 for 32-bit PC, and C:\Windows\SysWOW64 for 64-bit PC;
3. Start -> Menu -> Run -> Input regsvr32 ffmpeg.dll and enter.

FFmpeg Errors during or after Video Conversion:

There may be countless video conversion errors, and here we just take a classic ones as an example.

Some videos converted by FFmpeg are not working in HTML5:

swScaler: Unknown format is not supported as input pixel format
Cannot get resampling context

Solution: try ffmpeg -i your_input_filename.webm -qscale 0 your_outfile_name.mp4

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FFmpeg Errors during Compiling:

Case 1:
/usr/bin/ld: /home/fengxi/ffmpeg_build/lib//libavcodec.a(dds.o): undefined reference to symbol 'sqrtf(GLIBC_2.0)'
/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libm.so.6: error adding symbols: DSO missing from command line
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status

Solution: In general cases, these errors happen because of the lack of libraries. Please first confirm the lacked library based on the error report, and then add library via -i.

Case 2: No package 'libavformat' found
pkg-config --cflags libavformat libavcodec libswscale libavutil sdl
Package libavformat was not found in the pkg-config search path.
Perhaps you should add the directory containing `libavformat.pc' to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable

In order to make pkg-config get the information, the library provider is required to offer a .pc file which is placed in /usr/lib/pkconfig or /usr/local/lib/pkconfig generally. To let pkg-config find your .pc file, you should set the location to PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable. You'd better also try:
1. Check the version of the library.
2. Acquire the preprocessing parameters for compiling, such as macro definition and header file's locations.
3. Get a new linked parameter, such as locations, file names and so on of library and the dependent libraries.
4. Add the settings of the dependent libraries.