How to Install FFMPEG 3.1.3 in Ubuntu 16.04 via PPA

The popular FFmpeg multimedia library has reached the 3.1.3 release. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 16.04 / 14.04 via PPA.

FFmpeg 3.1 features:

• DXVA2-accelerated HEVC Main10 decoding for Windows
• a variety of new filters
• MediaCodec H.264 decoding
• new muxers/demuxers
• VA-API accelerated H.264/HEVC/MJPEG encoding
• an OpenMAX IL encoder with support for the Raspberry Pi
• OpenEXR other improvements.

Install FFmpeg 3.1.3 via PPA:

[ac-box style=”tip”]Some applications, e.g., DVDStyler and LiVEs, in your system may still use the old FFmpeg libraries. You need to rebuild them yourself to make the new FFmpeg libraries take place[/ac-box]

J Fernyhough is maintaining a PPA with FFmpeg 3.1.3 packages for Ubuntu 14.04 and Ubuntu 16.04.

1. Open terminal and run command to add PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jonathonf/ffmpeg-3

2. To upgrade from a previous release, just launch Software Updater and upgrade the software libraries after checking for updates.

Or run the commands below in terminal:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install ffmpeg libav-tools x264 x265

After installation, run ffmpeg in terminal to get the version info and build details.

How to restore:

To restore and downgrade FFmpeg to the stock version in Ubuntu 16.04, purge the ppa via ppa-purge:

sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:jonathonf/ffmpeg-3