I came to know it the hard way, that installing a development library is just the beginning. This answer is to help newbies install the latest development libraries of FFmpeg and to WORK with them. See Who can tell me the difference and relation between ffmpeg, libav, and avconv?

You should be aware that the so-called 'ffmpeg' from the repository is not actually from FFmpeg, but from a fork called libav. If you want to perform a local installation then follow the current version of the compile guide. See this old version of the previously mentioned guide that does all of that, but be aware that it is outdated and at the very least you may have to add -extra-libs=-ldl to your ffmpeg configure line. If you want to perform a system installation that replaces the ffmpeg or libav-tools package and/or libraries then you can simply remove the existing packages, then compile ffmpeg, then install to system with checkinstall or some other method. I am trying to delete the older version ENTIRELY and again install the new libraries from source. The major version is present in the package name, such as libavcodec53. How can I find the version of the libraries that are already installed on my system? If you are compiling many programs, or need several more recent packages than what is provided, then Ubuntu may not be the most efficient distro for you in the long run. This guide performs a local installation, so it will not interfere with repository packages or system files, but if you are compiling something that depends on the new libraries you may have to tell it where your new ffmpeg libraries are located. You can compile and install your own recent version of ffmpeg and its libraries by following a step-by-step guide: Compile FFmpeg on Ubuntu, Debian, or Mint. This means that packages are often not kept up-to-date with active upstream sources. Once an Ubuntu release has been completed and published, updates for it are only released under certain circumstances, and must follow a special procedure called a 'stable release update' or SRU. Why does the Synaptic Package Manager not show the latest versions?įrom Ubuntu Wiki – Stable Release Updates:

Installing ffmpeg ubuntu