How To Install FFmpeg on Linux Mint 21

In this tutorial, we will show you how to install FFmpeg on Linux Mint 21. For those of you who didn’t know, FFmpeg is a very popular software project, which is a collection of programs and libraries that are used to handle the audio and video file conversion, and streams, as well as record other multimedia files. With its ability to transcode almost all media files created on different platforms, it’s no wonder why this program has become so popular among those looking for versatility in their video editing app.

This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you the step-by-step installation of FFmpeg on Linux Mint 21 (Vanessa).

Prerequisites

• A server running one of the following operating systems: Linux Mint 21 (Vanessa).
• It’s recommended that you use a fresh OS install to prevent any potential issues.
• SSH access to the server (or just open Terminal if you’re on a desktop).
• A non-root sudo user or access to the root user. We recommend acting as a non-root sudo user, however, as you can harm your system if you’re not careful when acting as the root.

Install FFmpeg on Linux Mint 21 Vanessa

Step 1. Before running the tutorial below, it’s important to make sure your system is up to date by running the following apt commands in the terminal:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install software-properties-common apt-transport-https wget ca-certificates gnupg2

Step 2. Installing FFmpeg on Linux Mint 21.

By default, FFmpeg is not available on the Linux Mint 21 base repository. Now we add the FFmpeg repository to your system using the following command:

echo 'deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/rob-savoury.gpg] https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/savoury1/ffmpeg5/ubuntu jammy main' | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ffmpeg-5-rob-savoury.list

Next, import the GPG key:

sudo gpg --no-default-keyring --keyring /usr/share/keyrings/rob-savoury.gpg --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys E996735927E427A733BB653E374C7797FB006459

Now start by updating the packages list and install FFmpeg by using the command below:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install ffmpeg

Confirm the installation and check the FFmpeg version using the below command:

ffmpeg -version

Step 3. Basic FFmpeg Examples.

I would recommend visiting the official documentation to see a complete list of examples, as it is pretty extensive.

To check the media file information run the following command:

ffmpeg -i file-name.mp3

To convert an audio .amr file to .mp3 run the following command:

ffmpeg -i file-name1.amr file-name2.mp3

To convert video files like to convert .mp4 file to avi run below command:

ffmpeg -i input-video.mp4 output-video.mkv

Congratulations! You have successfully installed FFmpeg. Thanks for using this tutorial for installing the latest version of FFmpeg on the Linux Mint system. For additional help or useful information, we recommend you check the official FFmpeg website.