This project builds an image that provides a complete self-contained library of the very best open-source audio, video, and text encoders, decoders and convertors using an "all batteries included" approach. This means that you can do just about anything these applications will let you because all libraries are compiled into the binary.
From basic MPEG video to the latest HEVC and VP9 standards, from basic GSM audio to advanced Vorbis, AAC and lossless WAV compression (with MP3 right in the middle!) this should be everything you need to get your multimedia encoded or converted to a format you wish.
I'll leave you to research and master all the command-line options available (especially for FFMPEG which has a huge range of options - click here to learn more.
allav is pronounced "orl-ay-vee"
Currently, the two installed applications are:
- FFMPEG v4.3.1 - powerful program that can convert just about any media file to just about any other format!
- LAME v3.100 - popular MP3 encoder to create the very best MP3s.
Both applications are compiled from source code, so a first-run of the Dockerfile will take a few minutes while all this happens. I chose the Ubuntu v20.04 Linux image as it has the all the needed libraries in apt, and compatible with the source libraries and compilers used.
To pull and build the image using Docker (as it is in Docker Hub):
docker pull nicklansley/allav:latest
Otherwise, you will need to build it by opening a terminal window in the root of this repository and running this command:
docker build -t allav .
The build will take a while because a serious amount of compiling of source code takes place, especially for FFMPEG. Pulling a ready-made image from Docker Hub is there for a reason...!
UPDATE: If compilation_build step 6/17 throws an error saying it cannot update from the apt repositories, you are likely to need to clean out your docker installation build cache. To do this, use the command:
docker builder prune
You also may need to remove your cache of docker images. Here's the command to delete all images which do not have running containers linked to them. Nnot all are deleted - especially if you have Kubernetes turned on, as this has containers that support Kubernetes running all the time. Also: Ignore the backslash before the $ sign if you see one:
docker rmi --force $( docker images -q )
Using 'docker run' you attach a volume of any name to a host directory where your media file is stored and then run either FFMPEG or LAME on the file in the attached volume name.
In the examples below, a directory called '/av' is created within the container, which maps to the current directory on your host computer (in this case I am using Windows Powershell and ${PWD} is a variable describing the current working directory). You then tell FFMPEG or LAME where the input file is and where the output will be saved by using the file path in the format '/av/myfile'.
If you have pulled the docker image instead of building from this repo, use "nicklansley/allav" rather than just "allav" in these comnand line examples.
Take a look at these examples (you are welcome to test with the video file 'nicklansley-allav-testfile.mp4' included in this repository):
1 > Use FFMPEG to extract the audio from the video file into a WAV file (search for LAME documentation with its comprehensive MP3 encoding capabilities):
docker run -v C:\Users\nick\Downloads:/av/ allav ffmpeg -i /av/nicklansley-allav-testfile.mp4 /av/audiofromvideo.wav
2 > Use LAME to convert the WAV file to MP3 format:
docker run -v C:\Users\nick\Downloads:/av/ allav lame -h -V 0 /av/audiofromvideo.wav /av/audiofromvideo.mp3
3 > Here I use FFMPEG to convert an MP4 file in my Windows Downloads folder to Windows WMV format:
docker run -v C:\Users\nick\Downloads:/av/ allav ffmpeg -i /av/nicklansley-allav-testfile.mp4 /av/nicklansley-allav-testfile.wmv
4 > Here I use FFMPEG to extract image frames from the video file at 1 second intervals (in terms of file realtime playback) and save them as incremental PNG image files:
docker run -v C:\Users\nick\Downloads:/av/ allav ffmpeg -i /av/nicklansley-allav-testfile.mp4 -r 1 -f image2 image-%2d.png
5 > Here I use FFMPEG to convert an MP4 file in my Windows Downloads folder to the new AOMedia Video 1 (AV1) format:
docker run -v C:\Users\nick\Downloads:/av/ allav ffmpeg -i /av/nicklansley-allav-testfile.mp4 -c:v libaom-av1 -crf 30 -b:v 0 -strict experimental av1_test.mkv
6 > Here I use FFMPEG to build an MP4 video from an M3U8 playlist file (at a much faster speed than realtime playback!). Note the use of the '-protocol_whitelist' parameter before the -i input file. M3U8 files will have web links and by default, http and https source file locations are not whitelisted:
docker run -v C:\Users\nick\Downloads:/av/ allav ffmpeg -protocol_whitelist file,http,https,tcp,tls -i /av/playlist.m3u8 -c copy -bsf:a aac_adtstoasc /av/output.mp4
7 > This example converts a video file to playback successfully when copied directly (or FTP'd) to an SD card in a BlackMagic Design HyperDeck Studio Mini with it set to Record "Codec: H.264 Low" and "Audio Channels: 2 Channels (AAC)". This enables the creation of a playlist of many video files because each file plays at between 5 and 9 Mbps so uses much less disk space than ProRes and DNxHD/HX formats, and allows the use of slower SD cards.
docker run -v C:\Users\nick\Downloads:/av/ allav ffmpeg -i /av/nicklansley-allav-testfile.mp4 -c:v libx264 -profile:v main -preset slow -video_track_timescale 60 -crf 22 -c:a libfdk_aac -q:a 192 -ar 48000 -filter:v fps=60,scale="1920:1080" "HyperDeckMiniCompatibleFile.mp4"
As well as the standard libraries for video, audio and image that is native to FFMPEG, the following external libraries have been compiled into the version used in this image. For more details - and examples of use - for each of the codecs here.
| libfdk-aac | AAC audio encoder (not enabled by default due to GPL licensing reasons but uncomment highlighted lines in the Dockerfile to include this library in your own Docker image). See the AAC Audio Encoding Guide for more information and usage examples. | |
| libaom-av1 | The new AV1 open source advanced compression format from Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) - see libaom AV1 for more information and usage examples. Note that this codec is slow - if you wish to use AV1, regular running of this Dockerfile (monthly?) is essential to pick up the latest improvements to performance in the underlying libaom-dev library. | |
| libfreetype | Library to take a video file or image and render text on it - example in this StackOverflow answer | |
| libmp3lame | MP3 audio encoder. The guide to using the MP3 Lame library in FFMPEG is here: https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Encode/MP3 | |
| libopus | Opus audio decoder and encoder designed for interactive speech and audio transmission over the Internet. It is designed by the IETF Codec Working Group and incorporates technology from Skype's SILK codec and Xiph.Org's CELT codec. | |
| libtheora | Theora, the free and open video compression format from the Xiph.org Foundation | |
| libvorbis | Ogg Vorbis is a fully open, non-proprietary, patent-and-royalty-free, general-purpose compressed audio format for mid to high quality (8kHz-48.0kHz, 16+ bit, polyphonic) audio and music at fixed and variable bitrates from 16 to 128 kbps/channel. See https://xiph.org/vorbis/ for more information | |
| libvpx | VP8/VP9 video encoder/decoder. See the VP9 Video Encoding Guide for more information and usage examples. | |
| libwavpack | Lossless audio compression of WAV files. From Wikipedia: "avPack compression (.WV files) can compress (and restore) 8-, 16-, 24-, and 32-bit fixed-point, and 32-bit floating point audio files in the .WAV file format. It also supports surround sound streams and high frequency sampling rates. Like other lossless compression schemes, the data reduction rate varies with the source, but it is generally between 30% and 70% for typical popular music and somewhat better than that for classical music and other sources with greater dynamic range" | |
| libx264 | H.264 video encoder. See the H.264 Encoding Guide for more information and usage examples. | |
| libx265 | >H.265/HEVC video encoder. See the H.265 Encoding Guide for more information and usage examples. | |
| libgsm | From https://launchpad.net/libgsm: "an implementation of the European GSM 06.10 provisional standard for full-rate speech transcoding, prI-ETS 300 036, which uses RPE/LTP (residual pulse excitation/long term prediction) coding at 13 kbit/s." | |
| libopencore-amrnb | Adaptive Multi Rate Narrowband (AMR-NB) speech codec | |
| libopencore-amrwb | Adaptive Multi Rate Narrowband (AMR-WB) speech codec | |
| libtwolame | TwoLAME is an optimised MPEG Audio Layer 2 (MP2) encoder based on tooLAME by Mike Cheng, which in turn is based upon the ISO dist10 code and portions of LAME. | |
| libvo-amrwbenc | An encoder implementation of the Adaptive Multi Rate Wideband (AMR-WB) audio codec. The library is based on a codec implementation by VisualOn as part of the Stagefright framework from the Google Android project. | |
| libxvid | Xvid is an implementation of an MPEG-4 video codec | |
| openssl (for M3U8) | OpenSSL has been added to the compilation for creating audio or video files from M3U8 playlist files which can use https:// protocol. See example above for use of M3U8 and similar playlist files. |