🤚 Attention: Uninstall any existing versions of FFmpeg to avoid conflicts.

Create a folder to store the static build.

$ sudo mkdir -p /opt/ffmpeg

$ cd /opt/ffmpeg

Download the archive.

If using the master build:

$ sudo wget https://johnvansickle.com/ffmpeg/builds/ffmpeg-git-amd64-static.tar.xz

$ sudo wget https://johnvansickle.com/ffmpeg/builds/ffmpeg-git-amd64-static.tar.xz.md5

$ md5sum -c ffmpeg-git-amd64-static.tar.xz.md5

If using the release build:

$ sudo wget https://johnvansickle.com/ffmpeg/releases/ffmpeg-release-amd64-static.tar.xz

$ sudo wget https://johnvansickle.com/ffmpeg/releases/ffmpeg-release-amd64-static.tar.xz.md5

$ md5sum -c ffmpeg-release-amd64-static.tar.xz.md5

Verify that md5sum returns an OK message before proceeding with the installation.

Extract the static build from the archive.

$ sudo tar xvf ffmpeg*.xz

$ cd ffmpeg-*-static

$ ls

You will see something like this:

ffmpeg  ffprobe  GPLv3.txt  manpages  model  qt-faststart  readme.txt

Install the binaries globally.

$ sudo ln -s "${PWD}/ffmpeg" /usr/local/bin/

$ sudo ln -s "${PWD}/ffprobe" /usr/local/bin/

Go to your home folder and download a video file.

$ cd ~

$ wget https://archive.org/download/BigBuckBunny_124/Content/big_buck_bunny_720p_surround.mp4 -O origin.mp4

Convert it to streaming compatible version.

$ ffmpeg -i origin.mp4 -c copy -movflags +faststart streaming.mp4

Verify the resulting video with ffprobe:

$ ffprobe streaming.mp4

If you see output like this, FFmpeg is working properly.

Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'streaming.mp4':

Metadata:

    major_brand     : isom

    minor_version   : 512

    compatible_brands: isomiso2avc1mp41

    title           : Big Buck Bunny - https://archive.org/details/BigBuckBunny_124

    encoder         : Lavf58.49.100

    comment         : license:http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Duration: 00:09:56.50, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 829 kb/s

    Stream #0:0(und): Video: h264 (Constrained Baseline) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p, 640x360 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 697 kb/s, 24 fps, 24 tbr, 12288 tbn, 48 tbc (default)

    Metadata:

    handler_name    : VideoHandler

    Stream #0:1(und): Audio: aac (LC) (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 44100 Hz, stereo, fltp, 128 kb/s (default)

    Metadata:

    handler_name    : SoundHandler