How to Install FFmpeg on Fedora 36 Linux

FFmpeg is the leading free, open-source multimedia framework, able to decode, encode, transcode, mux, demux, stream, filter, and play nearly all multimedia files that have been created on any platform. FFmpeg compiles and runs on Linux, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, BSD systems, and Solaris.

The following tutorial will teach you how to install FFmpeg on Fedora 36 Linux using the command line terminal with the default Fedora 36 repository.

Update Fedora

First, update your system to avoid any conflicts when installing the package.

sudo dnf upgrade --refresh

Install FFmpeg

As explained at the start of the tutorial, FFmpeg is present on Fedora’s default repository and is often up-to-date, given Fedora focuses on upstream package releases, making installing the latest version very easy.

Using the following command, install FFmpeg.

sudo dnf install ffmpeg-free -y

For the development packages, use the following command.

sudo dnf install ffmpeg-free-devel -y

Optionally, verify the installation with the following terminal command.

ffmpeg -version

If you want to see which FFmpeg’s decoders and encoders are available, type the following commands.

FFmpeg encoders:

ffmpeg -encoders

FFmpeg decoders:

ffmpeg -decoders

FFmpeg Basic Commands

Below are some basic commands for using FFmpeg. I would recommend visiting the official documentation to see a complete list of examples, as it is pretty extensive.

The primary command usage syntax for FFmpeg is below as an example.

ffmpeg [global_options] {[input_file_options] -i input_url} …{[output_file_options] output_url} …

Note that you will need to use these commands on each new file. There is no saving technique to date.

FFmpeg Conversion Example

To convert audio and video files with FFmpeg, you do not need to specify the input and output formats in your command. Instead, the input file format is auto-detected, and the output is given an output formulated from the file extension.

Convert a video file from mp4 to WebM.

ffmpeg -i existingfile.mp4 newfile.webm

Alternatively, it can also include more output files than just 1.

ffmpeg -i existingfile.wav newfile.mp3 newfile.ogg

Remember to check the list of supported formats using the following command:

ffmpeg -formats

FFmpeg Extract Audio from Video Example

If you want to extract the audio from a video file, this is done with the “-vn” input.

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -vn audio.mp3

Note that this will convert the audio to the current bit rate of the original video file.

If you want to specify a new rate, enter the following example command.

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -vn -ab 128k audio.mp3

Some examples of the most common bit rates are 96k, 128k, 192k, 256k, and 320k.

Comments and Conclusion

FFmpeg is an excellent multimedia software, the list is vast of what you can do with the software, and we only touched on a few choices out of dozens. Overall, this is a simple, lightweight program that works. We didn’t have an issue converting our files in our testing, which was done quickly and efficiently.

To learn more about what FFmpeg can do, visiting their documentation page will help you with your goals.