Home / ubuntu / Questions / 150906
Accepted
user784637
Asked: 2012-06-15 09:13:49 +0800 CST

How to install old version of ffmpeg?

  • 772

I'm having trouble with the current release of ffmpeg, it transcodes .mp3 to .wavs in a format that is unsupported by my client.

How can install this version?

ffmpeg version 0.7.3-4:0.7.3-0ubuntu0.11.10.1, Copyright (c) 2000-2011 the Libav developers
  built on Jan  4 2012 16:08:51 with gcc 4.6.1

EDIT

The problem I am trying to resolve is transcoding an .mp3 to .wav. Our client has an identification service that determines a song from the .wav. When I pass the .wav that ffmpeg has generated

exec ("ffmpeg -ss $start -t $duration -i $shellArgSongPath -f wav -ar 44100 somefile.wav");

I receive an "Audio format not supported"

My guess is that the default codec used to transcode from .mp3 to .wav has changed. Would anyone happen to know what that was in the previous version?

EDIT

(Reading database ... 31284 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace ffmpeg 4:0.7.3-0ubuntu0.11.10.1 (using ffmpeg_0.7.3-0ubuntu0.11.10.1_amd64.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement ffmpeg ...
Replaced by files in installed package libav-tools ...
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of ffmpeg:
 ffmpeg depends on libavcodec53 (<< 4:0.7.3-99) | libavcodec-extra-53 (<< 4:0.7.3.99); however:
  Version of libavcodec53 on system is 4:0.8.1-0ubuntu1.
  Package libavcodec-extra-53 is not installed.
 ffmpeg depends on libavdevice53 (<< 4:0.7.3-99) | libavdevice-extra-53 (<< 4:0.7.3.99); however:
  Version of libavdevice53 on system is 4:0.8.1-0ubuntu1.
  Package libavdevice-extra-53 is not installed.
 ffmpeg depends on libavfilter2 (<< 4:0.7.3-99) | libavfilter-extra-2 (<< 4:0.7.3.99); however:
  Version of libavfilter2 on system is 4:0.8.1-0ubuntu1.
  Package libavfilter-extra-2 is not installed.
 ffmpeg depends on libavformat53 (<< 4:0.7.3-99) | libavformat-extra-53 (<< 4:0.7.3.99); however:
  Version of libavformat53 on system is 4:0.8.1-0ubuntu1.
  Package libavformat-extra-53 is not installed.
 ffmpeg depends on libavutil51 (<< 4:0.7.3-99) | libavutil-extra-51 (<< 4:0.7.3.99); however:
  Version of libavutil51 on system is 4:0.8.1-0ubuntu1.
  Package libavutil-extra-51 is not installed.
 ffmpeg depends on libpostproc52 (<< 4:0.7.3-99) | libpostproc-extra-52 (<< 4:0.7.3.99); however:
  Version of libpostproc52 on system is 4:0.8.1-0ubuntu1.
  Package libpostproc-extra-52 is not installed.
 ffmpeg depends on libswscale2 (<< 4:0.7.3-99) | libswscale-extra-2 (<< 4:0.7.3.99); however:
  Version of libswscale2 on system is 4:0.8.1-0ubuntu1.
  Package libswscale-extra-2 is not installed.
 libav-tools (4:0.8.1-0ubuntu1) breaks ffmpeg (<< 4:0.8~) and is installed.
  Version of ffmpeg to be configured is 4:0.7.3-0ubuntu0.11.10.1.
dpkg: error processing ffmpeg (--install):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 ffmpeg

EDIT Output when I run ffmpeg command from the server that produces the well-formed .wav

ffmpeg version 0.7.3-4:0.7.3-0ubuntu0.11.10.1, Copyright (c) 2000-2011 the Libav developers
  built on Jan  4 2012 16:08:51 with gcc 4.6.1
  configuration: --extra-version='4:0.7.3-0ubuntu0.11.10.1' --arch=amd64 --prefix=/usr --enable-vdpau --enable-bzlib --enable-libgsm --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-pthreads --enable-zlib --enable-libvpx --enable-runtime-cpudetect --enable-vaapi --enable-gpl --enable-postproc --enable-swscale --enable-x11grab --enable-libdc1394 --enable-shared --disable-static
  libavutil    51.  7. 0 / 51.  7. 0
  libavcodec   53.  6. 0 / 53.  6. 0
  libavformat  53.  3. 0 / 53.  3. 0
  libavdevice  53.  0. 0 / 53.  0. 0
  libavfilter   2.  4. 0 /  2.  4. 0
  libswscale    2.  0. 0 /  2.  0. 0
  libpostproc  52.  0. 0 / 52.  0. 0
Hyper fast Audio and Video encoder
usage: ffmpeg [options] [[infile options] -i infile]... {[outfile options] outfile}...

Use -h to get full help or, even better, run 'man ffmpeg'

Output from when I run ffmpeg command from server that produces ill-formed .wav

ffmpeg version 0.8.1-4:0.8.1-0ubuntu1, Copyright (c) 2000-2011 the Libav developers
  built on Mar 22 2012 05:09:06 with gcc 4.6.3
This program is not developed anymore and is only provided for compatibility. Use avconv instead (see Changelog for the list of incompatible changes).
Hyper fast Audio and Video encoder
usage: ffmpeg [options] [[infile options] -i infile]... {[outfile options] outfile}...

Use -h to get full help or, even better, run 'man ffmpeg'
command-line

3 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    According to our commentstorm I'll assume that there is either a regression in libav or a bug in your application that is giving you the "Audio format not supported" message. You can try compiling ffmpeg (from the FFmpeg project, not libav). ffmpeg often works when avconv fails, in my experience. This will create a "local" build of ffmpeg, so it won't interfere with your ffmpeg/avconv from the repository:

    sudo apt-get install build-essential yasm
cd
wget -O ffmpeg.tar.gz "http://git.videolan.org/?p=ffmpeg.git;a=snapshot;h=HEAD;sf=tgz"
tar xzvf ffmpeg.tar.gz
cd ffmpeg-HEAD-*
./configure
make

    Now try ffmpeg. Note the ./ before ffmpeg, and this example assumes the input file is in your home directory. The output will be placed in your home directory:

    cd ~/ffmpeg-HEAD-*
./ffmpeg -i ~/input.mp3 ~/output.wav

    If this works you may consider actually replacing libav and installing ffmpeg: How To Compile FFmpeg and x264 on Ubuntu.

    • 2

  2. Browse through the package archive on http://www.packages.ubuntu.com/.
    I found the version you asked for in the Oneiric repisoties.

    Just download and install the .deb package and, if needed, its dependencies.

    • 1

  3. I had this same question because I wanted to downgrade from ffmpeg 4.2.2 to 3.4.6. Here is how I did it:

    Because of this answer, I learned about apt policy ffmpeg, so I ran it and saw:

    vagrant@vboxHomestead:~/Code/$ apt policy ffmpeg
ffmpeg:
  Installed: 7:4.2.2-0york0~18.04
  Candidate: 7:4.2.2-0york0~18.04
  Version table:
 *** 7:4.2.2-0york0~18.04 500
        500 http://ppa.launchpad.net/jonathonf/ffmpeg-4/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     7:3.4.6-0ubuntu0.18.04.1 500
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates/universe amd64 Packages
        500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security/universe amd64 Packages
     7:3.4.2-2 500
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/universe amd64 Packages

    I knew I wanted to downgrade to 7:3.4.6-0ubuntu0.18.04.1.

    https://www.linuxuprising.com/2019/02/how-to-downgrade-packages-to-specific.html was very helpful.

    So I ran sudo apt install ffmpeg=7:3.4.6-0ubuntu0.18.04.1.

    • 0