FFMPEG on MacOS

FFMPEG can run on MacOS with AVFoundation software provided in the operating system.

Installation

Homebrew

Installing FFMPEG via homebrew is the easiest way if you have administrator access. #. Install Homebrew

you@yourMac:~$ /usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

Note

You may need to reboot after installation finishes.

  1. Install FFMPEG

    you@yourMac:~$ brew install ffmpeg

Changes to controller.conf

[camera]
type = ffmpeg
camera_device = "YourCameraDeviceOrNumber"
mic_device = "YourMicDeviceOrNumber"

[ffmpeg]
ffmpeg_location = /usr/local/bin/ffmpeg
audio_input_format = avfoundation
video_input_format = avfoundation

Your device id’s can be gotten from running

you@yourMac:~$ ffmpeg -f avfoundation -list_devices true -i ""

You’ll get an output similar to

[AVFoundation input device @ 0x7ff8e171e580] AVFoundation video devices:
[AVFoundation input device @ 0x7ff8e171e580] [0] FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)
[AVFoundation input device @ 0x7ff8e171e580] [1] Capture screen 0
[AVFoundation input device @ 0x7ff8e171e580] [2] Capture screen 1
[AVFoundation input device @ 0x7ff8e171e580] AVFoundation audio devices:
[AVFoundation input device @ 0x7ff8e171e580] [0] Built-in Microphone
[AVFoundation input device @ 0x7ff8e171e580] [1] Built-in Input

In my case I want to use the FaceTime HD Camera and the Built-in Microphone so I can choose the following:

  • video
    • "0"
    • "FaceTime"
    • "FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)"
    • "default"
  • audio
    • ":0"
    • ":Built-in Microphone"
    • ":default"
    • The colon (:) before every item is very important because that’s how AVFoundation differentiates between a camera and a microphone. If you don’t get any sound or have errors relating to audio in your console, check that you have a colon before the device in your conf file.

Note that I can’t use the first word of the device name because there’s another device that shares the same name (Built-in).

The name default means that it will pick the first item in the list "0".