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Windows

Lisa Melton edited this page Jul 5, 2024 · 4 revisions

Installing on Windows

Warning

Avoid installing within virtual machines such as the Windows Subsystem for Linux since access to hardware video encoders may not be allowed, severely impacting performance.

See the "Installation" section of the "README" document for installing Ruby and the other-transcode.rb tool.

The ffprobe.exe, ffmpeg.exe, mkvpropedit.exe and mpv.exe programs must be installed manually on Windows if a package manager is not available.

On Window 10:

  1. Download a statically linked, stable version of FFmpeg here:

    https://ffmpeg.org/download.html

    Do not download a "shared" version. The static version will include both the ffprobe.exe and ffmpeg.exe programs within a single .zip file.

  2. Download a portable version of MKVToolNix here:

    https://www.fosshub.com/MKVToolNix.html

    Do not download the installer. The portable version will include the mkvpropedit.exe program within a .7z file. The 7-Zip program is needed to decompress that archive. Download and install it too, if necessary.

  3. Download the mpv program here:

    https://sourceforge.net/projects/mpv-player-windows/files/

  4. Create a C:\bin directory.1

  5. Add that C:\bin directory to "Path" in the system environment variables:

    1. Open "Settings" from the "Start" menu.

    2. Search for "Edit the system environment variables" and select the result.

    3. Click on the "Environment Variables..." button in the "Sytem Properties" dialog which appears.

    4. Select "Path" from the list in the "Environment Variables" dialog which appears.

    5. Click on the "Edit" button just below that list.

    6. Click on the "New" button in the "Edit environment variable" dialog which appears.

    7. Add C:\bin and click the "OK" button to confirm.

    8. Click the "OK" button of the "Environment Variables" dialog.

    9. Click the "OK" button of the "System Properties" dialog.

    10. Close the "Settings" window.

    11. Close any open PowerShell and cmd.exe windows.

  6. Extract the ffprobe.exe, ffmpeg.exe, mkvpropedit.exe and mpv.exe programs from their various archives.

  7. Move all these programs into the C:\bin directory.

  8. Open a new PowerShell window and make certain that each program runs from the command line without a path prefix:

    ffprobe -version
    ffmpeg -version
    mkvpropedit --version
    mpv --version
    

    Note the slight difference in the spelling of those options.


  1. The C:\bin directory name is completely arbitrary and changeable. But it's best if the name doesn't contain spaces or other special characters.
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