FFmpeg for Homebridge

This project provides static FFmpeg binaries for multiple platforms and architectures for use with Homebridge.

Specifically, we provide:

• Audio support using libfdk-aac.
• Hardware-accelerated encoding support on Intel platforms using h264_qsv (Windows only).
• Hardware-accelerated encoding support on Raspberry Pi 4+ using h264_v4l2m2m.
• Hardware-accelerated encoding support on Apple platforms using videotoolbox.

Supported Platforms

OS Supported Architectures FreeBSD x86_64 Linux x86_64, armv7l, aarch64 macOS 15.0 (Sequoia) or newer x86_64, arm64 (Apple Silicon) Raspberry Pi 4 (Raspbian) armv7l, aarch64 Windows 10 or newer x86_64

[!NOTE]

• Intel Quick Sync Video is only supported on Windows. There are multiple known issues with libva that make it incompatible with static builds of FFmpeg. If you need QSV on Linux, we recommend looking at the Jellyfin FFmpeg distribution for distribution-specific releases. We hope to support QSV on Linux once these issues are addressed.
• Raspberry Pi 5 is currently unsupported. There are multiple known issues with FFmpeg and Raspberry Pi 5 that will hopefully be addressed by the respective teams in the future.
• Currently (October 2024), FFmpeg v7.1 appears to be somewhat broken for HEVC and H.264 decoding in some scenarios. We hope to support future FFmpeg LTS releases as they stabilize and mature.

Raspbian or armv7/armv8-based Linux environments:

sudo curl -Lf# https://github.com/homebridge/ffmpeg-for-homebridge/releases/latest/download/ffmpeg-alpine-arm32v7.tar.gz | sudo tar xzf - -C / --no-same-owner

x64 or arm64 Linux:

sudo curl -Lf# https://github.com/homebridge/ffmpeg-for-homebridge/releases/latest/download/ffmpeg-alpine-$(uname -m).tar.gz | sudo tar xzf - -C / --no-same-owner

Intel or Apple Silicon macOS:

sudo curl -Lf# https://github.com/homebridge/ffmpeg-for-homebridge/releases/latest/download/ffmpeg-darwin-$(uname -m).tar.gz | sudo tar xzfm - -C / --no-same-owner

Windows:

Download the ffmpeg.exe file from the releases page.

Build Flags

FFmpeg is built with the following configuration options:

    --disable-debug
    --disable-ffnvcodec
    --disable-shared
    --enable-amf                         # x86_64 Linux only
    --enable-gpl
    --enable-hardcoded-tables
    --enable-libaom                      # x86_64 Linux only
    --enable-libdav1d
    --enable-libfdk-aac
    --enable-libmp3lame
    --enable-libopencore_amrnb
    --enable-libopencore_amrwb
    --enable-libopus
    --enable-libspeex
    --enable-libsrt
    --enable-libsvtav1
    --enable-libtheora
    --enable-libvidstab
    --enable-libvorbis
    --enable-libvpl                      # Windows only
    --enable-libvpx                      # not available on arm32v7 Linux
    --enable-libwebp
    --enable-libx264
    --enable-libx265                     # not available on arm32v7 Linux
    --enable-libxvid
    --enable-libzimg
    --enable-lv2
    --enable-nonfree
    --enable-openssl
    --enable-pthreads
    --enable-static
    --enable-version3
    --enable-videotoolbox                # macOS only

Issues

Issues related to Homebridge or any Homebridge-related camera plugins should be raised on the corresponding project page, Discord, or community support forums.

Issues strictly related to the compatibility or installation of the resulting binary may be raised here.

Plugin Dependency

This section is for Homebridge plugin developers only, if you need to install FFmpeg see the instructions above.

You can optionally include this package as a dependency in your Homebridge camera plugins. This package will automatically download and install the correct FFmpeg binary to your user’s Homebridge installation when they install your plugin, as long as they are on one of the supported platforms listed above.

npm install --unsafe-perm --save ffmpeg-for-homebridge

// .js
var pathToFfmpeg = require("ffmpeg-for-homebridge");

// .ts
import pathToFfmpeg from "ffmpeg-for-homebridge";

// fallback to system FFmpeg (replace this with your own ffmpeg spawn command)
child_process.spawn(pathToFfmpeg || "ffmpeg", []);

If a supported version of FFmpeg is unavailable for the user’s platform, or this package failed to download the FFmpeg binary, the package will return undefined, you should check for this and and try and use FFmpeg from the user’s PATH instead.

You will need to update your plugin’s README installation command to include the --unsafe-perm flag. For example:

# example 
sudo npm install -g --unsafe-perm homebridge-fake-camera-plugin

Credits

• FreeBSD build script: hjdhjd/build-ffmpeg
• Linux and macOS build script: markus-perl/ffmpeg-build-script
• Windows build script: rdp/ffmpeg-windows-build-helpers