Stuck on an issue?

Lightrun Answers was designed to reduce the constant googling that comes with debugging 3rd party libraries. It collects links to all the places you might be looking at while hunting down a tough bug.

And, if you’re still stuck at the end, we’re happy to hop on a call to see how we can help out.

Nearly impossible to understand how to compile ffmpeg

See original GitHub issue

I have been trying for almost 4 days to compile ffmpeg, find a working version compatible with nwjs, following the tutorial but I am not capable of understanding how, what and where it has to be done.

The available documentation is very confusing; there’s mentions of ffmpegsumo even though Chrome stopped using the external DLL making useless any related instructions, in “Build it yourself” I cannot understand where I have to open the indicated partial location, I cannot find it in the current repository and the external possible locations contain code that is different than the one that should be changed (perhaps this is a case of outdated details), the suggested “short directions” make no sense, and then it mentions patching the ffmepg repo which makes me think that I also need to do something in it, again making no sense.

In the end I am completely clueless on how I can get a simple ffmpeg.dll that is capable of playing MP4 format.

I appreciate in advance if anyone tries to share an already compiled ffmpeg.dll with MP4 playback capabilities, but the problem will return when nwjs needs to be updated so ideally the best solution would be to learn how to do it on my own.

Would it be possible to create an updated, clear and easy tutorial containing all the necessary steps to achieve the desired result? Or maybe provide a routine/script/batch which makes this task simpler, a guide, etc.? Anything to improve the current state of this problem that is preventing the continuation of development under NWJS.