How to use x264 encoder on AMS on version 2.5.1 and above?

[Mohit-3196]

How can I configure AMS to use the x264 encoder on version 2.5.1 and above?

[yashtandon113]

AMS uses the libopenh264 encoder by default starting with v2.5.1. Prior to v2.5.1, the default encoder was libx264. Please follow the steps below to utilise the x264 encoder in subsequent versions.

1. Get the FFMPEG jar file.

• Download the file for version 2.5.1 and 2.5.3 from here.

• Download the jar file for version 2.6.0 and higher from here.

2. Now, copy the jar file to your AMS and place it in the /usr/local/antmedia/plugins folder, and grant the antmedia user access to the file.

   sudo chown -R antmedia:antmedia /usr/local/antmedia/plugins

3. After copying the file, add the property listed below to the'red5-web.properties' file in the '/usr/local/antmedia/webapps/App-Name/WEB-INF' folder.

   settings.encoding.encoderName=libx264

   Please restart the server after making the modifications.

4. After publishing the stream, you should see the following logs.

2023-05-10 23:47:50,243 [vert.x-worker-thread-24] INFO i.a.e.adaptive.video.H264Encoder - encoder name: libx264 for stream:test

[muratugureminoglu]

Don't forget to add ABR (to see libx264 in the log file.) :)

[mekya]

ffmpeg gpl builds are also available in the maven repositories.
https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.bytedeco/ffmpeg

[muratugureminoglu]

Here is a script to convert libopenh264 to libx264

#!/bin/bash
#
# Change libopenh264 to libx264 for all apps
#

v25="https://antmedia.io/libx264/ffmpeg-linux-x86_64-gpl.jar"
v26="https://antmedia.io/libx264/ffmpeg-5.1.2-1.5.8-linux-x86_64-gpl.jar"
PLUGIN_DIR="/usr/local/antmedia/plugins"
AMS_BASE="/usr/local/antmedia/"

VERSION=$(unzip -p $AMS_BASE/ant-media-server.jar | grep -a "Implementation-Version"|cut -d' ' -f2 | tr -d '\r')


if [ "$(printf '%s\n' "2.6" "$VERSION" | sort -V | head -n1)" = "2.6" ]; then
	wget $v26 -P $PLUGIN_DIR
else
	wget $v25 -P $PLUGIN_DIR
fi

chown -R antmedia.antmedia /usr/local/antmedia/plugins/

LIST_APPS=`ls -d $AMS_BASE/webapps/*/`

for i in $LIST_APPS; do
	echo "" >> $i/WEB-INF/red5-web.properties
	echo "settings.encoding.encoderName=libx264" >> $i/WEB-INF/red5-web.properties
done

systemctl restart antmedia

[mekya]

Let me update the answer with the Ant Media Server v2.14.0

• Download the ffmpeg-7.1-1.5.11-linux-x86_64-gpl.jar from Maven Repository or ask help to get the latest version from support team

• Copy the jar file to your to /usr/local/antmedia/plugins folder, and grant the antmedia user access to the file.

sudo chown -R antmedia:antmedia /usr/local/antmedia/plugins

• Remove the old file ffmpeg jar

sudo rm /usr/local/antmedia/plugins/ffmpeg-7.1-1.5.11-linux-x86_64.jar 

• Login the webpanel and go to the advanced settings of application that you use such as live' and change encoderNamefrom empty tolibx264`

 "encoderName": "libx264",

• Click the save button and do not forget to add some adaptive bitrates

After publishing the stream, you should see the following logs which means libx264 is working for you

[vert.x-worker-thread-24] INFO  i.a.e.adaptive.video.H264Encoder - Video codec opened. .... codecName: libx264 for stream: stream1