How to install MEncoder on Ubuntu 16.04

To install MEncoder on Ubuntu 16.04

MEncoder is a companion program to the MPlayer media player that can be used to encode or transform any audio or video stream that MPlayer can read. Installing MEncoder in your Ubuntu machine is as easy as installing the MPlayer. Let us see the method to install MEncoder on Ubuntu in this article.

Installing MEncoder

First, check if the universe repository is enabled by inspecting ' /etc/apt/sources.list' with your favourite editor. Make use of sudo to ensure that you have permissions to edit the file.

root@linuxhelpubnt:~# vim /etc/apt/sources.list

Now add the line at the end of the file.

deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu trusty main universe

Once the line is added, save and exit the file (:wq)

Now, use the following command to update the apt sources-list.

root@linuxhelpubnt:~# apt-get update
Hit:1 http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial InRelease
Get:2 http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates InRelease [102 kB]
Ign:3 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu trusty InRelease
Get:4 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu trusty Release [58.5 kB]
Get:5 http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-backports InRelease [102 kB]
Get:6 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu trusty Release.gpg [933 B]
Get:7 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu trusty/main amd64 Packages [1,350 kB]
Get:8 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu trusty/main i386 Packages [1,348 kB]                         
Get:9 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu trusty/universe amd64 Packages [5,859 kB]                    
Get:10 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu trusty/universe i386 Packages [5,866 kB]                    
Fetched 14.7 MB in 2min 2s (120 kB/s)                                                                  
Reading package lists... Done

All is set for the installation of MEncoder, use the following command for the same purpose.

root@linuxhelpubnt:~# apt-get install mencoder
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  libpango1.0-0 libpangox-1.0-0
Use ' sudo apt autoremove'  to remove them.
The following additional packages will be installed:
  esound-common i965-va-driver liba52-0.7.4 libaacs0 libass5 libaudiofile1 libavcodec-ffmpeg56
  libavformat-ffmpeg56 libavutil-ffmpeg54 libbdplus0 libbluray1 libbs2b0 libcrystalhd3 libdca0
  libdirectfb-1.2-9 libdvdnav4 libdvdread4 libenca0 libesd0 libfaad2 libgif7 libgme0 libgsm1 libmad0
  libmodplug1 libmp3lame0 libmpeg2-4 libmpg123-0 libopenal-data libopenal1 libopenjpeg5
  libpostproc-ffmpeg53 libschroedinger-1.0-0 libsdl1.2debian libshine3 libsnappy1v5 libsoxr0
.
.
Setting up vdpau-driver-all:amd64 (1.1.1-3ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.23-0ubuntu5) ...

MEncoder has ben installed successfully. Let us check the available video codecs by utilizing the following command.

root@linuxhelpubnt:~# mencoder -ovc help
MEncoder 1.2.1 (Debian), built with gcc-5.3.1 (C) 2000-2016 MPlayer Team

Available codecs:
   copy     - frame copy, without re-encoding. Doesn' t work with filters.
   frameno  - special audio-only file for 3-pass encoding, see DOCS.
   raw      - uncompressed video. Use fourcc option to set format explicitly.
   nuv      - nuppel video
   lavc     - libavcodec codecs - best quality!
   libdv    - DV encoding with libdv v0.9.5
   xvid     - XviD encoding
   x264     - H.264 encoding

Also, you can check the available audio codecs by running the following command.

root@linuxhelpubnt:~# mencoder -oac help
MEncoder 1.2.1 (Debian), built with gcc-5.3.1 (C) 2000-2016 MPlayer Team

Available codecs:
   copy     - frame copy, without re-encoding (useful for AC3)
   pcm      - uncompressed PCM audio
   mp3lame  - cbr/abr/vbr MP3 using libmp3lame
   lavc     - FFmpeg audio encoder (MP2, AC3, ...)
   twolame  - Twolame MP2 audio encoder