My Media for Alexa

Installing ffmpeg

Installing ffmpeg

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My Media for Alexa can stream many files natively to your Alexa device, eg MP3 and M4a files. However, some files such as FLAC require transcoding as the Alexa devices cannot natively play these file formats. My Media for Alexa integrates with FFmpeg, a third party open source product that can be downloaded from http://ffmpeg.org. After you install FFmpeg, you must configure My Media for Alexa to tell it where FFmpeg has been installed.

To install FFmpeg on your platform:

Windows 32-bit/64-bit

1. Download a pre-compiled version of FFmpeg from this link.. Select either the Windows 32-bit or Windows 64-bit option under the 'Architecture' heading and ensure you choose the 'Static' linking option. (Alternatively, if you are a really advanced user, you can of course compile from the source code available at http://ffmpeg.org).
2. Unzip the downloaded file to a temporary folder on your Desktop
3. Create a folder under C:\Program Files\MyMediaForAlexa called ffmpeg
4. Copy the unzipped contents of the file you downloaded into the new ffmpeg folder. The full path to ffmpeg should now be C:\Program Files\MyMediaForAlexa\ffmpeg\bin\ffmpeg.exe
5. Open the My Media Console by browsing to http://localhost:52051
6. Click on the Settings tab and enable FLAC transcoding
7. Verify that My Media for Alexa has located the FFmpeg.exe binary in the location you copied it to in step [4], or if blank, enter the full path for the FFmpeg.exe file and press 'Set'

Mac OS

1. Download a pre-compiled version of FFmpeg from this link.. Select the macOS 64-bit option under the 'Architecture' heading and ensure you choose the 'Static' linking option. (Alternatively, if you are a really advanced user, you can of course compile from the source code available at http://ffmpeg.org).
2. Unzip the downloaded file to a temporary folder on your Desktop
3. Open 'Finder' and open your Home directory
4. You should see a folder called 'Applications', open this
5. Create a folder called 'ffmpeg' under this Applications folder (or use another path of your choosing if you prefer, eg /usr/local/bin/ffmpeg is another good choice)
6. Copy the unzipped contents of the file you downloaded into the new ffmpeg folder. The full path to ffmpeg should now be something like /Users/[youruser]/Applications/ffmpeg/bin/ffmpeg
7. Open the My Media Console by browsing to http://localhost:52051
8. Click on the Settings tab and enable FLAC transcoding
9. Verify that My Media for Alexa has located the ffmpeg binary in the location you copied it to in step [4], or if blank, enter the full path for the ffmpeg executible file and press 'Set'

Raspberry Pi

1. Open a terminal on your Raspberry Pi, either by using the GUI or using ssh
2. Copy and paste this commands into your terminal:

   sudo apt-get install ffmpeg

   You may be asked to confirm you want to complete the installation, if so, type 'y' for yes.
3. Once installation is complete, open the My Media Web Console and click the Settings tab
4. Click the option "Enable Transcoding Support" to 'On'
5. The installation path for ffmpeg should be automatically populated with the location of ffmpeg