All distributions, recommended: How to install the transcoding tools?

In VIMP we can use the static builds of FFmpeg (and FFprobe). 

Instead of installing, we just have to download and extract an archive that includes a running FFmpeg and FFprobe with all requirements.

Download and extract:

The download links for FFmpeg static builds are provided at ffmpeg.org.

The direct URL to the FFmpeg static builds is https://www.johnvansickle.com/ffmpeg/.

cd /opt/
wget https://johnvansickle.com/ffmpeg/builds/ffmpeg-git-amd64-static.tar.xz
tar --xz -xvf  ffmpeg-git-amd64-static.tar.xz
mv ffmpeg-git-XXXXXXXX-amd64-static/ ffmpeg

(Replace XXXXXXXX in the filename)

FFmpeg and FFprobe are already installed now.

Path to FFmpeg: /opt/ffmpeg/ffmpeg

Path to FFprobe: /opt/ffmpeg/ffprobe

Important:

Set Backend -> Configuration -> Transcoding OpenSource Settings -> AAC Encoder to Native FFmpeg AAC encoder.

Additional information at: https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Encode/AAC

Exiftool installation

Depending on whether the Debian or Redhat packet manager is used you can install "exiftool"

- with apt-get:

apt-get install libimage-exiftool-perl

- with yum:

yum install perl-Image-ExifTool

For the transcoding of 360-degree videos (VIMP 4.2 and higher), please check whether the exiftool version is at least 10.8. If this is not the case, please install exiftool as described here:

https://sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/install.html

After the update, please update the path to exiftool in the configuration under Transcoding OpenSource -> exiftool path (e.g. /opt/exiftool/exiftool), if it has changed.