VidPipe

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FFmpeg Setup ​

vidpipe requires FFmpeg 6.0+ for audio extraction, silence removal, short-clip cutting, and caption burning. Both ffmpeg and ffprobe must be available.

Quick Check ​

Verify that FFmpeg is already installed and accessible:

bash
ffmpeg -version
ffprobe -version

If both commands print version info (6.0 or higher), you're ready to go.

Windows ​

powershell
winget install Gyan.FFmpeg

After installation, restart your terminal. FFmpeg will be available on PATH.

Option B: Chocolatey ​

powershell
choco install ffmpeg

Option C: Manual download ​

  1. Download the latest full build from gyan.dev/ffmpeg/builds (choose "ffmpeg-release-full.7z")
  2. Extract to a permanent location, e.g. C:\tools\ffmpeg
  3. Add the bin folder to your system PATH:
    powershell
    # Permanently add to user PATH
[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable(
  "Path",
  "$([Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable('Path', 'User'));C:\tools\ffmpeg\bin",
  "User"
)
  4. Restart your terminal and verify with ffmpeg -version

Windows ARM64 (important) ​

Pre-built FFmpeg binaries for Windows ARM64 are less common. You must install FFmpeg manually and point the tool to it:

  1. Download an ARM64 build from github.com/ArsThauwormo/FFmpeg-Builds-ARM64 or build from source
  2. Extract to a known location, e.g. C:\tools\ffmpeg-arm64\
  3. Set the paths in your .env or as environment variables:
env
FFMPEG_PATH=C:\tools\ffmpeg-arm64\bin\ffmpeg.exe
FFPROBE_PATH=C:\tools\ffmpeg-arm64\bin\ffprobe.exe

Or pass them as environment variables:

powershell
$env:FFMPEG_PATH = "C:\tools\ffmpeg-arm64\bin\ffmpeg.exe"
$env:FFPROBE_PATH = "C:\tools\ffmpeg-arm64\bin\ffprobe.exe"
vidpipe --once ./my-video.mp4

macOS ​

bash
brew install ffmpeg

This installs both ffmpeg and ffprobe and adds them to PATH.

MacPorts ​

bash
sudo port install ffmpeg

Linux ​

Ubuntu / Debian ​

bash
sudo apt update
sudo apt install ffmpeg

Fedora ​

bash
sudo dnf install ffmpeg

Arch Linux ​

bash
sudo pacman -S ffmpeg

Alpine (Docker) ​

dockerfile
RUN apk add --no-cache ffmpeg

Setting Custom Paths ​

If FFmpeg is installed to a non-standard location (or you have multiple versions), tell the tool where to find the binaries.

Via .env file ​

env
FFMPEG_PATH=/usr/local/bin/ffmpeg
FFPROBE_PATH=/usr/local/bin/ffprobe

Via environment variables ​

bash
export FFMPEG_PATH=/opt/ffmpeg/bin/ffmpeg
export FFPROBE_PATH=/opt/ffmpeg/bin/ffprobe
vidpipe --watch-dir ./watch

Windows example ​

env
FFMPEG_PATH=C:\tools\ffmpeg\bin\ffmpeg.exe
FFPROBE_PATH=C:\tools\ffmpeg\bin\ffprobe.exe

Note: When FFMPEG_PATH and FFPROBE_PATH are not set, the tool defaults to ffmpeg and ffprobe — expecting them to be on your system PATH.

Verifying Your Installation ​

Run the built-in version check:

bash
ffmpeg -version 2>&1 | head -1
# Expected: ffmpeg version 6.x.x or 7.x.x ...

ffprobe -version 2>&1 | head -1
# Expected: ffprobe version 6.x.x or 7.x.x ...

Then test that the tool can find them:

bash
vidpipe --verbose --once /path/to/short-test-video.mp4

In verbose mode, you'll see the FFmpeg paths logged during the ingestion stage.

Fonts ​

Montserrat Bold is bundled with the package in assets/fonts/ — no manual installation required. FFmpeg is configured to use the bundled font file automatically when burning captions.

Fallback: If you need to use a different font, you can install it system-wide and update the caption generation settings. But the default setup works out of the box.

Troubleshooting ​

"ffmpeg: command not found" ​

FFmpeg is not on your PATH. Either:

  • Install it using the instructions above
  • Set FFMPEG_PATH and FFPROBE_PATH to absolute paths

"ffprobe: command not found" (but ffmpeg works) ​

Some minimal FFmpeg installations omit ffprobe. Reinstall the full package (not the "essentials" build).

Old FFmpeg version causes errors ​

Some features (e.g. advanced subtitle filters, certain codec options) require FFmpeg 6.0+. Check your version:

bash
ffmpeg -version

If it's below 6.0, upgrade using the instructions for your platform above.

Windows ARM64: FFmpeg not found ​

Pre-built FFmpeg binaries for ARM64 are less common. Follow the Windows ARM64 section above to install manually and set the paths via FFMPEG_PATH and FFPROBE_PATH.