Compiling and installing `ffmpeg` with Decklink SDK on Ubuntu 18.04 Server. Check out forks of this gist for more up-to-date info.

install-ffmpeg-with-decklink-support-ubuntu-18.04-server.md

Compiling and installing ffmpeg with Decklink support on Ubuntu 18.04 Server

• Download Desktop Video (driver) & Desktop Video SDK from https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/support/family/capture-and-playback
• Install Desktop Video (driver)

  tar -xf Blackmagic_Desktop_Video_Linux_*.tar
  cd Blackmagic_Desktop_Video_Linux_*/deb/x86_64/
  sudo dpkg -i desktopvideo_*.deb
  sudo apt-get install -f
  BlackmagicFirmwareUpdater status
  # if prompted to update, perform an update:
  BlackmagicFirmwareUpdater update 0
  # if prompted to shutdown, reboot the device:
  sudo reboot

• Unzip Desktop Video SDK

  sudo apt install unzip
  unzip Blackmagic_DeckLink_SDK_*.zip
  mkdir -p ~/ffmpeg_sources ~/bin
  cp -r Blackmagic\ DeckLink\ SDK\ */Linux/ ~/ffmpeg_sources/BMD_SDK

• Follow ffmpeg compilation instruction at https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/CompilationGuide/Ubuntu
  • Install dependencies

    sudo apt-get update -qq && sudo apt-get -y install \
      autoconf \
      automake \
      build-essential \
      cmake \
      git-core \
      libass-dev \
      libfreetype6-dev \
      libtool \
      libvorbis-dev \
      pkg-config \
      texinfo \
      wget \
      zlib1g-dev
    sudo apt-get -y install \
      nasm yasm libx264-dev libx265-dev libnuma-dev libvpx-dev \
      libfdk-aac-dev libmp3lame-dev libopus-dev

  • Get ffmpeg source code and configure it.

    cd ~/ffmpeg_sources
    wget https://ffmpeg.org/releases/ffmpeg-4.1.3.tar.bz2
    tar -xvf ffmpeg-*.tar.bz2
    cd ffmpeg-*/
    PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH" PKG_CONFIG_PATH="$HOME/ffmpeg_build/lib/pkgconfig" ./configure \
      --prefix="$HOME/ffmpeg_build" \
      --pkg-config-flags="--static" \
      --extra-cflags="-I$HOME/ffmpeg_build/include -I$HOME/ffmpeg_sources/BMD_SDK/include" \
      --extra-ldflags="-L$HOME/ffmpeg_build/lib" \
      --extra-libs="-lpthread -lm" \
      --bindir="$HOME/bin" \
      --enable-gpl \
      --enable-libass \
      --enable-libfdk-aac \
      --enable-libfreetype \
      --enable-libmp3lame \
      --enable-libopus \
      --enable-libvorbis \
      --enable-libvpx \
      --enable-libx264 \
      --enable-libx265 \
      --enable-nonfree \
      --enable-decklink

    Note the addition of --enable-decklink and BlackMagicDesign SDK in --extra-cflags.
    There are API changes in BMD SDK 11 onwards so if ffmpeg doesn't compile, compile it with BMD SDK 10.11.4
  • Compile and install it.

    PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH" make -j `nproc`
    sudo cp ffmpeg ffprobe /usr/local/bin/

For those wondering, I needed a combination of drivers 14.4 and SDK 12.9 to work with the upcomming debian trixie (supplying ffmpeg-7.1).

From the 14.4 driver package, I needed desktopvideo_*.deb and desktopvideo-gui_*.deb. But mediaexpress*.deb failed to work with the rest of the OS due to some renamed libegl1-meta and libegl1-x11 libraries. ffmpeg 7.1 also fails to build with the 14.4 SDK with:

$ dpkg-buildpackage -uc -us
...
src/libavdevice/decklink_dec.cpp: In member function ‘virtual HRESULT decklink_input_callback::VideoInputFrameArrived(IDeckLinkVideoInputFrame*, IDeckLinkAudioInputPacket*)’:
src/libavdevice/decklink_dec.cpp:778:21: error: ‘class IDeckLinkVideoInputFrame’ has no member named ‘GetBytes’; did you mean ‘GetRowBytes’?
  778 |         videoFrame->GetBytes(&frameBytes);
      |                     ^~~~~~~~
      |                     GetRowBytes
src/libavdevice/decklink_dec.cpp:797:29: error: ‘class IDeckLinkVideoInputFrame’ has no member named ‘GetBytes’; did you mean ‘GetRowBytes’?
  797 |                 videoFrame->GetBytes(&frameBytes);
      |                             ^~~~~~~~
      |                             GetRowBytes
src/libavdevice/decklink_dec.cpp: In function ‘int ff_decklink_read_header(AVFormatContext*)’:
src/libavdevice/decklink_dec.cpp:1173:22: error: ‘class IDeckLinkInput’ has no member named ‘SetVideoInputFrameMemoryAllocator’
 1173 |     ret = (ctx->dli->SetVideoInputFrameMemoryAllocator(allocator) == S_OK ? 0 : AVERROR_EXTERNAL);
      |   

The 12.9 is the latest SDK I found that compiles. Here are the simpler instructions I used:

# Unpack Blackmagic's zipfile
unzip Blackmagic\ DeckLink\ SDK\ 12.9.zip

# Download ffmpeg and install dependencies
sudo apt build-dep ffmpeg
apt source ffmpeg

# Setup the build
cd ffmpeg-7.1
cp -r ../Blackmagic\ DeckLink\ SDK\ 12.9/Linux/include blackmagic_include
dpkg-source --commit
nano debian/rules
# add the following anywhere between the `CONFIG :=` line and the `%:` rule.
# CONFIG += --enable-decklink \
#           --extra-cflags="-Iblackmagic_include" \
#           --enable-nonfree

# Build
dpkg-buildpackage -uc -us

# Install the packages:
sudo apt install ../*deb

I did try to run the 12.9 drivers to avoid this hybrid, but they failed to compile for kernel 6.12. I suspect it's something with the MOX secure-boot stuff.

Leaving this here in case it helps someone: I was able to get this working on Debian 13 using FFmpeg 7.1.1 and SDK 14.2.