Complete n00b trying to use drawtext

[rickscully]

Hello all. I am a complete noob, but have managed to get ffmpeg running using Homebrew. However, I would like to use drawtext and am finding it very challenging to figure out how to install the necessary "taps"? to get it to run on my M3 iMac running macOS 15.7.x. Any kind folks out there willing to help me, please? Thank you.

[SMillerDev]

Not sure what drawtext is, it might be easier to describe what you're trying to do.

[SMillerDev]

And brew install ffmpeg doesn't allow you to do that? Again, I know nothing about drawtext.

[rickscully]

No longer included since Homebrew 2.0 according to : https://brew.sh/2019/02/02/homebrew-2.0.0/

[SMillerDev]

Not sure where it says that, but 2019 was 7 years ago so a lot could have changed since then. Do you have a command or a documentation page or something from ffmpeg to describe what drawtext needs?

[rickscully]

Sorry, as I described I am a noob. I have been reading for weeks and following all sorts of tutorials and even broke down and tried AI, but nothing is working. This is on the ffmpeg site: "Since v2.0, Homebrew does not offer options for its core formulae anymore. Users who want to build ffmpeg with additional libraries (including non-free ones) need to use so-called taps from third party repositories. These repositories are not maintained by Homebrew."

If you can't help that's fine, but I don't have the knowledge or experience to answer your questions. Perhaps someone else can try and help?

[SMillerDev]

When you say "not working" do you get errors when you run a command? If so, what error and what command?

[gromgit]

The current ffmpeg formula is the slim version, containing just the stuff needed to support other formulae that depend on it. You want the ffmpeg-full formula instead, which is the "batteries included" version. brew install ffmpeg-full. then brew info ffmpeg-full to see how to use it. ffmpeg-full definitely supports drawtext:-

% /opt/homebrew/opt/ffmpeg-full/bin/ffmpeg -filters -hide_banner | grep drawtext
 T. drawtext          V->V       Draw text on top of video frames using libfreetype library.

# the normal linked `ffmpeg` does not
% ffmpeg -filters -hide_banner | grep drawtext
# nothing to see here

[rickscully]

Thank you. I just recently tried this, and I still don't see the drawtext listed when I grep it (correct term?), but I am now wondering if I am running into a syntax(?) issue. That I am trying to combine things such as what is described here: https://superuser.com/questions/781875/ffmpeg-error-vf-af-filter-and-filter-complex-cannot-be-used-together

But I am going to step away from this for now. Thank you, gromgit.