Installing FFmpeg for Nucleate

Prerequisites

• Operating System: Windows or macOS
• Administrator privileges to install binaries and update your PATH
• Optional but recommended: verify that your machine meets the hardware requirements for local transcription.

Installation Instructions

Windows

1. Download the latest FFmpeg static build for Windows from https://ffmpeg.org/download.html.
2. Extract the ZIP to a folder of your choice (e.g., C:\ffmpeg).
3. Add the bin folder to your system PATH: 4. Open Start → Search “Environment Variables” → Edit the system environment variables.
   5. Click Environment Variables…
   6. Under System variables, select Path → Edit → New
   7. Add the full path to the bin folder (e.g., C:\ffmpeg\bin)
   8. Click OK to save changes.
4. Open a new Command Prompt and run:

ffmpeg -version
ffprobe -version

macOS (recommended)

1. Open Terminal
2. Install via Homebrew (recommended):

# Install Homebrew if not already installed (skip if you have it)
# /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

# Install FFmpeg
brew install ffmpeg

# Verify installation
ffmpeg -version
ffprobe -version

# Optional: confirm PATH detection
which ffmpeg
which ffprobe

macOS (manual installation)

1. If you prefer not to use Homebrew, download a static build of FFmpeg for your CPU architecture:
2. Apple Silicon (arm64 / M1/M2): https://www.osxexperts.net/
3. Intel macOS (x86_64): https://evermeet.cx/ffmpeg/
4. Download the ZIPs for both ffmpeg and ffprobe and extract them.
5. Move the ffmpeg and ffprobe binaries to a folder on your PATH (.e.g., /usr/local/bin). You may need sudo:

sudo mv ffmpeg ffprobe /usr/local/bin/
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/ffmpeg /usr/local/bin/ffprobe

6. Open a new Terminal and verify:

ffmpeg -version
ffprobe -version