SE 5 is not detecting or providing an option to choose the location of FFmpeg

[zcraber]

Although FFmpeg is installed on the system, SE 5 is not detecting or providing the option to choose its location like SE 4.

Version: SubtitleEdit-Windows-x64.zip
Os: Windows 11

[GrampaWildWilly]

Go through the exercise of letting SE install ffmpeg. Then execute the mklink command to create a symlink from the SE directory to your ffmpeg. What is mklink? Research it on the web. The resources are out there. To be safe, before you replace SE's ffmpeg, rename it to something else so you can revert it in the unlikely event you need to do that. Also, do a dir /s ffmpeg* in your SE directory. You might find more than one instance of ffmpeg. In that case, symlink any others you find as well.

This approach also works for MPV (libmpv-2.dll).

[zcraber]

Having multiple instances of FFmpeg is the very thing I'm trying to avoid.

[GrampaWildWilly]

Well, in this case, you can't avoid it. SE requires that ffmpeg reside in a particular directory. It will not seek out a copy of it that is already on your system & use it. You have to spoof it into using your copy via mklink. It's the only way. Nik has already posted in here somewhere that he's not going to write logic into SE to allow you to specify locations external to SE of where to find things. If you want SE to use your version of ffmpeg, you're going to have to do what I say. It does work. But there's no way around the existence of 2 versions. At least you can sort of hide the one SE thinks it downloaded & redirect it to use yours. But that's as close as you're going to get. The bottom line here is tough noogies. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.

[zcraber]

Well, in this case, you can't avoid it.

Yes, you can. I should've checked the docs. The option is already there in settings.json to choose the location of FFmpeg. It's called FfmpegPath. I just tested and it worked!

https://subtitleedit.github.io/subtitleedit/third-party-components.html