FFmpeg

FFmpeg
Original author(s)Fabrice Bellard
Bobby Bingham (libavfilter)[1]
Developer(s)FFmpeg team
Initial releaseDecember 20, 2000; 23 years ago (2000-12-20)[2]
Stable release
7.1[3] Edit this on Wikidata / 30 September 2024
Repositorygit.ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg.git
Written inC and Assembly[4]
Operating systemVarious, including Windows, macOS, and Linux (executable programs are only available from third parties, as the project only distributes source code)[5][6]
Platformx86, ARM, PowerPC, MIPS, RISC-V, DEC Alpha, Blackfin, AVR32, SH-4, and SPARC; may be compiled for other desktop computers
TypeMultimedia framework
LicenseLGPL-2.1-or-later, GPL-2.0-or-later
Unredistributable if compiled with any software with a license incompatible with the GPL[7]
Websiteffmpeg.org

FFmpeg is a free and open-source software project consisting of a suite of libraries and programs for handling video, audio, and other multimedia files and streams. At its core is the command-line ffmpeg tool itself, designed for processing video and audio files. It is widely used for format transcoding, basic editing (trimming and concatenation), video scaling, video post-production effects, and standards compliance (SMPTE, ITU).

FFmpeg also includes other tools: ffplay, a simple media player, and ffprobe, a command-line tool to display media information. Among included libraries are libavcodec, an audio/video codec library used by many commercial and free software products, libavformat (Lavf),[8] an audio/video container mux and demux library, and libavfilter, a library for enhancing and editing filters through a GStreamer-like filtergraph.[9]

FFmpeg is part of the workflow of many other software projects, and its libraries are a core part of software media players such as VLC, and has been included in core processing for YouTube and Bilibili.[10] Encoders and decoders for many audio and video file formats are included, making it highly useful for the transcoding of common and uncommon media files.

FFmpeg is published under the LGPL-2.1-or-later or GPL-2.0-or-later, depending on which options are enabled.[11]

  1. ^ "Bobby announces work on libavfilter as GsOC project". 2008-02-09. Archived from the original on 2021-10-07. Retrieved 2021-10-07.
  2. ^ "Initial revision - git.videolan.org/ffmpeg.git/commit". git.videolan.org. 2000-12-20. Archived from the original on 2013-12-25. Retrieved 2013-05-11.
  3. ^ "FFmpeg 7.1 "Péter"". 30 September 2024. Retrieved 30 September 2024.
  4. ^ "Developer Documentation". ffmpeg.org. 2011-12-08. Archived from the original on 2012-02-04. Retrieved 2012-01-04.
  5. ^ "Platform Specific Information". FFmpeg.org. Archived from the original on 25 February 2020. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
  6. ^ "Download". ffmpeg.org. FFmpeg. Archived from the original on 2011-10-06. Retrieved 2012-01-04.
  7. ^ FFmpeg can be compiled with various external libraries, some of which have licenses that are incompatible with the FFmpeg's primary license, the GNU GPL.
  8. ^ "FFmpeg: Lavf: I/O and Muxing/Demuxing Library". ffmpeg.org. Archived from the original on 3 December 2016. Retrieved 21 October 2016.
  9. ^ "Libavfilter Documentation". ffmpeg.org. Archived from the original on 2021-10-07. Retrieved 2021-10-07.
  10. ^ ijkplayer, bilibili, 2021-10-05, archived from the original on 2021-10-05, retrieved 2021-10-05