FFmpeg is a complete, cross-platform solution to record, convert and stream audio and video. It includes libavcodec - the leading audio/video codec library.
As always, check the main FFmpeg doc for a complete feature list, and the Changelog for recent changes.
Looking for help? Contact us, and be sure to give good troubleshooting information.
Want to participate in the active development of FFmpeg? Keep up with the latest developments by subscribing to both the ffmpeg-devel and ffmpeg-cvslog lists.
FFmpeg is free software and is licensed under the LGPL or GPL depending on your choice of configuration options. If you use FFmpeg or its constituent libraries, you must adhere to the terms of the license in question. If you do not, we will track down your project and list it in our Hall of Shame. To see how easy it is to comply, take a look at our license and legal considerations page.
In 1992 Sony introduced the first Minidisc player. 17 years later it is now possible to transfer and play back the raw ATRAC data from the actual digital disc with the help of FFmpeg, tools developed by the Linux Minidisc project and official hardware (MZ-RH1). So if you have lots of digital recordings stored on Minidisc now is the time to archive it all.
One of the last entrenchments of proprietary multimedia has fallen: Windows Media Audio Pro support is finally available in FFmpeg. It decodes all known samples flawlessly and is considerably faster than the binary decoder from Microsoft. A big thank you goes out to all the reverse engineers and programmers who made this possible. It really was a herculean effort.
Just a very short time after its launch (~10 years), FFmpeg now supports decoding of TwinVQ (remember .vqf files?). Now FOSS enthusiasts can finally contribute to the late 90's discussion if it sounds better than MP3 or not.
FFmpeg has removed support for libamr as of svn revision 19365. It has been replaced with support for libopencore-amr. Naturally the configure options have changed. The libamr options have been removed and there are two new options to take their place:
The reason for this change is that the libamr license was non-free, while libopencore-amr is licensed under an Apache 2 license. The change was discussed at length on the developer mailing list during May, June, and July. This has several effects:
FFmpeg was granted 9 slots to fill with applicants. After the gruelling application and qualification process, we will be running the following tasks this year:
Congratulations to all the successful applicants. Work hard, communicate well and prosper! Good luck!
Once again, FFmpeg has been accepted to take part in the Google Summer of Code. Here is the Google SoC FFmpeg page.
We have a list of proposed project ideas available so, if you think you might be interested, head over there to see if there is any project on which you wish to work and for which you may wish to make an application. The list is still in flux, and you're free to come up with your own ideas, but note that proposals should be closely tied to the progression of FFmpeg's code base.
If you're a student who thinks you have what it takes, we require that prospective students complete some degree of small task before they will be considered to take part in the program for FFmpeg. Take a look at the list, pick something to do, learn about inline replying because we don't like top-posting on our mailing lists and then tell us on the FFmpeg-devel mailing list your small task of choice.
The sooner you start communicating with us and working within our code base, the sooner both you and we will ascertain your suitability and you will get used to our development methodology. You have until the application deadline to complete your small task. Good luck!
A new mailing list has been created for ffserver users. The list is intended to create an environment for discussion amongst ffserver users so that they can better receive support and support each other. Interested parties can subscribe and view the archives via the contact page.
It has been a very long time since we last made a release and many did not think we would make one again but, back by popular demand, we are proud to announce a new release: FFmpeg 0.5. Check out the release notes and changelog.
It is codenamed "half-way to world domination A.K.A. the belligerent blue bike shed" to give an idea where we stand in the grand scheme of things and to commemorate the many fruitful discussions we had during its development.
This release includes a very extensive number of changes, but some of the highlights are:
Google are again running their Summer of Code program and, as usual, we will be applying for a project position. As such we will need strong project proposals and qualification tasks for the students to complete.
To all the students out there who want to work on FFmpeg over the summer, the sooner you begin to contribute to the project the better. Working on digital multimedia software is not the easiest task and getting code into FFmpeg's trunk repository demands significant rigor and commitment.
Until we are officially accepted into the program, you could take a look at the list of small tasks we have and try to complete one of those. Support for development of FFmpeg is available via the FFmpeg-devel mailing list or IRC.
RealVideo 3.0 decoder added. Still working the bugs out, please test and report any problems.
The FFmpeg project would like to recognize and thank the people at Picsearch for their help improving FFmpeg recently. The Picsearch team makes extensive use of FFmpeg and provided feedback to FFmpeg in the form of thousands of files that either crash FFmpeg or use unsupported/unknown codecs. The FFmpeg development team is putting this information to work in order to improve FFmpeg for everyone.
We know that there are other organizations using FFmpeg on a large scale to process diverse input types. The FFmpeg team invites those organizations to provide similar feedback about problems encountered in the wild.
A bunch of new formats have recently been added to FFmpeg, namely a QCELP/PureVoice speech decoder, a floating point PCM decoder and encoder, a Nellymoser ASAO encoder, an Electronic Arts TGQ decoder, Speex decoding via libspeex, an MXF muxer, an ASS/SSA subtitle demuxer and muxer and our AC-3 decoder has been extended with E-AC-3 support. Last but not least we now have a decoder for RealVideo 4.0.
FFmpeg is undergoing major changes in its API/ABI. The last valid revision for libavcodec version 51 is r15261.
The AAC decoder from FFmpeg Summer of Code 2006 has finally been cleaned up and is now in FFmpeg trunk. It supports Main and Low Complexity profile AAC but does not yet support HE AAC v1 (LC + SBR) or v2 (LC + SBR + PS), though implementation of this support is underway. It is considerably faster than FAAD and you should expect further performance improvements and bug fixes in the coming weeks.
Also, FFmpeg now has floating point PCM support and supports MLP/TrueHD decoding (FFmpeg SoC 2008 should bring us an encoder), Apple Lossless Audio encoding (FFmpeg SoC 2008) MVI demuxing and Motion Pixels Video decoding, D-Cinema audio muxing, Electronic Arts CMV and TGV decoding and MAXIS EA XA demuxing/decoding.
UAB "DKD" (dkd.lt) have released a Nellymoser ASAO compatible decoder and encoder under the LGPL. This will aid the development of a native encoder in FFmpeg, and right now a GSoC student is working hard on just that task. A great thanks to UAB "DKD" for this contribution to the FFmpeg community.
We have added an Oma demuxer, the QuickTime variant of an IMA ADPCM encoder, a VFW grabber, an iPod/iPhone-compatible MP4 muxer, a Mimic decoder, an MSN TCP Webcam stream demuxer as well as demuxers and decoders for the following fringe formats: RL2, IFF, 8SVX, BFI.
We have added Ogg and AVM2 (Flash 9) SWF muxers, TechnoTrend PVA and Linux Media Labs MPEG-4 (LMLM4) demuxers, PC Paintbrush PCX and Sun Rasterfile decoders.
FFmpeg now supports XIntra8 frames, meaning that finally all WMV2 samples and some WMV3 samples that showed blocky color artifacts can be decoded correctly.
Beam Software SIFF demuxer and video decoder support added.
FFmpeg gets support for the Nellymoser speech codec used in flash.
Apart from a DNxHD encoder, PAFF decoding support for H.264 was committed to SVN.
AMV audio and video decoding has arrived.
In about half a year of work since the last update we have added among other things: DXA and Monkey's Audio demuxer and decoder, DNxHD, Atrac3 and AC-3 decoders, QTRLE encoder, NUT and Matroska muxers.
FFmpeg got 8 projects this year in the Google Summer of Code program. Check out the FFmpeg SoC about page for more information.
Nine months without news but with heavy development. A few select highlights are decoders for VC-1/WMV3/WMV9, VMware, VP5, VP6 video and WavPack, IMC, DCA audio and a WMA encoder.
