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FFmpeg 8.0

(ffmpeg.org)
985 points gyan | 3 comments | 22 Aug 25 15:22 UTC | HN request time: 0.015s | source
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JadoJodo ◴[22 Aug 25 15:40 UTC] No.44985924[source]▶
I don't know a huge amount about video encoding, but I presume this is one of those libraries outlined in xkcd 2347[0]?

[0] - https://xkcd.com/2347/

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1. 0xbeefcab ◴[22 Aug 25 15:47 UTC] No.44986024[source]▶
Yeah, basically anytime a video or audio is being recorded, played, or streamed its from ffmpeg. It runs on a couple planets [0], and on most devices (maybe?)

[0] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11214-020-00765-9

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2. neckro23 ◴[22 Aug 25 16:05 UTC] No.44986245[source]▶
Not necessarily. A lot of video software either leverages the Windows/MacOS system codecs (ex. Media Player Classic, Quicktime) or proprietary vendor codecs (Adobe/Blackmagic).

Linux doesn't really have a system codec API though so any Linux video software you see (ex. VLC, Handbrake) is almost certainly using ffmpeg under the hood (or its foundation, libavcodec).

3. deaddodo ◴[22 Aug 25 16:24 UTC] No.44986465[source]▶
FFMpeg is definitely fairly ubiquitous, but you are overstating its universality quite a bit. There are alternatives that utilize Windows/macOS's native media frameworks, proprietary software that utilizes bespoke frameworks, and libraries that function independently of ffmpeg that offer similar functionality.

That being said, if you put down a pie chart of media frameworks (especially for transcoding or muxing), ffmpeg would have a significant share of that pie.