FFmpeg is a set of open source computer programs that can record, convert and stream digital audio and video. It includes libavcodec, a leading audio/video codec library. FFmpeg is developed under Linux, but it can compile under most operating systems, including Windows. The project was started by Fabrice Bellard, nowadays it is maintained by Michael Niedermayer.

The project is made of several components:

• ffmpeg is a command line tool to convert one video file format to another. It also supports grabbing and encoding in real time from a TV card.
• ffserver is an HTTP (RTSP is being developed) multimedia streaming server for live broadcasts. Time shifting of live broadcast is also supported.
• ffplay is a simple media player based on SDL and on the FFmpeg libraries.
• libavcodec is a library containing all the ffmpeg audio/video encoders and decoders. Most codecs were developed from scratch to ensure best performances and high code reusability.
• libavformat is a library containing parsers and generators for all common audio/video formats.

FFmpeg is released under GNU Lesser General Public License or GNU General Public License (depending on which sub-libraries one would include). The project is hosted at SourceForge.

FFmpeg have reverse-engineered and reimplemented, among others:

• The Sorenson 3 Codec used by many QuickTime movies.
• Advanced Streaming Format
• Windows Media Audio
• Windows Media Video (and thereby also the associated DivX hack)

External links

• FFmpeg homepage (http://ffmpeg.sourceforge.net/)
• FFmpeg DirectShow filter - ffdshow (http://ffdshow.sourceforge.net/tikiwiki/)
• ffdshow download (http://athos.leffe.dnsalias.com/)
• FFmpeg for Mac OS X (http://aldorandenet.free.fr/codecs/)