Editing FFmpeg (section)

== History ==
The project was started by [[Fabrice Bellard]]<ref name="legal" /> (using the [[pseudonym]] "Gérard Lantau") in 2000, and was led by Michael Niedermayer from 2004 until 2015.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url = https://ffmpeg.org/pipermail/ffmpeg-devel/2015-July/176489.html|title = [FFmpeg-devel] FFmpegs future and resigning as leader|access-date = 2015-09-22|first = Michael|last = Niedermayer| date=31 July 2015 |archive-date = 2015-08-15|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150815230313/https://ffmpeg.org/pipermail/ffmpeg-devel/2015-July/176489.html|url-status = live}}</ref> Some FFmpeg developers were also part of the [[MPlayer]] project.

The name of the project is inspired by the [[Moving Picture Experts Group|MPEG]] video standards group, together with "FF" for "fast forward", so FFmpeg stands for "Fast Forward Moving Picture Experts Group".<ref>{{cite web|last=Bellard|first=Fabrice|author-link=Fabrice Bellard|date=18 February 2006|title=FFmpeg naming and logo|url=https://ffmpeg.org/pipermail/ffmpeg-devel/2006-February/010315.html|access-date=24 December 2011|work=FFmpeg developer mailing list|publisher=FFmpeg website|archive-date=26 April 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120426071311/http://ffmpeg.org/pipermail/ffmpeg-devel/2006-February/010315.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The logo represents a [[zigzag]] scan pattern that shows how MPEG video codecs handle [[entropy encoding]].<ref>{{Cite FTP |last=Carlsen|first=Steve|date=1992-06-03|title=TIFF 6.0 specification|url=ftp://ftp.sgi.com/graphics/tiff/TIFF6.ps|access-date=2016-08-14|page=98|format=PS|server=[[Aldus Corporation]]|url-status=dead|quote=Zig-Zag Scan}} [http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/en/tiff/TIFF6.pdf Alt URL] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120703095221/http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/en/tiff/TIFF6.pdf |date=2012-07-03 }}</ref>

On March 13, 2011, a group of FFmpeg developers decided to [[Fork (software)|fork]] the project under the name Libav.<ref>{{citation|title=Libav project site|url=http://www.libav.org/|access-date=2012-01-04|archive-date=2012-01-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120103091848/http://libav.org/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{citation|author=Ronald S. Bultje|title=Project renamed to Libav|date=2011-03-14|url=http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.video.ffmpeg.devel/129579|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161107163133/http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.video.ffmpeg.devel/129579|access-date=2012-01-04|archive-date=2016-11-07|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{citation|title=A group of FFmpeg developers just forked as Libav|date=2011-03-14|url=https://www.phoronix.com/news/OTIwNw|publisher=Phoronix|access-date=2012-01-04|archive-date=2011-09-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110915210209/http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=OTIwNw|url-status=live}}</ref> The group decided to fork the project due to a disagreement with the leadership of FFmpeg.{{clarify|date=March 2025}}<ref>{{citation|title=What happened to FFmpeg|date=2011-03-30|url=https://codecs.multimedia.cx/2011/03/what-happened-to-ffmpeg/|access-date=2012-05-19|archive-date=2018-09-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180902151632/https://codecs.multimedia.cx/2011/03/what-happened-to-ffmpeg/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{citation|title=FFMpeg turmoil|date=2011-01-19|url=https://lwn.net/Articles/423702/|access-date=2012-01-04|archive-date=2012-01-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120112085953/http://lwn.net/Articles/423702/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=The FFmpeg/Libav situation|url=http://blog.pkh.me/p/13-the-ffmpeg-libav-situation.html|access-date=2015-09-22|website=blog.pkh.me|archive-date=2012-07-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120701210503/http://blog.pkh.me/p/13-the-ffmpeg-libav-situation.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
Despite an initial push in Debian and derived distributions, Libav was considered inferior to FFmpeg in both technical merit and popularity,<ref>{{Cite web|date=2015-08-02|title=Debate/libav-provider/ffmpeg - Debian Wiki|url=https://wiki.debian.org/Debate/libav-provider/ffmpeg|access-date=2025-03-20|work=debian.org}}</ref> prompting Debian and Gentoo to switch back to FFmpeg in 2015.
Libav was declared abandoned in 2020.<ref>{{cite web |last=Kunhya |first=Kieran |date=2020-04-16 |title=[libav-devel] What is the status of this project? |url=https://lists.libav.org/pipermail/libav-devel/2020-April/086589.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200812182017/https://lists.libav.org/pipermail/libav-devel/2020-April/086589.html |archive-date=2020-08-12 |access-date=2020-12-20}}</ref>

On January 10, 2014, two Google employees announced that over 1000 bugs had been fixed in FFmpeg during the previous two years by means of [[fuzz testing]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://security.googleblog.com/2014/01/ffmpeg-and-thousand-fixes.html|title=FFmpeg and a thousand fixes|date=January 10, 2014|work=googleblog.com|access-date=21 October 2016|archive-date=22 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161022022444/https://security.googleblog.com/2014/01/ffmpeg-and-thousand-fixes.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

In January 2018, the ''ffserver'' command-line program – a long-time component of FFmpeg – was removed.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/ffserver|title=ffserver – FFmpeg|website=trac.ffmpeg.org|access-date=2018-02-03|archive-date=2018-02-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180204000416/https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/ffserver|url-status=live}}</ref> The developers had previously deprecated the program citing high maintenance efforts due to its use of internal [[application programming interface]]s.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ffmpeg.org/index.html#ffserv|title=ffserver program being dropped|date=2016-07-10|website=ffmpeg.org|language=en|access-date=2018-02-03|archive-date=2016-07-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160716124052/http://ffmpeg.org/index.html#ffserv|url-status=live}}</ref>

The project publishes a new release every three months on average. While release versions are available from the website for download, FFmpeg developers recommend that users compile the software from source using the latest build from their [[source code]], using the [[Git]] [[version control system]].<ref name="release_policy">{{cite web|url=https://ffmpeg.org/download.html#releases|title=ffmpeg.org/download.html#releases|publisher=ffmpeg.org|access-date=2015-04-27|archive-date=2011-10-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111006131811/http://www.ffmpeg.org/download.html#releases|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Codec history ===
Two [[video coding format]]s with corresponding codecs and one [[digital container format|container format]] have been created within the FFmpeg project so far. The two video codecs are the lossless [[FFV1]], and the lossless and lossy Snow codec. Development of Snow has stalled, while its bit-stream format has not been finalized yet, making it experimental since 2011. The multimedia container format called NUT is no longer being actively developed, but still maintained.<ref name="nut">{{cite web
|url=http://wiki.multimedia.cx/index.php?title=NUT
|title=NUT
|publisher=Multimedia Wiki
|year=2012
|access-date=2014-01-03
|archive-date=2014-01-03
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140103022122/http://wiki.multimedia.cx/index.php?title=NUT
|url-status=live
}}</ref>

In summer 2010, FFmpeg developers Fiona Glaser, Ronald Bultje, and David Conrad, announced the ffvp8 decoder. Through testing, they determined that ffvp8 was faster than Google's own [[libvpx]] decoder.<ref>{{citation |url=http://x264dev.multimedia.cx/?p=499 |title=Diary Of An x264 Developer: Announcing the world's fastest VP8 decoder |first=Fiona |last=Glaser |date=2010-07-23 |access-date=2012-01-04 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100930181634/http://x264dev.multimedia.cx/?p=499 |archive-date=2010-09-30 }}</ref><ref>{{citation |url=https://news.slashdot.org/story/10/07/24/1227241/FFmpeg-Announces-High-Performance-VP8-Decoder |title=FFmpeg Announces High-Performance VP8 Decoder |publisher=Slashdot |date=2010-07-24 |access-date=2012-01-04 |archive-date=2011-12-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111221092712/http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/07/24/1227241/ffmpeg-announces-high-performance-vp8-decoder |url-status=live }}</ref> Starting with version 0.6, FFmpeg also supported [[WebM]] and [[VP8]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://newteevee.com/2010/06/17/ffmpeg-goes-webm-enabling-vp8-for-boxee-co/ |title=FFmpeg Goes WebM, Enabling VP8 for Boxee & Co |publisher=newteevee.com |date=2010-06-17 |access-date=2012-01-04 |quote=...with [[VLC media player|VLC]], [[Boxee]], [[MythTV]], [[HandBrake|Handbrake]] and [[MPlayer]] being some of the more popular projects utilizing FFmpeg... |archive-date=2010-06-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100620003915/http://newteevee.com/2010/06/17/ffmpeg-goes-webm-enabling-vp8-for-boxee-co/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In October 2013, a native [[VP9]]<ref name="LaunchpadVP9Decoder">{{cite news |title=Native VP9 decoder is now in the Git master branch |work=[[Launchpad (website)|Launchpad]] |url=https://launchpad.net/ffmpeg/+announcement/12045 |date=2013-10-03 |access-date=2013-10-21 |archive-date=2013-10-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131022011447/https://launchpad.net/ffmpeg/+announcement/12045 |url-status=live }}</ref> decoder and OpenHEVC, an open source [[High Efficiency Video Coding]] (HEVC) decoder, were added to FFmpeg.<ref name=FFmpegHEVCOctober2013Softpedia>{{cite news |title=FFmpeg Now Features Native HEVC/H.265 Decoder Support |publisher=[[Softpedia]] |url=https://linux.softpedia.com/blog/Ffmpeg-Now-Features-Native-HEVC-H-265-Decoder-Support-391582.shtml |date=2013-10-16 |access-date=2013-10-16 |archive-date=2014-06-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140615002423/http://news.softpedia.com/news/Ffmpeg-Now-Features-Native-HEVC-H-265-Decoder-Support-391582.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2016 the native [[Advanced Audio Coding|AAC]] encoder was considered stable, removing support for the two external AAC encoders from [[VisualOn]] and [[FAAC]]. FFmpeg 3.0 (nicknamed ''"Einstein"'') retained build support for the [[Fraunhofer FDK AAC]] encoder.<ref name="Einstein">{{cite web|url=https://ffmpeg.org/index.html#pr3.0|title=February 15th, 2016, FFmpeg 3.0 "Einstein"|date=2016-02-15|access-date=2016-04-02|author=FFmpeg|author-link=FFmpeg<!-- for copies -->|archive-date=2016-07-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160716124052/http://ffmpeg.org/index.html#pr3.0|url-status=live}}</ref> Since version 3.4 ''"Cantor"'' FFmpeg supported the [[FITS]] image format.<ref name="Cantor">{{cite web|url=https://ffmpeg.org/index.html#pr3.4|title=October 15th, 2017, FFmpeg 3.4 "Cantor"|date=2017-10-15|access-date=2019-05-10|author=FFmpeg|author-link=FFmpeg|archive-date=2016-07-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160716124052/http://ffmpeg.org/index.html#pr3.4|url-status=live}}</ref> Since November 2018 in version 4.1 ''"al-Khwarizmi"'' [[AV1]] can be muxed in [[MP4 file format|MP4]] and [[Matroska]], including [[WebM]].<ref name="al-Khwarizmi">{{cite web|url=https://ffmpeg.org/index.html#pr4.1|title=November 6th, 2018, FFmpeg 4.1 "al-Khwarizmi"|date=2018-11-06|access-date=2019-05-10|author=FFmpeg|author-link=FFmpeg|archive-date=2016-07-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160716124052/http://ffmpeg.org/index.html#pr4.1|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=130284 |title=Good News: AV1 Encoding Times Drop to Near-Reasonable Levels |author=Jan Ozer |date=2019-03-04 |website=StreamingMedia.com |access-date=2019-05-10 |archive-date=2021-05-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210514020514/https://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=130284 |url-status=live }}</ref>