Introduction

FFmpeg is the most powerful open-source multimedia framework for processing audio and video. It can decode, encode, transcode, mux, demux, stream, filter, and play virtually any media format.

What is FFmpeg?

FFmpeg is a command-line tool that consists of:

Tool	Purpose
ffmpeg	Converts between formats, applies filters, and encodes media
ffprobe	Analyzes media files — streams, codecs, duration, bitrate
ffplay	A minimal media player based on SDL and FFmpeg libraries
libavcodec	The codec library powering all encoding/decoding
libavformat	Handles muxing/demuxing of container formats

Why Learn FFmpeg?

• Universal support — FFmpeg supports more formats and codecs than any other tool
• Batch processing — Automate video workflows at scale
• Server-side — Run in Docker, cloud functions, or edge nodes
• Browser-side — @ffmpeg/core brings FFmpeg to the web via WebAssembly
• Free and open source — No licensing costs, no vendor lock-in

Tools Covered in This Guide

This site covers three main areas:

1. FFmpeg Command Line — Direct usage of ffmpeg, ffprobe, and ffplay
2. fluent-ffmpeg — Node.js wrapper library for building video processing applications
3. @ffmpeg/core — WebAssembly version for browser-based processing

Quick Example

Convert a video to MP4 (H.264 + AAC):

ffmpeg -i input.avi -c:v libx264 -preset medium -crf 23 \
  -c:a aac -b:a 128k -movflags +faststart output.mp4

Next Steps

Follow the sidebar to navigate through the guide, or start with Installation.