FFmpeg

FFmpeg is essentially a collection of tools used to manage multiple aspects about multimedia files, including streaming, mux, encoding, filtering or transcoding.

The project consists of three tools, namely ffmpeg, ffplay and ffprobe. While the first is the main tool, the others represent valuable resources for viewing the revised media and for streaming. The trump card of the utility is that it can convert every media file out there, including the old formats and broad platform compatibility. Since it is console-based, it does its job rather quickly.

The app really shines in terms of options, as it allows you to pretty much manage a media file in any way. Some of the noteworthy options include image rescalling, pixel format conversion, audio resampling, numerous encoders and decoders, bitstream filters and support for many muxer and demuxer formats, just to name a few.

In all fairness, the framework is quite popular among developers who create or work with tools that entail multimedia processing. In fact, FFmpeg packs numerous libraries specifically designed for developer, among whom we can count libavcodec, libavfilter, libavutil, libavdevice, libswresample and libswscale.

If you’re wondering why the tool is not used by everyone out there, then it is because it is a console utility that relies on commands. Then again, there are numerous third-party programs out there that provide an interface and hence, could allow you to take advantage of this great app.

Although it is a base for renowned media converters and is widely popular, FFmpeg is not a tool the average user will choose normally due to the fact that it uses commands and a rather steep learning curve. Nevertheless, it is considered the leading framework when it comes to encoding, decoding and other common multimedia processing options.