A complete, cross-platform solution to record, convert and stream audio and video.

FfmpegX for Mac. FfmpegX is a Mac OS X graphic user interface designed to easily operate more than 20 powerful Unix open-source video and audio processing tools including ffmpeg the 'hyper fast video and audio encoder', mpeg2enc the open-source mpeg-2 encoder and multiplexer and mencoder the mpeg-4 encoder with subtitles support. Download and install: Click to download and install the latest version of ffmpegX for MacOSX from 10.2 to 10.14. Mailing list: If you want to receive an email when ffmpegX is updated, sign up to the mailing list by entering your email address here.

Ffmpeg 2.6 for Mac can be downloaded from our software library for free. The application lies within Audio & Video Tools, more precisely Streaming Media. The ffmpeg installer is commonly called ffmpeg-0.8.tar.gz. The most popular version among ffmpeg for Mac users is 0.8. This Mac download was scanned by our antivirus and was rated as clean.

June 19th, 2021, IRC

We have a new IRC home at Libera Chat now! Feel free to join us at #ffmpeg and #ffmpeg-devel. More info at contact#IRCChannels

April 8th, 2021, FFmpeg 4.4 'Rao'

FFmpeg 4.4 'Rao', a new major release, is now available! Some of the highlights:

• AudioToolbox output device
• MacCaption demuxer
• PGX decoder
• chromanr video filter
• VDPAU accelerated HEVC 10/12bit decoding
• ADPCM IMA Ubisoft APM encoder
• Rayman 2 APM muxer
• AV1 encoding support SVT-AV1
• Cineform HD encoder
• ADPCM Argonaut Games encoder
• Argonaut Games ASF muxer
• AV1 Low overhead bitstream format demuxer
• RPZA video encoder
• ADPCM IMA MOFLEX decoder
• MobiClip FastAudio decoder
• MobiClip video decoder
• MOFLEX demuxer
• MODS demuxer
• PhotoCD decoder
• MCA demuxer
• AV1 decoder (Hardware acceleration used only)
• SVS demuxer
• Argonaut Games BRP demuxer
• DAT demuxer
• aax demuxer
• IPU decoder, parser and demuxer
• Intel QSV-accelerated AV1 decoding
• Argonaut Games Video decoder
• libwavpack encoder removed
• ACE demuxer
• AVS3 demuxer
• AVS3 video decoder via libuavs3d
• Cintel RAW decoder
• VDPAU accelerated VP9 10/12bit decoding
• afreqshift and aphaseshift filters
• High Voltage Software ADPCM encoder
• LEGO Racers ALP (.tun & .pcm) muxer
• AV1 VAAPI decoder
• adenorm filter
• ADPCM IMA AMV encoder
• AMV muxer
• NVDEC AV1 hwaccel
• DXVA2/D3D11VA hardware accelerated AV1 decoding
• speechnorm filter
• SpeedHQ encoder
• asupercut filter
• asubcut filter
• Microsoft Paint (MSP) version 2 decoder
• Microsoft Paint (MSP) demuxer
• AV1 monochrome encoding support via libaom >= 2.0.1
• asuperpass and asuperstop filter
• shufflepixels filter
• tmidequalizer filter
• estdif filter
• epx filter
• Dolby E parser
• shear filter
• kirsch filter
• colortemperature filter
• colorcontrast filter
• PFM encoder
• colorcorrect filter
• binka demuxer
• XBM parser
• xbm_pipe demuxer
• colorize filter
• CRI parser
• aexciter audio filter
• exposure video filter
• monochrome video filter
• setts bitstream filter
• vif video filter
• OpenEXR image encoder
• Simbiosis IMX decoder
• Simbiosis IMX demuxer
• Digital Pictures SGA demuxer and decoders
• TTML subtitle encoder and muxer
• identity video filter
• msad video filter
• gophers protocol
• RIST protocol via librist

We strongly recommend users, distributors, and system integrators to upgrade unless they use current git master.

June 15th, 2020, FFmpeg 4.3 '4:3'

FFmpeg 4.3 '4:3', a new major release, is now available! Some of the highlights:

• v360 filter
• Intel QSV-accelerated MJPEG decoding
• Intel QSV-accelerated VP9 decoding
• Support for TrueHD in mp4
• Support AMD AMF encoder on Linux (via Vulkan)
• IMM5 video decoder
• ZeroMQ protocol
• support Sipro ACELP.KELVIN decoding
• streamhash muxer
• sierpinski video source
• scroll video filter
• photosensitivity filter
• anlms filter
• arnndn filter
• bilateral filter
• maskedmin and maskedmax filters
• VDPAU VP9 hwaccel
• median filter
• QSV-accelerated VP9 encoding
• AV1 encoding support via librav1e
• AV1 frame merge bitstream filter
• AV1 Annex B demuxer
• axcorrelate filter
• mvdv decoder
• mvha decoder
• MPEG-H 3D Audio support in mp4
• thistogram filter
• freezeframes filter
• Argonaut Games ADPCM decoder
• Argonaut Games ASF demuxer
• xfade video filter
• xfade_opencl filter
• afirsrc audio filter source
• pad_opencl filter
• Simon & Schuster Interactive ADPCM decoder
• Real War KVAG demuxer
• CDToons video decoder
• siren audio decoder
• Rayman 2 ADPCM decoder
• Rayman 2 APM demuxer
• cas video filter
• High Voltage Software ADPCM decoder
• LEGO Racers ALP (.tun & .pcm) demuxer
• AMQP 0-9-1 protocol (RabbitMQ)
• Vulkan support
• avgblur_vulkan, overlay_vulkan, scale_vulkan and chromaber_vulkan filters
• ADPCM IMA MTF decoder
• FWSE demuxer
• DERF DPCM decoder
• DERF demuxer
• CRI HCA decoder
• CRI HCA demuxer
• overlay_cuda filter
• switch from AvxSynth to AviSynth+ on Linux
• mv30 decoder
• Expanded styling support for 3GPP Timed Text Subtitles (movtext)
• WebP parser
• tmedian filter
• maskedthreshold filter
• Support for muxing pcm and pgs in m2ts
• Cunning Developments ADPCM decoder
• asubboost filter
• Pro Pinball Series Soundbank demuxer
• pcm_rechunk bitstream filter
• scdet filter
• NotchLC decoder
• gradients source video filter
• MediaFoundation encoder wrapper
• untile filter
• Simon & Schuster Interactive ADPCM encoder
• PFM decoder
• dblur video filter
• Real War KVAG muxer

We strongly recommend users, distributors, and system integrators to upgrade unless they use current git master.

October 5th, 2019, Bright Lights

FFmpeg has added a realtime bright flash removal filter to libavfilter.

Note that this filter is not FDA approved, nor are we medical professionals. Nor has this filter been tested with anyone who has photosensitive epilepsy. FFmpeg and its photosensitivity filter are not making any medical claims.

That said, this is a new video filter that may help photosensitive people watch tv, play video games or even be used with a VR headset to block out epiletic triggers such as filtered sunlight when they are outside. Or you could use it against those annoying white flashes on your tv screen. The filter fails on some input, such as the Incredibles 2 Screen Slaver scene. It is not perfect. If you have other clips that you want this filter to work better on, please report them to us on our trac.

See for yourself. Example was made with -vf photosensitivity=20:0.8

We are not professionals. Please use this in your medical studies to advance epilepsy research. If you decide to use this in a medical setting, or make a hardware hdmi input output realtime tv filter, or find another use for this, please let me know. This filter was a feature request of mine since 2013.

August 5th, 2019, FFmpeg 4.2 'Ada'

FFmpeg 4.2 'Ada', a new major release, is now available! Some of the highlights:

• tpad filter
• AV1 decoding support through libdav1d
• dedot filter
• chromashift and rgbashift filters
• freezedetect filter
• truehd_core bitstream filter
• dhav demuxer
• PCM-DVD encoder
• GIF parser
• vividas demuxer
• hymt decoder
• anlmdn filter
• maskfun filter
• hcom demuxer and decoder
• ARBC decoder
• libaribb24 based ARIB STD-B24 caption support (profiles A and C)
• Support decoding of HEVC 4:4:4 content in nvdec and cuviddec
• removed libndi-newtek
• agm decoder
• KUX demuxer
• AV1 frame split bitstream filter
• lscr decoder
• lagfun filter
• asoftclip filter
• Support decoding of HEVC 4:4:4 content in vdpau
• colorhold filter
• xmedian filter
• asr filter
• showspatial multimedia filter
• VP4 video decoder
• IFV demuxer
• derain filter
• deesser filter
• mov muxer writes tracks with unspecified language instead of English by default
• added support for using clang to compile CUDA kernels

We strongly recommend users, distributors, and system integrators to upgrade unless they use current git master.

November 6th, 2018, FFmpeg 4.1 'al-Khwarizmi'

FFmpeg 4.1 'al-Khwarizmi', a new major release, is now available! Some of the highlights:

• deblock filter
• tmix filter
• amplify filter
• fftdnoiz filter
• aderivative and aintegral audio filters
• pal75bars and pal100bars video filter sources
• mbedTLS based TLS support
• adeclick and adeclip filters
• libtensorflow backend for DNN based filters like srcnn
• VC1 decoder is now bit-exact
• ATRAC9 decoder
• lensfun wrapper filter
• colorconstancy filter
• AVS2 video decoder via libdavs2
• IMM4 video decoder
• Brooktree ProSumer video decoder
• MatchWare Screen Capture Codec decoder
• WinCam Motion Video decoder
• 1D LUT filter (lut1d)
• RemotelyAnywhere Screen Capture decoder
• cue and acue filters
• Support for AV1 in MP4 and Matroska/WebM
• transpose_npp filter
• AVS2 video encoder via libxavs2
• amultiply filter
• Block-Matching 3d (bm3d) denoising filter
• acrossover filter
• ilbc decoder
• audio denoiser as afftdn filter
• AV1 parser
• sinc audio filter source
• chromahold filter
• setparams filter
• vibrance filter
• S12M timecode decoding in h264
• xstack filter
• (a)graphmonitor filter
• yadif_cuda filter

We strongly recommend users, distributors, and system integrators to upgrade unless they use current git master.

April 20th, 2018, FFmpeg 4.0 'Wu'

FFmpeg 4.0 'Wu', a new major release, is now available! Some of the highlights:

• Bitstream filters for editing metadata in H.264, HEVC and MPEG-2 streams
• Experimental MagicYUV encoder
• TiVo ty/ty+ demuxer
• Intel QSV-accelerated MJPEG encoding
• native aptX and aptX HD encoder and decoder
• NVIDIA NVDEC-accelerated H.264, HEVC, MJPEG, MPEG-1/2/4, VC1, VP8/9 hwaccel decoding
• Intel QSV-accelerated overlay filter
• mcompand audio filter
• acontrast audio filter
• OpenCL overlay filter
• video mix filter
• video normalize filter
• audio lv2 wrapper filter
• VAAPI MJPEG and VP8 decoding
• AMD AMF H.264 and HEVC encoders
• video fillborders filter
• video setrange filter
• support LibreSSL (via libtls)
• Dropped support for building for Windows XP. The minimum supported Windows version is Windows Vista.
• deconvolve video filter
• entropy video filter
• hilbert audio filter source
• aiir audio filter
• Removed the ffserver program
• Removed the ffmenc and ffmdec muxer and demuxer
• VideoToolbox HEVC encoder and hwaccel
• VAAPI-accelerated ProcAmp (color balance), denoise and sharpness filters
• Add android_camera indev
• codec2 en/decoding via libcodec2
• native SBC encoder and decoder
• drmeter audio filter
• hapqa_extract bitstream filter
• filter_units bitstream filter
• AV1 Support through libaom
• E-AC-3 dependent frames support
• bitstream filter for extracting E-AC-3 core
• Haivision SRT protocol via libsrt
• vfrdet filter

We strongly recommend users, distributors, and system integrators to upgrade unless they use current git master.

October 15th, 2017, FFmpeg 3.4 'Cantor'

FFmpeg 3.4 'Cantor', a new major release, is now available! Some of the highlights:

• deflicker video filter
• doubleweave video filter
• lumakey video filter
• pixscope video filter
• oscilloscope video filter
• update cuvid/nvenc headers to Video Codec SDK 8.0.14
• afir audio filter
• scale_cuda CUDA based video scale filter
• librsvg support for svg rasterization
• crossfeed audio filter
• spec compliant VP9 muxing support in MP4
• surround audio filter
• sofalizer filter switched to libmysofa
• Gremlin Digital Video demuxer and decoder
• headphone audio filter
• superequalizer audio filter
• roberts video filter
• additional frame format support for Interplay MVE movies
• support for decoding through D3D11VA in ffmpeg
• limiter video filter
• libvmaf video filter
• Dolby E decoder and SMPTE 337M demuxer
• unpremultiply video filter
• tlut2 video filter
• floodfill video filter
• pseudocolor video filter
• raw G.726 muxer and demuxer, left- and right-justified
• NewTek NDI input/output device
• FITS demuxer and decoder
• FITS muxer and encoder
• despill video filter
• haas audio filter
• SUP/PGS subtitle muxer
• convolve video filter
• VP9 tile threading support
• KMS screen grabber
• CUDA thumbnail filter
• V4L2 mem2mem HW assisted codecs
• Rockchip MPP hardware decoding
• vmafmotion video filter

We strongly recommend users, distributors, and system integrators to upgrade unless they use current git master.

April 13th, 2017, FFmpeg 3.3 'Hilbert'

FFmpeg 3.3 'Hilbert', a new major release, is now available! Some of the highlights:

• Apple Pixlet decoder
• NewTek SpeedHQ decoder
• QDMC audio decoder
• PSD (Photoshop Document) decoder
• FM Screen Capture decoder
• ScreenPressor decoder
• XPM decoder
• DNxHR decoder fixes for HQX and high resolution videos
• ClearVideo decoder (partial)
• 16.8 and 24.0 floating point PCM decoder
• Intel QSV-accelerated VP8 video decoding
• native Opus encoder
• DNxHR 444 and HQX encoding
• Quality improvements for the (M)JPEG encoder
• VAAPI-accelerated MPEG-2 and VP8 encoding
• premultiply video filter
• abitscope multimedia filter
• readeia608 filter
• threshold filter
• midequalizer filter
• MPEG-7 Video Signature filter
• add internal ebur128 library, remove external libebur128 dependency
• Intel QSV video scaling and deinterlacing filters
• Sample Dump eXchange demuxer
• MIDI Sample Dump Standard demuxer
• Scenarist Closed Captions demuxer and muxer
• Support MOV with multiple sample description tables
• Pro-MPEG CoP #3-R2 FEC protocol
• Support for spherical videos
• CrystalHD decoder moved to new decode API
• configure now fails if autodetect-libraries are requested but not found

We strongly recommend users, distributors, and system integrators to upgrade unless they use current git master.

October 30th, 2016, Results: Summer Of Code 2016.

This has been a long time coming but we wanted to give a proper closure to our participation in this run of the program and it takes time. Sometimes it's just to get the final report for each project trimmed down, others, is finalizing whatever was still in progress when the program finished: final patches need to be merged, TODO lists stabilized, future plans agreed; you name it.

Without further ado, here's the silver-lining for each one of the projects we sought to complete during this Summer of Code season:

FFv1 (Mentor: Michael Niedermayer)

Stanislav Dolganov designed and implemented experimental support for motion estimation and compensation in the lossless FFV1 codec. The design and implementation is based on the snow video codec, which uses OBMC. Stanislav's work proved that significant compression gains can be achieved with inter frame compression. FFmpeg welcomes Stanislav to continue working beyond this proof of concept and bring its advances into the official FFV1 specification within the IETF.

Self test coverage (Mentor: Michael Niedermayer)

Petru Rares Sincraian added several self-tests to FFmpeg and successfully went through the in-some-cases tedious process of fine tuning tests parameters to avoid known and hard to avoid problems, like checksum mismatches due to rounding errors on the myriad of platforms we support. His work has improved the code coverage of our self tests considerably.

MPEG-4 ALS encoder implementation (Mentor: Thilo Borgmann)

Umair Khan updated and integrated the ALS encoder to fit in the current FFmpeg codebase. He also implemented a missing feature for the ALS decoder that enables floating-point sample decoding. FFmpeg support for MPEG-4 ALS has been improved significantly by Umair's work. We welcome him to keep maintaining his improvements and hope for great contributions to come.

Tee muxer improvements (Mentor: Marton Balint)

Ján Sebechlebský's generic goal was to improve the tee muxer so it tolerated blocking IO and allowed transparent error recovery. During the design phase it turned out that this functionality called for a separate muxer, so Ján spent his summer working on the so-called FIFO muxer, gradually fixing issues all over the codebase. He succeeded in his task, and the FIFO muxer is now part of the main repository, alongside several other improvements he made in the process.

TrueHD encoder (Mentor: Rostislav Pehlivanov)

Jai Luthra's objective was to update the out-of-tree and pretty much abandoned MLP (Meridian Lossless Packing) encoder for libavcodec and improve it to enable encoding to the TrueHD format. For the qualification period the encoder was updated such that it was usable and throughout the summer, successfully improved adding support for multi-channel audio and TrueHD encoding. Jai's code has been merged into the main repository now. While a few problems remain with respect to LFE channel and 32 bit sample handling, these are in the process of being fixed such that effort can be finally put in improving the encoder's speed and efficiency.

Motion interpolation filter (Mentor: Paul B Mahol)

Davinder Singh investigated existing motion estimation and interpolation approaches from the available literature and previous work by our own: Michael Niedermayer, and implemented filters based on this research. These filters allow motion interpolating frame rate conversion to be applied to a video, for example, to create a slow motion effect or change the frame rate while smoothly interpolating the video along the motion vectors. There's still work to be done to call these filters 'finished', which is rather hard all things considered, but we are looking optimistically at their future.

And that's it. We are happy with the results of the program and immensely thankful for the opportunity of working with such an amazing set of students. We can be a tough crowd but our mentors did an amazing job at hand holding our interns through their journey. Thanks also to Google for this wonderful program and to everyone that made room in their busy lives to help making GSoC2016 a success. See you in 2017!

September 24th, 2016, SDL1 support dropped.

Support for the SDL1 library has been dropped, due to it no longer being maintained (as of January, 2012) and it being superseded by the SDL2 library. As a result, the SDL1 output device has also been removed and replaced by an SDL2 implementation. Both the ffplay and opengl output devices have been updated to support SDL2.

August 9th, 2016, FFmpeg 3.1.2 'Laplace'

FFmpeg 3.1.2, a new point release from the 3.1 release branch, is now available! It fixes several bugs.

We recommend users, distributors, and system integrators, to upgrade unless they use current git master.

July 10th, 2016, ffserver program being dropped

After thorough deliberation, we're announcing that we're about to drop the ffserver program from the project starting with the next release. ffserver has been a problematic program to maintain due to its use of internal APIs, which complicated the recent cleanups to the libavformat library, and block further cleanups and improvements which are desired by API users and will be easier to maintain. Furthermore the program has been hard for users to deploy and run due to reliability issues, lack of knowledgable people to help and confusing configuration file syntax. Current users and members of the community are invited to write a replacement program to fill the same niche that ffserver did using the new APIs and to contact us so we may point users to test and contribute to its development.

July 1st, 2016, FFmpeg 3.1.1 'Laplace'

FFmpeg 3.1.1, a new point release from the 3.1 release branch, is now available! It mainly deals with a few ABI issues introduced in the previous release.

We strongly recommend users, distributors, and system integrators, especially those who experienced issues upgrading from 3.0, to upgrade unless they use current git master.

June 27th, 2016, FFmpeg 3.1 'Laplace'

FFmpeg 3.1 'Laplace', a new major release, is now available! Some of the highlights:

• DXVA2-accelerated HEVC Main10 decoding
• fieldhint filter
• loop video filter and aloop audio filter
• Bob Weaver deinterlacing filter
• firequalizer filter
• datascope filter
• bench and abench filters
• ciescope filter
• protocol blacklisting API
• MediaCodec H264 decoding
• VC-2 HQ RTP payload format (draft v1) depacketizer and packetizer
• VP9 RTP payload format (draft v2) packetizer
• AudioToolbox audio decoders
• AudioToolbox audio encoders
• coreimage filter (GPU based image filtering on OSX)
• libdcadec removed
• bitstream filter for extracting DTS core
• ADPCM IMA DAT4 decoder
• musx demuxer
• aix demuxer
• remap filter
• hash and framehash muxers
• colorspace filter
• hdcd filter
• readvitc filter
• VAAPI-accelerated format conversion and scaling
• libnpp/CUDA-accelerated format conversion and scaling
• Duck TrueMotion 2.0 Real Time decoder
• Wideband Single-bit Data (WSD) demuxer
• VAAPI-accelerated H.264/HEVC/MJPEG encoding
• DTS Express (LBR) decoder
• Generic OpenMAX IL encoder with support for Raspberry Pi
• IFF ANIM demuxer & decoder
• Direct Stream Transfer (DST) decoder
• loudnorm filter
• MTAF demuxer and decoder
• MagicYUV decoder
• OpenExr improvements (tile data and B44/B44A support)
• BitJazz SheerVideo decoder
• CUDA CUVID H264/HEVC decoder
• 10-bit depth support in native utvideo decoder
• libutvideo wrapper removed
• YUY2 Lossless Codec decoder
• VideoToolbox H.264 encoder

We strongly recommend users, distributors, and system integrators to upgrade unless they use current git master.

March 16th, 2016, Google Summer of Code

FFmpeg has been accepted as a Google Summer of Code open source organization. If you wish to participate as a student see our project ideas page. You can already get in contact with mentors and start working on qualification tasks as well as register at google and submit your project proposal draft. Good luck!

February 15th, 2016, FFmpeg 3.0 'Einstein'

FFmpeg 3.0 'Einstein', a new major release, is now available! Some of the highlights:

• Over 30 new filters have been added
• Many ASM optimizations
• VP9 Hardware Acceleration (DXVA2 and VA-API)
• Cineform HD decoder
• New DCA decoder based on libdcadec with full support for DTS-HD extensions
• As with all major releases expect major backward incompatible API/ABI changes
• See the Changelog for a list of more updates

We strongly recommend users, distributors, and system integrators to upgrade unless they use current git master.

January 30, 2016, Removing support for two external AAC encoders

We have just removed support for VisualOn AAC encoder (libvo-aacenc) and libaacplus in FFmpeg master.

Even before marking our internal AAC encoder as stable, it was known that libvo-aacenc was of an inferior quality compared to our native one for most samples. However, the VisualOn encoder was used extensively by the Android Open Source Project, and we would like to have a tested-and-true stable option in our code base.

Free download games lion. When first committed in 2011, libaacplus filled in the gap of encoding High Efficiency AAC formats (HE-AAC and HE-AACv2), which was not supported by any of the encoders in FFmpeg at that time.

The circumstances for both have changed. After the work spearheaded by Rostislav Pehlivanov and Claudio Freire, the now-stable FFmpeg native AAC encoder is ready to compete with much more mature encoders. The Fraunhofer FDK AAC Codec Library for Android was added in 2012 as the fourth supported external AAC encoder, and the one with the best quality and the most features supported, including HE-AAC and HE-AACv2.

Therefore, we have decided that it is time to remove libvo-aacenc and libaacplus. If you are currently using libvo-aacenc, prepare to transition to the native encoder (aac) when updating to the next version of FFmpeg. In most cases it is as simple as merely swapping the encoder name. If you are currently using libaacplus, start using FDK AAC (libfdk_aac) with an appropriate profile option to select the exact AAC profile that fits your needs. In both cases, you will enjoy an audible quality improvement and as well as fewer licensing headaches.

Enjoy!

January 16, 2016, FFmpeg 2.8.5, 2.7.5, 2.6.7, 2.5.10

We have made several new point releases (2.8.5, 2.7.5, 2.6.7, 2.5.10). They fix various bugs, as well as CVE-2016-1897 and CVE-2016-1898. Please see the changelog for each release for more details.

We recommend users, distributors and system integrators to upgrade unless they use current git master.

December 5th, 2015, The native FFmpeg AAC encoder is now stable!

After seven years the native FFmpeg AAC encoder has had its experimental flag removed and declared as ready for general use. The encoder is transparent at 128kbps for most samples tested with artifacts only appearing in extreme cases. Subjective quality tests put the encoder to be of equal or greater quality than most of the other encoders available to the public.

Licensing has always been an issue with encoding AAC audio as most of the encoders have had a license making FFmpeg unredistributable if compiled with support for them. The fact that there now exists a fully open and truly free AAC encoder integrated directly within the project means a lot to those who wish to use accepted and widespread standards.

The majority of the work done to bring the encoder up to quality was started during this year's GSoC by developer Claudio Freire and Rostislav Pehlivanov. Both continued to work on the encoder with the latter joining as a developer and mainainer, working on other parts of the project as well. Also, thanks to Kamedo2 who does comparisons and tests, the original authors and all past and current contributors to the encoder. Users are suggested and encouraged to use the encoder and provide feedback or breakage reports through our bug tracker.

October 13th, 2015, Telepoint & MediaHub are now supporting our project

A big thank you note goes to our newest supporters: MediaHub and Telepoint. Both companies have donated a dedicated server with free of charge internet connectivity. Here is a little bit about them in their own words:

• Telepoint is the biggest carrier-neutral data center in Bulgaria. Located in the heart of Sofia on a cross-road of many Bulgarian and International networks, the facility is a fully featured Tier 3 data center that provides flexible customer-oriented colocation solutions (ranging from a server to a private collocation hall) and a high level of security.

• MediaHub Ltd. is a Bulgarian IPTV platform and services provider which uses FFmpeg heavily since it started operating a year ago. 'Donating to help keep FFmpeg online is our way of giving back to the community' .

Thanks Telepoint and MediaHub for their support!

September 29th, 2015, GSoC 2015 results

FFmpeg participated to the latest edition of the Google Summer of Code Project. FFmpeg got a total of 8 assigned projects, and 7 of them were successful.

We want to thank Google, the participating students, and especially the mentors who joined this effort. We're looking forward to participating in the next GSoC edition!

Below you can find a brief description of the final outcome of each single project.

Basic servers for network protocols, mentee: Stephan Holljes, mentor: Nicolas George

Stephan Holljes's project for this session of Google Summer of Code was to implement basic HTTP server features for libavformat, to complement the already present HTTP client and RTMP and RTSP server code.

The first part of the project was to make the HTTP code capable of accepting a single client; it was completed partly during the qualification period and partly during the first week of the summer. Thanks to this work, it is now possible to make a simple HTTP stream using the following commands:

The next part of the project was to extend the code to be able to accept several clients, simultaneously or consecutively. Since libavformat did not have an API for that kind of task, it was necessary to design one. This part was mostly completed before the midterm and applied shortly afterwards. Since the ffmpeg command-line tool is not ready to serve several clients, the test ground for that new API is an example program serving hard-coded content.

The last and most ambitious part of the project was to update ffserver to make use of the new API. It would prove that the API is usable to implement real HTTP servers, and expose the points where more control was needed. By the end of the summer, a first working patch series was undergoing code review.

Browsing content on the server, mentee: Mariusz Szczepańczyk, mentor: Lukasz Marek

Mariusz finished an API prepared by the FFmpeg community and implemented Samba directory listing as qualification task.

During the program he extended the API with the possibility to remove and rename files on remote servers. He completed the implementation of these features for file, Samba, SFTP, and FTP protocols.

At the end of the program, Mariusz provided a sketch of an implementation for HTTP directory listening.

Directshow digital video capture, mentee: Mate Sebok, mentor: Roger Pack

Mate was working on directshow input from digital video sources. He got working input from ATSC input sources, with specifiable tuner.

The code has not been committed, but a patch of it was sent to the ffmpeg-devel mailing list for future use.

The mentor plans on cleaning it up and committing it, at least for the ATSC side of things. Mate and the mentor are still working trying to finally figure out how to get DVB working.

Implementing full support for 3GPP Timed Text Subtitles, mentee: Niklesh Lalwani, mentor: Philip Langdale

Niklesh's project was to expand our support for 3GPP Timed Text subtitles. This is the native subtitle format for mp4 containers, and is interesting because it's usually the only subtitle format supported by the stock playback applications on iOS and Android devices.

ffmpeg already had basic support for these subtitles which ignored all formatting information - it just provided basic plain-text support.

Niklesh did work to add support on both the encode and decode side for text formatting capabilities, such as font size/colour and effects like bold/italics, highlighting, etc.

The main challenge here is that Timed Text handles formatting in a very different way from most common subtitle formats. It uses a binary encoding (based on mp4 boxes, naturally) and stores information separately from the text itself. This requires additional work to track which parts of the text formatting applies to, and explicitly dealing with overlapping formatting (which other formats support but Timed Text does not) so it requires breaking the overlapping sections into separate non-overlapping ones with different formatting.

Finally, Niklesh had to be careful about not trusting any size information in the subtitles - and that's no joke: the now infamous Android stagefright bug was in code for parsing Timed Text subtitles.

All of Niklesh's work is committed and was released in ffmpeg 2.8.

libswscale refactoring, mentee: Pedro Arthur, mentors: Michael Niedermayer, Ramiro Polla

Pedro Arthur has modularized the vertical and horizontal scalers. To do this he designed and implemented a generic filter framework and moved the existing scaler code into it. These changes now allow easily adding removing, splitting or merging processing steps. The implementation was benchmarked and several alternatives were tried to avoid speed loss.

He also added gamma corrected scaling support. An example to use gamma corrected scaling would be:

Pedro has done impressive work considering the short time available, and he is a FFmpeg committer now. He continues to contribute to FFmpeg, and has fixed some bugs in libswscale after GSoC has ended.

AAC Encoder Improvements, mentee: Rostislav Pehlivanov, mentor: Claudio Freire

Rostislav Pehlivanov has implemented PNS, TNS, I/S coding and main prediction on the native AAC encoder. Of all those extensions, only TNS was left in a less-than-usable state, but the implementation has been pushed (disabled) anyway since it's a good basis for further improvements.

PNS replaces noisy bands with a single scalefactor representing the energy of that band, gaining in coding efficiency considerably, and the quality improvements on low bitrates are impressive for such a simple feature.

TNS still needs some polishing, but has the potential to reduce coding artifacts by applying noise shaping in the temporal domain (something that is a source of annoying, notable distortion on low-entropy bands).

Intensity Stereo coding (I/S) can double coding efficiency by exploiting strong correlation between stereo channels, most effective on pop-style tracks that employ panned mixing. The technique is not as effective on classic X-Y recordings though.

Finally, main prediction improves coding efficiency by exploiting correlation among successive frames. While the gains have not been huge at this point, Rostislav has remained active even after the GSoC, and is polishing both TNS and main prediction, as well as looking for further improvements to make.

In the process, the MIPS port of the encoder was broken a few times, something he's also working to fix.

Animated Portable Network Graphics (APNG), mentee: Donny Yang, mentor: Paul B Mahol

Donny Yang implemented basic keyframe only APNG encoder as the qualification task. Later he wrote interframe compression via various blend modes. The current implementation tries all blend modes and picks one which takes the smallest amount of memory.

Special care was taken to make sure that the decoder plays correctly all files found in the wild and that the encoder produces files that can be played in browsers that support APNG.

During his work he was tasked to fix any encountered bug in the decoder due to the fact that it doesn't match APNG specifications. Thanks to this work, a long standing bug in the PNG decoder has been fixed.

For latter work he plans to continue working on the encoder, making it possible to select which blend modes will be used in the encoding process. This could speed up encoding of APNG files.

September 9th, 2015, FFmpeg 2.8

We published release 2.8 as new major version. It contains all features and bug fixes of the git master branch from September 8th. Please see the changelog for a list of the most important changes. Ibm mq explorer.

We recommend users, distributors and system integrators to upgrade unless they use current git master.

August 1st, 2015, A message from the FFmpeg project

Dear multimedia community,

The resignation of Michael Niedermayer as leader of FFmpeg yesterday has come by surprise. He has worked tirelessly on the FFmpeg project for many years and we must thank him for the work that he has done. We hope that in the future he will continue to contribute to the project. In the coming weeks, the FFmpeg project will be managed by the active contributors.

The last four years have not been easy for our multimedia community - both contributors and users. We should now look to the future, try to find solutions to these issues, and to have reconciliation between the forks, which have split the community for so long.

Unfortunately, much of the disagreement has taken place in inappropriate venues so far, which has made finding common ground and solutions difficult. We aim to discuss this in our communities online over the coming weeks, and in person at the VideoLAN Developer Days in Paris in September: a neutral venue for the entire open source multimedia community.

The FFmpeg project.

July 4th, 2015, FFmpeg needs a new host

UPDATE: We have received more than 7 offers for hosting and servers, thanks a lot to everyone!

After graciously hosting our projects (FFmpeg, MPlayer and rtmpdump) for 4 years, Arpi (our hoster) has informed us that we have to secure a new host somewhere else immediately.

If you want to host an open source project, please let us know, either on ffmpeg-devel mailing list or irc.freenode.net #ffmpeg-devel.

We use about 4TB of storage and at least 4TB of bandwidth / month for various mailing lists, trac, samples repo, svn, etc.

March 16, 2015, FFmpeg 2.6.1

We have made a new major release (2.6) and now one week afterward 2.6.1. It contains all features and bugfixes of the git master branch from the 6th March. Please see the Release Notes for a list of note-worthy changes.

We recommend users, distributors and system integrators to upgrade unless they use current git master.

March 4, 2015, Google Summer of Code

FFmpeg has been accepted as a Google Summer of Code Project. If you wish to participate as a student see our project ideas page. You can already get in contact with mentors and start working on qualification tasks. Registration at Google for students will open March 16th. Good luck!

March 1, 2015, Chemnitzer Linux-Tage

We happily announce that FFmpeg will be represented at Chemnitzer Linux-Tage (CLT) in Chemnitz, Germany. The event will take place on 21st and 22nd of March.

More information can be found here

We demonstrate usage of FFmpeg, answer your questions and listen to your problems and wishes. If you have media files that cannot be processed correctly with FFmpeg, be sure to have a sample with you so we can have a look!

For the first time in our CLT history, there will be an FFmpeg workshop! You can read the details here. The workshop is targeted at FFmpeg beginners. First the basics of multimedia will be covered. Thereafter you will learn how to use that knowledge and the FFmpeg CLI tools to analyse and process media files. The workshop is in German language only and prior registration is necessary. The workshop will be on Saturday starting at 10 o'clock.

We are looking forward to meet you (again)!

December 5, 2014, FFmpeg 2.5

We have made a new major release (2.5) It contains all features and bugfixes of the git master branch from the 4th December. Please see the Release Notes for a list of note-worthy changes.

We recommend users, distributors and system integrators to upgrade unless they use current git master.

October 10, 2014, FFmpeg is in Debian unstable again

We wanted you to know there are FFmpeg packages in Debian unstable again. A big thank-you to Andreas Cadhalpun and all the people that made it possible. It has been anything but simple.

Unfortunately that was already the easy part of this news. The bad news is the packages probably won't migrate to Debian testing to be in the upcoming release codenamed jessie. Read the argumentation over at Debian.

However things will come out in the end, we hope for your continued remarkable support!

October 8, 2014, FFmpeg secured a place in OPW!

Thanks to a generous 6K USD donation by Samsung (Open Source Group), FFmpeg will be welcoming at least 1 'Outreach Program for Women' intern to work with our community for an initial period starting December 2014 (through March 2015).

We all know FFmpeg is used by the industry, but even while there are countless products building on our code, it is not at all common for companies to step up and help us out when needed. So a big thank-you to Samsung and the OPW program committee!

If you are thinking on participating in OPW as an intern, please take a look at our OPW wiki page for some initial guidelines. The page is still a work in progress, but there should be enough information there to get you started. If you, on the other hand, are thinking on sponsoring work on FFmpeg through the OPW program, please get in touch with us at opw@ffmpeg.org. With your help, we might be able to secure some extra intern spots for this round!

September 15, 2014, FFmpeg 2.4

We have made a new major release (2.4) It contains all features and bugfixes of the git master branch from the 14th September. Please see the Release Notes for a list of note-worthy changes.

We recommend users, distributors and system integrators to upgrade unless they use current git master.

August 20, 2014, FFmpeg 2.3.3, 2.2.7, 1.2.8

We have made several new point releases (2.3.3, 2.2.7, 1.2.8). They fix various bugs, as well as CVE-2014-5271 and CVE-2014-5272. Please see the changelog for more details.

We recommend users, distributors and system integrators to upgrade unless they use current git master.

July 29, 2014, Help us out securing our spot in OPW

Following our previous post regarding our participation on this year's OPW (Outreach Program for Women), we are now reaching out to our users (both individuals and companies) to help us gather the needed money to secure our spot in the program.
We need to put together 6K USD as a minimum but securing more funds would help us towards getting more than one intern.
You can donate by credit card using Click&Pledge and selecting the 'OPW' option. If you would like to donate by money transfer or by check, please get in touch by e-mail and we will get back to you with instructions.
Thanks!

July 20, 2014, New website

The FFmpeg project is proud to announce a brand new version of the website made by db0. While this was initially motivated by the need for a larger menu, the whole website ended up being redesigned, and most pages got reworked to ease navigation. We hope you'll enjoy browsing it.

July 17, 2014, FFmpeg 2.3

We have made a new major release (2.3) It contains all features and bugfixes of the git master branch from the 16th July. Please see the Release Notes for a list of note-worthy changes.

We recommend users, distributors and system integrators to upgrade unless they use current git master.

July 3, 2014, FFmpeg and the Outreach Program For Women

FFmpeg has started the process to become an OPW includer organization for the next round of the program, with internships starting December 9. The OPW aims to 'Help women (cis and trans) and genderqueer to get involved in free and open source software'. Part of the process requires securing funds to support at least one internship (6K USD), so if you were holding on your donation to FFmpeg, this is a great chance for you to come forward, get in touch and help both the project and a great initiative!

We have set up an email address you can use to contact us about donations and general inquires regarding our participation in the program. Hope to hear from you soon!

June 29, 2014, FFmpeg 2.2.4, 2.1.5, 2.0.5, 1.2.7, 1.1.12, 0.10.14

We have made several new point releases (2.2.4, 2.1.5, 2.0.5, 1.2.7, 1.1.12, 0.10.14). They fix a security issue in the LZO implementation, as well as several other bugs. See the git log for details.

We recommend users, distributors and system integrators to upgrade unless they use current git master.

May 1, 2014, LinuxTag

Once again FFmpeg will be represented at LinuxTag in Berlin, Germany. The event will take place from 8th to 10th of May. Please note that this year's LinuxTag is at a different location closer to the city center.

We will have a shared booth with XBMC and VideoLAN. If you have media files that cannot be processed correctly with FFmpeg, be sure to have a sample with you so we can have a look!

More information about LinuxTag can be found here

We are looking forward to see you in Berlin!

April 18, 2014, OpenSSL Heartbeat bug

Our server hosting the Trac issue tracker was vulnerable to the attack against OpenSSL known as 'heartbleed'. The OpenSSL software library was updated on 7th of April, shortly after the vulnerability was publicly disclosed. We have changed the private keys (and certificates) for all FFmpeg servers. The details were sent to the mailing lists by Alexander Strasser, who is part of the project server team. Here is a link to the user mailing list archive .

We encourage you to read up on 'OpenSSL heartbleed'. It is possible that login data for the issue tracker was exposed to people exploiting this security hole. You might want to change your password in the tracker and everywhere else you used that same password.

April 11, 2014, FFmpeg 2.2.1

We have made a new point releases (2.2.1). It contains bug fixes for Tickets #2893, #3432, #3469, #3486, #3495 and #3540 as well as several other fixes. See the git log for details.

March 24, 2014, FFmpeg 2.2

We have made a new major release (2.2) It contains all features and bugfixes of the git master branch from 1st March. A partial list of new stuff is below:

We recommend users, distributors and system integrators to upgrade unless they use current git master.

February 3, 2014, Chemnitzer Linux-Tage

We happily announce that FFmpeg will be represented at `Chemnitzer Linux-Tage' in Chemnitz, Germany. The event will take place on 15th and 16th of March.

More information can be found here

We invite you to visit us at our booth located in the Linux-Live area! There we will demonstrate usage of FFmpeg, answer your questions and listen to your problems and wishes.

If you have media files that cannot be processed correctly with FFmpeg, be sure to have a sample with you so we can have a look!

We are looking forward to meet you (again)!

February 9, 2014, trac.ffmpeg.org / trac.mplayerhq.hu Security Breach

The server on which FFmpeg and MPlayer Trac issue trackers were installed was compromised. The affected server was taken offline and has been replaced and all software reinstalled. FFmpeg Git, releases, FATE, web and mailinglists are on other servers and were not affected. We believe that the original compromise happened to a server, unrelated to FFmpeg and MPlayer, several months ago. That server was used as a source to clone the VM that we recently moved Trac to. It is not known if anyone used the backdoor that was found.

We recommend all users to change their passwords. Especially users who use a password on Trac that they also use elsewhere, should change that password at least elsewhere.

November 12, 2013, FFmpeg RFP in Debian

Since the splitting of Libav the Debian/Ubuntu maintainers have followed the Libav fork. Many people have requested the packaging of ffmpeg in Debian, as it is more feature-complete and in many cases less buggy.

Rogério Brito, a Debian developer, has proposed a Request For Package (RFP) in the Debian bug tracking system.

Please let the Debian and Ubuntu developers know that you support packaging of the real FFmpeg! See Debian ticket #729203 for more details.

October 28, 2013, FFmpeg 2.1

We have made a new major release (2.1) It contains all features and bugfixes of the git master branch from 28th October. A partial list of new stuff is below:

We recommend users, distributors and system integrators to upgrade unless they use current git master.

Need to convert a video on Mac like a breeze? Free download the best free video converter software on Mac to get started.

Your video footages come from everywhere, be it YouTube, Ins, GoPro, DJI, camcorder, screen recorder, mobile device or Windows. Yet, you can't control your video source codec or format. When it comes to play video on iMac or MacBook, QuickTime won't open or QT quits unexpectedly issue occurs. In most cases, that's because your video file is in the wrong format for Mac (MacBook/iMac) default QuickTime player. That's where free video converters for Mac make their mark.

Hunt high and low for a qualified free Mac video transcoder or instead stay here to read on the top 15 video converter freeware for macOS, with their specific pros and cons covered. If you're in a rush and have no time for every converter, just get the hang of our top pick:

Download BEST Mac Video Converter Free

MacX Video Converter features 370 video/audio codecs to convert any (4K) video to MP4, MOV, M4V, HEVC, H.264, AVI, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, iMovie, QT, etc. 420+ profiles with virtually no quality degradation (High Quality Engine). 'Auto Copy' mode gives you 1:1 original quality for only format conversion (codec no change). 5X faster speed & NO input size limit!

Top 15 Video Converting Freeware for macOS

Part 1: Why Need a Video Converter for Mac?

Video conversion is a Mac video converter's bread and butter. And most free video converters for Mac does it simple and painless. Yet, that's not all you resort to them. Instead, you need a video converter for MacBook/iMac with more reasons:

You want to play all videos on your device properly

MP4, MOV, and M4V are pro-Apple ecosystem while WMV and AVI are frequently used in Windows platforms. Formats of high-definition videos shot by camcorders include DV, AVCHD, MPEG-2, H.264, MTS and others. Chances are that you want to import 4K camcorder footages into your iPhone iPad iMovie or put a media file from Windows 10 to macOS.

You want to reduce the size of HD/4K 60FPS videos

Even though Apple employed HEVC codec, 4K videos still chew up iPhone storage space quickly, not to mention videos using H.264 codec. Compressing video to reduce the amount of data will have your needs covered, whether you want to save iPhone iPad space, or transfer through Emails faster. Best video converter for Mac can convert H264 to H265, AV1, VVC with higher compression efficiency, lower parameters, or shorten video duration to reduce (4k) video size for you.

You want to upload videos online smoothly

Videos can be uploaded within allowed length, formats, codecs, aspect ratio and more. Anything incorrect will destroy the upload process. A Mac video converter will address the issues by converting video to YouTube supported MP4 H.264, shorten the video within 15 minutes, downsize video within 128GB, and change the aspect ratio to 16:9, if it isn't.

You want to edit and archive video records and downloads

Some Mac video transcoders, if not all, also help you bulk convert your records or downloads to formats recognized by your Macbook Air/Pro/iMac so as to get well archived on your macOS. They are normally equipped with basic editing features for you to cut, trim, crop, merge, rotate and add subtitles to video to turn your memorable moments into masterpiece. Follow the complete guide to edit videos on Mac >>

Without needing to go to Mac Apple Store for a reliable media converter, here we list the 15 most welcomed free Mac video converter software that features speedy video encoding and delivers a good-looking image. Below is an overview for each of them to help you better know the overall quality.

#1. MacX Video Converter Free Edition

If you have a swelling video library spanning years of 1080p downloads, rips, saved copies, or 4K records taken by your iPhone, action cam, drone, or any other camera, MacX Video Converter Free Edition is absolutely a good option for you to get a head start on the sources, especially when you want to have them well organized, playable, editable or sharable.

MacX supports 370+ codecs and formats, ranging from HEVC, H.264, MP4, MKV, AVI, MOV, VOB, DivX, to AAC, MP3. It simplifies the whole converting process by providing you with as many as 420 preloaded profiles, which automatically set proper video parameters, yielding an optimal balance between quality and file size. That means you can re-encode any 4K/HD/SD video file tailored to fit your device, be it Mac, PC, TV, mobile, or media player.

The video converter for Mac is known for its dramatically fast transcoding performance, thanks to the full GPU acceleration tech. Additionally, you are allowed for precise control of video resolution, codec, bitrate, frame rate, etc, and the source video can be downsized by up to 90%, with no quality loss visually. This is especially helpful to accommodate large 4k videos or high-frame files in storage-limited phones or share them over the internet.

Fast converting speed.

Support 4k/8K video.

Includes video recorder, downloader, and editor.

Keeps a good balance between file size and quality.

Unable to convert audio files on Mac.

No DVD burning feature.

[Tutorial] How do I convert videos on Mac?

When you first launch the free media converter for Mac, you will be very pleased with its low-key and clean interface, with no overwriting or obscure options. Just free download it on your Mac and follow the steps below to start video transcoding. It works well with Apple M1 chip.

1. Import the video source by clicking the 'Add Video' button. Or just drag-and-drop the file. Batch converting is supported. You can add more than one file at a time.
2. Choose output format. MacX is perfused with 420+ device profiles that are clearly classified, from Mac-specific video, web video profile, Apple device profile to DVD profile. Select one as per your needs without further tweaking. Preferably, you can choose MP4 H.264 as the output format.
3. Opt for the destination folder via 'Browse' to save the converted file, and tap 'RUN' to begin the video conversion.

#2. Handbrake

HandBrake is hailed as one of the most favored Mac free video converters to handle pretty much anything you throw at it and to repackage into the most useful formats MP4, MKV and WebM. Though the output formats are limited (only three), the presets are numerous, from general profiles Fast 1080p 30, Super HQ 1080p 30 Surround, web Vimeo YouTube HQ 1080p/720p 60 to device Apple 2160p60 4K HEVC Surround, Apple 1080p30 Surround.

Output video quality won't let you down. Balance your quality and file size by means of Constant Quality (RF value) or Avg Bitrate on HandBrake. Read the below detailed tips on how to calculate Handbrake bitrate and adjust constant quality if needed. Also a boon for conversion speed: its support for Apple VideoToolbox will hardware encode H264 & H265 video so as to accelerate converting speed as well as shift compute burdens from CPU to GPU (lower CPU usage).

All in all, HandBrake is a decent option if you don't mind its old-fashioned yet non-intuitive interface or limited 2 output formats, alongside with lack in video editing features.

Provide a slew of customization options.

Built-in settings to improve quality and conversion speed.

Open-source and 100% free.

The interface is not overly intuitive at first glance.

Plagued by the issue of slow conversion speed.

Basic video editing features are absent.

Only hardware encoder is available for HandBrake macOS version, no hardware decoder.

[Tutorial] How to convert a video on a Mac with Handbrake?

1. To free convert video on Mac with Handbrake, load video via the 'Open Source' button (no drag-drop option).
2. Select a preset from the drop-down list. There are readymade profiles including General, Web, Devices such as Amazon, Apple, Chromecast, Roku, etc, and Matroska. Each offers detailed video resolution from 480p to 2160p and a frame rate from 25fps to 60fps, meant to suit your device screen or web upload requirement.
3. Adjust the quality settings. Handbrake provides a slew of customizable settings. For newbie users, it's OK to stick with the defaults. For advanced users, there are a lot of available options, incl. video codec, Bit rate, 2-path encoding, audio sample rate, subtitles, etc. Generally, increasing quality will make converted video take up more space on your device. For the best result, we recommend RF 20-24 for 1080p, and RF 22-28 for 2160p 4K video. For more details, check here.
4. Click Browse and select a destination where you can save your converted video.
5. Afterwards, just click the 'Start' button on the toolbar. This Mac video converter freeware's decoding & encoding engine will go into action.

1. There is no large gap between Very Fast and Fast profile or HQ and Super HD in file size, but a big difference in conversion speed. If you have a bunch of videos to convert, you'd better choose Fast if speed matters a lot to you. But if you care about the quality, go for the HQ preset.

2. Unlike HandBrake for Windows, HandBrake for macOS has no options for you to manually enable or disable hardware encoder. Instead, HandBrake for macOS will auto show up the Apple VideoToolbox hardware encoders (H264 VideoToolbox or H265 VideoToolbox) under the encoder control on the Video tab if you're running on 2015 or later Macs. Option of the underlying hardware encoder (AMD VCE or Intel Quick Sync Video) is inaccessible currently.

#3. Smart Converter

Smart Converter is the only free media converter you can download directly from Mac App Store. It is a preset-based video converter that's able to handle 100 file types and convert them quickly so you can play on Apple TV, QuickTime, Mac, iPad, iPhone, and more without any additional settings. If you don't want the fuss of additional iTunes sync, Smart Converter is a good helper, which adds the converted movies or music to iTunes automatically.

The converting speed is pretty commendable. By categorizing the conversion speeds in 4 modes: Fastest, Fast, Slow, Slowest, it immediately targets the part of your video that needs converting and leaves the rest alone. This dramatically saves converting time and avoids undertaking the unnecessary processes. There is a ceveat: Smart Converter always adds your converted files to iTunes, TV, music app. You have to upgrade to the Pro version if you want to get control over the automatic syncing.

Intelligently convert the stuff you need once you drop it.

Preloaded with profiles for various devices.

Add the converted video to iTunes automatically.

No advanced options.

No support for adding subtitles.

[Tutorial] How do I onvert a video file to Mac with Smart Converter?

1. Select the video file that you want to convert. You can either drag the file onto the program, click the Select Files, or choose File > Open or use the shortcut Command + O.
2. Choose the desired output format from the preset profile such as Apple TV, iPad, etc.
3. Click Convert. It will do the rest task.

#4. MPEG Streamclip

If you are a Mac user, you are definitely familiar with the tool, a high-quality free video converter for MPEG files, QuickTime and transport streams. It is able to export all supported formats to QuickTime, DV, AVI/DivX, and MPEG-4 with high-quality encoding.

It is additionally embedded with a reliable encoder, DivX editor, player, and url downloader, all in a single program. You can open and play most movie formats, transport streams, cut, trim and join movies, and download videos by entering the page URL. These advanced features culminate into a go-to program. However, MPEG Streamclip's confusing interface may hold you back, and you may need some time to get the hang of how things work as there are no instructions available.

Convert and play most formats.

Support online video download.

No annoying ads.

Limited video editing options.

Newbies cannot get the hang of the controls quickly.

[Tutorial] How to transcode video files on Mac with MPEG Streamclip?

1. Launch the program on your Mac computer or laptop.
2. Click File > Open Files > select the video file you need to convert > tap the Open button.
3. Click File > choose to Export to QuickTime if you want to have the converted video played on your Mac. There are some other options available, where you can change the format to iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, AIFF, etc, change the frame size, rotate video, deinterlacing video, and more.
4. Rename the converted file and save it by tapping the Save button. Then it will begin encoding movies.

#5. VLC Media Player

VLC is a free and open-source video player that works on different platforms. It's very popular for extensive support of almost all formats without the need to download extra codec packs. In fact, a reliable video file converter is also housed in the fully-fledged media player. You can use it to decode and encode video to H.264, H.265, MPEG4, MPEG2, WMV, Android, etc. It even allows you to convert non-encrypted DVDs to digital formats. The video converting on Mac is very simple.

However, there are some limitations such as slow conversion speed. Maybe it's not the best Mac video converter, but it works for most of us and makes your video files viewable on devices like MP4 for your iPhone.

Extensive file format support.

Advanced features such as basic editing.

Create and connect to a video stream.

Editing metadata isn't straightforward.

Cannot use tags.

[Tutorial] How to convert a video file on Mac with VLC?

1. Open VLC on your Mac.
2. Click File > Convert / Stream from the drop-down list.
3. Choose the profile when the Convert & Stream window pops up. Here you are suggested to convert video to H.264 + MP3 (MP4) since it is a more broadly playable format you can rely on. Optionally, you can customize the video file, such as encapsulate the video, change video codec, frame rate, resolution, edit subtitles, and more.
4. Click Browse to save your converted file and tap Save.

#6. DivX Converter

DivX software is award-winning video software that includes three components: high-quality DivX Player, DivX Media Server, and DivX Converter. The latter is able to free convert popular video formats and Blu-ray discs into DivX, HEVC, and H.264 files up to 4K. You can even add files from Google Drive and Dropbox.

Though not very many format options, it's enough to convert videos to iPad, iPhone, Mac, most other mobiles & platforms. You can freely adjust the encoding settings like resolutions, bitrate, and more. More than that, it's also a 4K video player and media server. All of them come at no cost.

DivX offers a Pro version at $19.99, with which you have more choices on the output formats, get more conversion modes to maximize quality or prioritize speed, connect to cloud storage, enjoy ad-free products, convert non-encrypted DVDs, and get more advanced features.

How To Install Ffmpeg Mac

The free version is decent.

4K video available.

Decent speeds.

Installation on Mac is a little bit complicated.

Ads and upsells in the free version.

#7. QuickTime Player

QuickTime is the pre-installed media player on Mac computers. But it works more than a video player. It can be used to record movie, audio and screen. And if you want to extract the audio (or music) from a video and save videos in other formats, especially for Apple devices, you don't need to install another movie converter software on Mac. QuickTime will be the handy choice for you.

It lets you export videos in 1080p, 720p, or 480p in H.264 or HEVC H.265 codec using MOV extension. (You can't convert videos to MP4 or any other formats.) Or if you only want the audio, you can easily save it in Apple MPEG4 audio.

No need to install third-party software on Mac.

It's simple and convenient.

Work with iTunes files.

No 4k option.

Slow video conversion.

#8. Any Video Converter Free

Any Video Converter, short for AVC, is one of the most useful and simple free video converter software working on Mac and Windows. It supports standard video, HD video and Ultra HD 4K video. It's able to free convert video on Mac to more than 13 video and 15 audio formats, e.g. MKV to MP4, AVI to MOV, RM to FLV, AVI to WMV, etc. For those users who don't want any interaction in parameter settings, click the device icon and there are profiles for Apple, Android, game console, and 70 profiles. But the device profiles don't get constantly updated and there is no latest iPhone, Samsung models.

You can even use it to free download online videos from websites including Facebook, Vimeo, Dailymotion, etc. Then you can also customize your video before converting, add effect, adjust the brightness, contrast, saturation, crop the black borders from the video, adjust image size or add external subtitles to a video. Note that it lacks the ability to rotate, trim, adjust aspect ratio, etc. You can upgrade to the Ultimate version or resort to other Mac free media converters if needed.

Support 4k video conversion.

Converting a video takes a long time.

Additional software is installed.

#9. FFmpegX

FFmpegX is a graphic user interface for macOS designed to easily operate more than 20 Unix open-source video and audio processing tools like FFmpeg, mpeg2enc, and mencoder. It works as a free video converter for Mac users to convert among different formats, including DIVX, H.264, MOV, MPEG4, AVI, 3GP, and more using mpeg2enc. In most cases, the video conversions are faster than in realtime. More than a Mac video movie converter tool, there are many other tools such as video player, DVD author, subtitle converter, bitrate calculator, video recorder, etc.

However, the GUI is not very friendly, the very first glance at the app may hold you back, especially for the non-tech savvy users. But it can be very useful once you get familiar with it. It's recommended for those who don't mind a steep learning curve.

Support a wide range of codecs and formats.

Fast and reliable.

Handle subtitles.

Ffmpeg Exe

It's not easy for beginners to use.

Not often updated.

#10. Movavi Video Converter

Movavi Video Converter is listed as the best video converter for Mac simple because it provides a pretty intuitive interface, through which you will know how to handle it as soon as you launch the app. For novice users who are unknown of the obscure settings, the long list of preset profiles categorized in Popular, Video, Devices, Audio, Images, Custom is a good helper. That means you can directly convert the video file optimized for your device without the need to tweak the complicated parameters.

The agile video conversion speed is the top-selling point of Movavi. You can have a try for its performance by taking advantage of the 7-day trial version for free, which, however, only allows you to convert half of each video using conversion acceleration. But the constant reminders of purchasing the full license can be too much annoying.

Fast video converter for Mac.

Flexible video file size adjustment.

There is only 7-day trial version for free video conversion.

#11. Wondershare Free Video Converter

Wondershare Free Video Converter is a very versatile video converter for Mac that supports the Apple M1 processor. It's able to re-encode videos and DVDs to MOV, MP4, AVI, MP3, and other 1000+ formats with high quality. No matter you want to download online video, record screen, burn DVD, or make GIFs, Wondershare can cut the buck.

However, as a free version, it has some limitations. First, the output video comes with the watermark or audio advertisement, and if you want to transcode video to audio format, like MP3, you will need to watch the ads first. There are limits on the number or length of videos in other functions. However, you can upgrade to its premium version to get rid of the issues.

No ads or upsells.

User-friendly interface.

Support burning DVD.

Free version is limited and paid one is expensive.

#12. Avidemux

Avidemux is a free and open-source software for non-linear video editing and transcoding multimedia files. It's also a simple and powerful video converter freeware for Mac, Windows, and Linux. You can use it to convert videos from any formats into AVI, MPEG, TS, MKV, MP4, and FLV. Flexible video encoding options are built-in to let you adjust the video settings, audio parameters, encoding mode, and more. One of the best free Mac video converters for those who need a quick video converting, but not the ideal choice for 4K/HD video converting as it doesn't work well with the newer codecs like HEVC.

The best part is, it allows lossless editing by enabling the Video/Audio output copy. You can add filters, cut unwanted materials, cut down a clip, split several videos into segmentsetc. without encoding.

Offer a wealth of editing features, incl. filters, advanced interlacing, cropping, splicing, etc.

Open-source and free.

No instructions.

Slow video exporting process.

#13. Video Converter Online

As its name suggests, Video Converter Online is a web video converting tool that will convert video files, change the video format, resolution or size right in your browser. The process is easy: open the link, load the video from your local computer, select an output format, and it will convert the video for you. The free video converter for Mac lets you re-format videos to MP4, AVI, MOV, MPEG, MKV, Apple, Android, and 300+ formats.

You can upload videos up to 4GB to convert. It has no limits on the number of videos you can convert. No registration required. The only drawback is that the upload and conversion relies highly on your internet. Therefore, it's not the best video converter to convert 4K or other large-size videos on your Mac.

No need to install third-party software.

It's simple and convenient.

There is no 4k option. You cannot upscale video to 4K for higher quality.

Slow video conversion.

#14. VidConvert

VidConvert is a lightweight Mac-stylish application with a metallic gray interface. The buttons at the top and bottom toolbars are well arranged, providing everything you need to get the app working. It allows you to convert almost any type of media file. Plus, setting the video quality, either normal or high, is mandatory.

Although the output formats are not as many as the above-mentioned video converter freeware, it still optimizes the video for such devices as Mac, PC, iDevice, or even media players. There are some potential bothers. For example, you cannot preview the duration and size of the video file you add straight away. And VidConvert needs to install a Conversion Engine additional to finish the installation.

Simple and clean interface.

Add converted video straight to iTunes library.

Limited features.

Ffmpeg Mac Download

Additional download from a separate site is required.

Ffmpegx Mac Download Free

#15. Cloudconvert

As its name suggests, CloudConvert just converts video files in the cloud, without the need to install any third-party video converter software on your Macbook Air/Pro or iMac. All you need to do is to upload your file online and CloudConvert will do the rest. The web-based video converter supports to convert an array of video and audio formats.

Apart from video conversion, you can also convert other files such as documents, eBooks, images, presentations, and more. However, it's worth noting you need to opt for a subscription if you want to convert a video file larger than 1 GB in size.

Simple and no need to install additional software.

Support a wide range of file formats.

Up to 25 file conversions per day are allowed for free.

The file size is limited to 1GB.

It's a waste of time and the internet.

Summary

Now you might have your own answer about which one you favor. In short, the overall performance of MacX gets the highest mark in our top video conversion freeware Mac review. The untouched video quality plus outstanding compression ability earns it the first place here. Its flaws are small and its advantages are great. No user's remorse with this program.

Handbrake acquits itself quite well when it comes to free transcode video on Mac. It offers even more detailed profiles to let you convert video with preset parameter settings, no user interaction. That's quite thoughtful. Online video converter is convenient and simple to use, needless to install any 3rd party application. Yet, it's suitable for small-sized video (less than 500MB or 1GB). And other Mac free video converters are worth a try too. They will get your video files altered from even the most obscure format to the ones that you will have no problem to work with. Choose one to give it a whirl!

Part 3. FAQ about Mac Video Converting

1. Does Mac have a video converter?

Yes. Your MacBook Pro/Air or iMac has built-in Finder to help you transcode video files free on macOS. To use Finder for video converting, read the instructions below:

1. Launch Finder and right click on a video file inside of Finder.
2. Choose 'Encode Selected Video Files'.
3. Select the output video settings, resolution, greater compatibility or higher quality.
4. Tap 'Continue' to convert the video file you choose.

Note: Finder is the most simple way to free decode and re-encode video on macOS. Yet, it allows you to yield an resulting video file up to 1080p only. As for 4K 2160p or even 8K Ultra HD video, you can't save the original video resolution unless you resort to the above-mentioned best video converter for Mac.

2. What is the best video converter for Mac?

No fixed answer. Different strokes for different folks. If you concern quality most, a Mac video transcoder with highest possible output quality wins your thumb up. And the one with a wide range of output formats comes at the top of your converter list if output formats matter most to you. Certainly, a feature-rich video converter for Mac ingests them all, like quality, speed, input/output formats, bonus features, etc. MacX Video Converter, Movavi and Uniconverter are typical cases.

Note: if you have one Mac video converter program installed on your macOS, remember to check its type 32bit or 64bit product before you upgrade macOS to Big Sur or Monterey. Because macOS Big Sur (or later) and M1 chip Macs don't run 32-bit apps. So stay with your old operating system or upgrade your 32-bit Mac video converter to 64-bit one.

3. How do I convert a video to MP4 or MP3 on Mac?

Here's how to free convert a video to MP4 or MP3 on MacBook or iMac with MacX Video Converter.

1. Load your input video or video files. Bulk conversion is supported here.
2. Choose 'MP4 (H264)' or 'MP4 (HEVC)' under General Profiles section. Or move your mouse to 'to Music' category and choose 'MP3' if you need to rip MP3 audio from video.
3. Tap 'Browse' to opt for the destination folder for resulting file storage. Then hit 'RUN' button to begin converting video to MP4 or MP3 on macOS.