FFmpeg

FFmpeg is a free, open-source multimedia framework that offers a comprehensive feature set for handling and managing audio and video content. It handles format conversion, encoding, merging, trimming, and streaming of multimedia files. Although primarily a command-line interface, there are numerous programs that provide a graphical interface to make it more user-friendly.

The FFmpeg package includes three tools: ffmpeg for converting and processing media, ffprobe for inspecting media files and ffplay, a simple media player. Its libraries, such as libavcodec and libavformat, are used by many other media programs. FFmpeg is released under the LGPL, with some optional parts under the GPL, and it enjoys the support of a large developer community.

FFmpeg allows for seamless conversion, manipulation, and streaming of a wide range of multimedia file formats.

Features:

• Format Conversion: FFmpeg supports a multitude of file types and formats, allowing for easy conversion of audio, video, and other multimedia files.
• Encoding: The application includes a wide range of audio and video encoders, for example for H.264, H.265, AV1, AAC and MP3, and is often used to compress multimedia files.
• Muxing/Demuxing: FFmpeg is capable of merging (muxing) or separating (demuxing) audio and video streams of various formats.
• Streaming: FFmpeg is not only able to convert and encode files, but also to stream content live.

In addition, some applications, like my-FFmpeg, offer a graphical user interface for the FFmpeg tool. Such front ends let users choose formats, codecs and options from menus instead of typing command lines, which simplifies conversion, merging and trimming.

The FFmpeg project itself provides only source code; ready-to-use 64-bit Windows builds are offered by third parties such as gyan.dev and BtbN, linked from the official download page. FFmpeg is actively developed, with several releases per year.