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sf.me > Blog > Switching To FFmpeg
Posted on: 1 June 2023
Reading time: 2 minCategory: Software
I just started using FFmpeg... and it is AMAZING! When I mean amazing, I really mean amazing.
For those of you who do not know what FFmpeg is, it is basically a command-line application that can be installed on all platforms that is basically the Swiss army knife of videos, audio files and images. It merges almost every single codec, encoders and decoders, filters and more in a single application allowing for fast access and modularity.
FFmpeg is one of those tools which have impacted your life without you realising it. Whenever you watch a movie, show or any piece of edited or converted content, there is an extremely high change that FFmpeg was involved.
You may say:
"Bu.. But I use a video editor and online file converters! Those are not FFmpeg!"
Most file converters and video editors use at least some FFmpeg. Many websites like YouTube and WhatsApp use FFmpeg directly when they need to compress a video.
The reason I switched is because of its versatility. You can create a single command to record your screen in lossless quality, save the original file in '.mov', the audio in '.mp3' format in another folder, encode a '.mp4' file, transcode it to be played on Android and trim a specific part of the video and send it to a server that you own.
FFmpeg is a difficult program to learn but the rewards are worth it. I currently have a command that records my screen, converts the audio in the recording from stereo to mono and finally encode it in H.264 for ultimate compatibility.
All in all, you should learn FFmpeg if you do even a little amount of multimedia manipulation. It will help you out immensely.