FFmpegKit

FFmpeg Kit for applications.

1. Features

• Scripts to build FFmpeg libraries

• FFmpegKit wrapper library to run FFmpeg/FFprobe commands in applications

• Supports

  • Android, iOS, macOS and tvOS

  • FFmpeg v4.4-dev

    • 29 external libraries

      chromaprint, dav1d, fontconfig, freetype, fribidi, gmp, gnutls, kvazaar, lame, libaom, libass, libiconv, libilbc, libtheora, libvorbis, libvpx, libwebp, libxml2, opencore-amr, openh264, opus, sdl, shine, snappy, soxr, speex, tesseract, twolame, vo-amrwbenc

    • 5 external libraries with GPL license

      rubberband, vid.stab, x264, x265, xvidcore

  • Parallel command execution

• 8 prebuilt binary packages available at Github, Maven Central and CocoaPods.

• Licensed under LGPL 3.0, or GPL v3.0 if GPL licensed libraries are enabled

2. Build Scripts

Use android.sh, ios.sh, macos.sh and tvos.sh to build FFmpegKit for each platform.

All four scripts support additional options to enable external libraries or disable platform architectures.

Refer to Android page for Android devices and Apple page for iOS, macOS, tvOS devices to see the prerequisites for each platform.

3. FFmpegKit Library

FFmpegKit is a wrapper library that allows you to easily run FFmpeg/FFprobe commands in applications. It provides additional features on top of FFmpeg to enable platform specific resources, control how commands are executed and how the results are handled.

Android library has a Java API and Apple libraries (iOS, macOS, tvOS) have an Objective-C API, which are identical.

4. Binary Packages

There are eight different ffmpeg-kit packages distributed on Github, Maven Central and CocoaPods. Below you can see which system libraries and external libraries are enabled in each of package.

Please remember that some parts of FFmpeg are licensed under the GPL and only GPL licensed ffmpeg-kit packages include them.

	min	min-gpl	https	https-gpl	audio	video	full	full-gpl
external libraries	-	vid.stab x264 x265 xvidcore	gmp gnutls	gmp gnutls vid.stab x264 x265 xvidcore	lame libilbc libvorbis opencore-amr opus shine soxr speex twolame vo-amrwbenc	dav1d fontconfig freetype fribidi kvazaar libass libiconv libtheora libvpx libwebp snappy	dav1d fontconfig freetype fribidi gmp gnutls kvazaar lame libass libiconv libilbc libtheora libvorbis libvpx libwebp libxml2 opencore-amr opus shine snappy soxr speex twolame vo-amrwbenc	dav1d fontconfig freetype fribidi gmp gnutls kvazaar lame libass libiconv libilbc libtheora libvorbis libvpx libwebp libxml2 opencore-amr opus shine snappy soxr speex twolame vid.stab vo-amrwbenc x264 x265 xvidcore
android system libraries	zlib MediaCodec
ios system libraries	bzip2 AudioToolbox AVFoundation iconv VideoToolbox zlib
macos system libraries	bzip2 AudioToolbox AVFoundation Core Image iconv OpenCL OpenGL VideoToolbox zlib
tvos system libraries	bzip2 AudioToolbox iconv VideoToolbox zlib

• AVFoundation is not available on tvOS, VideoToolbox is not available on tvOS LTS releases

5. Versions

FFmpegKit binaries generated use the same major and minor version numbers as the upstream FFmpeg project. The exact version number is obtained using git describe --tags. dev part in FFmpeg version number indicates that FFmpeg source is cloned from the FFmpeg master branch.

FFmpegKit Version	FFmpeg Version	Release Date
4.4	4.4-dev-3015	Mar 03, 2021
4.4.LTS	4.4-dev-3015	Mar 03, 2021

6. LTS Releases

FFmpegKit binaries are published in two release variants: Main Release and LTS Release.

• Main releases include complete functionality of the library and support the latest SDK/API features.

• LTS releases are customized to support a wider range of devices. They are built using older API/SDK versions, so some features are not available on them.

This table shows the differences between two variants.

	Main Release	LTS Release
Android API Level	24	16
Android Camera Access	Yes	-
Android Architectures	arm-v7a-neon arm64-v8a x86 x86-64	arm-v7a arm-v7a-neon arm64-v8a x86 x86-64
Xcode Compatibility	11.0 or later	7.3.1 or later
iOS SDK	12.1	9.3
iOS AVFoundation	Yes	-
iOS Architectures	arm64 arm64-simulator arm64-mac-catalyst x86-64 x86-64-mac-catalyst	armv7 arm64 i386 x86-64
macOS SDK	10.15	10.11
macOS AVFoundation	Yes	-
macOS Architectures	arm64 x86-64	x86-64
tvOS SDK	10.2	9.2
tvOS Architectures	arm64 x86-64 arm64-simulator	arm64 x86-64

7. License

FFmpegKit is licensed under the LGPL v3.0. However, if source code is built using the optional --enable-gpl flag or prebuilt binaries with -gpl postfix are used, then FFmpegKit is subject to the GPL v3.0 license.

8. Patents

It is not clearly explained in their documentation, but it is believed that FFmpeg, kvazaar, x264 and x265 include algorithms which are subject to software patents. If you live in a country where software algorithms are patentable then you'll probably need to pay royalty fees to patent holders. We are not lawyers though, so we recommend that you seek legal advice first. See FFmpeg Patent Mini-FAQ.

openh264 clearly states that it uses patented algorithms. Therefore, if you build ffmpeg-kit with openh264 and distribute that library, then you are subject to pay MPEG LA licensing fees. Refer to OpenH264 FAQ page for the details.

9. Contributing

Feel free to submit issues or pull requests.

Please note that main includes only the latest released source code. Changes planned for the next release are developed under the development branch. Therefore, if you want to create a pull request, please open it against the development.

10. See Also

• FFmpeg API Documentation
• FFmpeg Wiki
• FFmpeg External Library Licenses