> but isn’t it basically a GUI around FFMPEG No, it isn't. VLC is doing a lot more than just wrapping libavcodec. Look at the source code of VLC. To give you

> but isn’t it basically a GUI around FFMPEG No, it isn't. VLC is doing a lot more than just wrapping libavcodec. Look at the source code of VLC. To give you an idea, VLC is around 800 kLoC, the UI taking 60 kLoC, and the core 100 kLoC. There are tons of modules that are not based on FFmpeg. Also, some VLC devs are also FFMpeg devs.