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I always thought ffmpeg was a massive, impossible-to-use library that solved all cases under the sun. Well regardless of the latter, I learned the former was n

I always thought ffmpeg was a massive, impossible-to-use library that solved all cases under the sun. Well regardless of the latter, I learned the former was not true as I was looking for a way to turn an mp4 into a gif without some silly desktop app. ffmpeg -i in.mp4 out.gif That's it! Incredibly easy to use after all.

freedomben 5y ago
It's incredibly easy to use as long as you are happy with the default settings. The hard part comes in when you want to apply some sort of transformation but you don't know what a lot of the technical terms mean.
- dylan604 5y ago
  Maybe it should come with a sticker "No user servicable parts inside". If you don't know what you're doing, don't take the cover off and start poking with metal objects. /s There's no better way to learn than to face something you don't know. 99/100 things you don't know or can't figure out, someone on the internet as been there done that. Come across enough of these things, and you start to think like ffmpeg!
tombert 5y ago
Ffmpeg is one of those things that I repeatedly find replaces other tools. It can convert video, it can deinterlace it, it can apply effect filters, etc. It’s one of those products that has effectively replaced everything else I use video/audio related because ffmpeg is free and does everything.
dylan604 5y ago
FFMPEG comes with a lot of training wheels, and it tends to make the right "guesses" the majority of the time. That is meant as a HUGE compliment. Edit: maybe not training wheels. more like gutter bumpers in bowling. no matter what you do, you're going to hit some pins (make a playable output). with just a little trying, you can easily roll strikes
TT-392 5y ago
It is like the imagemagick of video
kergonath 5y ago
Simple use cases are simple to solve. It gets hairy quite quickly for exotic formats or if you really want to tune the encoder. It does solve all cases under the sun, though, it is quite impressive.
charcircuit 5y ago
>I learned the former was not true It is true, but it applies to the library (libav...). As someone who has tried to use it I can confirm that it is possible to use correctly without a lot of work and access to weirdly encoded files to test your code. They do not make it easy to write correct come.
- charcircuit 5y ago
  possibile -> not possible
makomk 5y ago
Getting really good quality gifs out of it, on the other hand, requires two passes and some arcane command line options (or used to anyway) - though it is at least possible and produces impressive results given the limitations of the format.
ziml77 5y ago
I've had trouble getting it to properly handle transparency when outputting animated GIFs. The transparent areas wouldn't get cleared between frames without some extra settings. Also you need a special set of transforms to make it generate and use a color palette. And the APNG support was even worse. I spent days trying to get it to output an APNG that was within Discord's sticker size limits without losing quality. Eventually gave up on it and switched to pngasm which easily produced a small enough output. EDIT: I should clarify that I still think ffmpeg is amazing, but I find that it can be tricky and does have some limitations that seem to come from being the input and output formats being so flexible.

freedomben 5y ago

It's incredibly easy to use as long as you are happy with the default settings. The hard part comes in when you want to apply some sort of transformation but you don't know what a lot of the technical terms mean.

dylan604 5y ago
Maybe it should come with a sticker "No user servicable parts inside". If you don't know what you're doing, don't take the cover off and start poking with metal objects. /s There's no better way to learn than to face something you don't know. 99/100 things you don't know or can't figure out, someone on the internet as been there done that. Come across enough of these things, and you start to think like ffmpeg!

tombert 5y ago

Ffmpeg is one of those things that I repeatedly find replaces other tools. It can convert video, it can deinterlace it, it can apply effect filters, etc. It’s one of those products that has effectively replaced everything else I use video/audio related because ffmpeg is free and does everything.

dylan604 5y ago

FFMPEG comes with a lot of training wheels, and it tends to make the right "guesses" the majority of the time. That is meant as a HUGE compliment. Edit: maybe not training wheels. more like gutter bumpers in bowling. no matter what you do, you're going to hit some pins (make a playable output). with just a little trying, you can easily roll strikes

TT-392 5y ago

It is like the imagemagick of video

kergonath 5y ago

Simple use cases are simple to solve. It gets hairy quite quickly for exotic formats or if you really want to tune the encoder. It does solve all cases under the sun, though, it is quite impressive.

charcircuit 5y ago

>I learned the former was not true It is true, but it applies to the library (libav...). As someone who has tried to use it I can confirm that it is possible to use correctly without a lot of work and access to weirdly encoded files to test your code. They do not make it easy to write correct come.

charcircuit 5y ago
possibile -> not possible

makomk 5y ago

Getting really good quality gifs out of it, on the other hand, requires two passes and some arcane command line options (or used to anyway) - though it is at least possible and produces impressive results given the limitations of the format.

ziml77 5y ago

I've had trouble getting it to properly handle transparency when outputting animated GIFs. The transparent areas wouldn't get cleared between frames without some extra settings. Also you need a special set of transforms to make it generate and use a color palette. And the APNG support was even worse. I spent days trying to get it to output an APNG that was within Discord's sticker size limits without losing quality. Eventually gave up on it and switched to pngasm which easily produced a small enough output. EDIT: I should clarify that I still think ffmpeg is amazing, but I find that it can be tricky and does have some limitations that seem to come from being the input and output formats being so flexible.