I find it wild there are countless “convert videos online for free!” sites on the Internet full of bonus malware which are all just thin wrappers around ffmpeg. And yet they persist because people want googleable answers to their problem which don’t need a command line or downloading anything.
Personally I’ve got a Python script which provides a slightly friendlier wrapper around ffmpeg for my common use-cases.
But honestly ffmpeg is such a beast, so much of what we use daily depends on it under the hood.
Wait until you hear that ffmpeg is available as a library, including for Python. And that there are Python modules providing Python-specific ways of specifying the processing filters and whatnot, instead of putting them into the single command string.
I still end up having to use ffmpeg directly (in combination with other CLI tools) because there’s always something the GUIs haven’t caught up with yet. Most recently for me it was converting animated webp’s into something I could actually work with
I find it wild there are countless “convert videos online for free!” sites on the Internet full of bonus malware which are all just thin wrappers around ffmpeg. And yet they persist because people want googleable answers to their problem which don’t need a command line or downloading anything.
Personally I’ve got a Python script which provides a slightly friendlier wrapper around ffmpeg for my common use-cases.
But honestly ffmpeg is such a beast, so much of what we use daily depends on it under the hood.
Wait until you hear that ffmpeg is available as a library, including for Python. And that there are Python modules providing Python-specific ways of specifying the processing filters and whatnot, instead of putting them into the single command string.
There are many nice and FOSS GUIs for the tasks ffmpeg is usually used for.
Handbrake is a great example for macOS, windows, Linux.
For more advanced video compression Shutter Encoder is fantastic.
Good old AVIDemux has a few other cool features as well, like cutting without reencoding.
There are also a bunch of straight up ffmpeg front ends as well.
Why do people use those shitty websites?
They show up as a fast and easy option without having to research, download, install, and learn to use a more complicated application.
For sure yeah.
I still end up having to use ffmpeg directly (in combination with other CLI tools) because there’s always something the GUIs haven’t caught up with yet. Most recently for me it was converting animated webp’s into something I could actually work with
Yes! The picture is inaccurate, people who need to learn ffmpeg rarely know they do.