#496 – FFmpeg: The Incredible Technology Behind Video on the Internet
May 6, 2026 · 4 h 24 min
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Show notes
Jean-Baptiste Kempf is lead developer of VLC and president of VideoLAN. Kieran Kunhya is a longtime FFmpeg contributor, codec engineer, and the person behind the now-infamous FFmpeg account on X.
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Transcript:
https://lexfridman.com/ffmpeg-transcript
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EPISODE LINKS:
FFmpeg on X: https://x.com/FFmpeg
FFmpeg: https://ffmpeg.org/
VideoLAN (VLC): https://www.videolan.org/
VideoLAN on X: https://x.com/videolan
Jean-Baptiste’s Website: https://jbkempf.com/
Jean-Baptiste’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jbkempf/
Jean-Baptiste’s GitHub: https://github.com/jbkempf
Kieran’s X: https://x.com/kierank_
Kieran’s LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3OORhmC
Kieran’s GitHub: https://github.com/kierank
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OUTLINE:
() – Introduction
() – Sponsors, Comments, and Reflections
() – Weirdest things VLC opens
() – How video playback works
() – Video codecs and containers
() – FFmpeg explained
() – Linus Torvalds
() – Turning down millions to keep VLC ad-free
() – FFmpeg & Google drama
() – FFmpeg developers
() – VLC and FFmpeg
() – History of FFmpeg
() – Reverse engineering codecs
() – FFmpeg testing
() – Assembly code (handwritten)
() – Rust programming language
() – FFmpeg and Libav fork
() – Open source burnout
() – x264 and internet video
() – Video compression basics
() – CIA and fake VLC
() – Ultra low latency streaming
() – AV2 codec and video patents
() – VLC backdoors
() – Video archiving
()