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Google’s YouTube Uses FFmpeg

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Re: Google’s YouTube Uses FFmpeg

#3
I was under the impression (though I may be wrong) most standard video types are converted by some in-house closed source software developed by Google, but then if it's an odd/obscure format their software can't process they fall back on FFMPEG. Even if they do use FFMPEG I'd guess it's heavily modified to suit their needs/infastructure

Re: Google’s YouTube Uses FFmpeg

#4
post #2

What else would it use? (Genuinely curious, what else is viable?) Although I think it uses libvpx for WebM, but who knows, they may have migrated to FFmpeg 0.6.

Yes I agree. What else could they possibly be using? And you're supposed to use it to convert videos ... what's the story?

Re: Google’s YouTube Uses FFmpeg

#5

I was under the impression (though I may be wrong) most standard video types are converted by some in-house closed source software developed by Google, but then if it's an odd/obscure format their software can't process they fall back on FFMPEG. Even if they do use FFMPEG I'd guess it's heavily modified to suit their needs/infastructure

Why would google want to reengineer and build closed sourced video converters? Especially when you need to pay multimillion dollar licensing fees to mpegla et al to even try to do such a thing.

Re: Google’s YouTube Uses FFmpeg

#6
To me this illustrates that if you want to ensure that improvements to your code are shared back, you'd better use the AGPL license (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl.html) instead of GPL.

Quote from the AGPL preamble:

It requires the operator of a network server to provide the source code of the modified version running there to the users of that server. Therefore, public use of a modified version, on a publicly accessible server, gives the public access to the source code of the modified version.

edit: according to a comment below, Google is already sharing their improvements without being obliged to do so. Nice! You can't always count on goodwill though, so my point stands.

Re: Google’s YouTube Uses FFmpeg

#8
post #6

To me this illustrates that if you want to ensure that improvements to your code are shared back, you'd better use the AGPL license ( http://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl.html ) instead of GPL. Quote from the AGPL preamble: It requires the operator of a network server to provide the source code of the modified version running there to the users of that server. Therefore, public use of a modified version, on a publicly ac…

Chris Dibona has already co-ordinated the release of Google's patches to the FFmpeg community.

Re: Google’s YouTube Uses FFmpeg

#9
post #6

To me this illustrates that if you want to ensure that improvements to your code are shared back, you'd better use the AGPL license ( http://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl.html ) instead of GPL. Quote from the AGPL preamble: It requires the operator of a network server to provide the source code of the modified version running there to the users of that server. Therefore, public use of a modified version, on a publicly ac…

On the other hand, many companies avoid using AGPL code altogether. Code that isn't used can't be improved.

Re: Google’s YouTube Uses FFmpeg

#10
Well... I also use FFmpeg to encode all the video that's presented on th iG (a large Brazilian portal+ISP) channel in Sony and LG internet-enabled TVs. It works really well.

If any FFmpeg developer is reading this, thank you for making our product possible. If you ever come to Brazil, the beer is on us.

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