FFmpeg

FFmpeg is an all in one audio and video converter, player, and server. It was originally created as a command line tool by Fabrice Bellard (under the pseudonym “Gerard Lantau"). It has now been ported for nearly all operating systems, including Linux, cygwin, Windows, and Mac OS X, some versions even have a GUI.

 The current project leader is Michael Niedermayer, and the project is maintained by mplayer. There are no formal releases, however there are daily subversion (SVN) releases that work really well most of the time.

Nearly all formats are supported by ffmpeg, however some of them require additional libraries, such as certain mp3's, divx and xvids, and certain wma's. Some formats supported are:

• ATRAC3
• H.261, H.263 and h.264/MPEG-4 AVC
• Sorenson 3 Codec used by many QuickTime movies
• FLV
• Windows Media Audio
• Windows Media Video
• Vorbis
• AVI

In some countries, FFmpeg is distributed with other software, in others it is not. It is generally legal for the end user to use, however if you use it commercially, it is possible that you could be violating end user laws, as you did not pay a licensing fee to use the codecs.