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4 bulan lalu
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#496 – FFmpeg: The Incredible Technology Behind Video on the Internet
6 Mei 2026
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.
https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/ep496-sc
Transcript:
https://lexfridman.com/ffmpeg-transcript
CONTACT LEX:
Feedback – give feedback to Lex: https://lexfridman.com/survey
AMA – submit questions, videos or call-in: https://lexfridman.com/ama
Hiring – join our team: https://lexfridman.com/hiring
Other – other ways to get in touch: https://lexfridman.com/contact
EPISODE LINKS:
https://x.com/FFmpeg
https://ffmpeg.org/
https://www.videolan.org/
https://x.com/videolan
https://jbkempf.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jbkempf/
https://github.com/jbkempf
https://x.com/kierank_
https://bit.ly/3OORhmC
https://github.com/kierank
SPONSORS:
Larridin: Measure AI adoption in your business.
https://larridin.com
Blitzy: AI agent for large enterprise codebases.
https://blitzy.com/lex
BetterHelp: Online therapy and counseling.
https://betterhelp.com/lex
Fin: AI agent for customer service.
https://fin.ai/lex
LMNT: Zero-sugar electrolyte drink mix.
https://drinkLMNT.com/lex
Perplexity: AI-powered answer engine.
https://perplexity.ai/
OUTLINE:
(00:00) – Introduction
(03:00) – Sponsors, Comments, and Reflections
(10:48) – Weirdest things VLC opens
(15:12) – How video playback works
(24:33) – Video codecs and containers
(35:20) – FFmpeg explained
(56:20) – Linus Torvalds
(1:00:59) – Turning down millions to keep VLC ad-free
(1:15:17) – FFmpeg & Google drama
(1:34:31) – FFmpeg developers
(1:41:08) – VLC and FFmpeg
(1:45:42) – History of FFmpeg
(1:48:59) – Reverse engineering codecs
(2:02:14) – FFmpeg testing
(2:06:21) – Assembly code (handwritten)
(2:30:39) – Rust programming language
(2:39:55) – FFmpeg and Libav fork
(2:48:17) – Open source burnout
(2:56:04) – x264 and internet video
(3:09:20) – Video compression basics
(3:16:17) – CIA and fake VLC
(3:26:52) – Ultra low latency streaming
(3:44:20) – AV2 codec and video patents
(3:54:12) – VLC backdoors
(4:04:27) – Video archiving
(4:11:04) – Future of FFmpeg and VLC
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. https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/ep496-sc Transcript: https://lexfridman.com/ffmpeg-transcript CONTACT LEX: Feedback – give feedback to Lex: https://lexfridman.com/survey AMA – submit questions, videos or call-in: https://lexfridman.com/ama Hiring – join our team: https://lexfridman.com/hiring Other – other ways to get in touch: https://lexfridman.com/contact EPISODE LINKS: https://x.com/FFmpeg https://ffmpeg.org/ https://www.videolan.org/ https://x.com/videolan https://jbkempf.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/jbkempf/ https://github.com/jbkempf https://x.com/kierank_ https://bit.ly/3OORhmC https://github.com/kierank SPONSORS: Larridin: Measure AI adoption in your business. https://larridin.com Blitzy: AI agent for large enterprise codebases. https://blitzy.com/lex BetterHelp: Online therapy and counseling. https://betterhelp.com/lex Fin: AI agent for customer service. https://fin.ai/lex LMNT: Zero-sugar electrolyte drink mix. https://drinkLMNT.com/lex Perplexity: AI-powered answer engine. https://perplexity.ai/ OUTLINE: (00:00) – Introduction (03:00) – Sponsors, Comments, and Reflections (10:48) – Weirdest things VLC opens (15:12) – How video playback works (24:33) – Video codecs and containers (35:20) – FFmpeg explained (56:20) – Linus Torvalds (1:00:59) – Turning down millions to keep VLC ad-free (1:15:17) – FFmpeg & Google drama (1:34:31) – FFmpeg developers (1:41:08) – VLC and FFmpeg (1:45:42) – History of FFmpeg (1:48:59) – Reverse engineering codecs (2:02:14) – FFmpeg testing (2:06:21) – Assembly code (handwritten) (2:30:39) – Rust programming language (2:39:55) – FFmpeg and Libav fork (2:48:17) – Open source burnout (2:56:04) – x264 and internet video (3:09:20) – Video compression basics (3:16:17) – CIA and fake VLC (3:26:52) – Ultra low latency streaming (3:44:20) – AV2 codec and video patents (3:54:12) – VLC backdoors (4:04:27) – Video archiving (4:11:04) – Future of FFmpeg and VLC
