FFmpeg for Android and iOS / tvOS

• Use binaries available at Github/JCenter/CocoaPods or build your own version with external libraries you need

• Supports

  • Android, iOS and tvOS

  • FFmpeg v3.4.x, v4.0.x, v4.1 and v4.2-dev releases

  • 28 external libraries

    chromaprint, fontconfig, freetype, fribidi, gmp, gnutls, kvazaar, lame, libaom, libass, libiconv, libilbc, libtheora, libvorbis, libvpx, libwebp, libxml2, opencore-amr, openh264, opus, sdl, shine, snappy, soxr, speex, tesseract, twolame, wavpack

  • 4 external libraries with GPL license

    vid.stab, x264, x265, xvidcore

• Exposes both FFmpeg library and MobileFFmpeg wrapper library capabilities

• Includes cross-compile instructions for 44 open-source libraries

  chromaprint, expat, ffmpeg, fontconfig, freetype, fribidi, giflib, gmp, gnutls, kvazaar, lame, leptonica, libaom, libass, libiconv, libilbc, libjpeg, libjpeg-turbo, libogg, libpng, libsndfile, libtheora, libuuid, libvorbis, libvpx, libwebp, libxml2, nettle, opencore-amr, openh264, opus, sdl, shine, snappy, soxr, speex, tesseract, tiff, twolame, vid.stab, wavpack, x264, x265, xvidcore

• Licensed under LGPL 3.0, can be customized to support GPL v3.0

• Builds arm-v7a, arm-v7a-neon, arm64-v8a, x86 and x86_64 architectures
• Supports zlib and MediaCodec system libraries
• Camera access on supported devices
• Builds shared native libraries (.so)
• Creates Android archive with .aar extension
• Supports API Level 16

• Builds armv7, armv7s, arm64, arm64e, i386 and x86_64 architectures
• Supports bzip2, zlib system libraries and AudioToolbox, CoreImage, VideoToolbox, AVFoundation system frameworks
• Objective-C API
• Camera access
• ARC enabled library
• Built with -fembed-bitcode flag
• Creates static framework and static universal (fat) library (.a)
• Supports iOS SDK 8.0.x or later

• Builds arm64 and x86_64 architectures
• Supports bzip2, zlib system libraries and AudioToolbox, CoreImage, VideoToolbox system frameworks
• Objective-C API
• ARC enabled library
• Built with -fembed-bitcode flag
• Creates static framework and static universal (fat) library (.a)
• Supports tvOS SDK 9.2 or later

Published binaries are available at Github, JCenter and CocoaPods.

Unpublished development builds can be found under the development-snapshot directory.

Refer to Using iOS Universal Binaries guide to import iOS / tvOS universal binaries released at Github.

There are eight different binary packages. Below you can see which system libraries and external libraries are enabled in each of them.

• libilbc, opus, snappy, x264 and xvidcore are supported since v1.1

• libaom and soxr are supported since v2.0

• chromaprint, vid.stab and x265 are supported since v2.1

• sdl, tesseract, twolame external libraries; zlib, MediaCodec Android system libraries; bzip2, zlib iOS system libraries and AudioToolbox, CoreImage, VideoToolbox, AVFoundation iOS system frameworks are supported since v3.0

• Since v4.2, chromaprint, sdl and tesseract libraries are not included in binary releases. You can still build them and include in your releases

• AVFoundation is not available on tvOS, VideoToolbox is not available on tvOS LTS releases

1. Add MobileFFmpeg dependency from jcenter()

   dependencies {
       implementation 'com.arthenica:mobile-ffmpeg-full:4.2.1'
   }
   

2. Execute commands.

   import com.arthenica.mobileffmpeg.FFmpeg;
   
   FFmpeg.execute("-i file1.mp4 -c:v mpeg4 file2.mp4");
   

3. Check execution output.

   int rc = FFmpeg.getLastReturnCode();
   String output = FFmpeg.getLastCommandOutput();
   
   if (rc == RETURN_CODE_SUCCESS) {
       Log.i(Config.TAG, "Command execution completed successfully.");
   } else if (rc == RETURN_CODE_CANCEL) {
       Log.i(Config.TAG, "Command execution cancelled by user.");
   } else {
       Log.i(Config.TAG, String.format("Command execution failed with rc=%d and output=%s.", rc, output));
   }
   

4. Stop an ongoing operation.

   FFmpeg.cancel();
   

5. Get media information for a file.

   MediaInformation info = FFmpeg.getMediaInformation("<file path or uri>");
   

6. Record video and audio using Android camera.

   FFmpeg.execute("-f android_camera -i 0:0 -r 30 -pixel_format bgr0 -t 00:00:05 <record file path>");
   

7. List enabled external libraries.

   List<String> externalLibraries = Config.getExternalLibraries();
   

8. Enable log callback.

   Config.enableLogCallback(new LogCallback() {
       public void apply(LogMessage message) {
           Log.d(Config.TAG, message.getText());
       }
   });
   

9. Enable statistics callback.

   Config.enableStatisticsCallback(new StatisticsCallback() {
       public void apply(Statistics newStatistics) {
           Log.d(Config.TAG, String.format("frame: %d, time: %d", newStatistics.getVideoFrameNumber(), newStatistics.getTime()));
       }
   });
   

10. Set log level.

    Config.setLogLevel(Level.AV_LOG_FATAL);
    

11. Register custom fonts directory.

    Config.setFontDirectory(this, "<folder with fonts>", Collections.EMPTY_MAP);
    

1. Add MobileFFmpeg pod to your Podfile

   • iOS

   pod 'mobile-ffmpeg-full', '~> 4.2.1'
   

   • tvOS

   pod 'mobile-ffmpeg-tv-full', '~> 4.2.1'
   

2. Execute commands.

   #import <mobileffmpeg/MobileFFmpeg.h>
   
   [MobileFFmpeg execute: @"-i file1.mp4 -c:v mpeg4 file2.mp4"];
   

3. Check execution output.

   int rc = [MobileFFmpeg getLastReturnCode];
   NSString *output = [MobileFFmpeg getLastCommandOutput];
   
   if (rc == RETURN_CODE_SUCCESS) {
       NSLog(@"Command execution completed successfully.\n");
   } else if (rc == RETURN_CODE_CANCEL) {
       NSLog(@"Command execution cancelled by user.\n");
   } else {
       NSLog(@"Command execution failed with rc=%d and output=%@.\n", rc, output);
   }
   

4. Stop an ongoing operation.

   [MobileFFmpeg cancel];
   

5. Get media information for a file.

   MediaInformation *mediaInformation = [MobileFFmpeg getMediaInformation:@"<file path or uri>"];
   

6. Record video and audio using iOS camera. This operation is not supported on tvOS since AVFoundation is not available on tvOS.

   [MobileFFmpeg execute: @"-f avfoundation -r 30 -video_size 1280x720 -pixel_format bgr0 -i 0:0 -vcodec h264_videotoolbox -vsync 2 -f h264 -t 00:00:05 %@", recordFilePath];
   

7. List enabled external libraries.

   NSArray *externalLibraries = [MobileFFmpegConfig getExternalLibraries];
   

8. Enable log callback.

   [MobileFFmpegConfig setLogDelegate:self];
   
   - (void)logCallback: (int)level :(NSString*)message {
       dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
           NSLog(@"%@", message);
       });
   }
   

9. Enable statistics callback.

   [MobileFFmpegConfig setStatisticsDelegate:self];
   
   - (void)statisticsCallback:(Statistics *)newStatistics {
       dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
           NSLog(@"frame: %d, time: %d\n", newStatistics.getVideoFrameNumber, newStatistics.getTime);
       });
   }
   

10. Set log level.

    [MobileFFmpegConfig setLogLevel:AV_LOG_FATAL];
    

11. Register custom fonts directory.

    [MobileFFmpegConfig setFontDirectory:@"<folder with fonts>" with:nil];
    

You can see how MobileFFmpeg is used inside an application by running test applications provided. There is an Android test application under the android/test-app folder, an iOS test application under the ios/test-app folder and a tvOS test application under the tvos/test-app folder.

All applications are identical and supports command execution, video encoding, accessing https, encoding audio, burning subtitles, video stabilization and pipe operations.

• MobileFFmpeg version number is aligned with FFmpeg since version 4.2. In previous versions, MobileFFmpeg version of a release and FFmpeg version included in that release was different.
• dev part in FFmpeg version number indicates that FFmpeg source is pulled from the FFmpeg master branch. Exact version number is obtained using git describe --tags.

Starting from v4.2, MobileFFmpeg binaries are published in two different variants: Main Release and LTS Release.

• They include complete functionality of the library and support the latest SDK/API features.

• These releases are customized to support a wide range of devices. They are built using older API/SDK versions, so some features are not available for them.

This table shows the differences between two variants.

Unreleased binaries built from development branch can be found under the development-snapshot directory.

Please remember that these builds are provided for testing and development purposes only since they are not % 100 tested and may include minor issues.

1. Use your package manager (apt, yum, dnf, brew, etc.) to install the following packages.

   autoconf automake libtool pkg-config curl cmake gcc gperf texinfo yasm nasm bison autogen patch git
   

Some of these packages are not mandatory for the default build. Please visit Android Prerequisites, iOS Prerequisites and tvOS Prerequisites for the details.

2. Android builds require these additional packages.

   • Android SDK 4.1 Jelly Bean (API Level 16) or later
   • Android NDK r20 or later with LLDB and CMake

3. iOS builds need these extra packages and tools.

   • Xcode 7.3.1 or later
   • iOS SDK 9.3 or later
   • Command Line Tools

4. tvOS builds need these extra packages and tools.

   • Xcode 7.3.1 or later
   • tvOS SDK 9.2 or later
   • Command Line Tools

Use android.sh, ios.sh and tvos.sh to build MobileFFmpeg for each platform.

All three scripts support additional options and can be customized to enable/disable specific external libraries and/or architectures. Please refer to wiki pages of android.sh, ios.sh and tvos.sh to see all available build options.

export ANDROID_HOME=<Android SDK Path>
export ANDROID_NDK_ROOT=<Android NDK Path>
./android.sh

./ios.sh

./tvos.sh

Use --lts option to build lts binaries for each platform.

All libraries created by the top level build scripts (android.sh, ios.sh and tvos.sh) can be found under the prebuilt directory.

• Android archive (.aar file) is located under the android-aar folder
• iOS frameworks are located under the ios-frameworkfolder
• iOS universal binaries are located under the ios-universalfolder
• tvOS frameworks are located under the tvos-frameworkfolder
• tvOS universal binaries are located under the tvos-universalfolder

It is possible to enable GPL licensed libraries x264, xvidcore since v1.1 and vid.stab, x265 since v2.1 from the top level build scripts. Their source code is not included in the repository and downloaded when enabled.

build directory includes build scripts of all external libraries. Two scripts exist for each external library, one for Android and one for iOS / tvOS. Each of these two scripts contains options/flags used to cross-compile the library on the specified mobile platform.

CPU optimizations (ASM) are enabled for most of the external libraries. Details and exceptions can be found under the ASM Support wiki page.

A more detailed documentation is available at Wiki.

This project is licensed under the LGPL v3.0. However, if source code is built using optional --enable-gpl flag or prebuilt binaries with -gpl postfix are used then MobileFFmpeg is subject to the GPL v3.0 license.

Source code of FFmpeg and external libraries is included in compliance with their individual licenses.

openh264 source code included in this repository is licensed under the 2-clause BSD License but this license does not cover the MPEG LA licensing fees. If you build mobile-ffmpeg with openh264 and distribute that library, then you are subject to pay MPEG LA licensing fees. Refer to OpenH264 FAQ page for the details. Please note that mobile-ffmpeg does not publish a binary with openh264 inside.

strip-frameworks.sh script included and distributed (until v4.x) is published under the Apache License version 2.0.

In test applications; embedded fonts are licensed under the SIL Open Font License, other digital assets are published in the public domain.

Please visit License page for the details.

If you have any recommendations or ideas to improve it, please feel free to submit issues or pull requests. Any help is appreciated.

• libav gas-preprocessor
• FFmpeg API Documentation
• FFmpeg Wiki
• FFmpeg License and Legal Considerations
• FFmpeg External Library Licenses