========================================
Purpose of the FFMPEG directory
========================================

This directory was created to satisfy the portability needs, for example when
the whole application is self-contained in a bundle.

In the most typical common cases a portable application can be moved between a
directory and another (see pen-drive, external hard-drive on different PC
workstations, etc). On Videomass this would imply resetting the paths to the
FFmpeg executables making portability inconvenient.

You can include here a statically compiled build of FFmpeg to be used on
multiple PC workstations with the same platform without having to reset the
executable paths each time.

Note that Videomass will tend to give priority to the executables included in
your OS environment variables, but you can still set once and for all the
executables included in this location from the preferences dialog
(see Preferences --> FFmpeg tab).

To use this approach, make sure this directory tree looks like this:

    |--------------------------|-------------------------|
    |   **Unix**               |       **Windows**       |
    |--------------------------|-------------------------|
                               |
           FFMPEG              |       FFMPEG
           |__ bin             |       |__ bin
           |   |__ ffmpeg      |       |   |__ ffmpeg.exe
           |   |__ ffprobe     |       |   |__ ffprobe.exe
           |   |__ ffplay      |       |   |__ ffplay.exe
           |__ presets         |       |__ presets
           |__ doc             |       |__ doc
           |__ LICENSE.txt     |       |__ LICENSE.txt
           |__ README.txt      |       |__ README.txt
                               |
    |--------------------------|-------------------------|


=======================================
Linux
=======================================

    - https://github.com/BtbN/FFmpeg-Builds/releases

    - https://johnvansickle.com/ffmpeg/

=======================================
MAcOS
=======================================

The 64bit static builds for MacOS can be downloaded at the official web page:

    - http://www.evermeet.cx/ffmpeg/

If you don't want to use statically compiled builds, leave this folder empty.
You can later use Homebrew to install FFmpeg. Building options and steps can be
found here:

    - https://gist.github.com/clayton/6196167
    - https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/CompilationGuide/MacOS

=======================================
MS-Windows
=======================================

The static builds for MS Windows can be downloaded at:

    - https://www.gyan.dev/ffmpeg/builds/

    - https://github.com/BtbN/FFmpeg-Builds/releases

Building options and steps can be found here:

    - https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/CompilationGuide


===============================================================================
For legal reasons (for example: including FAAC for AAC support) it is illegal
to distribute the FFmpeg binary compiled in some countries of the world, for
example, with the FAAC codec for AAC support. The distributable binary of FFmpeg
does not include faac support, which, however, can be obtained from compiling
the source code. If you need the faac codec (or other codecs with special
restrictions) in FFmpeg, you should compile yourself from the source with the
faac codec support.

More Infos about the legal issues can be found here:

    - http://www.ffmpeg.org/legal.html

Others resources:

    - http://www.ffmpeg.org/documentation.html
===============================================================================

Update on July 03 2025
Gianluca (jeanslack) Pernigotto
