Sometimes I think that if there is important software in Linux but that perhaps many are unaware of because it is not usually seen, that is the protagonist of this article. Directly or indirectly, it is used by many programs with multimedia background, and we can make conversions (among other things) quite fast from the terminal. Yesterday, February 28, it was launched ffmpeg 6.0, and those programs that use it "under the hood" will be able to do better when they implement the new version.
The base of this software goes back to the beginning of this century (or the past, if counted correctly), since the original architecture is still based on the original code of 2000. What is improving version after version is that they are coming out and implementing new codecs and functions such as the multi-thread use. Having explained this, what you have below is a list with the most outstanding novelties that have arrived together with FFmpeg 6.0, which has the code name "Von Neumann" and succeeds the previous version older than 2022.
FFmpeg 6.0 Highlights
- Support for Radiance HDR images.
- FFmpeg now runs each muxer in a separate thread and requires threading to be enabled for compilation.
- VA-API encode and decode support for HEVC 10/12-bit 422, HEVC 10/12-bit 444, and VP9.
- Compatibility with the WBMP (Wireless Application Protocol Bitmap) image format.
- Support for NVIDIA NVENC AV1 encoding.
- Intel oneVPL support for Quick Sync Video (QSV). There is also QSV encode/decode for HEVC 10/12 bit 422,
- 10/12-bit EVC 444 and VP9.
- MediaCodec encoder and decoder support.
- WavArc decoder and demuxer.
- CystalHD decoders have been deprecated.
- Other new encoders, decoders, filters and demuxers.
- RISC-V optimizations.
Being software like this, basically a library, I would recommend that no one download and install it manually; I would rather say that it is best to wait and that it is the developers who have to download and work with FFmpeg when it suits them. In any case, anyone who wants can get a copy from their official website.