#496 – FFmpeg: The Incredible Technology Behind Video on the Internet

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. Thank you for listening ❤ Check out our sponsors: See below for timestamps, transcript, and to give feedback, submit questions, contact Lex, etc. Transcript: CONTACT LEX: Feedback – give feedback to Lex: AMA – submit questions, videos or call-in: Hiring – join our team: Other – other ways to get in touch: EPISODE LINKS: FFmpeg on X: FFmpeg: VideoLAN (VLC): VideoLAN on X: Jean-Baptiste’s Website: Jean-Baptiste’s LinkedIn: Jean-Baptiste’s GitHub: Kieran’s X: Kieran’s LinkedIn: Kieran’s GitHub: SPONSORS: To support this podcast, check out our sponsors & get discounts: Larridin: Measure AI adoption in your business. Go to Blitzy: AI agent for large enterprise codebases. Go to BetterHelp: Online therapy and counseling. Go to Fin: AI agent for customer service. Go to LMNT: Zero-sugar electrolyte drink mix. Go to Perplexity: AI-powered answer engine. Go to 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

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#496 – FFmpeg: The Incredible Technology Behind Video on the Internet is an episode from Artificial Intelligence by Lex Fridman.

This episode is 4:23:41 long.

This episode was published on May 6, 2026.

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