Getting rid of ffmpeg

[Bnyro]

Describe your suggested feature

ffmpeg increases the app size by 50% and isn't the most reliable library. I think we should try to get rid of it. I would really appreciate if there's any dev around here who has an idea how to mux audio and video without using ffmpeg and could help us.

Other details

No response

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[ghost]

I think HandBrake is a better alternative.

[Bnyro]

Can it be used in Android apps?

[ghost]

Video Transcoder for Android!

[ghost]

HandBrake is not compatible for android

[Bnyro]

It uses ffmpeg too :)

[Pentaphon]

How does Newpipe do it?

[ghost]

The NewPipeExtractor is a Java framework for scraping video platform websites in a way that they can be accessed like a normal API. The extractor is the core of the popular YouTube and streaming app NewPipe for Android.

[Pentaphon]

The NewPipeExtractor is a Java framework for scraping video platform websites in a way that they can be accessed like a normal API. The extractor is the core of the popular YouTube and streaming app NewPipe for Android.

Well I doubt we want to use that or a fork of that so I guess we may have to stick with ffmpeg unless somebody wants to create a from-scratch Libretube equivalent of NewpipeExtractor.

[ghost]

Yes

[FireMasterK]

Well I doubt we want to use that or a fork of that so I guess we may have to stick with ffmpeg unless somebody wants to create a from-scratch Libretube equivalent of NewpipeExtractor.

That won't help you since NewPipeExtractor doesn't help with muxing. Libretube uses Piped which uses NewPipeExtractor.

What NewPipe does is magic similar in https://github.com/TeamNewPipe/NewPipe/blob/0039312a64e7271fec2e0a295db1d6979e83cf3f/app/src/main/java/org/schabi/newpipe/streams/Mp4FromDashWriter.java

[Bnyro]

@FireMasterK Yeah, that's actually what I found too but it's kinda hard to understand how it works ...

[lu4p]

Do you need ffmpeg for downloads?

Exoplayer can actually handle downloads by itself: https://exoplayer.dev/downloading-media.html

This would require a new downloads section in the app where these downloads can be viewed, I think this would be a better UX than having to use the file manager/ gallery to start a downloaded video regardless.

[lilcheti]

Exoplayer downloads suck because it encrypts the media and you can't open it elsewhere

[lu4p]

Arguably way better than downloads not working at all even if you like .MP4 files, where I would argue if you need the file use youtube-dl.

[vedxp]

Any progress regarding this ?

[enderprism]

Use yt-dlp maybe? I use it along with mpv on my system and it's pretty fast. It also exists as a python library.
EDIT: Oh wait yt-dlp uses ffmpeg, sorry.

[Ilhamiii]

https://github.com/cisco/openh264
Does this project help?🤔