packages/docs/docs/ffmpeg.mdx
:::info Since Remotion v4.0, Remotion comes bundled with a lightweight version of FFmpeg. An installation of FFmpeg is no longer needed. :::
The following documentation is an archival for how FFmpeg worked in v3.0.
Remotion requires FFmpeg to encode videos. Since v3.3, you do not need to install FFmpeg manually. This page documents the behavior of Remotion for developers needing advanced control.
ffmpeg and ffprobeTwo binaries are required for Remotion: ffmpeg and ffprobe. When talking about FFmpeg in the documentation, it may also refer to FFprobe.
When rendering a video and binaries are not found, Remotion will download them from the internet and put it inside your node_modules folder. The binary will not get added to your PATH, so if you type in ffmpeg into your Terminal, it may not be found. However, Remotion will be able to use it
Auto-install is supported on the following platforms:
For other platforms, you need to supply your own binaries.
By rendering a video, the download of FFmpeg will be triggered automatically.
On servers, it might be of use to install the binaries before the first render, so no time is wasted once the first render begins.
npx remotion install ffmpeg and npx remotion install ffprobe to trigger auto-install of binaries. If the binaries exist, the command will do nothing. This requires @remotion/cli to be installed.@remotion/renderer package exposes ensureFfmpeg() and ensureFfprobe() functionsIn case of multiple binaries being supplied, they priority order is the following:
ffmpegExecutable or ffprobeExecutable option, it will be used.ffmpeg or ffprobe is in the PATH, it will be used.node_modules, it will be used.