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FFmpeg in Kitlig

FFmpeg is the free, open source program that reads and writes video. Kitlig ships its own copy, so there is nothing to install: every video tool works out of the box.

The copy Kitlig ships is an LGPL build. That is the licence that lets a commercial program include FFmpeg, and it means the build has no GPL encoders such as x264 or x265. Kitlig encodes H.264 with OpenH264 or your graphics card instead, and H.265 with your graphics card. VP9, AV1 and FFV1 are built in. The exact version and build options are recorded next to the program files, and the licence text ships with them.

What runs on it

  • Every tool on the video player's toolbar: trim, re-fps, crop, pad, resize, extract audio, extract frame, image sequence, and re-encode. See Video tools.
  • Extract frames in Tracking, the first step of every session made from a video. See Tracking.
  • Render Insert in planar tracking and the video export of tracked targets.
  • Everything in Redub, and the Export and Package actions in Video mode.
  • The audio operations that run on your machine: stem separation, Mix Audio, Replace & Remix, and Combine Media.
  • Reading the resolution, frame rate, and duration of a video when you import it.

The colour-managed viewers decode through a separate native helper that uses the same FFmpeg libraries directly, frame by frame, at the source's own bit depth. See OpenEXR and colour.

Checking which FFmpeg is in use

Open Settings, choose Tools & Apps, and find the FFmpeg section. Found FFmpeg with a version number and bundled with Kitlig underneath means the shipped copy is in use. Kitlig also lists which encoders that build has and which fallback it uses for a codec the build lacks.

Using a different FFmpeg

You only need this if you want a build with encoders the bundled one lacks, such as x264.

  1. Install or unzip the build you want anywhere permanent.
  2. In Settings, Tools & Apps, click Locate FFmpeg... and pick the program file. On Windows that is ffmpeg.exe, usually in the bin folder; on macOS and Linux it is a file called ffmpeg with no extension.
  3. Kitlig re-checks the build straight away and uses it from then on.

Click Use auto-detect to go back to the bundled copy. Re-check looks again after you have changed something by hand.

If a tool is greyed out

The video tools only grey out when Kitlig cannot run its FFmpeg at all, for example after a damaged install. Clicking a greyed tool opens the setup window, which shows what went wrong and lets you point at another build or reinstall Kitlig.

Next step

Head to Sandbox Mode and generate your first asset.