Real FFmpeg bindings for Go. Not a wrapper. Not a CLI tool. The actual libraries.
Cross-platform, static FFmpeg libraries bundled directly into your Go binary. Hardware acceleration included. Zero runtime dependencies. Ship it and forget it.
Every other Go ffmpeg projects wrap the ffmpeg command, ffmpeg-statigo gives you the actual FFmpeg C libraries with proper Go bindings.
Build once, deploy anywhere. No hunting for system FFmpeg. No version mismatches. Predictable codec support.
- FFmpeg 8.0.1 - Latest release with AV1, H.265, H.264, VP8/9
- Truly static - Builds into your binary (just needs system
mandstdc++libraries) - Cross-platform - Linux and macOS (arm64, amd64)
- Hardware acceleration - NVENC/NVDEC, VideoToolbox, Vulkan and QuickSync support
- GPL build - x264, x265, and all the good codecs included
- Auto-generated - Thin, predictable bindings directly from FFmpeg headers
- Preserved documentation - Original FFmpeg comments in your IDE
Hard fork of the excellent csnewman/ffmpeg-go, modernised with FFmpeg 8.0.x, Go 1.24, hardware acceleration, ~85% FFmpeg API coverage, and a 99.5% smaller git history.
Static libraries (~100MB per platform) cannot be distributed via go get. Use as a git submodule with a replace directive:
- Add submodule:
git submodule add https://github.com/linuxmatters/ffmpeg-statigo third_party/ffmpeg-statigo - Add replace directive to
go.mod:replace github.com/linuxmatters/ffmpeg-statigo => ./third_party/ffmpeg-statigo - Download libraries:
cd third_party/ffmpeg-statigo && go run ./cmd/download-lib - Configure git for submodule-friendly pulls:
git config pull.ff only && git config submodule.recurse true - Build:
go build ./...
Step 4 prevents git pull --rebase from breaking submodule references. Fast-forward only pulls ensure submodule commits stay in sync with the parent repository.
Static libraries are gitignored—only the submodule reference is committed.
See docs/DEVELOPMENT.md for CI/CD integration, cross-compilation, and troubleshooting.
ffmpeg-statigo provides a curated FFmpeg static library focused on the core strengths of FFmpeg: decoding, processing, and encoding audio and video streams. ffmpeg-statigo is designed for Go developers building modern streaming applications. The pattern is:
- Generate content in Go - Text, graphics, effects using Go's excellent libraries
- Feed frames to FFmpeg - Use ffmpeg-statigo for encoding and stream processing
- Let FFmpeg handle codecs - Hardware acceleration, format conversion, container muxing
- Decoders: All contemporary formats (H.264, H.265, AV1, VP8/9, Opus, AAC, MP3)
- Encoders: Modern codecs for streaming and transcoding (x264, x265, dav1d, rav1e, vpx, lame, opus)
- Hardware acceleration: NVENC, QuickSync, VideoToolbox, Vulkan Video
- Containers: MP4, MKV, WebM, DASH, HLS, and all major formats
- Filters: Video scaling, colour conversion, audio resampling, and processing filters
- Streaming protocols: RTMP, SRT, HLS, DASH
Building something that deals with video? You're probably covered:
- Streaming platform (your own Twitch/YouTube/Owncast)
- Content management system with media handling
- Social media app with video uploads
- Video conferencing service
- Transcoding pipeline for your media library
- Home media server ripping DVDs/Blu-rays
- Web-based media player
- Broadcasting tool or modern content creation workflow
Some FFmpeg features commonly found in the ffmpeg CLI tool are not included because they're better implemented in Go:
- ❌
drawtextfilter - Use Go'simage/draw+golang.org/x/image/fontpackages instead - ❌ Font libraries (freetype, harfbuzz, fontconfig) - Not needed when rendering in Go
- ❌
subtitlesandassfilters - Use separate subtitle streams instead - ❌ libass - Subtitle rendering library not needed
- FFmpeg can still copy, extract, and mux subtitle streams without libass.
The excluded features can be added back if a compelling use case emerges. ffmpeg-statigo is a living project and the curated library evolves based on real-world needs.
If you need complete FFmpeg with all filters, use the official FFmpeg distribution. If you need modern streaming codecs with Go integration, ffmpeg-statigo is designed for you.
| Library | Version | Description |
|---|---|---|
| FFmpeg | 8.0.1 | A complete, cross-platform solution to record, convert and stream audio and video |
| dav1d | 1.5.2 | AV1 cross-platform decoder, open-source, and focused on speed, size and correctness |
| glslang | 15.4.0 | Khronos-reference front end for GLSL/ESSL and a SPIR-V generator |
| libsrt | 1.5.5-rc.0a | A transport protocol for ultra low latency live video and audio streaming |
| libvpl | 2.15.0 | Intel Video Processing Library (Intel VPL) API (Linux only) |
| libvpx | 1.15.2 | High-quality, open video format for the web that's freely available to everyone |
| libwebp | 1.6.0 | A modern image format providing superior lossless and lossy compression |
| libxml2 | 2.15.1 | An XML parser and toolkit implemented in C |
| libiconv | 1.18 | A character set conversion library (macOS only) |
| mp3lame | 3.100 | A high quality MPEG Audio Layer III (MP3) encoder |
| nv-codec-headers | 12.2.72.0 | Headers required to interface with Nvidias codec APIs (Linux only) |
| openssl | 3.6.0 | Open Source Toolkit for the TLS, DTLS, and QUIC protocols. |
| opus | 1.5.2 | A totally open, royalty-free, highly versatile audio codec |
| rav1e | 0.8.1 | The fastest and safest AV1 encoder. |
| Vulkan-Headers | 1.4.335 | Vulkan header files and API registry |
| x264 | head | H.264/MPEG-4 AVC compression format library for encoding video streams |
| x265 | head | H.265/MPEG-H HEVC compression format library for encoding video streams |
| zimg | 3.0.6 | Scaling, colorspace conversion, and dithering library |
| zlib | 1.3.1 | A Massively Spiffy Yet Delicately Unobtrusive Compression Library |
VVenC 1.13.1 (Fraunhofer Versatile Video Encoder, a fast & efficient software H.266/VVC encoder) is in the build configuration, but currently disabled, as it adds ~25MB to the static ffmpeg library and is too slow for practical use.
Details of codecs, muxers and parsers available in enable in the static ffmpeg library that ffmpeg-statigo ships are documented in docs/CODECS.md.
| Codec | NVENC (Linux) | QuickSync (Linux) | VideoToolbox (macOS) | Vulkan Video (Cross-platform) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AV1 | ✅ Encode/Decode | ✅ Encode/Decode | ☑️ Decode | ✅ Encode/Decode |
| H.266/VVC | ❌ | ☑️ Decode | ❌ | ☑️ Decode |
| H.265/HEVC | ✅ Encode/Decode | ✅ Encode/Decode | ✅ Encode/Decode | ✅ Encode/Decode |
| H.264/AVC | ✅ Encode/Decode | ✅ Encode/Decode | ✅ Encode/Decode | ✅ Encode/Decode |
| VP9 | ✅ Encode/Decode | ✅ Encode/Decode | ❌ | ☑️ Decode |
| VP8 | ☑️ Dec️ode | ☑️ Decode | ❌ | ❌ |
| MPEG-2 | ☑️ Decode | ✅ Encode/Decode | ❌ | ❌ |
| JPEG/MJPEG | ☑️ Decode | ✅ Encode/Decode | ❌ | ❌ |
- NVENC/NVDEC: Most NVIDIA GPUs come with NVENC/NVDEC support but some low-end and mobile models are exceptions.
- Decoding & Encoding H.264 8-bit - Any NVIDIA GPU supporting NVENC/NVDEC
- Decoding & Encoding HEVC 8-bit - Maxwell 2nd Gen (GM206) and newer
- Decoding HEVC 10-bit - Maxwell 2nd Gen (GM206) and newer
- Encoding HEVC 10-bit - Pascal and newer
- Decoding AV1 8/10-bit - Ampere and newer
- Encoding AV1 8/10-bit - Ada Lovelace and newer
- QuickSync (QSV): Requires Intel CPU (6th gen Skylake+) or Intel Arc GPU. Uses libvpl/oneVPL dispatcher.
- Decoding & Encoding H.264 8-bit - Any Intel GPU that supports Quick Sync Video
- Decoding & Encoding HEVC 8-bit - Gen 9 Skylake (6th Gen Core) and newer
- Decoding & Encoding HEVC 10-bit - Gen 9.5 Kaby Lake (7th Gen Core), Apollo Lake, Gemini Lake (Pentium and Celeron) and newer
- Decoding AV1 8/10-bit - Gen 12 Tiger Lake (11th Gen Core) and newer
- Encoding AV1 8/10-bit - Gen 12.5 DG2 / ARC A-series, Gen 12.7 Meteor Lake (14th Gen Core Mobile / 1st Gen Core Ultra) and newer
- VP9 requires 7th gen Kaby Lake or newer
- VideoToolbox: Available on macOS with Apple Silicon or Intel Macs with hardware support.
- Decoding & Encoding H.264 8-bit - Any VideoToolbox-supported Mac.
- Decoding & Encoding HEVC 8/10-bit - Macs from 2017 and later
- Decoding AV1 8/10-bit - Requires an M3 series Apple Silicon Mac
- Vulkan Video: Works with any GPU that has Vulkan 1.3+ drivers.
- Decoding & Encoding H.264 8-bit
- Decoding & Encoding HEVC 8/10-bit
- Decoding & Encoding AV1 8/10-bit
- Works via MoltenVK on macOS when MoltenVK runtime is installed
The Go binding code is MIT licensed. However, the bundled FFmpeg libraries are compiled with GPL-licensed components like x264 and x265.
Any project using ffmpeg-statigo inherits the GPL requirements from FFmpeg through this linking, making the combined work subject to GPLv3 licensing obligations.