ffmpeg: compress video?

Question

Hi,

My question is for an experienced developer with ffmpeg.

Would it be possible to compress a video with ffmpeg?

What is the difference between encoding and decoding?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Yes it is possible to compress a video with ffmpeg (though you're almost always going to lose quality in the process).

Encoding means to pass video (usually in some raw format) through an encoder, converting it to some particular video format (which then gets put inside a container file format, along with the audio, and possibly extra things like subtitles).

Decoding is do to the opposite of this - to take video in some format from a file, and convert it to raw bits that can be displayed on the screen.

(Is this really a programming question though? I suppose it might be!)