FFmpeg 6.0 is coming

QuoteFFmpeg 6.0 (winter 2023?)

Ongoing
– 191 contributors, ~3.5k files changed, ~220kLoC touched
– Numerous API changes (and break)

Current Changes
– FFmpeg CLI multithreading (WIP), muxers
– RISC-V optimizations
– AV1 hw decoding for Intel, nVidia & AMD
– New highly-optimized FFT code with SIMD for x86 and ARM
– new API for output of reconstructed frames from encoders (currently implemented
for x264 and libaom)
– API breaks for deprecations, numerous YUV pix_fmt changes, AVFrame,
opacification, channel layouts, H.274

Current Hardware Changes
– AV1 hw decoding for Intel, nVidia & AMD
– Hardware-friendly high bit-depth and chroma-resolution pixel formats
– Android MediaCodec though NDKMediaCodec
– Android MediaCodec encoders
– Intel 10/12 4:2:2 & 4:4:4 with VAAPI and QSV + Filters

Codecs
– New Decoders: Bonk, APAC, APAC, Mi-SC4, 100i, VQC, FTR, PHM, WBMP, XMD ADPCM, WADY DPCM, CBD2 DPCM
– New Filters: adrc, afdelaysr, showcwt, a3dscope, Ssim360, corr, backgroundkey
– dts2pts bitstream filter: generate timestamps for raw H.264 (extensible to HEVC and other codecs)

FFmpeg CLI multithreading
– FFmpeg CLI is used everywhere
  . very flexible
  . architecture still based on the original code from 2000
– Major architectural changes needed
  . code maintainable
  . efficient one-to-many transcoding
  . gathering metrics
– Every component in the transcoding pipeline (demuxing, decoding, filtering, encoding, muxing) will run in its own thread
– Improves latency and new use cases

FFmpeg releases

Concept
– One major per year ABI/API breakage
– One or two minor per year, with no API changes
– Small security releases regularly
– One LTS every 2 year

Plan
– FFmpeg 5.0 January 2022 January 2023
– FFmpeg 5.1 LTS July 2022 July 2024
– FFmpeg 6.0 January 2023 January 2024
– FFmpeg 6.1 July 2023 July 2024
– FFmpeg 7.0 January 2024
– FFmpeg 7.1 LTS July 2024