
Skip the Media Service: Video Processing API for a SaaS Product
A video processing API for a SaaS product beats a media microservice: real TCO of FFmpeg on Lambda vs Fargate, plus a one-call endpoint you ship today.
225 articles about ffmpeg.

A video processing API for a SaaS product beats a media microservice: real TCO of FFmpeg on Lambda vs Fargate, plus a one-call endpoint you ship today.

The ffmpeg side by side recipe that actually works: hstack needs matching heights, vstack matching widths, and shortest=1 stops the short clip freezing.

Running FFmpeg in Python means shelling out to the same binary. Get the subprocess pattern that works, the library trade-offs, and a one-call API option.

FFmpeg zoompan jitters because it rounds the crop window to whole pixels. Upscale the still first, then zoom: working math for zoom in, zoom out, and pans.

Crossfade clips with ffmpeg xfade: transition types, the offset math people get wrong, carrying audio with acrossfade, and chaining more than two clips.

FFmpeg two-pass encoding hits an exact file size that CRF can't guarantee. The -pass 1 and -pass 2 commands, when two-pass beats CRF, and the real pitfalls.

Create HLS stream FFmpeg commands for .m3u8 playlists and .ts segments, the CDN setup that makes them play, and the one-call API that skips the encoder box.

Add background music to video with FFmpeg: amix levels, sidechaincompress ducking under a voiceover, looping, fades, and the same mix as one API call.

The ffmpeg reverse video filter buffers every decoded frame into RAM before it emits one. Trim first, reverse the segment, then concat a boomerang loop.

Encoding a video once and deriving every delivery version from it: the mezzanine command, CRF and preset per rung, social crops, and the one-call version.