#496 – FFmpeg: The Incredible Technology Behind Video on the Internet

About this episode

This episode features a discussion with Jean-Baptiste Kempf and Kieran Kunhya about FFmpeg and its impact on video technology.

Jean-Baptiste Kempf is lead developer of VLC and president of VideoLAN. Kieran Kunhya is a longtime FFmpeg contributor, codec engineer, and the person behind the now-infamous FFmpeg account on X. Thank you for listening ❤ Check out our sponsors: https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/ep496-sc See below for timestamps, transcript, and to give feedback, submit questions, contact Lex, etc. Transcript: https://lexfridman.com/ffmpeg-transcript CONTACT LEX: Feedback – give feedback to Lex: https://lexfridman.com/survey AMA – submit questions, videos or call-in: https://lexfridman.com/ama Hiring – join our team: https://lexfridman.com/hiring Other – other ways to get in touch: https://lexfridman.com/contact EPISODE LINKS: FFmpeg on X: https://x.com/FFmpeg FFmpeg: https://ffmpeg.org/ VideoLAN (VLC): https://www.videolan.org/ VideoLAN on X: https://x.com/videolan Jean-Baptiste’s Website: https://jbkempf.com/ Jean-Baptiste’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jbkempf/ Jean-Baptiste’s GitHub: https://github.com/jbkempf Kieran’s X: https://x.com/kierank_ Kieran’s LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3OORhmC Kieran’s GitHub…

People in this episode

Host: Lex Fridman

Guests: Jean-Baptiste Kempf, Kieran Kunhya

Topics covered

• video technology
• FFmpeg
• VLC
• codec engineering
• internet streaming

Keywords

• FFmpeg
• VLC
• video technology
• codec
• streaming

Sponsors

Larridin, Blitzy, BetterHelp, Fin

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: VLC, VideoLAN, FFmpeg

More episodes of Lex Fridman Podcast

• #497 – Biggest Mysteries in Physics: Antimatter, Dark Energy & ToE – Don Lincoln · May 29, 2026 · 3h 2m
• #495 – Vikings, Ragnar, Berserkers, Valhalla & the Warriors of the Viking Age · April 9, 2026 · 2h 10m
• #494 – Jensen Huang: NVIDIA – The $4 Trillion Company & the AI Revolution · March 23, 2026
• #493 – Jeff Kaplan: World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Blizzard, and Future of Gaming · March 11, 2026
• #492 – Rick Beato: Greatest Guitarists of All Time, History & Future of Music · March 1, 2026
• #491 – OpenClaw: The Viral AI Agent that Broke the Internet – Peter Steinberger · February 12, 2026