# FFMPEG / MPEG2 support cross-platform

**URL:** https://discourse.vtk.org/t/ffmpeg-mpeg2-support-cross-platform/4125
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [September 2, 2020, 8:46am UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/ffmpeg-mpeg2-support-cross-platform/4125 "2020-09-02T08:46:24Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![lassoan](https://discourse.vtk.org/user_avatar/discourse.vtk.org/lassoan/32/50_2.png) [@lassoan](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/lassoan)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2020, 11:42pm UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/ffmpeg-mpeg2-support-cross-platform/4125/2 "2020-09-03T23:42:38Z")

</div>

ffmpeg is bloated and messy, and has complicated licensing situation - depending on what components you enable, you may be able to use it without paying, but for example you would need to get a license for MPEG encoding; and you need to make sure you disable all GPL licensed parts if you want to ever consider commercial use.

If you want to do things legally and clearly, then I would recommend to use an open, cross-platform container, such as mkv, and a royalty-free codec, such as Google’s VP9. We have implemented all this and made it available in a small, freely usable library, IGSIO - see some more details here: [How do I write animation video files in VP9 (libvpx) codec format using vtk ?](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/how-do-i-write-animation-video-files-in-vp9-libvpx-codec-format-using-vtk/1478/2)

---

_[View the full topic](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/ffmpeg-mpeg2-support-cross-platform/4125)._