FFmpeg 6.0 “Von Neumann” Release: New Codecs, Filters, and ABI Changes

Approximately six months after FFmpeg 5.1, the FFmpeg 6.0 "Von Neumann" version has been officially released. This major release adds many new encoders, decoders, and filters, and changes the distribution model by incrementing the ABI version for every major release, with a plan to issue a major version each year.

A specific change is that deprecated APIs will be removed after three versions, and the final minor version of a major release will be designated as an LTS version, making future releases more frequent and orderly.

New decoders in FFmpeg 6.0 include Bonk, RKA, Radiance, SC‑4, APAC, VQC, WavArc, and several ADPCM formats, while QSV and NVENC now support AV1 encoding. The FFmpeg CLI has been accelerated with threading improvements, new statistics options, and the ability to pass option values from files to filters.

Additional enhancements comprise new FFT and MDCT implementations in codecs, extensive bug fixes, improved ICC profile handling and color‑space signal processing, a large set of RISC‑V vector and scalar assembly optimizations, and Vulkan and further FFT improvements slated for the upcoming 6.1 minor release.

Radiance HDR image support

ddagrab (Desktop Duplication) video capture filter

ffmpeg -shortest_buf_duration option

ffmpeg now builds threads

ffmpeg now runs each muxer in a separate thread

New mode for cropdetect filter to generate crop‑area based on motion vectors and edge detection

VAAPI decode and encode for 10/12‑bit 422, 10/12‑bit 444 HEVC and VP9

WBMP (Wireless Application Protocol Bitmap) image format

a3dscope filter

bonk decoder and demuxer

Micronas SC‑4 audio decoder

LAF demuxer

APAC decoder and demuxer

Media 100i decoder

DTS to PTS reorder bsf

ViewQuest VQC decoder

backgroundkey filter

nvenc AV1 encoding support

MediaCodec encoder

oneVPL support for QSV

QSV AV1 encoder

10/12‑bit 422, 10/12‑bit 444 HEVC and VP9 QSV decode and encode

showcwt multimedia filter

corr video filter

adrc audio filter

afdelaysrc audio filter

WADY DPCM decoder and demuxer

CBD2 DPCM decoder

ssim360 video filter

ffmpeg CLI new options: -stats_enc_pre [_fmt], -stats_enc_post [_fmt], -stats_mux_pre [_fmt]

hstack_vaapi, vstack_vaapi and xstack_vaapi filters

XMD ADPCM decoder and demuxer

media100 to mjpegb bsf

ffmpeg CLI new option: -fix_sub_duration_heartbeat

WavArc decoder and demuxer

Deprecated CrystalHD decoder

SDNS demuxer

RKA decoder and demuxer

Filtergraph syntax now supports passing file contents as option values by prefixing the option name with '/'

hstack_qsv, vstack_qsv and xstack_qsv filters