Difference between ffmpeg-free and ffmpeg-libs

Hello,

while I was trying out figuring some problems with playing videos from amazon.de I was wondering about the packages ffmpeg-free and ffmpeg-libs.
The package ffmpeg-free comes with the fedora repo and ffmpeg-libs is availible in RPM fusion free.

I first installed ffmpeg-free and after that I tried ffmpeg-libs (with removing ffmpeg-free).

Can you tell me what´s the difference between the two packages. Do they offer other codes for video playback?

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ffmpeg-free includes only the FOSS/patent free bits of ffmpeg since Fedora does not distribute non FOSS/patent encumbered code. The RPM Fusion build of ffmpeg also includes the non-free/patent encumbered bits.

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Forbidden_items

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Thank you. That link was very useful. Also for other non free software components.
Thanks!

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OK, I’ve replaced ffmpeg-free with ffmpeg-libs but Audacity still can’t open .mbg4 files. How do I get the optional ffmpeg library it keeps demanding?

I have these ffmpeg packages installed (all from rpmfusion as you can see) and I can play mp4 files with no issues.

ffmpeg.x86_64                                                     5.0.1-3.fc36                                                         @rpmfusion-free
ffmpeg-libs.x86_64                                                5.0.1-3.fc36                                                         @rpmfusion-free
ffmpegthumbnailer.x86_64                                          2.2.3-0.2.20210902gitd92e191.fc36                                    @rpmfusion-free

As stated, fedora can include ffmpeg, but only with the totally free codecs.

If you do dnf list ffmpeg* you will see all the packages available, and that only ffmpeg-free packages come from fedora. All the others are from rpmfusion.

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audacity from fedora repository is built with audacity_use_ffmpeg=off to prevent loading of any ffmpeg libraries for import/export of restricted formats including mp4a.

audacity-freeworld from rpmfusion is built with audacity_use_ffmpeg=loaded and has it’s own compat-ffmpeg4 for import/export of mp4a.

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Thanx! That was exactly what I needed. And, I put the question here instead of a new topic because just installing audacity isn’t enough; you need to know which version to install.