# libav/libav

Libav github mirror, clone of git://git.libav.org/libav

Repository: https://github.com/libav/libav
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/libav
Language: C
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Topics: multimedia, audio, video
Last push: 2021-05-22T23:16:28+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 32/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5651, "days_push": 1929, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases, no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1155, forks 398 (observed 2026-08-28T04:03:47.863300+00:00)

## What it is
Libav is a collection of C libraries and command-line tools for processing multimedia content such as audio, video, subtitles, and related metadata, including codecs, container formats, filtering, and scaling. It is the historical fork of FFmpeg and is no longer actively maintained.

## Use cases
- convert audio and video files between formats
- decode and encode multimedia streams in a C application
- extract metadata from media files
- apply filters to decoded audio and video
- resample and mix audio
- inspect multimedia container contents from the command line

## When to choose
- you need a lightweight LGPL-licensed alternative to FFmpeg for legacy codebases
- you are maintaining an existing project already built on libav libraries

## When to avoid
- you are starting a new project - use FFmpeg instead, which is actively maintained and a superset of Libav
- you need up-to-date codec support or security fixes
- you need long-term support or community help

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: abandoned
- function: video-processing, audio-processing, cli, image-processing
- domain: media, developer-tools
- platform: windows, cross-platform, cli
- tags: ffmpeg-fork, codecs, transcoding, multimedia, c, audio, video, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- libav/libav (main) score 32

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:47.863300+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T06:32:13.583671+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/libav/libav (fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:47.863300+00:00, sha f9991dc1551a)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.