Delphi-FFMPEG

Pascal bindings for FFmpeg 8.1.x shared libraries (Windows), synced with upstream tag n8.1.1.

Requirements

• Delphi 10.3 Rio or newer (verified on Delphi 13 Florence)
• Free Pascal 3.0.4+ (optional)
• FFmpeg 8.1.x shared DLLs for Windows (see below)

Repository layout

Path	Description
source/	Pascal units: libavcodec, libavformat, libavutil, …
source/uFFmpegCodecUtils.pas	Helpers (CodecStringFromParameters, encoder setup)
source/uFFmpegPath.pas	UTF-8 paths for FFmpeg C API
examples/	Official FFmpeg API samples; open examples/Examples.groupproj
sdl/	JEDI-SDL bindings (used by ffmpeg_sample_player)
bin/win32/, bin/win64/	Build output and FFmpeg DLLs per platform
bin/scripts/	DLL download scripts
bin/out/	Example run / verification artifacts

Version constants live in source/ffmpeg.inc (target n8.1.1). When auditing structs against a local tree, check out that tag: git -C C:\FFmpeg checkout n8.1.1.

Build examples

Delphi IDE

1. Open examples/Examples.groupproj in Delphi.
2. Build All — search paths to source/ (and sdl/ for the player) are set in each .dproj.
3. FFmpeg DLLs for the active platform are in bin/win32/ or bin/win64/ (same folder as the built .exe).

Command line

cd examples
.\build_all.ps1              # Win64 (default)
.\build_all.ps1 -Platform Win32

Download runtime DLLs:

cd bin/scripts
.\download_ffmpeg_dll.ps1         # Win64 — BtbN shared build → bin/win64/
.\download_ffmpeg_dll_win32.ps1   # Win32 — defisym shared build → bin/win32/

Win32: bin/win32/ (defisym). Win64: bin/win64/ (BtbN). Each folder holds both DLLs and built .exe files.

Or build/install FFmpeg 8.1.x yourself and copy DLLs from the install bin/ folder.

Runtime DLL downloads

Place DLLs next to the built .exe (bin/win32/ or bin/win64/). Scripts in bin/scripts/ fetch FFmpeg automatically; links below are for manual download.

FFmpeg 8.1.x (shared)

Platform	Archive	Project
Win32	ffmpeg-n8.1-latest-win32-gpl-shared-8.1.zip	defisym/FFmpeg-Builds-Win32
Win64	ffmpeg-n8.1-latest-win64-gpl-shared-8.1.zip	BtbN/FFmpeg-Builds

Copy bin\*.dll from the unpacked archive into bin/win32/ or bin/win64/.

SDL 1.2 (ffmpeg_sample_player only)

Bindings expect SDL.dll (SDL 1.2; see sdl/sdl.pas). Source and build files: libsdl-org/SDL-1.2.

Platform	Download	Notes
Win32	SDL-1.2.15-win32.zip	Prebuilt SDL.dll
Win32 (alt.)	SDL-devel-1.2.15-VC.zip	MSVC package; SDL.dll in lib\
Win64	VisualC	No official Win64 runtime on libsdl.org; build SDL.dll from the VS solution

Copy SDL.dll into bin/win32/ or bin/win64/ beside ffmpeg_sample_player.exe.

FFmpeg DLLs (runtime)

Bindings expect these library names (from source/ffmpeg.inc):

• avcodec-62.dll, avformat-62.dll, avutil-60.dll
• avdevice-62.dll, avfilter-11.dll
• swresample-6.dll, swscale-9.dll

postproc-58.dll is optional legacy; it is not part of the FFmpeg 8.x source tree and is not required by the examples.

Integration with Delphi-OpenCV

Delphi-OpenCV uses this project via the embedded copy at Delphi-OpenCV/Delphi-FFMPEG/ and the runtime package rtpFFMPEG. Keep both copies of source/ in sync when updating bindings.

Install order in OpenCV: rtpFFMPEG → rclVCLOpenCV → …

Related: Delphi-OpenCV5 — OpenCV 5.0 Delphi wrapper (Win64).

Notes

• Bindings follow the public FFmpeg API only (no avpriv_* imports); inline helpers (av_mallocz_array, etc.) are implemented in Pascal.
• Many legacy API symbols are deprecated in FFmpeg 8.x — compiler warnings W1000 are expected.
• ffmpeg_sample_player requires SDL.dll (SDL 1.2) in addition to FFmpeg DLLs — see Runtime DLL downloads.
• Examples use codecpar and avcodec_send_packet / avcodec_receive_frame.