FFmpegWe use it
The Swiss army knife of video: convert, cut clips, make thumbnails and previews, read durations.
Websiteffmpeg.org ↗ CategoryVideo & Server Tools PricingFree, open source Our rating★★★★★ 5/5 Last checkedOctober 2026
We use FFmpeg for clips, thumbnails (one frame at about 30% into the video, saved as WebP), duration checks and previews. A tip: always verify a file’s real duration with ffprobe; stored durations from scraped sources are wrong surprisingly often.
👍 Good
- Does everything
- Free
👎 Watch out
- Command-line
Verdict: Learn the basics; it pays off.