FFmpeg Video Processing in Laravel

Laravel wrapper for FFmpeg using protonemedia/laravel-ffmpeg.

When to Use

• Generating video thumbnails
• Converting video formats
• Extracting video metadata (duration, resolution, codec)
• HLS/DASH streaming setup
• Video watermarking
• Processing uploaded videos
• Queue-based video processing

Quick Setup Pattern

Generate Thumbnail:

use ProtoneMedia\LaravelFFMpeg\Support\FFMpeg;

FFMpeg::fromDisk('s3')
    ->open('videos/input.mp4')
    ->getFrameFromSeconds(10)
    ->export()
    ->toDisk('s3')
    ->save('thumbnails/video-thumb.jpg');

Convert Video Format:

FFMpeg::fromDisk('s3')
    ->open('videos/input.mov')
    ->export()
    ->inFormat(new \FFMpeg\Format\Video\X264)
    ->save('videos/output.mp4');

Common Operations

Queue Pattern

Queue-based processing recommended: Video processing blocks HTTP requests. Queue jobs enable async processing with timeouts and retries.

// Controller
class VideoController extends Controller
{
    public function upload(Request $request)
    {
        $path = $request->file('video')->store('videos', 's3');
        ProcessVideoJob::dispatch($path);
        return response()->json(['processing' => true]);
    }
}

// Job (basic structure - see examples.md for full implementation)
class ProcessVideoJob implements ShouldQueue
{
    use Queueable;

    public $timeout = 1800; // 30 minutes
    public $tries = 3;

    public function handle()
    {
        FFMpeg::fromDisk('s3')
            ->open($this->videoPath)
            ->getFrameFromSeconds(5)
            ->export()
            ->save('thumbnails/thumb.jpg');
    }
}

Anti-Patterns

See reference.md for installation, HLS streaming, security hardening, format options. See examples.md for complete job implementations, anti-patterns, Docker setup.