FFmpeg vs Prism Video Converter

FFmpeg is free, open-source software for recording, converting, and streaming audio and video on Windows, macOS, and Linux. Its command-line tool converts media files between formats, supports local recording, and lists AVI among its output formats. Output protocols include HLS, RTMP, RTMPS, RTP, RTSP, SRT, and UDP. Hardware acceleration is available for encoding and decoding. Decoding support includes Vulkan, VAAPI, and OpenHarmony, and Vulkan codecs can work on implementations of Vulkan 1.3. The Vulkan compute approach supports FFv1 encoding and decoding and ProRes RAW decoding, but only for codecs designed for parallel decoding. FFmpeg’s transcoding components run in parallel, which can improve throughput and CPU use; gains may be limited when one component dominates the processing. The project accepts contributions through its Forgejo instance and offers mailing lists, IRC, forums, bug reports, a wiki, and conferences. Version 8.1 Hoare was announced as available for download on March 16, 2026.

Prism Video Converter converts video files between formats and can compress them. It runs on Windows and macOS, supports batch conversion and can handle input video up to 4K resolution. Its output list includes video formats such as AVI, MP4, MOV, MKV, WMV and WEBM; audio formats including MP3 and WAV; and image outputs such as GIF and JPG or PNG sequences. Before conversion, users can trim, split, rotate, flip, crop or resize video, add text or image watermarks, and adjust color effects. The product page also describes direct sharing or uploading to YouTube, Vimeo, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, Flickr and Twitter. Prism can burn converted videos using NCH Express Burn software. The maker’s page describes conversion as an offline process. The free version is for non-commercial use and converts to AVI, ASF and WMV without upgrading. It includes Prism Plus features for a 14-day trial after installation; those advanced features are disabled afterward unless a Plus license is purchased. Paid annual plans are $39.95+VAT/year for Home and $59.95+VAT/year for Plus.