README

Delphi-FFMPEG

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

Primary platform:

• Windows (Win32 / Win64).
• source/ is unified for Delphi (Win32 / Win64 / Linux64) and FPC (Win32 / Win64 / Linux64) via ffmpeg_platform.inc and ffmpeg_rtl.inc. Linux bindings are verified in WSL;
• examples/ and build scripts still target Windows.

Requirements

Windows (examples and IDE)

• Delphi 10.3 Rio or newer (verified on Delphi 13 Florence)
• FFmpeg 8.1.x shared DLLs (see Runtime downloads)

Linux (bindings only)

• WSL2 or native Linux x86_64
• Free Pascal 3.0.4+ (used for the binding smoke test)
• FFmpeg 8.1.x shared .so libraries

Optional: Delphi Linux64 (DCCLINUX64, RAD Studio Enterprise/Architect) + PAServer on Ubuntu/WSL – see Delphi on Linux.

Repository layout

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

Build examples (Windows)

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 → bin/win64/
.\download_ffmpeg_dll_win32.ps1   # Win32 – defisym → bin/win32/

Each bin/win32/ or bin/win64/ folder holds both FFmpeg DLLs and built .exe files.

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

Linux binding test (WSL)

Smoke test for source/ only (not the full examples/ tree). Downloads FFmpeg, compiles with FPC, runs av_version_info() and related calls.

# from repository root (repo on a drive visible to WSL):
wsl -d <distro> bash tests/linux/run_wsl_test.sh

On native Linux:

./tests/linux/run_wsl_test.sh

Expected output ends with PASS: bindings loaded and basic API calls succeeded.

Six-platform binding test (Delphi + FPC)

Unified smoke test for tests/binding_test.dpr on all six targets.

Cross-platform toolchain (FPC Linux64 cross-compile, optional i386-win32 host) is not installed automatically – set it up manually with fpcupdeluxe releases (install FPC targets and cross compilers, then point the script at the install root). A standard Windows-only FPC install (e.g. C:\FPC\3.2.2) is enough for Win32 + Win64 FPC tests only; Linux64 FPC from Windows still requires fpcupdeluxe x86_64-linux cross binutils, or run tests/linux/run_wsl_test.sh with native FPC in WSL.

cd tests
.\run_all_platforms.ps1
# optional: FPC from fpcupdeluxe (after manual setup)
.\run_all_platforms.ps1 -FpcRoot '<path-to-fpcupdeluxe>'
# optional: standard FPC install (Win32/Win64 only)
.\run_all_platforms.ps1 -FpcRoot '<path-to-fpc>'

Logs: bin/out/platform_tests/. SKIP means missing toolchain (PAServer SDK or FPC i386-win32), not a binding defect.

FPC Win32 note: an x86_64-win64 FPC host cannot cross-build i386-win32 (FPC limitation). Add target i386-win32 in fpcupdeluxe (Cross compilers tab).

Delphi Linux64 note: link step needs <rad-studio>/PAServer/linux/bin sysroot after installing PAServer on WSL.

Runtime downloads

Place libraries next to the built binary (bin/win32/, bin/win64/, or bin/linux64/). Windows scripts live in bin/scripts/; links below are for manual download.

FFmpeg 8.1.x (shared)

• Windows: copy bin\*.dll from the unpacked archive into bin/win32/ or bin/win64/.
• Linux: copy lib/*.so* into bin/linux64/ (or set LD_LIBRARY_PATH).

Or run the automated setup (Win64, downloads DLLs + ffmpeg.exe, generates test media):

tools\setup_dev_environment.ps1 -RunTests -IncludeGuiTests

Generates resource/test_av.mp4, test_subs.mp4, test_subs_ass.mkv, and copies media to bin/win64/test_media/ for component tests.

Component tests only (after setup):

tests\run_components.ps1 -Compiler Delphi -IncludeGuiTests

GUI smoke tests (player_smoke_test, linked_player_smoke_test) need -IncludeGuiTests and test_av.mp4 in bin/win64/test_media/.

CI: GitHub Actions workflow .github/workflows/component-tests.yml (FPC on Linux + optional Delphi on Windows).

SDL 1.2 (ffmpeg_sample_player only, Windows)

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

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

Runtime library names

From source/ffmpeg.inc:

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

Platform support

Examples still use Winapi.Windows (mostly unused) and VCL in dumpframe; porting to Linux is a separate task.

Delphi on Linux

Embarcadero RAD Studio supports Linux Intel 64-bit via DCCLINUX64 (Enterprise/Architect): compile on Windows, deploy through PAServer on Ubuntu or WSL2.

source/ is suitable for a Linux64 console project (no Winapi in the bindings). Steps:

1. Install PAServer on Ubuntu/WSL.
2. Add Linux64 target in a Delphi project; search path → source/.
3. Place FFmpeg 8.1 .so on the Linux side (bin/linux64/ or system path).
4. Do not use Winapi.Windows / VCL units.

The WSL test above uses FPC instead of DCCLINUX64 – it validates the same Pascal units and .so loading.

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).
• MediaMCPServer – MCP server for media tools (uses Delphi-FFMPEG bindings).

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 SDL downloads.
• Examples use codecpar and avcodec_send_packet / avcodec_receive_frame.
• Struct layout was audited against FFmpeg n8.1.1 on Windows; re-verify on Linux if you use low-level record field access.
• High-level components (alpha): see docs/components/.