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© 1993–2026 by Reto Kromer

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#AVpres Newsletter 2026-01-26

Table of Contents

  1. The previous Newsletter
  2. FFmpeg
  3. Bash Scripts for Audio-Visual Preservation
  4. Swiss Film and Video Directory
  5. MediaConch
  6. No Time to Wait
  7. Software Used by Archives

1. The previous Newsletter

We are sorry for the mistake we made generating the last newsletter. The version on our website has a working table of contents.

2. FFmpeg

2.1. FFmpeg Training

In collaboration with Lichtspiel we organised a beginner FFmpeg course in German and French:

Interest is lower this time than in the past. Nevertheless, we will maintain the beginner German course, but the French course may not take place this time. The inscriptions are open until 30 January.

 

For Memoriav we organised an intermediate FFmpeg course in German and French:

The inscriptions are open until 6 March.

2.2. FFmpeg installation via Homebrew

Homebrew has changed its policy again and now there are two formulae: a minimal one and a maximal one. The possibilities currently offered by Homebrew therefore include the following four:

  • Our own parameterisable formula, which we have been using internally since 2018, when Homebrew removed the build options.
    To tap into the alternative repository:
    brew tap avpres/formulae
    To see the available options:
    brew options avpres/formulae/ffmpeg
    To install:
    brew install --with-option_n avpres/formulae/ffmpeg
    Instructions can be found on our website.
  • Another parameterisable formula, also co-maintained by Reto.
    To tap into the alternative repository:
    brew tap homebrew-ffmpeg/ffmpeg
    To see the available options:
    brew options homebrew-ffmpeg/ffmpeg/ffmpeg
    To install:
    brew install --with-option_n homebrew-ffmpeg/ffmpeg/ffmpeg
  • The official Homebrew formula, which is now a minimal one.
    To install:
    brew install ffmpeg
  • The new official maximal Homebrew formula.
    To install:
    brew install ffmpeg-full
    This command is “keg-only”, which means that it must be linked to be used as a regular command:
    brew link ffmpeg-full
    Note that the command has also a different name: ffmpeg-full instead of ffmpeg.

3. Bash Scripts for Audio-Visual Preservation

Bash_AVpres is a set of Bash scripts for audio-visual preservation, used on a daily base at our conservation and restoration lab. These small programs are designed for both to be used individually and to be chained each other as needed.

We made another micro-release since the last Newsletter and are still working on a major release.

We currently test our software, including the Bash_AVpres package, on various modern x86-64 and AArch64 architectures, running on the following operating systems:

  • Linux: Debian 13.3, 12.13 and 11.11
    Linux: Ubuntu 25.10, 24.04.3 LTS and 22.04.5 LTS
  • Macintosh: macOS 26.2, 15.7.3 and 14.8.3
  • Windows 11: version 25H2, 24H2 and 23H2 running Subsystem for Linux (WSL 2.6.3)

4. Swiss Film and Video Directory

Although we had planned to discontinue this activity at the end of June 2023, another update of our Swiss Film and Video Directory took place.

5. MediaConch

We have perpared a set of policies that reflects Memoriav’s recommendations.

We suggested that the Cinémathèque suisse (the Swiss National Film Archive) and/or the KOST-CECO (the Coordination Agency for the Preservation of Electronic Files) prepare a set of archival reference files that complements Memoriav’s recommendations. Unfortunately, these recommendations contadict each other at least in part – and even conflict with our own …

6. No Time to Wait

The 10th edition of the No Time to Wait conference will take place at Filmoteka Narodowa – Instytut Audiowizualny (FINA) in Warsaw, Poland, from 14 to 16 October. The call for proposals and registation will open on 10 Febuary at 10:00 CET.

7. Software Used by Archives

CLI = command-line interface
GUI = graphical user interface
web = web interface

Aaru Data Preservation Suite (CLI)
“All-in-one solution for digital media preservation and archival.”
Version 5.4.1 LTS has has been released on 2025-08-14:
https://github.com/aaru-dps/Aaru
The developer, Natalia Portillo, has released the Alpha 17 of a new version 6.0.0 on 2025-12-26.
AEO-Light (GUI)
Extraction of optical sound tracks form image digitisations with sufficient overscanning.
Version 2.4 has has been released on 2025-07-23:
https://github.com/usc-imi/aeo-light
Audacity (GUI)
Recording and editing sounds.
Version 3.7.7 has been released on 2025-11-25:
https://www.audacityteam.org/
Bash
Command language interpreter that executes commands read from the standard input, a string or a script file.
Version 5.3.9 has been released on 2025-12-10:
https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/
This is the shell we use daily.
DCP-o-matic (GUI)
“Get any content cinema-ready.”
Version 2.18.35 has been released on 2026-01-14:
https://dcpomatic.com/
FFmpeg (CLI)
The FFmpeg package includes three commands: a media transcoder (ffmpeg), a media metadata extractor (ffprobe) and a media player (ffplay).
Version 8.0.1 has been released on 2025-11-20:
https://ffmpeg.org/
fq (CLI)
“Tool, language and decoders for working with binary data.”
Version 0.16.0 has been released on 2025-12-07:
https://github.com/wader/fq
HandBrake (GUI)
A video transcoder.
Version 1.10.2 has been released on 2025-09-06:
https://handbrake.fr/
MediaConch (GUI, CLI and web)
“Implementation checker, policy checker, reporter, and fixer that targets preservation-level audiovisual files.”
Version 25.04 has been released on 2025-05-05:
https://mediaarea.net/MediaConch
https://mediaarea.net/MediaConchOnline/
MediaInfo (GUI and CLI)
The most popular metadata extractor.
Version 25.10 has been released on 2025-11-05:
https://mediaarea.net/MediaInfo
MKVToolNix (GUI)
Create, alter and inspect Matroska files.
Version 97.0 has been released on 2026-01-02:
https://mkvtoolnix.download/
mpv (CLI and GUI)
“A free, open source, and cross-platform media player.”
Version 0.41.0 has been released on 2025-12-21:
https://mpv.io
This is our preferred media player, which we use with our own FFmpeg distribution.
Nano (CLI)
A small and friendly text editor. This is not a word processing software.
Version 8.7 has been released on 2025-11-12:
https://www.nano-editor.org/
This is our preferred text editor.
OpenEXR
The reference implementation of the OpenEXR file format (and video codec).
Version 3.4.4 has been released on 2025-11-19:
https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/openexr
QCTools (GUI)
Analyse and understand digitised video files through use of audiovisual analytics and filtering.
Version 1.4.1 has been released possibly on 2025-05-19:
https://mediaarea.net/QCTools
https://github.com/bavc/qctools
We don’t know when exactly the last version has been released, but we know that since 2026-01-13 it’s finally available for all operating systems.
RAWcooked (CLI)
“Encode and decode audio-visual RAW data with Matroska, FFV1 and FLAC.”
A bridge between uncompressed still images and lossless compressed video stream formats.
Version 25.12 has been released on 2025-12-30:
https://mediaarea.net/RAWcooked
Shutter Encoder (GUI)
A media transcoder.
Version 19.8 has been released on 2026-01-05:
https://github.com/paulpacifico/shutter-encoder
The Cable Bible
A valuable resource by Ethan Gates.
Version 2025-11-20 is online:
https://github.com/amiaopensource/cable-bible
VLC (GUI)
A very polular media player.
Version 3.0.23 has been released on 2025-12-19:
https://www.videolan.org/vlc/
yt-dlp (CLI)
A feature-rich command-line media downloader.
Version 2025.12.08 has been released on … 2025-12-08:
https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp

 

Best regards from Joshua, Michal and Reto

2026-01-25