This is a non-scientific, but good-faith benchmark showing that @remotion/webcodecs is faster than FFmpeg.wasm to back up claims that we may make in order to promote @remotion/webcodecs.
- Each conversion is run 3 times, average is taken.
- We alternated between running a test using
@remotion/webcodecsand alternatives to minimize system load differences - Tests were run on Google Chrome 131.0.6778.205 on a M2 MacBook Air running macOS 15.0.1. No other apps and websites were running.
- Rounding: For
@remotion/webcodecsthe time is rounded up to the next second, for FFmpeg.wasm the time is rounded down to seconds.
Settings and versions:
@remotion/webcodecs: 4.0.244 through https://remotion.dev/convert.
FFmpeg.wasm: Through https://ffmpeg.wide.video, tests executed on December 29, 2024. We selected this interface because it includes the SIMD version of FFmpeg.wasm, which should benefit its speed.
Asset used: https://remotion-assets.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/example-videos/bigbuckbunny.mp4 Asset was first downloaded to the machine, download time is not included.
Settings for remotion.dev/convert: Container WebM, Video convert to VP8, Audio convert to Opus
Command for FFmpeg.wasm: ffmpeg -i bigbuckbunny.mp4 -c:v libvpx -c:a libopus bigbuckbunny.webm
| Run 1 | Run 2 | Run 3 | Average | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| @remotion/webcodecs | 8sec | 7sec | 7sec | 7.4sec |
| FFmpeg.wasm | 112sec | 116sec | 115sec | 113.3sec |
Asset used: https://remotion-assets.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/example-videos/av1-bbb.webm Asset was first downloaded to the machine, download time is not included.
Settings for remotion.dev/convert: Container MP4, Video convert to H.264
Command for FFmpeg.wasm: ffmpeg -i av1-bbb.webm out.mp4
| Run 1 | Run 2 | Run 3 | Average | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| @remotion/webcodecs | 4sec | 4sec | 4sec | 4sec |
| FFmpeg.wasm | 22sec | 20sec | 19sec | 20.3sec |
In our tests, we observed every time that @remotion/webcodecs is at least 5 times faster.
To make a claim in good faith and give the benefit of the doubt in case of any deviations, we make the conservative claim that @remotion/webcodecs is 3 times faster on a M2 MacBook.