[Feature Request] Enable VideoToolbox + AVFoundation for min / min_gpl variants on iOS

[heyuforia]

Hi @sk3llo, thanks for the v3.0.0 VideoToolbox support added via #65 — that fixed the full / full-gpl variants.

The same fix wasn't extended to min and min_gpl. As of ffmpeg_kit_flutter_new_min 3.1.0 the iOS binary is still compiled with --disable-videotoolbox --disable-avfoundation, so h264_videotoolbox and hevc_videotoolbox aren't available at runtime on iPhone. Confirmed by strings over the published libavcodec binaries across all 8 variants — only full / full-gpl ship VideoToolbox symbols.

Use case: apps that want hardware-accelerated H.264/HEVC encoding on iOS (battery + speed) but need the patent-clean codec surface (min excludes kvazaar, libx264, libx265, libxvidcore). Right now there's no published variant covering that combination — pick patent surface or lose iOS HW encoding.

Suggested fix: same approach as the full v3.0.0 patch — pass --enable-ios-videotoolbox --enable-ios-avfoundation when building the min and min_gpl iOS frameworks. Library tokens are defined in arthenica's scripts/function.sh.

We've already verified this works on a min build at heyuforia/ffmpeg-kit@uforia-min-vt — clean Xcode 26 build, both *_videotoolbox symbols present at runtime, no patent-encumbered codecs added. Happy to PR or test a build if helpful.

Thanks for maintaining the package!

[akashskypatel]

Gonna do a shameless plug: https://pub.dev/packages/ffmpeg_kit_extended_flutter supports latest 8.1 API on all platforms: iOS, macOS, Android, Linux and Windows, should be a quick drop-in change with minimal code change. includes 100+ libraries plus all bundle relevant Apple frameworks out of the box for iOS and macOS. Plus recently added Swift Package Manager support.

[heyuforia]

Thanks for the pointer — appreciate the work. Read through scripts/variable.sh.

For our use case (LGPL-only, no x264/x265/kvazaar/xvid for patent-clean posture), none of the shipped presets quite fit:

• base is clean but doesn't include VideoToolbox / AVFoundation.
• video_hw has hardware but pulls GPL libs.
• VideoToolbox sits in CONFIG_HARDWARE_NON_FREE (alongside d3d11va, cuda-nvcc), so --enable-hardware doesn't pull it in either. Worth flagging — VideoToolbox is a free Apple SDK framework, so it'd be safe to move to CONFIG_HARDWARE. The HEVC patent pool also exempts device-side hardware encoders, so an LGPL-clean preset including VideoToolbox + AVFoundation is feasible.

What would unblock us: a preset combining base with VideoToolbox + AVFoundation for iOS/macOS, kept LGPL-clean. Happy to test against our hard-gate (videotoolbox symbols present, x264/x265/kvazaar absent) once it ships.

In the meantime this issue is asking sk3llo to extend his v3.0.0 VideoToolbox fix to min / min_gpl — same goal, smaller surface against the existing arthenica build.

[akashskypatel]

@heyuforia I've just updated all ffmpeg-kit-extended base bundles to have default platform specific libraries enabled by default. avfoundation, audiotoolbox, coreimage, metal, securetransport, and videotoolbox are enabled by default on macos and ios base bundles and appkit on macos base bundles.

[heyuforia]

That's a fast turnaround, appreciate it.

Will pull 0.4.1 and run our verification (both *_videotoolbox encoders registered + kvazaar/x264/x265/xvid symbols absent in libavcodec, arm64 confirmed)

Thank you!