Guides for the video API
Animated captions API, TikTok styles in one call
Caption a video with animated word-by-word styles in one API call. See three presets on one clip, the FFmpeg ASS karaoke route, and where it breaks.
Abdelrahman Essawy 7 min
The Rendobar Blog
Guides for the video API
Build with the Rendobar API. Watermarking, transcoding, captioning, rendering, GDPR redaction, and MCP agents. Production-ready code.
Guides for the video API
Compress video for Discord under 20 MB, every time
Get a video under Discord's 20 MB free upload limit with the two-pass bitrate formula, see why one CRF guess misses, and cap the size in one API call.
Abdelrahman Essawy 5 min
Guides for the video API
Compress video for WhatsApp under 16 MB
Get a vertical phone video under WhatsApp's 16 MB media limit as H.264 and AAC, keep it 9:16, and meet the Business API's stricter codec rules.
Abdelrahman Essawy 5 min
Guides for the video API
FFmpeg vs video API, one edit rendered three ways
Compare self-hosted FFmpeg, a template API and an FFmpeg API that also runs timelines, on one real edit with measured render time and cost per run.
Abdelrahman Essawy 8 min
Guides for the video API
JSON to video API, one timeline to MP4
Render an 18 second 1080p MP4 from one JSON timeline with a crossfade, titles and music, and see the FFmpeg filter graph the same edit needs.
Abdelrahman Essawy 7 min
Guides for the video API
Video APIs that write output to your own S3 bucket
Compare 13 video processing APIs on delivering output to a bucket you own. Three can write to S3 through an IAM role, and five document no delivery at all.
Abdelrahman Essawy 7 min
Guides for the video API
Give a service S3 access without an access key
Send job outputs to your S3 bucket through an IAM role a service assumes, with no access key to leak and access revoked by deleting one stack.
Abdelrahman Essawy 7 min
Guides for the video API
FFmpeg on n8n Cloud without Execute Command
Run FFmpeg, compression and captions on n8n Cloud with the verified Rendobar node, installed from the nodes panel, with long jobs parked on a Wait node.
Abdelrahman Essawy 6 min
Guides for the video API
S3 presigned URL expires early, the session caps it
Learn why an S3 presigned URL dies before its expiry when a role session signed it, and why the failure arrives as a 400 ExpiredToken, not a 403.
Abdelrahman Essawy 5 min
Guides for the video API
Generate a video thumbnail when a file lands in S3
Generate a thumbnail for every video that lands in S3 without the black first frame. Seek in, size the JPEG for its slot, and key each job on the ETag.
Abdelrahman Essawy 6 min
Guides for the video API
Process video in S3 with FFmpeg, past Lambda's limit
Process video in S3 with FFmpeg by reading a presigned URL and piping the result back, then see what changes when an encode outlives Lambda's 900 seconds.
Abdelrahman Essawy 6 min
Guides for the video API
Save FFmpeg output to S3, pipe a fragmented MP4
Send FFmpeg output to an S3 bucket by piping a fragmented MP4 into aws s3 cp. A regular MP4 can't stream, and MPEG-TS cost 7.5% more bytes.
Abdelrahman Essawy 7 min
Guides for the video API
Video processing in Activepieces, without polling
Add the Rendobar piece to Activepieces, connect an API key, and build a flow that compresses a video and posts the link while the flow sleeps.
Abdelrahman Essawy 6 min
Guides for the video API
How to compress video to a target size with FFmpeg
Convert a file size target into FFmpeg settings with the two-pass formula or a CRF search, and see how little already-encoded video shrinks.
Abdelrahman Essawy 6 min
Guides for the video API
FFmpeg API pricing, the billing unit decides
Compare what 6 FFmpeg APIs charge for one stated workload of 400 short clips a month, then watch the ranking flip on large files. Prices checked 2026-09-26.
Abdelrahman Essawy 8 min
Guides for the video API
Burn subtitles into a video with FFmpeg
Render SRT or ASS captions into the picture with FFmpeg, with the escaping a subtitles= path or URL needs, force_style keys, and when to keep them soft.
Abdelrahman Essawy 5 min
Guides for the video API
FFmpeg encoding settings, ranked by what they cost
Compare the FFmpeg settings that change output size, measured on one file: preset, keyframe interval, CRF, tune, scaler and pixel format, ranked by effect.
Abdelrahman Essawy 7 min
Guides for the video API
Add a watermark with FFmpeg, and why -vf fails
Watermark a video with FFmpeg using an image or text, with corner positions, logo sizing relative to the frame, and why overlay under -vf always fails.
Abdelrahman Essawy 5 min
Guides for the video API
Common ffprobe commands and what each one prints
Probe a media file with the five ffprobe commands that cover most jobs, each shown with the output ffprobe 8.0 prints, from one field to the full JSON.
Abdelrahman Essawy 6 min
Guides for the video API
Free FFmpeg API tiers and where they stop
Compare 6 free FFmpeg API tiers by what they let you run before paying: runtime caps, input size caps, card checks and trimmed output. Checked 2026-09-26.
Abdelrahman Essawy 6 min
Guides for the video API
AI Agent video tools in n8n that read FFmpeg errors
Build an n8n AI Agent that runs FFmpeg jobs as tools, checks its balance before it spends, and reads the real FFmpeg error when a job fails.
Abdelrahman Essawy 5 min
Guides for the video API
Video codec comparison, AV1 wins at the same size
Compare AV1, HEVC, VP9 and H.264 on one file. Held to one 150 KB budget, AV1 scored VMAF 84.8 against H.264's 64.3. Encode time and cost per codec too.
Abdelrahman Essawy 7 min
Guides for the video API
Video processing APIs fall into four categories
Compare the 4 kinds of video processing API, raw FFmpeg, timeline, video platform and batch transcoder, by what you send and how each one bills.
Abdelrahman Essawy 7 min
Guides for the video API
Best FFmpeg API in 2026, pick by runtime cap
Compare 11 FFmpeg APIs by runtime cap, billing unit and toolchain, then rerun the one measured job with its IDs yourself. Prices checked 2026-09-27.
Abdelrahman Essawy 13 min