Which ffmpeg package I should download for macOS?

You can install ffmpeg via three methods:

• Downloading a static build from ffmpeg.org. Choose these if you want a simple-to-run program that comes with many features. You have to manually update it, though. Also, for licensing reasons, static builds cannot bundle all third-party dependencies.

• Installing from Homebrew via brew install ffmpeg. You get the most common dependencies (encoders etc.) installed along and it auto-updates when you update Homebrew.

• Building from source (see here). This usually is not required.

Some help for choosing a static build:

• If you want a build that runs without any external dependencies, download a static build.

• If you have a 64-Bit operating system (i.e. anything above OS X 10.7), download a 64-Bit build.

To answer your question by going off on a slight tangent.

I installed ffmpeg using Homebrew with brew install ffmpeg which has the advantage of building it and installing it with all the necessary requirements automatically. It builds the most recent stable version with commonly used dependencies.