Is the video processing of the ffmpeg transcoder done locally on my server? When configuring the Video module, I'm posed to choose either ffmpeg or Zencoder transcoder.

While it's clear that Zencoder leverages video transcoding cloud services by Zencoder.com, I wonder if the ffmpeg option here means video processing is done locally on my server? 

In other words, does ffmpeg option use the computing power of my own server and therefore it's completely free?
FFmpeg is licensed under GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) version 2.1 or GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2, depending on compiling options. Both are free and open source.

As far as I see in the code (just glanced over it, mind), both Video Presets and FFmpeg Converter uses locally installed converter. Will it be free? Probably not. Looking on FFmpeg Converter page:


  Note: This module is not for beginners, since FFmpeg requires rather complicated server configuration.


Sysadmin's time usually isn't free, CPU power also is not. But you should be free from licence fees all right.