FFmpeg is perhaps the most versatile and most powerful video and audio manipulation tool out there. It is open-source and works on all the popular platforms including Windows and macOS. But FFmpeg offers only a command line interface (CLI) and this can be problem for some of the users who have grown up using only graphical user interface (GUI) applications. In order to work around this problem, many kind developers have created FFmpeg GUI frontends such as Axiom that offer you the ease of GUI application when using FFmpeg for all sorts of media manipulations.
Axiom is an open-source GUI frontend for FFmpeg that works in Windows only. It is available in two packages – a full package containing everything you will need including FFmpeg binaries, and a package containing only Axiom binary (you will have to manually download other files and put them in specific folders). For making things easy, you can just download the package containing FFmpeg binaries (Axiom + FFmpeg).
The user interface of Axiom has been designed keeping the beginner level users in mind. You can select the input media file and also the output file. You can use a “Preset” from the drop-down list near the bottom edge of the Axiom window. These presets are designed to make the resulting media work in specific devices or extract the audio stream in a articular format etc. If you want to manually change the parameters, then you can also do it from the options in the right-side of the window.
You can click on the “Preview” button to have a preview of the media files based on the conversion settings. Similarly, you can click on the “Convert” button to start the conversion process. You will see the familiar FFmpeg CLI displaying the whole progress and it might take short or long time depending on your computer’s hardware and your selected Axiom settings.
Verdict: Axiom uses Microsoft .NET framework 4.5 which could be a problem for people running older computers. But otherwise, Axiom is a very useful application for people who are scared of command line programs but still want to use the powerful FFmpeg project for their media conversion needs.
You can download Axiom FFmpeg frontend from https://axiomui.github.io/.