Which input formats can Hybrid accept?

Hybrid accepts nearly everything that mplayer/ffmpeg can decode, plus raw elementary video streams (VC-1, AVC, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 ASP) and AviSynth scripts (.avs). If your source plays in a typical media player, Hybrid can almost certainly open it — but it is built for advanced users who already understand containers, codecs, and filtering, not for a wizard-style workflow.

The three input categories

1. Raw elementary video streams

Hybrid can take video-only streams that have no container wrapper:

• VC-1
• AVC (H.264)
• MPEG-2
• MPEG-4 ASP

This matters when you have, for example, a demuxed .h264 or .m2v file and want to remux or re-encode it without first wrapping it in a container.

2. AviSynth scripts

Hybrid accepts .avs files as input. This is the main route for frame-accurate filtering and for feeding Hybrid a scripted source rather than a plain video file. Filtering itself runs through Vapoursynth and AviSynth (the latter on Windows only), with some basic filtering available through FFmpeg.

3. Anything mplayer/ffmpeg can decode

The broadest category: Hybrid accepts nearly everything that mplayer or ffmpeg can decode. In practice this covers the common container and codec combinations you would expect from a general-purpose decoder, so you rarely need to convert a file before loading it.

What this means for your workflow

Because input handling is delegated to mplayer/ffmpeg, the practical test is simple: if ffmpeg can read it, Hybrid can use it. If ffmpeg cannot, Hybrid will not either.

Before you rely on this

Hybrid is explicitly aimed at advanced users. The project states it is not intended for everyone and not intended to please amateurs who need a wizard-like interface; if you do not know the basics about containers and video formats, it is not meant for you. That does not change which inputs it accepts, but it does mean you should be comfortable choosing output formats and containers yourself.

Once a file is loaded, you can pass audio and video through unchanged (useful for muxing, tagging, and chapter editing) or encode to the supported output formats — video such as MPEG-4 ASP (Xvid), AVC (x264 and hardware encoders), VP8/VP9, ProRes, HEVC, FFV1, UT video, FFvHuff, and AV1; audio such as AAC, MP3, AC-3, Vorbis, Opus, FLAC, DTS, and PCM — into containers including mov/mp4/mkv/m2ts/webm/avi, Blu-ray, or AVCHD structure.