Any media into any.
Speech into text.All on your computer.
MediaChef is a free desktop app that turns FFmpeg and Whisper into simple recipe cards: convert video and audio, extract sound, make subtitles — with no file uploads, no size limits, no queues.
Free and open source — view the code on GitHub
How it works
Drop a file
Drag in a video or a recording — MediaChef reads what it is and shows only the recipes that fit.
Pick a recipe
Every action is a plain card: “Video → MP3”, “Subtitles for video”, “Compress to 25 MB”. Sensible defaults, no flags to learn.
Take the result
The file lands next to the original — or in a folder you choose. A clear queue shows progress and time left.
Recipes instead of commands
FFmpeg can do almost anything — in the language of the terminal. MediaChef translates: you choose what to do, the parameters are already set. A live preview even shows the real command, so you learn as you go.
Extract audio to MP3
Pull the soundtrack out of any video.
Subtitles for a video
Whisper listens and writes an SRT file.
Compress a video
Fit a clip into a messenger-friendly size.
Video → GIF
A sharp looping GIF with tuned palette.
Transcribe a recording
Meeting or voice memo into plain text.
Translate speech to English
Whisper transcribes and translates in one pass.
MP4 → MKV, lossless
Repackage without re-encoding — instant.
Mute a video
Drop every audio track, keep the picture.
Speech-to-text that stays on your device
Whisper, running locally. OpenAI's speech model executes on your processor — recordings never leave the machine.
Models downloaded in-app. From the fast tiny to the accurate large-v3-turbo — pick per task on the Models screen.
Text or subtitles. Plain TXT, SRT and VTT with timestamps, or JSON for tooling.
Honest results. If a file has no speech, MediaChef says “No speech detected” — it never ships an empty green checkmark.
Your files never travel
Online converters ask you to upload a file to someone else's server, wait in a queue and trust their retention policy. MediaChef works on your CPU: a gigabyte video or a private meeting recording converts the same way — even with Wi-Fi off.
Open source, batteries included
GPL-3.0, with the full development history public on GitHub. The app ships FFmpeg and Whisper inside — download, open, use.
$ ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vn -b:a 192k output.mp3
# MediaChef types this for you
Questions, answered
Is it really free?
Yes. MediaChef is open source under GPL-3.0. The full converter and transcription are free; the code is public on GitHub.
Which formats are supported?
Everything FFmpeg reads — MP4, MKV, MOV, WebM, AVI, MP3, WAV, FLAC, M4A, OGG and many more. Recipes cover the everyday conversions; an expert card accepts any FFmpeg arguments.
Where do my files get uploaded?
Nowhere. Conversion and transcription run entirely on your computer. The only thing MediaChef ever downloads is a Whisper model — once, from the Models screen.
How accurate is the transcription?
It uses OpenAI's Whisper models. Accuracy scales with the model you pick: tiny is instant and rough, large-v3-turbo is near-human on clear speech. Language is detected automatically.
Does it work offline?
Yes. After you download a speech model once, everything — converting and transcribing — works with no internet at all.
Why not just use an online converter?
For a small public file — sure. But private recordings, large videos, batches and anything confidential are better done locally: faster than uploading, no limits, nothing stored on someone's server.
Put a chef in charge of your media
Free, open source, three platforms.
MediaChef is young: builds are not yet signed by Apple/Microsoft, so the first launch asks for confirmation — a plain-text how-to ships inside every download.