Maybe you can submit a patch to ffmpeg.org.

I've considered it, thanks for the nudge. Since the patches are quite specific to my usecase:

- https://github.com/steelbrain/ffmpeg-over-ip/blob/main/fio/f... - https://github.com/steelbrain/ffmpeg-over-ip/tree/main/patch...

I am not sure they'll be accepted for upstreaming, but in exploring the options, I noticed ffmpeg has sftp:// transport support and there were some bugs surrounding that. I do intend to publish some patches for those.