As a developer of x264 and ffmpeg, I take consulting and coding contracts. They generally fall under the following categories:

General x264/ffmpeg consulting: You pay me to answer questions and provide detailed information and support on x264 and ffmpeg. This is the simplest, cheapest type of contract and gets you priority access to me. This can also serve as a support contract of sorts.

Project-based x264/ffmpeg consulting: Perhaps you need an encoding chain built for some specific purpose--a Flash video site or encoding for mobile devices. I have a great deal of experience in this category, having helped set up encoding chains for Facebook, Criterion Collection, and others. Other types of projects can also be considered. Do note that I generally do not do coding in such cases; while I am not ignorant in the ways of bash scripting, it is generally a much more efficient use of my time and your time to have me provide you the information you need to write your own back-end scripts. Furthermore, I will never write PHP for any purpose.

Coding: Do you need a feature added to x264 or a bug fixed? Then this is the type of contract you're looking for. Previous clients in this category include Avail Media and Vudu. Note that I of course reserve the right to reject any contract proposal that I believe does not make sense or which I do not have time to implement (especially true of features which would be incredibly complicated to implement, such as SVC). I also will generally only work on features that I believe are worthwhile enough to actually commit to x264; custom features that are not intended to be committed will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Also note that I require--at a minimum--co-ownership of all changes that I commit to x264; I will not accept any contract that does not grant me that minimum amount of ownership of my own code.

Coding on things not x264: Do you have a video compression-related program, especially H.264-related, that you want me to improve? I can do this as well; previous clients in this category include CoreCodec. Note that specific restrictions apply here: your NDA cannot in any way affect any of my other work including that on x264. Additionally, I reserve the right to refuse to directly port algorithms or code from x264 if applicable. Finally, I will not promise to complete any task until I have acquired enough information to judge feasibility and work involved. Obviously, if I decide something is not feasible after seeing the existing codebase, you will not be billed.

My rates are $100/hr for consulting and $125/hr for coding contracts. Per-project rates are negotiable. For large payments (> $1000), check is preferred; Paypal works for smaller payments. I'll also take Bitcoins if you're into that sort of thing. All contracts buy you priority access to me over email, IRC, and instant messenger. Phone is also available if necessary.

Contact jason@x264.com if you are interested in a contract. If you need more information, a simple CV can be found here.