diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index c8da820797..182d726f3a 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,19 +1,40 @@
 FFmpeg README
 =============
 
-1) Documentation
-----------------
+FFmpeg is a collection of libraries and tools to process multimedia content
+such as audio, video, subtitles and related metadata.
 
-* Read the documentation in the doc/ directory in git.
+## Libraries
 
-  You can also view it online at http://ffmpeg.org/documentation.html
+* `libavcodec` provides implementation of a wider range of codecs.
+* `libavformat` implements streaming protocols, container formats and basic I/O access.
+* `libavutil` includes hashers, decompressors and miscellaneous utility functions.
+* `libavfilter` provides a mean to alter decoded Audio and Video through chain of filters.
+* `libavdevice` provides an abstraction to access capture and playback devices.
+* `libswresample` implements audio mixing and resampling routines.
+* `libswscale` implements color conversion and scaling routines.
 
-2) Licensing
-------------
+## Tools
 
-* See the LICENSE file.
+* [ffmpeg](http://ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg.html) is a command line toolbox to
+  manipulate, convert and stream multimedia content.
+* [ffplay](http://ffmpeg.org/ffplay.html) is a minimalistic multimedia player.
+* [ffprobe](http://ffmpeg.org/ffprobe.html) is a simple analisys tool to inspect
+  multimedia content.
+* Additional small tools such as `aviocat`, `ismindex` and `qt-faststart`.
 
-3) Build and Install
---------------------
+## Documentation
 
-* See the INSTALL file.
+The offline documentation is available in the **doc/** directory.
+
+The online documentation is available in the main [website](http://ffmpeg.org)
+and in the [wiki](http://trac.ffmpeg.org).
+
+### Examples
+
+Conding examples are available in the **doc/example** directory.
+
+## License
+
+FFmpeg codebase is mainly LGPL-licensed with optional components licensed under
+GPL. Please refer to the LICENSE file for detailed information.