ffmpeg - FFmpeg video converter ffmpeg [[infile options][-i infile]]... {[outfile options] outfile}... As a general rule, options are applied to the next specified file. Therefore, order is important, and you can have the same option on the command line multiple times. Each occurrence is then applied to the next input or output file. * To set the video bitrate of the output file to 64kbit/s: ffmpeg -i input.avi -b 64k output.avi * To force the frame rate of the input and output file to 24 fps: ffmpeg -r 24 -i input.avi output.avi * To force the frame rate of the output file to 24 fps: ffmpeg -i input.avi -r 24 output.avi * To force the frame rate of input file to 1 fps and the output file to 24 fps: ffmpeg -r 1 -i input.avi -r 24 output.avi The format option may be needed for raw input files. By default, FFmpeg tries to convert as losslessly as possible: It uses the same audio and video parameters for the outputs as the one specified for the inputs.

Main options
Show license. Show help. Show version. Show available formats, codecs, protocols, ... Force format. input file name Overwrite output files. Restrict the transcoded/captured video sequence to the duration specified in seconds. "hh:mm:ss[.xxx]" syntax is also supported. Set the file size limit. Seek to given time position in seconds. "hh:mm:ss[.xxx]" syntax is also supported. Set the input time offset in seconds. "[-]hh:mm:ss[.xxx]" syntax is also supported. This option affects all the input files that follow it. The offset is added to the timestamps of the input files. Specifying a positive offset means that the corresponding streams are delayed by 'offset' seconds. Set the title. Set the timestamp. Set the author. Set the copyright. Set the comment. Set the album. Set the track. Set the year. Set the logging verbosity level. Specify target file type ("vcd", "svcd", "dvd", "dv", "dv50", "pal-vcd", "ntsc-svcd", ... ). All the format options (bitrate, codecs, buffer sizes) are then set automatically. You can just type: ffmpeg -i myfile.avi -target vcd /tmp/vcd.mpg Nevertheless you can specify additional options as long as you know they do not conflict with the standard, as in: ffmpeg -i myfile.avi -target vcd -bf 2 /tmp/vcd.mpg Set the number of data frames to record. Force subtitle codec ('copy' to copy stream). Add a new subtitle stream to the current output stream. Set the ISO 639 language code (3 letters) of the current subtitle stream.

Video Options
Set the video bitrate in bit/s (default = 200 kb/s). Set the number of video frames to record. Set frame rate (Hz value, fraction or abbreviation), (default = 25). Set frame size. The format is wxh (ffserver default = 160x128, ffmpeg default = same as source). The following abbreviations are recognized: 128x96 176x144 352x288 704x576 160x120 320x240 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1600x1200 2048x1536 1280x1024 2560x2048 5120x4096 852x480 1366x768 1600x1024 1920x1200 2560x1600 3200x2048 3840x2400 6400x4096 7680x4800 320x200 640x350 852x480 1280x720 1920x1080 Set aspect ratio (4:3, 16:9 or 1.3333, 1.7777). Set top crop band size (in pixels). Set bottom crop band size (in pixels). Set left crop band size (in pixels). Set right crop band size (in pixels). Set top pad band size (in pixels). Set bottom pad band size (in pixels). Set left pad band size (in pixels). Set right pad band size (in pixels). Set color of padded bands. The value for padcolor is expressed as a six digit hexadecimal number where the first two digits represent red, the middle two digits green and last two digits blue (default = 000000 (black)). Disable video recording. Set video bitrate tolerance (in bit/s). Set max video bitrate (in bit/s). Set min video bitrate (in bit/s). Set video buffer verifier buffer size (in bits). Force video codec to codec. Use the "copy" special value to tell that the raw codec data must be copied as is. Use same video quality as source (implies VBR). Select the pass number (1 or 2). It is useful to do two pass encoding. The statistics of the video are recorded in the first pass and the video is generated at the exact requested bitrate in the second pass. Set two pass logfile name to file. Add a new video stream to the current output stream.

Advanced Video Options
Set pixel format. Use 'list' as parameter to show all the supported pixel formats. Set SwScaler flags (only available when compiled with swscale support). Set the group of pictures size. Use only intra frames. Discard threshold. Use fixed video quantizer scale (VBR). minimum video quantizer scale (VBR) maximum video quantizer scale (VBR) maximum difference between the quantizer scales (VBR) video quantizer scale blur (VBR) video quantizer scale compression (VBR) minimum video lagrange factor (VBR) max video lagrange factor (VBR) minimum macroblock quantizer scale (VBR) maximum macroblock quantizer scale (VBR) These four options (lmin, lmax, mblmin, mblmax) use 'lambda' units, but you may use the QP2LAMBDA constant to easily convert from 'q' units: ffmpeg -i src.ext -lmax 21*QP2LAMBDA dst.ext initial complexity for single pass encoding qp factor between P- and B-frames qp factor between P- and I-frames qp offset between P- and B-frames qp offset between P- and I-frames Set rate control equation (default = "tex^qComp"). rate control override for specific intervals Set motion estimation method to method. Available methods are (from lowest to best quality): Try just the (0, 0) vector. (default method) exhaustive search (slow and marginally better than epzs) Set DCT algorithm to algo. Available values are: FF_DCT_AUTO (default) FF_DCT_FASTINT FF_DCT_INT FF_DCT_MMX FF_DCT_MLIB FF_DCT_ALTIVEC Set IDCT algorithm to algo. Available values are: FF_IDCT_AUTO (default) FF_IDCT_INT FF_IDCT_SIMPLE FF_IDCT_SIMPLEMMX FF_IDCT_LIBMPEG2MMX FF_IDCT_PS2 FF_IDCT_MLIB FF_IDCT_ARM FF_IDCT_ALTIVEC FF_IDCT_SH4 FF_IDCT_SIMPLEARM Set error resilience to n. FF_ER_CAREFUL (default) FF_ER_COMPLIANT FF_ER_AGGRESSIVE FF_ER_VERY_AGGRESSIVE Set error concealment to bit_mask. bit_mask is a bit mask of the following values: FF_EC_GUESS_MVS (default = enabled) FF_EC_DEBLOCK (default = enabled) Use 'frames' B-frames (supported for MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4). macroblock decision FF_MB_DECISION_SIMPLE: Use mb_cmp (cannot change it yet in FFmpeg). FF_MB_DECISION_BITS: Choose the one which needs the fewest bits. FF_MB_DECISION_RD: rate distortion Use four motion vector by macroblock (MPEG-4 only). Use data partitioning (MPEG-4 only). Work around encoder bugs that are not auto-detected. How strictly to follow the standards. Enable Advanced intra coding (h263+). Enable Unlimited Motion Vector (h263+) Deinterlace pictures. Force interlacing support in encoder (MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 only). Use this option if your input file is interlaced and you want to keep the interlaced format for minimum losses. The alternative is to deinterlace the input stream with -deinterlace, but deinterlacing introduces losses. Calculate PSNR of compressed frames. Dump video coding statistics to vstats_HHMMSS.log. Dump video coding statistics to file. Insert video processing module. module contains the module name and its parameters separated by spaces. top=1/bottom=0/auto=-1 field first Intra_dc_precision. Force video tag/fourcc. Show QP histogram. Bitstream filters available are "dump_extra", "remove_extra", "noise".

Audio Options
Set the number of audio frames to record. Set the audio sampling frequency (default = 44100 Hz). Set the audio bitrate in bit/s (default = 64k). Set the number of audio channels (default = 1). Disable audio recording. Force audio codec to codec. Use the "copy" special value to specify that the raw codec data must be copied as is. Add a new audio track to the output file. If you want to specify parameters, do so before "-newaudio" ("-acodec", "-ab", etc..). Mapping will be done automatically, if the number of output streams is equal to the number of input streams, else it will pick the first one that matches. You can override the mapping using "-map" as usual. Example: ffmpeg -i file.mpg -vcodec copy -acodec ac3 -ab 384k test.mpg -acodec mp2 -ab 192k -newaudio Set the ISO 639 language code (3 letters) of the current audio stream.

Advanced Audio options:
Force audio tag/fourcc. Bitstream filters available are "dump_extra", "remove_extra", "noise", "mp3comp", "mp3decomp".

Subtitle options:
Force subtitle codec ('copy' to copy stream). Add a new subtitle stream to the current output stream. Set the ISO 639 language code (3 letters) of the current subtitle stream.

Audio/Video grab options
Set video grab channel (DV1394 only). Set television standard (NTSC, PAL (SECAM)). Synchronize read on input.

Advanced options
Set stream mapping from input streams to output streams. Just enumerate the input streams in the order you want them in the output. [input stream id] sets the (input) stream to sync against. Set meta data information of outfile from infile. Print specific debug info. Add timings for benchmarking. Dump each input packet. When dumping packets, also dump the payload. Only use bit exact algorithms (for codec testing). Set packet size in bits. Read input at native frame rate. Mainly used to simulate a grab device. Loop over the input stream. Currently it works only for image streams. This option is used for automatic FFserver testing. Repeatedly loop output for formats that support looping such as animated GIF (0 will loop the output infinitely). Thread count. Video sync method. Video will be stretched/squeezed to match the timestamps, it is done by duplicating and dropping frames. With -map you can select from which stream the timestamps should be taken. You can leave either video or audio unchanged and sync the remaining stream(s) to the unchanged one. Audio sync method. "Stretches/squeezes" the audio stream to match the timestamps, the parameter is the maximum samples per second by which the audio is changed. -async 1 is a special case where only the start of the audio stream is corrected without any later correction. Copy timestamps from input to output. Finish encoding when the shortest input stream ends. Timestamp discontinuity delta threshold. Set the maximum demux-decode delay. Set the initial demux-decode delay.

FFmpeg formula evaluator
When evaluating a rate control string, FFmpeg uses an internal formula evaluator. The following binary operators are available: "+", "-", "*", "/", "^". The following unary operators are available: "+", "-", "(...)". The following functions are available: The following constants are available:

Video and Audio grabbing
FFmpeg can grab video and audio from devices given that you specify the input format and device. ffmpeg -f oss -i /dev/dsp -f video4linux2 -i /dev/video0 /tmp/out.mpg Note that you must activate the right video source and channel before launching FFmpeg with any TV viewer such as xawtv (<http://bytesex.org/xawtv/>) by Gerd Knorr. You also have to set the audio recording levels correctly with a standard mixer.

X11 grabbing
FFmpeg can grab the X11 display. ffmpeg -f x11grab -s cif -i :0.0 /tmp/out.mpg 0.0 is display.screen number of your X11 server, same as the DISPLAY environment variable. ffmpeg -f x11grab -s cif -i :0.0+10,20 /tmp/out.mpg 0.0 is display.screen number of your X11 server, same as the DISPLAY environment variable. 10 is the x-offset and 20 the y-offset for the grabbing.

Video and Audio file format conversion
* FFmpeg can use any supported file format and protocol as input: Examples: * You can use YUV files as input: ffmpeg -i /tmp/test%d.Y /tmp/out.mpg It will use the files: /tmp/test0.Y, /tmp/test0.U, /tmp/test0.V, /tmp/test1.Y, /tmp/test1.U, /tmp/test1.V, etc... The Y files use twice the resolution of the U and V files. They are raw files, without header. They can be generated by all decent video decoders. You must specify the size of the image with the -s option if FFmpeg cannot guess it. * You can input from a raw YUV420P file: ffmpeg -i /tmp/test.yuv /tmp/out.avi test.yuv is a file containing raw YUV planar data. Each frame is composed of the Y plane followed by the U and V planes at half vertical and horizontal resolution. * You can output to a raw YUV420P file: ffmpeg -i mydivx.avi hugefile.yuv * You can set several input files and output files: ffmpeg -i /tmp/a.wav -s 640x480 -i /tmp/a.yuv /tmp/a.mpg Converts the audio file a.wav and the raw YUV video file a.yuv to MPEG file a.mpg. * You can also do audio and video conversions at the same time: ffmpeg -i /tmp/a.wav -ar 22050 /tmp/a.mp2 Converts a.wav to MPEG audio at 22050Hz sample rate. * You can encode to several formats at the same time and define a mapping from input stream to output streams: ffmpeg -i /tmp/a.wav -ab 64k /tmp/a.mp2 -ab 128k /tmp/b.mp2 -map 0:0 -map 0:0 Converts a.wav to a.mp2 at 64 kbits and to b.mp2 at 128 kbits. '-map file:index' specifies which input stream is used for each output stream, in the order of the definition of output streams. * You can transcode decrypted VOBs: ffmpeg -i snatch_1.vob -f avi -vcodec mpeg4 -b 800k -g 300 -bf 2 -acodec libmp3lame -ab 128k snatch.avi This is a typical DVD ripping example; the input is a VOB file, the output an AVI file with MPEG-4 video and MP3 audio. Note that in this command we use B-frames so the MPEG-4 stream is DivX5 compatible, and GOP size is 300 which means one intra frame every 10 seconds for 29.97fps input video. Furthermore, the audio stream is MP3-encoded so you need to enable LAME support by passing "--enable-libmp3lame" to configure. The mapping is particularly useful for DVD transcoding to get the desired audio language. NOTE: To see the supported input formats, use "ffmpeg -formats". ffserver(1), ffplay(1) and the HTML documentation of ffmpeg. Fabrice Bellard