ffmpeg - FFmpeg video converter

ffmpeg [[infile options][-i infile]]... {[outfile options] outfile}...

If no input file is given, audio/video grabbing is done.

As a general rule, options are applied to the next specified file. For example, if you give the -b 64 option, it sets the video bitrate of the next file. 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.

-L

Show license.

-h

Show help.

-formats

Show available formats, codecs, protocols, ...

-f fmt

Force format.

-i filename

input filename

-y

Overwrite output files.

-t duration

Set the recording time in seconds. CWhh:mm:ss[.xxx] syntax is also supported.

-ss position

Seek to given time position in seconds. CWhh:mm:ss[.xxx] syntax is also supported.

-title string

Set the title.

-author string

Set the author.

-copyright string

Set the copyright.

-comment string

Set the comment.

-target type

Specify target file type (vcd, svcd, dvd, dv, 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

-hq

Activate high quality settings.

-itsoffset offset

Set the input time offset in seconds. CW[-]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.

-b bitrate

Set the video bitrate in kbit/s (default = 200 kb/s).

-r fps

Set frame rate (default = 25).

-s size

Set frame size. The format is wxh (default = 160x128). The following abbreviations are recognized:

sqcif

128x96

qcif

176x144

cif

352x288

4cif

704x576

-aspect aspect

Set aspect ratio (4:3, 16:9 or 1.3333, 1.7777).

-croptop size

Set top crop band size (in pixels).

-cropbottom size

Set bottom crop band size (in pixels).

-cropleft size

Set left crop band size (in pixels).

-cropright size

Set right crop band size (in pixels).

-padtop size

Set top pad band size (in pixels).

-padbottom size

Set bottom pad band size (in pixels).

-padleft size

Set left pad band size (in pixels).

-padright size

Set right pad band size (in pixels).

-padcolor (hex color)

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)).

-vn

Disable video recording.

-bt tolerance

Set video bitrate tolerance (in kbit/s).

-maxrate bitrate

Set max video bitrate tolerance (in kbit/s).

-minrate bitrate

Set min video bitrate tolerance (in kbit/s).

-bufsize size

Set rate control buffer size (in kbit).

-vcodec codec

Force video codec to codec. Use the CWcopy special value to tell that the raw codec data must be copied as is.

-sameq

Use same video quality as source (implies VBR).

-pass n

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.

-passlogfile file

Set two pass logfile name to file.

-g gop_size

Set the group of pictures size.

-intra

Use only intra frames.

-qscale q

Use fixed video quantiser scale (VBR).

-qmin q

minimum video quantiser scale (VBR)

-qmax q

maximum video quantiser scale (VBR)

-qdiff q

maximum difference between the quantiser scales (VBR)

-qblur blur

video quantiser scale blur (VBR)

-qcomp compression

video quantiser scale compression (VBR)

-rc_init_cplx complexity

initial complexity for single pass encoding

-b_qfactor factor

qp factor between P- and B-frames

-i_qfactor factor

qp factor between P- and I-frames

-b_qoffset offset

qp offset between P- and B-frames

-i_qoffset offset

qp offset between P- and I-frames

-rc_eq equation

Set rate control equation (default = CWtex^qComp).

-rc_override override

rate control override for specific intervals

-me method

Set motion estimation method to method. Available methods are (from lowest to best quality):

zero

Try just the (0, 0) vector.

phods

log

x1

epzs

(default method)

full

exhaustive search (slow and marginally better than epzs)

-dct_algo algo

Set DCT algorithm to algo. Available values are:

0

FF_DCT_AUTO (default)

1

FF_DCT_FASTINT

2

FF_DCT_INT

3

FF_DCT_MMX

4

FF_DCT_MLIB

5

FF_DCT_ALTIVEC

-idct_algo algo

Set IDCT algorithm to algo. Available values are:

0

FF_IDCT_AUTO (default)

1

FF_IDCT_INT

2

FF_IDCT_SIMPLE

3

FF_IDCT_SIMPLEMMX

4

FF_IDCT_LIBMPEG2MMX

5

FF_IDCT_PS2

6

FF_IDCT_MLIB

7

FF_IDCT_ARM

8

FF_IDCT_ALTIVEC

9

FF_IDCT_SH4

10

FF_IDCT_SIMPLEARM

-er n

Set error resilience to n.

1

FF_ER_CAREFUL (default)

2

FF_ER_COMPLIANT

3

FF_ER_AGGRESSIVE

4

FF_ER_VERY_AGGRESSIVE

-ec bit_mask

Set error concealment to bit_mask. bit_mask is a bit mask of the following values:

1

FF_EC_GUESS_MVS (default = enabled)

2

FF_EC_DEBLOCK (default = enabled)

-bf frames

Use 'frames' B-frames (supported for MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4).

-mbd mode

macroblock decision

0

FF_MB_DECISION_SIMPLE: Use mb_cmp (cannot change it yet in FFmpeg).

1

FF_MB_DECISION_BITS: Choose the one which needs the fewest bits.

2

FF_MB_DECISION_RD: rate distortion

-4mv

Use four motion vector by macroblock (MPEG-4 only).

-part

Use data partitioning (MPEG-4 only).

-bug param

Work around encoder bugs that are not auto-detected.

-strict strictness

How strictly to follow the standards.

-aic

Enable Advanced intra coding (h263+).

-umv

Enable Unlimited Motion Vector (h263+)

-deinterlace

Deinterlace pictures.

-interlace

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.

-psnr

Calculate PSNR of compressed frames.

-vstats

Dump video coding statistics to vstats_HHMMSS.log.

-vhook module

Insert video processing module. module contains the module name and its parameters separated by spaces.

-ar freq

Set the audio sampling frequency (default = 44100 Hz).

-ab bitrate

Set the audio bitrate in kbit/s (default = 64).

-ac channels

Set the number of audio channels (default = 1).

-an

Disable audio recording.

-acodec codec

Force audio codec to codec. Use the CWcopy special value to specify that the raw codec data must be copied as is.

-vd device

sEt video grab device (e.g. /dev/video0).

-vc channel

Set video grab channel (DV1394 only).

-tvstd standard

Set television standard (NTSC, PAL (SECAM)).

-dv1394

Set DV1394 grab.

-ad device

Set audio device (e.g. /dev/dsp).

-map file:stream

Set input stream mapping.

-debug

Print specific debug info.

-benchmark

Add timings for benchmarking.

-hex

Dump each input packet.

-bitexact

Only use bit exact algorithms (for codec testing).

-ps size

Set packet size in bits.

-re

Read input at native frame rate. Mainly used to simulate a grab device.

-loop

Loop over the input stream. Currently it works only for image streams. This option is used for automatic FFserver testing.

-loop_output number_of_times

Repeatedly loop output for formats that support looping such as animated GIF (0 will loop the output infinitely).

When evaluating a rate control string, FFmpeg uses an internal formula evaluator.

The following binary operators are available: CW+, CW-, CW*, CW/, CW^.

The following unary operators are available: CW+, CW-, CW(...).

The following functions are available:

sinh(x)

cosh(x)

tanh(x)

sin(x)

cos(x)

tan(x)

exp(x)

log(x)

squish(x)

gauss(x)

abs(x)

max(x, y)

min(x, y)

gt(x, y)

lt(x, y)

eq(x, y)

bits2qp(bits)

qp2bits(qp)

The following constants are available:

PI

E

iTex

pTex

tex

mv

fCode

iCount

mcVar

var

isI

isP

isB

avgQP

qComp

avgIITex

avgPITex

avgPPTex

avgBPTex

avgTex

FFmpeg can use a video4linux compatible video source and any Open Sound System audio source:

        ffmpeg /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.

* 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 64 /tmp/a.mp2 -ab 128 /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 800 -g 300 -bf 2 -acodec mp3 -ab 128 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 CW--enable-mp3lame to configure. The mapping is particularly useful for DVD transcoding to get the desired audio language.

NOTE: To see the supported input formats, use CWffmpeg -formats.

ffserver(1), ffplay(1) and the HTML documentation of ffmpeg.

Fabrice Bellard