| Argument | Description |
|---|---|
| Information | |
| -codecs | Display codecs |
| -formats | Display formats |
| -f fmt | Force format "fmt" |
| -i filename | Set input file name |
| -y | Overwrite output file |
| -t secs | Force duration to specific length (hh:mm:ss[.xxx]) |
| -fs limit | Set file size limit |
| -ss secs | Seek to given time position (hh:mm:ss[.xxx]) |
| -target type | Specify target type ("vcd", "svcd", "dvd", "dv", "dv50", "pal-vcd" etc); all format options are set automatically |
| Video | |
| -b bitrate | Video bitrate in bps |
| -r fps | Set frame rate (default 25) |
| -s WxH | Set frame size (default same as source) |
| -vf scale=W:H | Rescale video (use <=1 to scale, e.g. "640:-1" means resize height to scale, -2 means same but maintain even /2 count) |
| -vf transpose=n | Rotate video (0 = 90° counterclockwise and vertical flip; 1 = 90° clockwise; 2 = 90° counterclockwise; 3 = 90° clockwise and vertical flip) |
| -aspect aspect | Set aspect ratio (4:3, 16:9 etc) |
| -vn | Disable video |
| -pass n | Multipass rendering (1 or 2) |
| -vcodec | Force video codec (e.g. "h264", "copy") |
| -crf nn | Constant Rate Factor (0=lossless, 23=default, 17-28=acceptable) |
| Audio | |
| -ar freq | Audio frequency (default 44100 Hz) |
| -ab bitrate | Audio bitrate in bps (default 64k) |
| -ac channels | Audio channels (ac=2 to downmix 5.1 to stereo) |
| -an | Disable audio |
| -acodec | Force audio codec ("aac", "mp3", "copy") |
| -q:a n | VBR quality: mp3=0-9, 0=~240kbit/s, 2=~190kbit/s (standard), 4=160kbit/s (medium) |
| Subtitles | |
| -scodec | Force subtitle codec ("copy" to copy stream) |
| -sn | Disable subtitles |
| Misc | |
| -map_metadata -1 | Strip ID3 (or any kind of) metadata from input files (-1 is a dummy stream specifier) |
Dump information to JSON format:
ffprobe "file.mkv" -v quiet -print_format json \
-show_streams \
-show_format \
-show_programs \
-show_chapters \
-show_private_data \
-show_error
Concatenate two videos two one:
ffmpeg -i movie1.avi -i movie2.avi \
-filter_complex "[0:v:0][0:a:0][1:v:0][1:a:0]concat=n=2:v=1:a=1[outv][outa]" \
-map "[outv]" -map "[outa]" result.m4v
[0:v:0][0:a:0][1:v:0][1:a:0]means "input 0 video stream 0; input 0 audio stream 0; input 1 video stream 0; input 2 video stream 0"concat=n=2:v=1:a=1means concatenate filter, two streams, one stream per video and one stream per audio[outv][outa]means map to two result streams, outv and outa-mapis used to map streams to output instead of the input streams
Cut part of video out
Generate a video file containing two minutes of video, one 60-second clip from the start and another 60-second clip from 5 minutes into the video.
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -filter_complex "\
[0:v] trim=0:60, setpts=PTS-STARTPTS [v1]; \
[0:a] atrim=0:60, asetpts=PTS-STARTPTS [a1]; \
[0:v] trim=300:360, setpts=PTS-STARTPTS [v2]; \
[0:a] atrim=300:360, asetpts=PTS-STARTPTS [a2]; \
[v1][a1][v2][a2] concat=n=2:a=1:v=1 [outv][outa]" \
-map "[outv]" -map "[outa]" result.m4v
- The input stream is trimmed, both audio and video, into streams
v1anda1. - The setpts/asetpts filters are very important since that resets the timecode, otherwise there would be tons of dead space in between the clips
- The two video and audio streams are concatenated into
outvandouta - ...which are then mapped to the output streams