FFMPEG(1)

NAME
ffmpeg - FFmpeg video converter

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

DESCRIPTION
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 output file to 24 fps:

        ffmpeg -i input.avi -r 24 output.avi

* To force the frame rate of the input file (valid for raw formats only) to 1 fps and the frame rate of the output file to 24 fps:

        ffmpeg -r 1 -i input.m2v -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.

OPTIONS

  Main options

-L  Show license.

-h  Show help.

-version
    Show version.

-formats
    Show available formats, codecs, protocols, ...

-f fmt
    Force format.

-i filename
    input file name

-y  Overwrite output files.

-t duration
    Restrict the transcoded/captured video sequence to the duration specified in seconds. "hh:mm:ss[.xxx]" syntax is also supported.

-fs limit_size
    Set the file size limit.

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

-itsoffset offset
    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.

-title string
    Set the title.

-timestamp time
    Set the timestamp.

-author string
    Set the author.

-copyright string
    Set the copyright.

-comment string
    Set the comment.

-album string
    Set the album.

-track number
    Set the track.

-year number
    Set the year.

-v number
    Set the logging verbosity level.

-target type
    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

-dframes number
    Set the number of data frames to record.

-scodec codec
    Force subtitle codec ('copy' to copy stream).

-newsubtitle
    Add a new subtitle stream to the current output stream.

-slang code
    Set the ISO 639 language code (3 letters) of the current subtitle stream.

  Video Options

-b bitrate
    Set the video bitrate in bit/s (default = 200 kb/s).

-vframes number
    Set the number of video frames to record.

-r fps
    Set frame rate (Hz value, fraction or abbreviation), (default = 25).

-s size
    Set frame size. The format is wxh (ffserver default = 160x128, ffmpeg default = same as source). The following abbreviations are recognized:

    sqcif
        128x96

    qcif
        176x144

    cif 352x288

    4cif
        704x576

    qqvga
        160x120

    qvga
        320x240

    vga 640x480

    svga
        800x600

    xga 1024x768

    uxga
        1600x1200

    qxga
        2048x1536

    sxga
        1280x1024

    qsxga
        2560x2048

    hsxga
        5120x4096

    wvga
        852x480

    wxga
        1366x768

    wsxga
        1600x1024

    wuxga
        1920x1200

    woxga
        2560x1600

    wqsxga
        3200x2048

    wquxga
        3840x2400

    whsxga
        6400x4096

    whuxga
        7680x4800

    cga 320x200

    ega 640x350

    hd480
        852x480

    hd720
        1280x720

    hd1080
        1920x1080

-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 bits, default 4000k). Has a minimum value of: (target_bitrate/target_framerate). In 1-pass mode, bitrate tolerance specifies how far ratecontrol is willing to deviate from the target average bitrate value. This is not related to min/max bitrate. Lowering tolerance too much has an adverse effect on quality.

-maxrate bitrate
    Set max video bitrate (in bit/s). Requires -bufsize to be set.

-minrate bitrate
    Set min video bitrate (in bit/s). Most useful in setting up a CBR encode:

            ffmpeg -i myfile.avi -b 4000k -minrate 4000k -maxrate 4000k -bufsize 1835k out.m2v

    It is of little use elsewise.

-bufsize size
    Set video buffer verifier buffer size (in bits).

-vcodec codec
    Force video codec to codec. Use the "copy" 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 used to do two-pass video encoding. The statistics of the video are recorded in the first pass into a log file (see also the option -passlogfile), and in the second pass that log file is used to generate the video at the exact requested bitrate. On pass 1, you may just deactivate audio and set output to null, examples for Windows and Unix:

            ffmpeg -i foo.mov -vcodec libxvid -pass 1 -an -f rawvideo -y NUL
            ffmpeg -i foo.mov -vcodec libxvid -pass 1 -an -f rawvideo -y /dev/null

-passlogfile file
    Set two-pass log file name to file. Default name is ffmpeg2pass-N.log, where N is a number specific to the output stream.

-newvideo
    Add a new video stream to the current output stream.

  Advanced Video Options

-pix_fmt format
    Set pixel format. Use 'list' as parameter to show all the supported pixel formats.

-sws_flags flags
    Set SwScaler flags (only available when compiled with swscale support).

-g gop_size
    Set the group of pictures size.

-intra
    Use only intra frames.

-vdt n
    Discard threshold.

-qscale q
    Use fixed video quantizer scale (VBR).

-qmin q
    minimum video quantizer scale (VBR)

-qmax q
    maximum video quantizer scale (VBR)

-qdiff q
    maximum difference between the quantizer scales (VBR)

-qblur blur
    video quantizer scale blur (VBR) (range 0.0 - 1.0)

-qcomp compression
    video quantizer scale compression (VBR) (default 0.5). Constant of ratecontrol equation. Recommended range for default rc_eq: 0.0-1.0

-lmin lambda
    minimum video lagrange factor (VBR)

-lmax lambda
    max video lagrange factor (VBR)

-mblmin lambda
    minimum macroblock quantizer scale (VBR)

-mblmax lambda
    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

-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 = "tex^qComp").

-rc_override override
    rate control override for specific intervals

-me_method 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
    hex
    umh
    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.

-ilme
    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.

-vstats_file file
    Dump video coding statistics to file.

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

-top n
    top=1/bottom=0/auto=-1 field first

-dc precision
    Intra_dc_precision.

-vtag fourcc/tag
    Force video tag/fourcc.

-qphist
    Show QP histogram.

-vbsf bitstream_filter
    Bitstream filters available are "dump_extra", "remove_extra", "noise", "h264_mp4toannexb", "imxdump", "mjpegadump".

            ffmpeg -i h264.mp4 -vcodec copy -vbsf h264_mp4toannexb -an out.h264

  Audio Options

-aframes number
    Set the number of audio frames to record.

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

-ab bitrate
    Set the audio bitrate in bit/s (default = 64k).

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

-an Disable audio recording.

-acodec codec
    Force audio codec to codec. Use the "copy" special value to specify that the raw codec data must be copied as is.

-newaudio
    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

-alang code
    Set the ISO 639 language code (3 letters) of the current audio stream.

  Advanced Audio options:

-atag fourcc/tag
    Force audio tag/fourcc.

-absf bitstream_filter
    Bitstream filters available are "dump_extra", "remove_extra", "noise", "mp3comp", "mp3decomp".

  Subtitle options:

-scodec codec
    Force subtitle codec ('copy' to copy stream).

-newsubtitle
    Add a new subtitle stream to the current output stream.

-slang code
    Set the ISO 639 language code (3 letters) of the current subtitle stream.

-sbsf bitstream_filter
    Bitstream filters available are "mov2textsub", "text2movsub".

            ffmpeg -i file.mov -an -vn -sbsf mov2textsub -scodec copy -f rawvideo sub.txt

  Audio/Video grab options

-vc channel
    Set video grab channel (DV1394 only).

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

-isync
    Synchronize read on input.

  Advanced options

-map input_stream_id[:sync_stream_id]
    Set stream mapping from input streams to output streams. Just enumerate the input streams in the order you want them in the output. sync_stream_id if specified sets the input stream to sync against.

-map_meta_data outfile:infile
    Set meta data information of outfile from infile.

-debug
    Print specific debug info.

-benchmark
    Add timings for benchmarking.

-dump
    Dump each input packet.

-hex
    When dumping packets, also dump the payload.

-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_input
    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).

-threads count
    Thread count.

-vsync parameter
    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.

-async samples_per_second
    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.

-copyts
    Copy timestamps from input to output.

-shortest
    Finish encoding when the shortest input stream ends.

-dts_delta_threshold
    Timestamp discontinuity delta threshold.

-muxdelay seconds
    Set the maximum demux-decode delay.

-muxpreload seconds
    Set the initial demux-decode delay.

  Preset files
A preset file contains a sequence of option=value pairs, one for each line, specifying a sequence of options which would be awkward to specify on the command line. Lines starting with the hash ('#') character are ignored and are used to provide comments. Check the ffpresets directory in the FFmpeg source tree for examples.

Preset files are specified with the "vpre", "apre" and "spre" options. The options specified in a preset file are applied to the currently selected codec of the same type as the preset option.

The argument passed to the preset options identifies the preset file to use according to the following rules.

First ffmpeg searches for a file named arg.ffpreset in the directories $HOME/.ffmpeg, /usr/local/share/ffmpeg and /usr/share/ffmpeg in that order. For example, if the argument is "libx264-max", it will search for the file libx264-max.ffpreset.

If no such file is found, then ffmpeg will search for a file named codec_name-arg.ffpreset in the above-mentioned directories, where codec_name is the name of the codec to which the preset file options will be applied. For example, if you select the video codec with "-vcodec libx264" and use "-vpre max", then it will search for the file libx264-max.ffpreset.

Finally, if the above rules failed and the argument specifies an absolute pathname, ffmpeg will search for that filename. This way you can specify the absolute and complete filename of the preset file, for example ./ffpresets/libx264-max.ffpreset.

  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:

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

EXAMPLES

  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 22050 Hz 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".

* You can extract images from a video:

        ffmpeg -i foo.avi -r 1 -s WxH -f image2 foo-%03d.jpeg

This will extract one video frame per second from the video and will output them in files named foo-001.jpeg, foo-002.jpeg, etc. Images will be rescaled to fit the new WxH values.

The syntax "foo-%03d.jpeg" specifies to use a decimal number composed of three digits padded with zeroes to express the sequence number. It is the same syntax supported by the C printf function, but only formats accepting a normal integer are suitable.

If you want to extract just a limited number of frames, you can use the above command in combination with the -vframes or -t option, or in combination with -ss to start extracting from a certain point in time.

* You can put many streams of the same type in the output:

        ffmpeg -i test1.avi -i test2.avi -vcodec copy -acodec copy -vcodec copy -acodec copy test12.avi -newvideo -newaudio

In addition to the first video and audio streams, the resulting output file test12.avi will contain the second video and the second audio stream found in the input streams list.

The "-newvideo", "-newaudio" and "-newsubtitle" options have to be specified immediately after the name of the output file to which you want to add them.

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

AUTHOR
Fabrice Bellard