PeerStreamer

\input texinfo @c -*- texinfo -*-

@settitle FFmpeg Documentation

@titlepage

@sp 7

@center @titlefont{FFmpeg Documentation}

@sp 3

@end titlepage

@chapter Synopsis

The generic syntax is:

@example

@c man begin SYNOPSIS

ffmpeg [[infile options][@option{-i} @var{infile}]]... @{[outfile options] @var{outfile}@}...

@c man end

@end example

@chapter Description

@c man begin DESCRIPTION

FFmpeg is a very fast video and audio converter. It can also grab from

a live audio/video source.

The command line interface is designed to be intuitive, in the sense

that FFmpeg tries to figure out all parameters that can possibly be

derived automatically. You usually only have to specify the target

bitrate you want.

FFmpeg can also convert from any sample rate to any other, and resize

video on the fly with a high quality polyphase filter.

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:

@example

ffmpeg -i input.avi -b 64k output.avi

@end example

* To force the frame rate of the output file to 24 fps:

@example

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

@end example

* 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:

@example

ffmpeg -r 1 -i input.m2v -r 24 output.avi

@end example

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.

@c man end DESCRIPTION

@chapter Options

@c man begin OPTIONS

@include fftools-common-opts.texi

@section Main options

@table @option

@item -f @var{fmt}

Force format.

@item -i @var{filename}

input file name

@item -y

Overwrite output files.

@item -t @var{duration}

Restrict the transcoded/captured video sequence

to the duration specified in seconds.

@code{hh:mm:ss[.xxx]} syntax is also supported.

@item -fs @var{limit_size}

Set the file size limit.

@item -ss @var{position}

Seek to given time position in seconds.

@code{hh:mm:ss[.xxx]} syntax is also supported.

@item -itsoffset @var{offset}

Set the input time offset in seconds.

@code{[-]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.

@item -timestamp @var{time}

Set the recording timestamp in the container.

The syntax for @var{time} is:

@example

now|([(YYYY-MM-DD|YYYYMMDD)[T|t| ]]((HH[:MM[:SS[.m...]]])|(HH[MM[SS[.m...]]]))[Z|z])

@end example

If the value is "now" it takes the current time.

Time is local time unless 'Z' or 'z' is appended, in which case it is

interpreted as UTC.

If the year-month-day part is not specified it takes the current

year-month-day.

@item -metadata @var{key}=@var{value}

Set a metadata key/value pair.

For example, for setting the title in the output file:

@example

ffmpeg -i in.avi -metadata title="my title" out.flv

@end example

@item -v @var{number}

Set the logging verbosity level.

@item -target @var{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:

@example

ffmpeg -i myfile.avi -target vcd /tmp/vcd.mpg

@end example

Nevertheless you can specify additional options as long as you know

they do not conflict with the standard, as in:

@example

ffmpeg -i myfile.avi -target vcd -bf 2 /tmp/vcd.mpg

@end example

@item -dframes @var{number}

Set the number of data frames to record.

@item -scodec @var{codec}

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

@item -newsubtitle

Add a new subtitle stream to the current output stream.

@item -slang @var{code}

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

@end table

@section Video Options

@table @option

@item -b @var{bitrate}

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

@item -vframes @var{number}

Set the number of video frames to record.

@item -r @var{fps}

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

@item -s @var{size}

Set frame size. The format is @samp{wxh} (ffserver default = 160x128, ffmpeg default = same as source).

The following abbreviations are recognized:

@table @samp

@item sqcif

128x96

@item qcif

176x144

@item cif

352x288

@item 4cif

704x576

@item 16cif

1408x1152

@item qqvga

160x120

@item qvga

320x240

@item vga

640x480

@item svga

800x600

@item xga

1024x768

@item uxga

1600x1200

@item qxga

2048x1536

@item sxga

1280x1024

@item qsxga

2560x2048

@item hsxga

5120x4096

@item wvga

852x480

@item wxga

1366x768

@item wsxga

1600x1024

@item wuxga

1920x1200

@item woxga

2560x1600

@item wqsxga

3200x2048

@item wquxga

3840x2400

@item whsxga

6400x4096

@item whuxga

7680x4800

@item cga

320x200

@item ega

640x350

@item hd480

852x480

@item hd720

1280x720

@item hd1080

1920x1080

@end table

@item -aspect @var{aspect}

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

@item -croptop @var{size}

@item -cropbottom @var{size}

@item -cropleft @var{size}

@item -cropright @var{size}

All the crop options have been removed. Use -vf

crop=width:height:x:y instead.

@item -padtop @var{size}

@item -padbottom @var{size}

@item -padleft @var{size}

@item -padright @var{size}

@item -padcolor @var{hex_color}

All the pad options have been removed. Use -vf

pad=width:height:x:y:color instead.

@item -vn

Disable video recording.

@item -bt @var{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.

@item -maxrate @var{bitrate}

Set max video bitrate (in bit/s).

Requires -bufsize to be set.

@item -minrate @var{bitrate}

Set min video bitrate (in bit/s).

Most useful in setting up a CBR encode:

@example

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

@end example

It is of little use elsewise.

@item -bufsize @var{size}

Set video buffer verifier buffer size (in bits).

@item -vcodec @var{codec}

Force video codec to @var{codec}. Use the @code{copy} special value to

tell that the raw codec data must be copied as is.

@item -sameq

Use same video quality as source (implies VBR).

@item -pass @var{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:

@example

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

@end example

@item -passlogfile @var{prefix}

Set two-pass log file name prefix to @var{prefix}, the default file name

prefix is ``ffmpeg2pass''. The complete file name will be

@file{PREFIX-N.log}, where N is a number specific to the output

stream.

@item -newvideo

Add a new video stream to the current output stream.

@item -vlang @var{code}

Set the ISO 639 language code (3 letters) of the current video stream.

@item -vf @var{filter_graph}

@var{filter_graph} is a description of the filter graph to apply to

the input video.

Use the option "-filters" to show all the available filters (including

also sources and sinks).

@end table

@section Advanced Video Options

@table @option

@item -pix_fmt @var{format}

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

pixel formats.

@item -sws_flags @var{flags}

Set SwScaler flags.

@item -g @var{gop_size}

Set the group of pictures size.

@item -intra

Use only intra frames.

@item -vdt @var{n}

Discard threshold.

@item -qscale @var{q}

Use fixed video quantizer scale (VBR).

@item -qmin @var{q}

minimum video quantizer scale (VBR)

@item -qmax @var{q}

maximum video quantizer scale (VBR)

@item -qdiff @var{q}

maximum difference between the quantizer scales (VBR)

@item -qblur @var{blur}

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

@item -qcomp @var{compression}

video quantizer scale compression (VBR) (default 0.5).

Constant of ratecontrol equation. Recommended range for default rc_eq: 0.0-1.0

@item -lmin @var{lambda}

minimum video lagrange factor (VBR)

@item -lmax @var{lambda}

max video lagrange factor (VBR)

@item -mblmin @var{lambda}

minimum macroblock quantizer scale (VBR)

@item -mblmax @var{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:

@example

ffmpeg -i src.ext -lmax 21*QP2LAMBDA dst.ext

@end example

@item -rc_init_cplx @var{complexity}

initial complexity for single pass encoding

@item -b_qfactor @var{factor}

qp factor between P- and B-frames

@item -i_qfactor @var{factor}

qp factor between P- and I-frames

@item -b_qoffset @var{offset}

qp offset between P- and B-frames

@item -i_qoffset @var{offset}

qp offset between P- and I-frames

@item -rc_eq @var{equation}

Set rate control equation (@pxref{FFmpeg formula

evaluator}) (default = @code{tex^qComp}).

@item -rc_override @var{override}

rate control override for specific intervals

@item -me_method @var{method}

Set motion estimation method to @var{method}.

Available methods are (from lowest to best quality):

@table @samp

@item zero

Try just the (0, 0) vector.

@item phods

@item log

@item x1

@item hex

@item umh

@item epzs

(default method)

@item full

exhaustive search (slow and marginally better than epzs)

@end table

@item -dct_algo @var{algo}

Set DCT algorithm to @var{algo}. Available values are:

@table @samp

@item 0

FF_DCT_AUTO (default)

@item 1

FF_DCT_FASTINT

@item 2

FF_DCT_INT

@item 3

FF_DCT_MMX

@item 4

FF_DCT_MLIB

@item 5

FF_DCT_ALTIVEC

@end table

@item -idct_algo @var{algo}

Set IDCT algorithm to @var{algo}. Available values are:

@table @samp

@item 0

FF_IDCT_AUTO (default)

@item 1

FF_IDCT_INT

@item 2

FF_IDCT_SIMPLE

@item 3

FF_IDCT_SIMPLEMMX

@item 4

FF_IDCT_LIBMPEG2MMX

@item 5

FF_IDCT_PS2

@item 6

FF_IDCT_MLIB

@item 7

FF_IDCT_ARM

@item 8

FF_IDCT_ALTIVEC

@item 9

FF_IDCT_SH4

@item 10

FF_IDCT_SIMPLEARM

@end table

@item -er @var{n}

Set error resilience to @var{n}.

@table @samp

@item 1

FF_ER_CAREFUL (default)

@item 2

FF_ER_COMPLIANT

@item 3

FF_ER_AGGRESSIVE

@item 4

FF_ER_VERY_AGGRESSIVE

@end table

@item -ec @var{bit_mask}

Set error concealment to @var{bit_mask}. @var{bit_mask} is a bit mask of

the following values:

@table @samp

@item 1

FF_EC_GUESS_MVS (default = enabled)

@item 2

FF_EC_DEBLOCK (default = enabled)

@end table

@item -bf @var{frames}

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

@item -mbd @var{mode}

macroblock decision

@table @samp

@item 0

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

@item 1

FF_MB_DECISION_BITS: Choose the one which needs the fewest bits.

@item 2

FF_MB_DECISION_RD: rate distortion

@end table

@item -4mv

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

@item -part

Use data partitioning (MPEG-4 only).

@item -bug @var{param}

Work around encoder bugs that are not auto-detected.

@item -strict @var{strictness}

How strictly to follow the standards.

@item -aic

Enable Advanced intra coding (h263+).

@item -umv

Enable Unlimited Motion Vector (h263+)

@item -deinterlace

Deinterlace pictures.

@item -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

@option{-deinterlace}, but deinterlacing introduces losses.

@item -psnr

Calculate PSNR of compressed frames.

@item -vstats

Dump video coding statistics to @file{vstats_HHMMSS.log}.

@item -vstats_file @var{file}

Dump video coding statistics to @var{file}.

@item -top @var{n}

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

@item -dc @var{precision}

Intra_dc_precision.

@item -vtag @var{fourcc/tag}

Force video tag/fourcc.

@item -qphist

Show QP histogram.

@item -vbsf @var{bitstream_filter}

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

@example

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

@end example

@item -force_key_frames @var{time}[,@var{time}...]

Force key frames at the specified timestamps, more precisely at the first

frames after each specified time.

This option can be useful to ensure that a seek point is present at a

chapter mark or any other designated place in the output file.

The timestamps must be specified in ascending order.

@end table

@section Audio Options

@table @option

@item -aframes @var{number}

Set the number of audio frames to record.

@item -ar @var{freq}

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

@item -ab @var{bitrate}

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

@item -aq @var{q}

Set the audio quality (codec-specific, VBR).

@item -ac @var{channels}

Set the number of audio channels. For input streams it is set by

default to 1, for output streams it is set by default to the same

number of audio channels in input. If the input file has audio streams

with different channel count, the behaviour is undefined.

@item -an

Disable audio recording.

@item -acodec @var{codec}

Force audio codec to @var{codec}. Use the @code{copy} special value to

specify that the raw codec data must be copied as is.

@item -newaudio

Add a new audio track to the output file. If you want to specify parameters,

do so before @code{-newaudio} (@code{-acodec}, @code{-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 @code{-map} as usual.

Example:

@example

ffmpeg -i file.mpg -vcodec copy -acodec ac3 -ab 384k test.mpg -acodec mp2 -ab 192k -newaudio

@end example

@item -alang @var{code}

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

@end table

@section Advanced Audio options:

@table @option

@item -atag @var{fourcc/tag}

Force audio tag/fourcc.

@item -absf @var{bitstream_filter}

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

@end table

@section Subtitle options:

@table @option

@item -scodec @var{codec}

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

@item -newsubtitle

Add a new subtitle stream to the current output stream.

@item -slang @var{code}

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

@item -sn

Disable subtitle recording.

@item -sbsf @var{bitstream_filter}

Bitstream filters available are "mov2textsub", "text2movsub".

@example

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

@end example

@end table

@section Audio/Video grab options

@table @option

@item -vc @var{channel}

Set video grab channel (DV1394 only).

@item -tvstd @var{standard}

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

@item -isync

Synchronize read on input.

@end table

@section Advanced options

@table @option

@item -map @var{input_stream_id}[:@var{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.

@var{sync_stream_id} if specified sets the input stream to sync

against.

@item -map_meta_data @var{outfile}:@var{infile}

Set meta data information of @var{outfile} from @var{infile}.

@item -debug

Print specific debug info.

@item -benchmark

Show benchmarking information at the end of an encode.

Shows CPU time used and maximum memory consumption.

Maximum memory consumption is not supported on all systems,

it will usually display as 0 if not supported.

@item -dump

Dump each input packet.

@item -hex

When dumping packets, also dump the payload.

@item -bitexact

Only use bit exact algorithms (for codec testing).

@item -ps @var{size}

Set RTP payload size in bytes.

@item -re

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

@item -loop_input

Loop over the input stream. Currently it works only for image

streams. This option is used for automatic FFserver testing.

@item -loop_output @var{number_of_times}

Repeatedly loop output for formats that support looping such as animated GIF

(0 will loop the output infinitely).

@item -threads @var{count}

Thread count.

@item -vsync @var{parameter}

Video sync method.

0   Each frame is passed with its timestamp from the demuxer to the muxer

1   Frames will be duplicated and dropped to achieve exactly the requested

    constant framerate.

2   Frames are passed through with their timestamp or dropped so as to prevent

    2 frames from having the same timestamp

-1  Chooses between 1 and 2 depending on muxer capabilities. This is the default method.

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.

@item -async @var{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.

@item -copyts

Copy timestamps from input to output.

@item -shortest

Finish encoding when the shortest input stream ends.

@item -dts_delta_threshold

Timestamp discontinuity delta threshold.

@item -muxdelay @var{seconds}

Set the maximum demux-decode delay.

@item -muxpreload @var{seconds}

Set the initial demux-decode delay.

@item -streamid @var{output-stream-index}:@var{new-value}

Assign a new value to a stream's stream-id field in the next output file.

All stream-id fields are reset to default for each output file.

For example, to set the stream 0 PID to 33 and the stream 1 PID to 36 for

an output mpegts file:

@example

ffmpeg -i infile -streamid 0:33 -streamid 1:36 out.ts

@end example

@end table

@section Preset files

A preset file contains a sequence of @var{option}=@var{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 @file{ffpresets} directory in the FFmpeg source tree for examples.

Preset files are specified with the @code{vpre}, @code{apre},

@code{spre}, and @code{fpre} options. The @code{fpre} option takes the

filename of the preset instead of a preset name as input and can be

used for any kind of codec. For the @code{vpre}, @code{apre}, and

@code{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 @code{vpre}, @code{apre}, and @code{spre}

preset options identifies the preset file to use according to the

following rules:

First ffmpeg searches for a file named @var{arg}.ffpreset in the

directories @file{$FFMPEG_DATADIR} (if set), and @file{$HOME/.ffmpeg}, and in

the datadir defined at configuration time (usually @file{PREFIX/share/ffmpeg})

in that order. For example, if the argument is @code{libx264-max}, it will

search for the file @file{libx264-max.ffpreset}.

If no such file is found, then ffmpeg will search for a file named

@var{codec_name}-@var{arg}.ffpreset in the above-mentioned

directories, where @var{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 @code{-vcodec libx264} and use @code{-vpre max},

then it will search for the file @file{libx264-max.ffpreset}.

@anchor{FFmpeg formula evaluator}

@section FFmpeg formula evaluator

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

evaluator.

The following binary operators are available: @code{+}, @code{-},

@code{*}, @code{/}, @code{^}.

The following unary operators are available: @code{+}, @code{-},

@code{(...)}.

The following statements are available: @code{ld}, @code{st},

@code{while}.

The following functions are available:

@table @var

@item sinh(x)

@item cosh(x)

@item tanh(x)

@item sin(x)

@item cos(x)

@item tan(x)

@item atan(x)

@item asin(x)

@item acos(x)

@item exp(x)

@item log(x)

@item abs(x)

@item squish(x)

@item gauss(x)

@item mod(x, y)

@item max(x, y)

@item min(x, y)

@item eq(x, y)

@item gte(x, y)

@item gt(x, y)

@item lte(x, y)

@item lt(x, y)

@item bits2qp(bits)

@item qp2bits(qp)

@end table

The following constants are available:

@table @var

@item PI

@item E

@item iTex

@item pTex

@item tex

@item mv

@item fCode

@item iCount

@item mcVar

@item var

@item isI

@item isP

@item isB

@item avgQP

@item qComp

@item avgIITex

@item avgPITex

@item avgPPTex

@item avgBPTex

@item avgTex

@end table

@c man end

@chapter Tips

@c man begin TIPS

@itemize

@item

For streaming at very low bitrate application, use a low frame rate

and a small GOP size. This is especially true for RealVideo where

the Linux player does not seem to be very fast, so it can miss

frames. An example is:

@example

ffmpeg -g 3 -r 3 -t 10 -b 50k -s qcif -f rv10 /tmp/b.rm

@end example

@item

The parameter 'q' which is displayed while encoding is the current

quantizer. The value 1 indicates that a very good quality could

be achieved. The value 31 indicates the worst quality. If q=31 appears

too often, it means that the encoder cannot compress enough to meet

your bitrate. You must either increase the bitrate, decrease the

frame rate or decrease the frame size.

@item

If your computer is not fast enough, you can speed up the

compression at the expense of the compression ratio. You can use

'-me zero' to speed up motion estimation, and '-intra' to disable

motion estimation completely (you have only I-frames, which means it

is about as good as JPEG compression).

@item

To have very low audio bitrates, reduce the sampling frequency

(down to 22050 Hz for MPEG audio, 22050 or 11025 for AC-3).

@item

To have a constant quality (but a variable bitrate), use the option

'-qscale n' when 'n' is between 1 (excellent quality) and 31 (worst

quality).

@item

When converting video files, you can use the '-sameq' option which

uses the same quality factor in the encoder as in the decoder.

It allows almost lossless encoding.

@end itemize

@c man end TIPS

@chapter Examples

@c man begin EXAMPLES

@section Video and Audio grabbing

FFmpeg can grab video and audio from devices given that you specify the input

format and device.

@example

ffmpeg -f oss -i /dev/dsp -f video4linux2 -i /dev/video0 /tmp/out.mpg

@end example

Note that you must activate the right video source and channel before

launching FFmpeg with any TV viewer such as xawtv

(@url{http://linux.bytesex.org/xawtv/}) by Gerd Knorr. You also

have to set the audio recording levels correctly with a

standard mixer.

@section X11 grabbing

FFmpeg can grab the X11 display.

@example

ffmpeg -f x11grab -s cif -r 25 -i :0.0 /tmp/out.mpg

@end example

0.0 is display.screen number of your X11 server, same as

the DISPLAY environment variable.

@example

ffmpeg -f x11grab -s cif -r 25 -i :0.0+10,20 /tmp/out.mpg

@end example

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.

@section 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:

@example

ffmpeg -i /tmp/test%d.Y /tmp/out.mpg

@end example

It will use the files:

@example

/tmp/test0.Y, /tmp/test0.U, /tmp/test0.V,

/tmp/test1.Y, /tmp/test1.U, /tmp/test1.V, etc...

@end example

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 @option{-s} option

if FFmpeg cannot guess it.

* You can input from a raw YUV420P file:

@example

ffmpeg -i /tmp/test.yuv /tmp/out.avi

@end example

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:

@example

ffmpeg -i mydivx.avi hugefile.yuv

@end example

* You can set several input files and output files:

@example

ffmpeg -i /tmp/a.wav -s 640x480 -i /tmp/a.yuv /tmp/a.mpg

@end example

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:

@example

ffmpeg -i /tmp/a.wav -ar 22050 /tmp/a.mp2

@end example

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:

@example

ffmpeg -i /tmp/a.wav -ab 64k /tmp/a.mp2 -ab 128k /tmp/b.mp2 -map 0:0 -map 0:0

@end example

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:

@example

ffmpeg -i snatch_1.vob -f avi -vcodec mpeg4 -b 800k -g 300 -bf 2 -acodec libmp3lame -ab 128k snatch.avi

@end example

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 @code{--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 @code{ffmpeg -formats}.

* You can extract images from a video, or create a video from many images:

For extracting images from a video:

@example

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

@end example

This will extract one video frame per second from the video and will

output them in files named @file{foo-001.jpeg}, @file{foo-002.jpeg},

etc. Images will be rescaled to fit the new WxH values.

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.

For creating a video from many images:

@example

ffmpeg -f image2 -i foo-%03d.jpeg -r 12 -s WxH foo.avi

@end example

The syntax @code{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.

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

@example

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

@end example

In addition to the first video and audio streams, the resulting

output file @file{test12.avi} will contain the second video

and the second audio stream found in the input streams list.

The @code{-newvideo}, @code{-newaudio} and @code{-newsubtitle}

options have to be specified immediately after the name of the output

file to which you want to add them.

@c man end EXAMPLES

@include indevs.texi

@include outdevs.texi

@include protocols.texi

@include filters.texi

@ignore

@setfilename ffmpeg

@settitle FFmpeg video converter

@c man begin SEEALSO

ffplay(1), ffprobe(1), ffserver(1) and the FFmpeg HTML documentation

@c man end

@c man begin AUTHORS

The FFmpeg developers

@c man end

@end ignore

@bye