ffmpeg

Video, audio and media commands for conversion, editing, compression and streaming.

Basic Usage

Simple one-liners to perform basic ffmpeg operations.

Convert media

Converts a file from one format to another.

ffmpeg -i input.mov output.mp4

Show media info

Displays stream details and metadata of a media file.

ffmpeg -i input.mp4

Trimming and Cutting

Cut or trim sections of media based on time without re-encoding or with re-encoding.

Cut clip without re-encoding

Cuts a portion of the video losslessly.

ffmpeg -ss 00:00:10 -to 00:00:20 -i input.mp4 -c copy output.mp4

Trim and re-encode

Trims part of a video and re-encodes it.

ffmpeg -ss 10 -t 10 -i input.mp4 output.mp4

Video Filters

Apply visual transformations to video content.

Rotate 90 degrees clockwise

Rotates the video frame clockwise.

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "transpose=1" output.mp4

Flip vertically

Flips the video upside down.

ffmpeg -vf "vflip" -i input.mp4 output.mp4

Crop video

Crops a portion of the video with specified dimensions.

ffmpeg -vf "crop=640:360:0:0" -i input.mp4 output.mp4

Audio Filters

Modify or extract audio from media files.

Remove audio track

Outputs the video without any audio.

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -an output.mp4

Extract audio

Extracts the audio track and saves it as MP3.

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -q:a 0 -map a output.mp3

Change audio volume

Increases the audio volume by 50%.

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -af "volume=1.5" output.mp4

Compression and Quality

Reduce file size or control video/audio quality using encoding options.

Compress video (H.264)

Encodes video using H.264 codec with default quality.

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vcodec libx264 -crf 23 output.mp4

Lower video bitrate

Compresses video by setting a lower bitrate.

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -b:v 1000k output.mp4

Compress audio (MP3)

Compresses audio using MP3 codec at 192 kbps.

ffmpeg -i input.wav -b:a 192k output.mp3

Images and Thumbnails

Extract frames, generate thumbnails or convert between image sequences and video.

Extract frame at specific time

Captures a single frame at the 1-second mark.

ffmpeg -ss 00:00:01 -i input.mp4 -frames:v 1 output.jpg

Generate thumbnails every 10 seconds

Creates thumbnail images at 10-second intervals.

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf fps=1/10 thumb_%03d.jpg

Convert image sequence to video

Converts sequentially numbered images to a video.

ffmpeg -framerate 24 -i img_%03d.png output.mp4

Streams and Codecs

Inspect or change audio/video codecs and manage streams.

Change video codec to H.265

Re-encodes video using H.265 (HEVC).

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:v libx265 output.mp4

Copy all streams without re-encoding

Copies all media streams directly to a new container.

ffmpeg -i input.mkv -c copy output.mp4

Metadata

Add or modify metadata such as title, creation time and language.

Set title metadata

Sets the title field in the media metadata.

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -metadata title="My Title" output.mp4

Set creation time

Adds or overrides the creation timestamp in metadata.

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -metadata creation_time="2024-01-01T12:00:00" output.mp4

Set stream language

Specifies the language for a particular audio stream.

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -metadata:s:a:0 language=eng output.mp4

Subtitles

Extract, embed or burn subtitles into videos.

Extract subtitles from MKV

Saves subtitle stream to an external .srt file.

ffmpeg -i input.mkv -map 0:s:0 subs.srt

Burn subtitles into video

Renders external subtitles directly into the video.

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf subtitles=subs.srt output.mp4

Embed subtitles without burning

Adds subtitles to a container without rendering them.

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -i subs.srt -c copy -c:s mov_text output.mp4

Streaming and Network

Stream or receive media over the network using ffmpeg.

Stream to RTMP server

Sends a media stream to a live RTMP endpoint.

ffmpeg -re -i input.mp4 -f flv rtmp://server/live/streamkey

Download HLS stream

Saves a stream from an HLS URL into a local file.

ffmpeg -i https://example.com/playlist.m3u8 -c copy output.ts