19 ffmpeg commands for all needs

ffmpeg is a multiplatform, open-source library for video and audio files. I have compiled 19 useful and amazing commands covering almost all needs: video conversion, sound extraction, encoding file for iPod or PSP, and more.

Getting infos from a video file

ffmpeg -i video.avi

Turn X images to a video sequence

ffmpeg -f image2 -i image%d.jpg video.mpg

This command will transform all the images from the current directory (named image1.jpg, image2.jpg, etc…) to a video file named video.mpg.

Turn a video to X images

ffmpeg -i video.mpg image%d.jpg

This command will generate the files named image1.jpg, image2.jpg, …

The following image formats are also availables : PGM, PPM, PAM, PGMYUV, JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, SGI.

Encode a video sequence for the iPpod/iPhone

ffmpeg -i source_video.avi input -acodec aac -ab 128kb -vcodec mpeg4 -b 1200kb -mbd 2 -flags +4mv+trell -aic 2 -cmp 2 -subcmp 2 -s 320x180 -title X final_video.mp4

Explanations :

• Source : source_video.avi
• Audio codec : aac
• Audio bitrate : 128kb/s
• Video codec : mpeg4
• Video bitrate : 1200kb/s
• Video size : 320px par 180px
• Generated video : final_video.mp4

Encode video for the PSP

ffmpeg -i source_video.avi -b 300 -s 320x240 -vcodec xvid -ab 32 -ar 24000 -acodec aac final_video.mp4

Explanations :

• Source : source_video.avi
• Audio codec : aac
• Audio bitrate : 32kb/s
• Video codec : xvid
• Video bitrate : 1200kb/s
• Video size : 320px par 180px
• Generated video : final_video.mp4

Extracting sound from a video, and save it as Mp3

ffmpeg -i source_video.avi -vn -ar 44100 -ac 2 -ab 192 -f mp3 sound.mp3

Explanations :

• Source video : source_video.avi
• Audio bitrate : 192kb/s
• output format : mp3
• Generated sound : sound.mp3

Convert a wav file to Mp3

ffmpeg -i son_origine.avi -vn -ar 44100 -ac 2 -ab 192 -f mp3 son_final.mp3

Convert .avi video to .mpg

ffmpeg -i video_origine.avi video_finale.mpg

Convert .mpg to .avi

ffmpeg -i video_origine.mpg video_finale.avi

Convert .avi to animated gif(uncompressed)

ffmpeg -i video_origine.avi gif_anime.gif

Mix a video with a sound file

ffmpeg -i son.wav -i video_origine.avi video_finale.mpg

Convert .avi to .flv

ffmpeg -i video_origine.avi -ab 56 -ar 44100 -b 200 -r 15 -s 320x240 -f flv video_finale.flv

Convert .avi to dv

ffmpeg -i video_origine.avi -s pal -r pal -aspect 4:3 -ar 48000 -ac 2 video_finale.dv

Or:

ffmpeg -i video_origine.avi -target pal-dv video_finale.dv

Convert .avi to mpeg for dvd players

ffmpeg -i source_video.avi -target pal-dvd -ps 2000000000 -aspect 16:9 finale_video.mpeg

Explanations :

• target pal-dvd : Output format
• ps 2000000000 maximum size for the output file, in bits (here, 2 Gb)
• aspect 16:9 : Widescreen

Compress .avi to divx

ffmpeg -i video_origine.avi -s 320x240 -vcodec msmpeg4v2 video_finale.avi

Compress Ogg Theora to Mpeg dvd

ffmpeg -i film_sortie_cinelerra.ogm -s 720x576 -vcodec mpeg2video -acodec mp3 film_terminée.mpg

Compress .avi to SVCD mpeg2

NTSC format:

ffmpeg -i video_origine.avi -target ntsc-svcd video_finale.mpg

PAL format:

ffmpeg -i video_origine.avi -target pal-svcd video_finale.mpg

Compress .avi to VCD mpeg2

NTSC format:

ffmpeg -i video_origine.avi -target ntsc-vcd video_finale.mpg

PAL format:

ffmpeg -i video_origine.avi -target pal-vcd video_finale.mpg

Multi-pass encoding with ffmpeg

ffmpeg -i fichierentree -pass 2 -passlogfile ffmpeg2pass fichiersortie-2

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This article is an English adaptation of Jean Cartier ffmpeg exemples.