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102 Comments + Trackbacks  

1. Stephen
   9.22.2008

   Thanks for the cheat sheet, submitted this to stumble…
2. jbj
   9.22.2008

   Thanks, Stephen!
3. cesman
   9.22.2008

   Great article! Submitted to digg.

   Regards,

   Cecil
4. jbj
   9.22.2008

   Thanks, cesman!
5. cesman
   9.23.2008

   You’re welcome.
6. Binny V A
   9.23.2008

   Some of my favorite ffmpeg commands. I use mencoder for the rest.
7. M Kenyon II
   9.23.2008

   How about DVD to avi?
8. damien
   9.23.2008

   Pretty cool! In converting images to a video, how do you start in a different #… like say i want to do image50 to image100.jpg?
9. damien
   9.23.2008

   I guess it didn’t take my comment. I was wondering if there was a way to turn images into video, but, by specifying a range of images… i.e. image50 – image500 . only converting those images?
10. Olivier @ mindfulness exercises
    9.23.2008

    I only use ffmpeg with xine. I thought it was a library but it seems it is also a command line tool. And a very powerful at that.
    Thanks a lot.
11. jbj
    9.23.2008

    @damien: I don’t know why but Akismet flagged your comment as spam…Btw, I never tried to start of at image50.jpg, but I’m pretty sure that it will work if you define a integer shell variable named d which have 50 as a value.

    @Olivier: You can use ffmpeg both as a command line tool, or as a library. I’m pretty sure that Youtube uses it to convert mpeg and avi videos submitted by its users to the flv files they displays on the site.
12. damien
    9.23.2008

    How would you define that in a command line? How about doing btws? Between image50 and image500? I know this is a lot to ask, but thanx for replying and your help!
13. Michael B
    9.23.2008

    iPhone question (yeah, yeah, I know). From looking online it appears that the iPhone can play XVID/DIVX files, since they’re basically MPEG4. Does anyone know a way to do a fast transcode? Leave the data the same, just change the bare minimum (headers/container) so that iTunes will import and sync it to the iPod? It’d take up more space, but it would take minute or so to do an entire (for sake of argument, mind you) TV show that you found on the intertubes.

    (And thanks for the reminder on FFMPEG – I needed something like that last night)
14. damien
    9.24.2008

    @ jbj

    I have images in sequence that look like this:

    image00001.jpg

    all the way to image05000.jpg

    I tried doing the code up there but nothing. I get an error. Here’s what i tried:

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

    I get this error:

    image%d.jpg: I/O error occurred
    Usually that means that input file is truncated and/or corrupted.

    What’s interesting is if i change the file name to 001.jpg and so on, it works. I really don’t have control of what the jpg name is going to be so how do i get it to work with that naming convention? Thanx again!
15. v3g
    9.24.2008

    Thanks for the recipe, but can’t encode tv show to mp4 ipod. I get “Unable to find a suitable output format for ‘input’” error. Tried on Ubuntu and FreeBSD, video is:
    Input #0, avi, from ‘Eureka.avi’:
    Duration: 00:41:56.8, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 1157 kb/s
    Stream #0.0: Video: mpeg4, yuv420p, 624×352, 23.98 fps(r)
    Stream #0.1: Audio: mp3, 48000 Hz, stereo, 128 kb/s
    Maybe, I need to install something else? I updated ffmpeg to the latest. Is there an option for dynamic scaling, or the tool can calculate it?
16. onlydarksets
    9.24.2008

    @15 – v3g: “input” is a typo – just delete it. The OP is using the command line from the ffmpeg documentation, which uses “input” as a placeholder for the name of the input file.

    Also, if you get an error about not having the aac codec, use libfaac instead.

    http://ffmpeg.mplayerhq.hu/faq.html#SEC25
17. v3g
    9.25.2008

    Thanks, now its working, but the quality is awfull:
    ffmpeg -i xxxxx.avi -acodec libfaac -ab 128kb -vcodec libx264 -b 1157kb -mbd 2 -flags +4mv+trell -aic 2 -cmp 2 -subcmp 2 -s 312×176 -title X xxxxx.mp4

    Input #0, avi, from ‘xxxxx.avi’:
    Duration: 00:41:56.8, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 1157 kb/s
    Stream #0.0: Video: mpeg4, yuv420p, 624×352, 23.98 fps(r)
    Stream #0.1: Audio: mp3, 48000 Hz, stereo, 128 kb/s
    File ‘eureka.mp4′ already exists. Overwrite ? [y/N] y
    Output #0, mp4, to ‘xxxxx.mp4′:
    Stream #0.0: Video: libx264 (hq), yuv420p, 312×176, q=2-31, 1157 kb/s, 23.98 fps(c)
    Stream #0.1: Audio: libfaac, 48000 Hz, stereo, 128 kb/s

    And that worked on FreeBSD, not Ubuntu. For vcodec mpeg4, I couldn’t change the width and height, but only with libx264. And still doesn’t work with Ubuntu.

    How do you change the quality, something like ‘q=2′ or ‘q=9′?
18. onlydarksets
    9.25.2008

    @v3g : When you change the video codec, you have to use the correct parameters. I have a few examples listed here for h.264:
    http://onlydarksets.wordpress.com/2008/09/19/convert-sage-recordings-to-iphone/#more-408
19. SWATZ
    9.27.2008

    TOUT SIMPLEMENT
    BRAVISIMO

    Thanks Dude , You Are the GNU
20. PhillyPhanatic
    9.30.2008

    @damien

    might find some help here:

    http://ffmpeg.mplayerhq.hu/ffmpeg-doc.html#SEC3
21. Matt
    10.27.2008

    @M Kenyon II

    Handbrake-DVD to AVI (multiplatform, open source)
    http://www.applemacvideo.com/articles/rip-dvd-on-mac-using-handbrake.html#126
22. socky
    11.12.2008

    arrived through stumble… excellent info.
23. BlackSheep
    11.22.2008

    anyone has a code that will convert wmv to 3gp???

    Thank for the efforts!
24. mrmanny
    12.23.2008

    to encode an avi to to an nokia e71 recognized mp4 format:

    ffmpeg -y -i inputFILE.avi -acodec aac -ab 72k -s 320×176 -aspect 16:9 -vcodec h264 -b 300k -qcomp 0.6 -qmin 16 -qmax 51 -qdiff 4 -flags +loop -cmp +chroma -subq 7 -refs 6 -g 250 -keyint_min 25 -rc_eq ‘blurCplx^(1-qComp)’ -sc_threshold 40 -me_range 12 -i_qfactor 0.71 -directpred 3 outputFILE.mp4

    original file was 700MB, resulting mp4 encoded file slightly less then half @300MB…quality is excellent

    even though I don’t foresee watching many video’s on this amazing phone, I thought I would share my findings…

    hh,
    manny
25. Jay
    12.29.2008

    Does anyone know if ffmpeg supports transparent images ? I’m trying to put a sequence of PNGs into a .flv or .mov movies but the transparent parts of the images become black. I searched on Google but can’t find any solution.
26. Imran Ali
    1.1.2009

    Thanks for a really nice post, It really helped me alot.
27. Seth Thomas Rasmussen
    1.16.2009

    Awesome. Thanks!
28. ajoism
    1.31.2009

    hello…thanks,it’s great but if i convert AVI format into jpg and 3GP into jpg at the same time, how we can determine it is the same frame?can u help me?
29. TechDogg
    2.7.2009

    Hi! Thanks a lot for this pre-chewed tutorial! The only thing is that I came across errors when trying the command to convert a video to the iPhone/iPod format.

    I was able to fix it by removing the word “input” from the command line. Worked perfectly after that. Just wanted to share that with everyone!

    Merci encore!

    TechDogg
30. Morshed Alam
    2.15.2009

    Hi,
    I am facing problem to convert video to .flv in my linux server using ffmpeg. I think ffmpeg is not execute in my server. I gave read/write/execute permission to ffmpeg. Can anyone give me idea of this type of problem or how can i solve this?

    Advanced thanks for helping me….

    :- Morshed Alam
31. cesman
    2.15.2009

    @Morshed
    No one can help w/ with such a vague question. It would help if you provided the context of the command you are trying to execute and the resulting error.

    Regards,

    Cecil
32. jimmy
    3.3.2009

    Thankyou so much
    A tutorial for humans!!
    Just what I’ve been looking for
33. Nancy
    3.4.2009

    Awesome cheat sheet! Thanks for all your work to put this together. Many good karma points for you
34. rahman
    4.4.2009

    what a great article
35. solar power
    4.9.2009

    Great article. Thanks.
36. gameutopia
    5.13.2009

    Dude this is an awesome list of commands. Usually I am only able to find a couple by searching when I need them, kind of hit and miss. You have a great list much more than most. Many Thanks!
37. Jason
    5.26.2009

    When using
    ffmpeg -f image2 -i image%d.jpg video.mpg
    what if I have hundreds of images starting at image4928.JPG and ending in image5028.JPG, is there a way with out renaming all the files? I tried
    ffmpeg -f image2 -i image%04d.jpg video.mpg

    but no worky
38. suba
    5.27.2009

    Hello

    I have converted video using ffmpeg for .wmv and then taken a snapshot for that video
    Please check the below code
    exec($varFFMPEGpath.’ -i ‘.$n_file_name.’ -sameq -ar 44100 -r 25 -ac 2 -ab 128 -b 1200 -qmin 3 -qmax 6 ‘.$filename1);
    exec($varFFMPEGpath.’ -i ‘.$n_file_name.’ -deinterlace -an -ss 00:00:02 -r 1 -y -vcodec mjpeg -f mjpeg ‘.$Img_Name.” 2>&1″);

    Video is playing but the audio is not getting.
    Please suggest me to get through the issue. It will be grateful.
39. R
    6.3.2009

    How to replace audio track in mpg file?
    Anybodu knows?
40. akthar
    6.23.2009

    Thanks for this nice tutorial,if any one can provide how to make watermark in videos using ffmpeg becaz vhook is not live now…..Pls provide this
41. Jatin Sadana
    6.23.2009

    AWESOME
42. Herron
    6.27.2009

    Using ffmpeg on our linux server to convert user uploaded videos to FLV. Sort of like a YouTube.

    I am not satisfied with the quality, and know there has to be a better way. I have tried several changes, but am not getting where I would like it to be. As good as YouTube.

    Please see my command line below, and suggest any changes I can make to improve the output quality.

    Please keep in mind that the uploaded “user.fil” could be an flv,avi,wmv or a mpg.

    ffmpeg -i user.fil -acodec libfaac -ab 156k -b 1024k output.flv

    Thank you for any help you can give, and this is a GREAT cheat sheet. I will keep a copy by my side!!!
43. Herron
    6.28.2009

    Well, I think I got it.

    All I did is add the format key, and the results were 100% better. So remember this.

    BAD – ffmpeg -i user.fil -acodec libfaac -ab 156k -b 1024k output.flv

    GOOD – ffmpeg -i user.fil -acodec libfaac -ab 156k -b 1024k -f flv output.flv
44. Kapil Sakhare
    7.10.2009

    Hello,

    I would like to cut the audio file for selected time..
    Say I have a .mp3 of duration 00:50 sec..
    I would like to cut the audio from 00:20 to 00:30 sec.
    Please help me using ffmpeg command line.

    Thanks in advance.
    –Kapil
45. Jean-Baptiste Jung
    7.10.2009

    @Kapil: This is the code for cut specific area from mp3

    code:
    ffmpeg -ss starttime -t totalseconds -i inout.mp3 -acodec copy output.mp3

    startime=00:00:30
    totalseconds:25

    (Provided by Haleel Rahman)
46. Haleel
    7.16.2009

    Any can provide to make watermark in videos,also how do make the avi videos for mobile?
47. sony
    7.19.2009

    hi,
    i am using ubuntu hardy. i was searching for a tool to convert 700mb avi files to 300mb avi without losing quality. is there any to serve that?.
    thanks guys.

    -me
48. Peter
    8.27.2009

    Thanks for the cool tips. Do you think, that there is ffmpeg preset page for all mobile phones?
49. Jan
    9.10.2009

    with ffmpeg I am trying to record video from my Toshiba laptop webcam. Video Recording is going fine but with no sound . Recording with sound is working well with cheese.

    Please guide me how to do video recording with sound on ffmpeg with webcam.

    Regards
50. Cardonizer
    10.1.2009

    there is also another way to get good quality ffmpeg flv: using AviSynth+VP6.2 codec+patched ffmpeg
51. rabih
    10.3.2009

    Hi All…I can see there is some experts in ffmpeg in this blog…
    I’m using ffmpeg in order to compress a continuous streamed mpeg2 retrieved from a dream box machine (satellite receiver)
    I want to compress each minute in a separate file…
    I’ve used the -t option, but in fact I’m loosing some gaps between each consecutive files
    this is the script i’m using:

    while test 1=1
    do
    ldt_now=”$(date +”%y-%m-%d-%H-%M-%S”)”
    ffmpeg -t 60 -i “http://IP…” /home/grabbing/file_compressed_for_$ldt_now.mpg
    done

    I’m wondering if any one can give me any hints regarding how to output from ffmpeg in different consecutive files without having any lost gaps

    Any help will be very appreciated
    TIA
    Rabih
52. Noxxxone
    11.1.2009

    Hello,

    thanks for the samples.

    I think you should add a command to convert mp3 for iphones/ipods, this article is number one on google for linux convert mp3 for iphone.

    PS: fix a typo for IPpod and add a copy command flash button like on github for urls.
53. danpaluska
    11.17.2009

    # rename files sequentially for FFMPEG to work properly
    counter=10000
    for f in *.jpg; do
    let “counter+=1″
    mv $f screen${counter:1}.jpg
    done

    this will rename a set of files continuously from 0001 then do something like
    ffmpeg -i screen%04d.jpg outputmovie.mp4

    and a question. what is the ffmpeg command to capture a snapshot from the webcam? just a jpg? or is another library better for that?

    thanks,
    dan
54. james
    11.22.2009

    Hello, All!

    I’m using custom ffmpeg commands on a Drupal website for automatic conversion of uploaded files. It converts various file types to mpeg-4 (H.264) and is working fine. I need to add a simple slow motion to this process – simply repeated frames. In other words, I need a command to convert a video file with the following frames (A, B, C…) to (A, A, B, B, C, C…) for a 50% slomo.

    If there’s some fancy way to do it with interpolation that would be even better, but for now I’ll settle for frame duplication.

    Thanks in advance!

    -James
55. Radz Nguyen
    12.27.2009

    “Turn X images to a video sequence” – What can we do with it ? I don’t understand :-s . Can you explain for me ? Thank you very much.
56. Thomas
    1.6.2010

    Great info. Excellent list of commands for an amazing product like FFMPEG.
57. docket
    1.18.2010

    That’s useful information to know. Thanks for sharing the how to back up tips.
58. Cire
    2.3.2010

    Hello,

    I’ve been trying to convert a .flv file I got from youtube and convert it to a .mp4 file playable on my iPod but can’t seem to make it work. I type in:

    ffmpeg -i sniper.flv -acodec aac -ab 128kb -vcodec mpeg4 -b 1200kb -mbd 2 -flags +4mv+trell -aic 2 -cmp 2 -subcmp 2 -s 320×180 -title X sniper.mp4

    but it gives me the following message:

    FFmpeg version SVN-r21125, Copyright (c) 2000-2010 Fabrice Bellard, et al.
    built on Jan 10 2010 13:49:22 with gcc 4.4.1
    configuration: –enable-gpl –enable-version3 –enable-nonfree –enable-postproc –enable-pthreads –enable-libfaac –enable-libfaad –enable-libmp3lame –enable-libopencore-amrnb –enable-libopencore-amrwb –enable-libtheora –enable-libx264 –enable-libxvid –enable-x11grab
    libavutil 50. 7. 0 / 50. 7. 0
    libavcodec 52.47. 0 / 52.47. 0
    libavformat 52.46. 0 / 52.46. 0
    libavdevice 52. 2. 0 / 52. 2. 0
    libswscale 0. 8. 0 / 0. 8. 0
    libpostproc 51. 2. 0 / 51. 2. 0
    [flv @ 0x9815390]Estimating duration from bitrate, this may be inaccurate

    Seems stream 0 codec frame rate differs from container frame rate: 59.93 (29967/500) -> 29.92 (359/12)
    Input #0, flv, from ’sniper.flv’:
    Metadata:
    duration : 326
    starttime : 0
    totalduration : 326
    width : 320
    height : 180
    videodatarate : 201
    audiodatarate : 64
    totaldatarate : 271
    framerate : 30
    bytelength : 11073949
    canseekontime : true
    sourcedata : B4A7DA446
    Duration: 00:05:26.15, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 206 kb/s
    Stream #0.0: Video: h264, yuv420p, 320×180 [PAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 206 kb/s, 58.82 fps, 29.92 tbr, 1k tbn, 59.93 tbc
    Stream #0.1: Audio: aac, 22050 Hz, stereo, s16
    [NULL @ 0x980c020]Unable to parse option value “trell”: undefined constant or missing (
    Invalid value ‘+4mv+trell’ for option ‘flags’

    What am I doing wrong?

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