4 Demuxers are configured elements in FFmpeg that can read the
5 multimedia streams from a particular type of file.
7 When you configure your FFmpeg build, all the supported demuxers
8 are enabled by default. You can list all available ones using the
9 configure option @code{--list-demuxers}.
11 You can disable all the demuxers using the configure option
12 @code{--disable-demuxers}, and selectively enable a single demuxer with
13 the option @code{--enable-demuxer=@var{DEMUXER}}, or disable it
14 with the option @code{--disable-demuxer=@var{DEMUXER}}.
16 The option @code{-formats} of the ff* tools will display the list of
19 The description of some of the currently available demuxers follows.
23 Apple HTTP Live Streaming demuxer.
25 This demuxer presents all AVStreams from all variant streams.
26 The id field is set to the bitrate variant index number. By setting
27 the discard flags on AVStreams (by pressing 'a' or 'v' in ffplay),
28 the caller can decide which variant streams to actually receive.
29 The total bitrate of the variant that the stream belongs to is
30 available in a metadata key named "variant_bitrate".
34 Advanced Systems Format demuxer.
36 This demuxer is used to demux ASF files and MMS network streams.
39 @item -no_resync_search @var{bool}
40 Do not try to resynchronize by looking for a certain optional start code.
46 Virtual concatenation script demuxer.
48 This demuxer reads a list of files and other directives from a text file and
49 demuxes them one after the other, as if all their packet had been muxed
52 The timestamps in the files are adjusted so that the first file starts at 0
53 and each next file starts where the previous one finishes. Note that it is
54 done globally and may cause gaps if all streams do not have exactly the same
57 All files must have the same streams (same codecs, same time base, etc.).
59 The duration of each file is used to adjust the timestamps of the next file:
60 if the duration is incorrect (because it was computed using the bit-rate or
61 because the file is truncated, for example), it can cause artifacts. The
62 @code{duration} directive can be used to override the duration stored in
67 The script is a text file in extended-ASCII, with one directive per line.
68 Empty lines, leading spaces and lines starting with '#' are ignored. The
69 following directive is recognized:
73 @item @code{file @var{path}}
74 Path to a file to read; special characters and spaces must be escaped with
75 backslash or single quotes.
77 All subsequent file-related directives apply to that file.
79 @item @code{ffconcat version 1.0}
80 Identify the script type and version. It also sets the @option{safe} option
81 to 1 if it was to its default -1.
83 To make FFmpeg recognize the format automatically, this directive must
84 appears exactly as is (no extra space or byte-order-mark) on the very first
87 @item @code{duration @var{dur}}
88 Duration of the file. This information can be specified from the file;
89 specifying it here may be more efficient or help if the information from the
90 file is not available or accurate.
92 If the duration is set for all files, then it is possible to seek in the
93 whole concatenated video.
96 Introduce a stream in the virtual file.
97 All subsequent stream-related directives apply to the last introduced
99 Some streams properties must be set in order to allow identifying the
100 matching streams in the subfiles.
101 If no streams are defined in the script, the streams from the first file are
104 @item @code{exact_stream_id @var{id}}
105 Set the id of the stream.
106 If this directive is given, the string with the corresponding id in the
107 subfiles will be used.
108 This is especially useful for MPEG-PS (VOB) files, where the order of the
109 streams is not reliable.
115 This demuxer accepts the following option:
120 If set to 1, reject unsafe file paths. A file path is considered safe if it
121 does not contain a protocol specification and is relative and all components
122 only contain characters from the portable character set (letters, digits,
123 period, underscore and hyphen) and have no period at the beginning of a
126 If set to 0, any file name is accepted.
128 The default is -1, it is equivalent to 1 if the format was automatically
129 probed and 0 otherwise.
132 If set to 1, try to perform automatic conversions on packet data to make the
133 streams concatenable.
135 Currently, the only conversion is adding the h264_mp4toannexb bitstream
136 filter to H.264 streams in MP4 format. This is necessary in particular if
137 there are resolution changes.
143 Adobe Flash Video Format demuxer.
145 This demuxer is used to demux FLV files and RTMP network streams.
148 @item -flv_metadata @var{bool}
149 Allocate the streams according to the onMetaData array content.
154 The Game Music Emu library is a collection of video game music file emulators.
156 See @url{http://code.google.com/p/game-music-emu/} for more information.
158 Some files have multiple tracks. The demuxer will pick the first track by
159 default. The @option{track_index} option can be used to select a different
160 track. Track indexes start at 0. The demuxer exports the number of tracks as
161 @var{tracks} meta data entry.
163 For very large files, the @option{max_size} option may have to be adjusted.
167 Play media from Internet services using the quvi project.
169 The demuxer accepts a @option{format} option to request a specific quality. It
170 is by default set to @var{best}.
172 See @url{http://quvi.sourceforge.net/} for more information.
174 FFmpeg needs to be built with @code{--enable-libquvi} for this demuxer to be
179 Animated GIF demuxer.
181 It accepts the following options:
185 Set the minimum valid delay between frames in hundredths of seconds.
186 Range is 0 to 6000. Default value is 2.
189 Set the default delay between frames in hundredths of seconds.
190 Range is 0 to 6000. Default value is 10.
193 GIF files can contain information to loop a certain number of times (or
194 infinitely). If @option{ignore_loop} is set to 1, then the loop setting
195 from the input will be ignored and looping will not occur. If set to 0,
196 then looping will occur and will cycle the number of times according to
197 the GIF. Default value is 1.
200 For example, with the overlay filter, place an infinitely looping GIF
203 ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -ignore_loop 0 -i input.gif -filter_complex overlay=shortest=1 out.mkv
206 Note that in the above example the shortest option for overlay filter is
207 used to end the output video at the length of the shortest input file,
208 which in this case is @file{input.mp4} as the GIF in this example loops
215 This demuxer reads from a list of image files specified by a pattern.
216 The syntax and meaning of the pattern is specified by the
217 option @var{pattern_type}.
219 The pattern may contain a suffix which is used to automatically
220 determine the format of the images contained in the files.
222 The size, the pixel format, and the format of each image must be the
223 same for all the files in the sequence.
225 This demuxer accepts the following options:
228 Set the frame rate for the video stream. It defaults to 25.
230 If set to 1, loop over the input. Default value is 0.
232 Select the pattern type used to interpret the provided filename.
234 @var{pattern_type} accepts one of the following values.
237 Select a sequence pattern type, used to specify a sequence of files
238 indexed by sequential numbers.
240 A sequence pattern may contain the string "%d" or "%0@var{N}d", which
241 specifies the position of the characters representing a sequential
242 number in each filename matched by the pattern. If the form
243 "%d0@var{N}d" is used, the string representing the number in each
244 filename is 0-padded and @var{N} is the total number of 0-padded
245 digits representing the number. The literal character '%' can be
246 specified in the pattern with the string "%%".
248 If the sequence pattern contains "%d" or "%0@var{N}d", the first filename of
249 the file list specified by the pattern must contain a number
250 inclusively contained between @var{start_number} and
251 @var{start_number}+@var{start_number_range}-1, and all the following
252 numbers must be sequential.
254 For example the pattern "img-%03d.bmp" will match a sequence of
255 filenames of the form @file{img-001.bmp}, @file{img-002.bmp}, ...,
256 @file{img-010.bmp}, etc.; the pattern "i%%m%%g-%d.jpg" will match a
257 sequence of filenames of the form @file{i%m%g-1.jpg},
258 @file{i%m%g-2.jpg}, ..., @file{i%m%g-10.jpg}, etc.
260 Note that the pattern must not necessarily contain "%d" or
261 "%0@var{N}d", for example to convert a single image file
262 @file{img.jpeg} you can employ the command:
264 ffmpeg -i img.jpeg img.png
268 Select a glob wildcard pattern type.
270 The pattern is interpreted like a @code{glob()} pattern. This is only
271 selectable if libavformat was compiled with globbing support.
273 @item glob_sequence @emph{(deprecated, will be removed)}
274 Select a mixed glob wildcard/sequence pattern.
276 If your version of libavformat was compiled with globbing support, and
277 the provided pattern contains at least one glob meta character among
278 @code{%*?[]@{@}} that is preceded by an unescaped "%", the pattern is
279 interpreted like a @code{glob()} pattern, otherwise it is interpreted
280 like a sequence pattern.
282 All glob special characters @code{%*?[]@{@}} must be prefixed
283 with "%". To escape a literal "%" you shall use "%%".
285 For example the pattern @code{foo-%*.jpeg} will match all the
286 filenames prefixed by "foo-" and terminating with ".jpeg", and
287 @code{foo-%?%?%?.jpeg} will match all the filenames prefixed with
288 "foo-", followed by a sequence of three characters, and terminating
291 This pattern type is deprecated in favor of @var{glob} and
295 Default value is @var{glob_sequence}.
297 Set the pixel format of the images to read. If not specified the pixel
298 format is guessed from the first image file in the sequence.
300 Set the index of the file matched by the image file pattern to start
301 to read from. Default value is 0.
302 @item start_number_range
303 Set the index interval range to check when looking for the first image
304 file in the sequence, starting from @var{start_number}. Default value
307 If set to 1, will set frame timestamp to modification time of image file. Note
308 that monotonity of timestamps is not provided: images go in the same order as
309 without this option. Default value is 0.
310 If set to 2, will set frame timestamp to the modification time of the image file in
311 nanosecond precision.
313 Set the video size of the images to read. If not specified the video
314 size is guessed from the first image file in the sequence.
321 Use @command{ffmpeg} for creating a video from the images in the file
322 sequence @file{img-001.jpeg}, @file{img-002.jpeg}, ..., assuming an
323 input frame rate of 10 frames per second:
325 ffmpeg -framerate 10 -i 'img-%03d.jpeg' out.mkv
329 As above, but start by reading from a file with index 100 in the sequence:
331 ffmpeg -framerate 10 -start_number 100 -i 'img-%03d.jpeg' out.mkv
335 Read images matching the "*.png" glob pattern , that is all the files
336 terminating with the ".png" suffix:
338 ffmpeg -framerate 10 -pattern_type glob -i "*.png" out.mkv
344 MPEG-2 transport stream demuxer.
348 @item fix_teletext_pts
349 Overrides teletext packet PTS and DTS values with the timestamps calculated
350 from the PCR of the first program which the teletext stream is part of and is
351 not discarded. Default value is 1, set this option to 0 if you want your
352 teletext packet PTS and DTS values untouched.
359 This demuxer allows one to read raw video data. Since there is no header
360 specifying the assumed video parameters, the user must specify them
361 in order to be able to decode the data correctly.
363 This demuxer accepts the following options:
367 Set input video frame rate. Default value is 25.
370 Set the input video pixel format. Default value is @code{yuv420p}.
373 Set the input video size. This value must be specified explicitly.
376 For example to read a rawvideo file @file{input.raw} with
377 @command{ffplay}, assuming a pixel format of @code{rgb24}, a video
378 size of @code{320x240}, and a frame rate of 10 images per second, use
381 ffplay -f rawvideo -pixel_format rgb24 -video_size 320x240 -framerate 10 input.raw
386 SBaGen script demuxer.
388 This demuxer reads the script language used by SBaGen
389 @url{http://uazu.net/sbagen/} to generate binaural beats sessions. A SBG
390 script looks like that:
393 a: 300-2.5/3 440+4.5/0
394 b: 300-2.5/0 440+4.5/3
403 A SBG script can mix absolute and relative timestamps. If the script uses
404 either only absolute timestamps (including the script start time) or only
405 relative ones, then its layout is fixed, and the conversion is
406 straightforward. On the other hand, if the script mixes both kind of
407 timestamps, then the @var{NOW} reference for relative timestamps will be
408 taken from the current time of day at the time the script is read, and the
409 script layout will be frozen according to that reference. That means that if
410 the script is directly played, the actual times will match the absolute
411 timestamps up to the sound controller's clock accuracy, but if the user
412 somehow pauses the playback or seeks, all times will be shifted accordingly.
416 JSON captions used for @url{http://www.ted.com/, TED Talks}.
418 TED does not provide links to the captions, but they can be guessed from the
419 page. The file @file{tools/bookmarklets.html} from the FFmpeg source tree
420 contains a bookmarklet to expose them.
422 This demuxer accepts the following option:
425 Set the start time of the TED talk, in milliseconds. The default is 15000
426 (15s). It is used to sync the captions with the downloadable videos, because
427 they include a 15s intro.
430 Example: convert the captions to a format most players understand:
432 ffmpeg -i http://www.ted.com/talks/subtitles/id/1/lang/en talk1-en.srt