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 Animated Portable Network Graphics demuxer.
36 This demuxer is used to demux APNG files.
37 All headers, but the PNG signature, up to (but not including) the first
38 fcTL chunk are transmitted as extradata.
39 Frames are then split as being all the chunks between two fcTL ones, or
40 between the last fcTL and IEND chunks.
43 @item -ignore_loop @var{bool}
44 Ignore the loop variable in the file if set.
45 @item -max_fps @var{int}
46 Maximum framerate in frames per second (0 for no limit).
47 @item -default_fps @var{int}
48 Default framerate in frames per second when none is specified in the file
49 (0 meaning as fast as possible).
54 Advanced Systems Format demuxer.
56 This demuxer is used to demux ASF files and MMS network streams.
59 @item -no_resync_search @var{bool}
60 Do not try to resynchronize by looking for a certain optional start code.
66 Virtual concatenation script demuxer.
68 This demuxer reads a list of files and other directives from a text file and
69 demuxes them one after the other, as if all their packet had been muxed
72 The timestamps in the files are adjusted so that the first file starts at 0
73 and each next file starts where the previous one finishes. Note that it is
74 done globally and may cause gaps if all streams do not have exactly the same
77 All files must have the same streams (same codecs, same time base, etc.).
79 The duration of each file is used to adjust the timestamps of the next file:
80 if the duration is incorrect (because it was computed using the bit-rate or
81 because the file is truncated, for example), it can cause artifacts. The
82 @code{duration} directive can be used to override the duration stored in
87 The script is a text file in extended-ASCII, with one directive per line.
88 Empty lines, leading spaces and lines starting with '#' are ignored. The
89 following directive is recognized:
93 @item @code{file @var{path}}
94 Path to a file to read; special characters and spaces must be escaped with
95 backslash or single quotes.
97 All subsequent file-related directives apply to that file.
99 @item @code{ffconcat version 1.0}
100 Identify the script type and version. It also sets the @option{safe} option
101 to 1 if it was to its default -1.
103 To make FFmpeg recognize the format automatically, this directive must
104 appears exactly as is (no extra space or byte-order-mark) on the very first
107 @item @code{duration @var{dur}}
108 Duration of the file. This information can be specified from the file;
109 specifying it here may be more efficient or help if the information from the
110 file is not available or accurate.
112 If the duration is set for all files, then it is possible to seek in the
113 whole concatenated video.
116 Introduce a stream in the virtual file.
117 All subsequent stream-related directives apply to the last introduced
119 Some streams properties must be set in order to allow identifying the
120 matching streams in the subfiles.
121 If no streams are defined in the script, the streams from the first file are
124 @item @code{exact_stream_id @var{id}}
125 Set the id of the stream.
126 If this directive is given, the string with the corresponding id in the
127 subfiles will be used.
128 This is especially useful for MPEG-PS (VOB) files, where the order of the
129 streams is not reliable.
135 This demuxer accepts the following option:
140 If set to 1, reject unsafe file paths. A file path is considered safe if it
141 does not contain a protocol specification and is relative and all components
142 only contain characters from the portable character set (letters, digits,
143 period, underscore and hyphen) and have no period at the beginning of a
146 If set to 0, any file name is accepted.
148 The default is -1, it is equivalent to 1 if the format was automatically
149 probed and 0 otherwise.
152 If set to 1, try to perform automatic conversions on packet data to make the
153 streams concatenable.
155 Currently, the only conversion is adding the h264_mp4toannexb bitstream
156 filter to H.264 streams in MP4 format. This is necessary in particular if
157 there are resolution changes.
163 Adobe Flash Video Format demuxer.
165 This demuxer is used to demux FLV files and RTMP network streams.
168 @item -flv_metadata @var{bool}
169 Allocate the streams according to the onMetaData array content.
174 The Game Music Emu library is a collection of video game music file emulators.
176 See @url{http://code.google.com/p/game-music-emu/} for more information.
178 Some files have multiple tracks. The demuxer will pick the first track by
179 default. The @option{track_index} option can be used to select a different
180 track. Track indexes start at 0. The demuxer exports the number of tracks as
181 @var{tracks} meta data entry.
183 For very large files, the @option{max_size} option may have to be adjusted.
187 Play media from Internet services using the quvi project.
189 The demuxer accepts a @option{format} option to request a specific quality. It
190 is by default set to @var{best}.
192 See @url{http://quvi.sourceforge.net/} for more information.
194 FFmpeg needs to be built with @code{--enable-libquvi} for this demuxer to be
199 Animated GIF demuxer.
201 It accepts the following options:
205 Set the minimum valid delay between frames in hundredths of seconds.
206 Range is 0 to 6000. Default value is 2.
209 Set the maximum valid delay between frames in hundredth of seconds.
210 Range is 0 to 65535. Default value is 65535 (nearly eleven minutes),
211 the maximum value allowed by the specification.
214 Set the default delay between frames in hundredths of seconds.
215 Range is 0 to 6000. Default value is 10.
218 GIF files can contain information to loop a certain number of times (or
219 infinitely). If @option{ignore_loop} is set to 1, then the loop setting
220 from the input will be ignored and looping will not occur. If set to 0,
221 then looping will occur and will cycle the number of times according to
222 the GIF. Default value is 1.
225 For example, with the overlay filter, place an infinitely looping GIF
228 ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -ignore_loop 0 -i input.gif -filter_complex overlay=shortest=1 out.mkv
231 Note that in the above example the shortest option for overlay filter is
232 used to end the output video at the length of the shortest input file,
233 which in this case is @file{input.mp4} as the GIF in this example loops
240 This demuxer reads from a list of image files specified by a pattern.
241 The syntax and meaning of the pattern is specified by the
242 option @var{pattern_type}.
244 The pattern may contain a suffix which is used to automatically
245 determine the format of the images contained in the files.
247 The size, the pixel format, and the format of each image must be the
248 same for all the files in the sequence.
250 This demuxer accepts the following options:
253 Set the frame rate for the video stream. It defaults to 25.
255 If set to 1, loop over the input. Default value is 0.
257 Select the pattern type used to interpret the provided filename.
259 @var{pattern_type} accepts one of the following values.
262 Select a sequence pattern type, used to specify a sequence of files
263 indexed by sequential numbers.
265 A sequence pattern may contain the string "%d" or "%0@var{N}d", which
266 specifies the position of the characters representing a sequential
267 number in each filename matched by the pattern. If the form
268 "%d0@var{N}d" is used, the string representing the number in each
269 filename is 0-padded and @var{N} is the total number of 0-padded
270 digits representing the number. The literal character '%' can be
271 specified in the pattern with the string "%%".
273 If the sequence pattern contains "%d" or "%0@var{N}d", the first filename of
274 the file list specified by the pattern must contain a number
275 inclusively contained between @var{start_number} and
276 @var{start_number}+@var{start_number_range}-1, and all the following
277 numbers must be sequential.
279 For example the pattern "img-%03d.bmp" will match a sequence of
280 filenames of the form @file{img-001.bmp}, @file{img-002.bmp}, ...,
281 @file{img-010.bmp}, etc.; the pattern "i%%m%%g-%d.jpg" will match a
282 sequence of filenames of the form @file{i%m%g-1.jpg},
283 @file{i%m%g-2.jpg}, ..., @file{i%m%g-10.jpg}, etc.
285 Note that the pattern must not necessarily contain "%d" or
286 "%0@var{N}d", for example to convert a single image file
287 @file{img.jpeg} you can employ the command:
289 ffmpeg -i img.jpeg img.png
293 Select a glob wildcard pattern type.
295 The pattern is interpreted like a @code{glob()} pattern. This is only
296 selectable if libavformat was compiled with globbing support.
298 @item glob_sequence @emph{(deprecated, will be removed)}
299 Select a mixed glob wildcard/sequence pattern.
301 If your version of libavformat was compiled with globbing support, and
302 the provided pattern contains at least one glob meta character among
303 @code{%*?[]@{@}} that is preceded by an unescaped "%", the pattern is
304 interpreted like a @code{glob()} pattern, otherwise it is interpreted
305 like a sequence pattern.
307 All glob special characters @code{%*?[]@{@}} must be prefixed
308 with "%". To escape a literal "%" you shall use "%%".
310 For example the pattern @code{foo-%*.jpeg} will match all the
311 filenames prefixed by "foo-" and terminating with ".jpeg", and
312 @code{foo-%?%?%?.jpeg} will match all the filenames prefixed with
313 "foo-", followed by a sequence of three characters, and terminating
316 This pattern type is deprecated in favor of @var{glob} and
320 Default value is @var{glob_sequence}.
322 Set the pixel format of the images to read. If not specified the pixel
323 format is guessed from the first image file in the sequence.
325 Set the index of the file matched by the image file pattern to start
326 to read from. Default value is 0.
327 @item start_number_range
328 Set the index interval range to check when looking for the first image
329 file in the sequence, starting from @var{start_number}. Default value
332 If set to 1, will set frame timestamp to modification time of image file. Note
333 that monotonity of timestamps is not provided: images go in the same order as
334 without this option. Default value is 0.
335 If set to 2, will set frame timestamp to the modification time of the image file in
336 nanosecond precision.
338 Set the video size of the images to read. If not specified the video
339 size is guessed from the first image file in the sequence.
346 Use @command{ffmpeg} for creating a video from the images in the file
347 sequence @file{img-001.jpeg}, @file{img-002.jpeg}, ..., assuming an
348 input frame rate of 10 frames per second:
350 ffmpeg -framerate 10 -i 'img-%03d.jpeg' out.mkv
354 As above, but start by reading from a file with index 100 in the sequence:
356 ffmpeg -framerate 10 -start_number 100 -i 'img-%03d.jpeg' out.mkv
360 Read images matching the "*.png" glob pattern , that is all the files
361 terminating with the ".png" suffix:
363 ffmpeg -framerate 10 -pattern_type glob -i "*.png" out.mkv
369 MPEG-2 transport stream demuxer.
373 @item fix_teletext_pts
374 Overrides teletext packet PTS and DTS values with the timestamps calculated
375 from the PCR of the first program which the teletext stream is part of and is
376 not discarded. Default value is 1, set this option to 0 if you want your
377 teletext packet PTS and DTS values untouched.
384 This demuxer allows one to read raw video data. Since there is no header
385 specifying the assumed video parameters, the user must specify them
386 in order to be able to decode the data correctly.
388 This demuxer accepts the following options:
392 Set input video frame rate. Default value is 25.
395 Set the input video pixel format. Default value is @code{yuv420p}.
398 Set the input video size. This value must be specified explicitly.
401 For example to read a rawvideo file @file{input.raw} with
402 @command{ffplay}, assuming a pixel format of @code{rgb24}, a video
403 size of @code{320x240}, and a frame rate of 10 images per second, use
406 ffplay -f rawvideo -pixel_format rgb24 -video_size 320x240 -framerate 10 input.raw
411 SBaGen script demuxer.
413 This demuxer reads the script language used by SBaGen
414 @url{http://uazu.net/sbagen/} to generate binaural beats sessions. A SBG
415 script looks like that:
418 a: 300-2.5/3 440+4.5/0
419 b: 300-2.5/0 440+4.5/3
428 A SBG script can mix absolute and relative timestamps. If the script uses
429 either only absolute timestamps (including the script start time) or only
430 relative ones, then its layout is fixed, and the conversion is
431 straightforward. On the other hand, if the script mixes both kind of
432 timestamps, then the @var{NOW} reference for relative timestamps will be
433 taken from the current time of day at the time the script is read, and the
434 script layout will be frozen according to that reference. That means that if
435 the script is directly played, the actual times will match the absolute
436 timestamps up to the sound controller's clock accuracy, but if the user
437 somehow pauses the playback or seeks, all times will be shifted accordingly.
441 JSON captions used for @url{http://www.ted.com/, TED Talks}.
443 TED does not provide links to the captions, but they can be guessed from the
444 page. The file @file{tools/bookmarklets.html} from the FFmpeg source tree
445 contains a bookmarklet to expose them.
447 This demuxer accepts the following option:
450 Set the start time of the TED talk, in milliseconds. The default is 15000
451 (15s). It is used to sync the captions with the downloadable videos, because
452 they include a 15s intro.
455 Example: convert the captions to a format most players understand:
457 ffmpeg -i http://www.ted.com/talks/subtitles/id/1/lang/en talk1-en.srt