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.
156 Currently, the only conversion is adding the h264_mp4toannexb bitstream
157 filter to H.264 streams in MP4 format. This is necessary in particular if
158 there are resolution changes.
164 Adobe Flash Video Format demuxer.
166 This demuxer is used to demux FLV files and RTMP network streams.
169 @item -flv_metadata @var{bool}
170 Allocate the streams according to the onMetaData array content.
175 The Game Music Emu library is a collection of video game music file emulators.
177 See @url{http://code.google.com/p/game-music-emu/} for more information.
179 Some files have multiple tracks. The demuxer will pick the first track by
180 default. The @option{track_index} option can be used to select a different
181 track. Track indexes start at 0. The demuxer exports the number of tracks as
182 @var{tracks} meta data entry.
184 For very large files, the @option{max_size} option may have to be adjusted.
188 Play media from Internet services using the quvi project.
190 The demuxer accepts a @option{format} option to request a specific quality. It
191 is by default set to @var{best}.
193 See @url{http://quvi.sourceforge.net/} for more information.
195 FFmpeg needs to be built with @code{--enable-libquvi} for this demuxer to be
200 Animated GIF demuxer.
202 It accepts the following options:
206 Set the minimum valid delay between frames in hundredths of seconds.
207 Range is 0 to 6000. Default value is 2.
210 Set the maximum valid delay between frames in hundredth of seconds.
211 Range is 0 to 65535. Default value is 65535 (nearly eleven minutes),
212 the maximum value allowed by the specification.
215 Set the default delay between frames in hundredths of seconds.
216 Range is 0 to 6000. Default value is 10.
219 GIF files can contain information to loop a certain number of times (or
220 infinitely). If @option{ignore_loop} is set to 1, then the loop setting
221 from the input will be ignored and looping will not occur. If set to 0,
222 then looping will occur and will cycle the number of times according to
223 the GIF. Default value is 1.
226 For example, with the overlay filter, place an infinitely looping GIF
229 ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -ignore_loop 0 -i input.gif -filter_complex overlay=shortest=1 out.mkv
232 Note that in the above example the shortest option for overlay filter is
233 used to end the output video at the length of the shortest input file,
234 which in this case is @file{input.mp4} as the GIF in this example loops
241 This demuxer reads from a list of image files specified by a pattern.
242 The syntax and meaning of the pattern is specified by the
243 option @var{pattern_type}.
245 The pattern may contain a suffix which is used to automatically
246 determine the format of the images contained in the files.
248 The size, the pixel format, and the format of each image must be the
249 same for all the files in the sequence.
251 This demuxer accepts the following options:
254 Set the frame rate for the video stream. It defaults to 25.
256 If set to 1, loop over the input. Default value is 0.
258 Select the pattern type used to interpret the provided filename.
260 @var{pattern_type} accepts one of the following values.
263 Disable pattern matching, therefore the video will only contain the specified
264 image. You should use this option if you do not want to create sequences from
265 multiple images and your filenames may contain special pattern characters.
267 Select a sequence pattern type, used to specify a sequence of files
268 indexed by sequential numbers.
270 A sequence pattern may contain the string "%d" or "%0@var{N}d", which
271 specifies the position of the characters representing a sequential
272 number in each filename matched by the pattern. If the form
273 "%d0@var{N}d" is used, the string representing the number in each
274 filename is 0-padded and @var{N} is the total number of 0-padded
275 digits representing the number. The literal character '%' can be
276 specified in the pattern with the string "%%".
278 If the sequence pattern contains "%d" or "%0@var{N}d", the first filename of
279 the file list specified by the pattern must contain a number
280 inclusively contained between @var{start_number} and
281 @var{start_number}+@var{start_number_range}-1, and all the following
282 numbers must be sequential.
284 For example the pattern "img-%03d.bmp" will match a sequence of
285 filenames of the form @file{img-001.bmp}, @file{img-002.bmp}, ...,
286 @file{img-010.bmp}, etc.; the pattern "i%%m%%g-%d.jpg" will match a
287 sequence of filenames of the form @file{i%m%g-1.jpg},
288 @file{i%m%g-2.jpg}, ..., @file{i%m%g-10.jpg}, etc.
290 Note that the pattern must not necessarily contain "%d" or
291 "%0@var{N}d", for example to convert a single image file
292 @file{img.jpeg} you can employ the command:
294 ffmpeg -i img.jpeg img.png
298 Select a glob wildcard pattern type.
300 The pattern is interpreted like a @code{glob()} pattern. This is only
301 selectable if libavformat was compiled with globbing support.
303 @item glob_sequence @emph{(deprecated, will be removed)}
304 Select a mixed glob wildcard/sequence pattern.
306 If your version of libavformat was compiled with globbing support, and
307 the provided pattern contains at least one glob meta character among
308 @code{%*?[]@{@}} that is preceded by an unescaped "%", the pattern is
309 interpreted like a @code{glob()} pattern, otherwise it is interpreted
310 like a sequence pattern.
312 All glob special characters @code{%*?[]@{@}} must be prefixed
313 with "%". To escape a literal "%" you shall use "%%".
315 For example the pattern @code{foo-%*.jpeg} will match all the
316 filenames prefixed by "foo-" and terminating with ".jpeg", and
317 @code{foo-%?%?%?.jpeg} will match all the filenames prefixed with
318 "foo-", followed by a sequence of three characters, and terminating
321 This pattern type is deprecated in favor of @var{glob} and
325 Default value is @var{glob_sequence}.
327 Set the pixel format of the images to read. If not specified the pixel
328 format is guessed from the first image file in the sequence.
330 Set the index of the file matched by the image file pattern to start
331 to read from. Default value is 0.
332 @item start_number_range
333 Set the index interval range to check when looking for the first image
334 file in the sequence, starting from @var{start_number}. Default value
337 If set to 1, will set frame timestamp to modification time of image file. Note
338 that monotonity of timestamps is not provided: images go in the same order as
339 without this option. Default value is 0.
340 If set to 2, will set frame timestamp to the modification time of the image file in
341 nanosecond precision.
343 Set the video size of the images to read. If not specified the video
344 size is guessed from the first image file in the sequence.
351 Use @command{ffmpeg} for creating a video from the images in the file
352 sequence @file{img-001.jpeg}, @file{img-002.jpeg}, ..., assuming an
353 input frame rate of 10 frames per second:
355 ffmpeg -framerate 10 -i 'img-%03d.jpeg' out.mkv
359 As above, but start by reading from a file with index 100 in the sequence:
361 ffmpeg -framerate 10 -start_number 100 -i 'img-%03d.jpeg' out.mkv
365 Read images matching the "*.png" glob pattern , that is all the files
366 terminating with the ".png" suffix:
368 ffmpeg -framerate 10 -pattern_type glob -i "*.png" out.mkv
374 MPEG-2 transport stream demuxer.
378 @item fix_teletext_pts
379 Overrides teletext packet PTS and DTS values with the timestamps calculated
380 from the PCR of the first program which the teletext stream is part of and is
381 not discarded. Default value is 1, set this option to 0 if you want your
382 teletext packet PTS and DTS values untouched.
389 This demuxer allows one to read raw video data. Since there is no header
390 specifying the assumed video parameters, the user must specify them
391 in order to be able to decode the data correctly.
393 This demuxer accepts the following options:
397 Set input video frame rate. Default value is 25.
400 Set the input video pixel format. Default value is @code{yuv420p}.
403 Set the input video size. This value must be specified explicitly.
406 For example to read a rawvideo file @file{input.raw} with
407 @command{ffplay}, assuming a pixel format of @code{rgb24}, a video
408 size of @code{320x240}, and a frame rate of 10 images per second, use
411 ffplay -f rawvideo -pixel_format rgb24 -video_size 320x240 -framerate 10 input.raw
416 SBaGen script demuxer.
418 This demuxer reads the script language used by SBaGen
419 @url{http://uazu.net/sbagen/} to generate binaural beats sessions. A SBG
420 script looks like that:
423 a: 300-2.5/3 440+4.5/0
424 b: 300-2.5/0 440+4.5/3
433 A SBG script can mix absolute and relative timestamps. If the script uses
434 either only absolute timestamps (including the script start time) or only
435 relative ones, then its layout is fixed, and the conversion is
436 straightforward. On the other hand, if the script mixes both kind of
437 timestamps, then the @var{NOW} reference for relative timestamps will be
438 taken from the current time of day at the time the script is read, and the
439 script layout will be frozen according to that reference. That means that if
440 the script is directly played, the actual times will match the absolute
441 timestamps up to the sound controller's clock accuracy, but if the user
442 somehow pauses the playback or seeks, all times will be shifted accordingly.
446 JSON captions used for @url{http://www.ted.com/, TED Talks}.
448 TED does not provide links to the captions, but they can be guessed from the
449 page. The file @file{tools/bookmarklets.html} from the FFmpeg source tree
450 contains a bookmarklet to expose them.
452 This demuxer accepts the following option:
455 Set the start time of the TED talk, in milliseconds. The default is 15000
456 (15s). It is used to sync the captions with the downloadable videos, because
457 they include a 15s intro.
460 Example: convert the captions to a format most players understand:
462 ffmpeg -i http://www.ted.com/talks/subtitles/id/1/lang/en talk1-en.srt