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 Audible Format 2, 3, and 4 demuxer.
25 This demuxer is used to demux Audible Format 2, 3, and 4 (.aa) files.
29 Apple HTTP Live Streaming demuxer.
31 This demuxer presents all AVStreams from all variant streams.
32 The id field is set to the bitrate variant index number. By setting
33 the discard flags on AVStreams (by pressing 'a' or 'v' in ffplay),
34 the caller can decide which variant streams to actually receive.
35 The total bitrate of the variant that the stream belongs to is
36 available in a metadata key named "variant_bitrate".
40 Animated Portable Network Graphics demuxer.
42 This demuxer is used to demux APNG files.
43 All headers, but the PNG signature, up to (but not including) the first
44 fcTL chunk are transmitted as extradata.
45 Frames are then split as being all the chunks between two fcTL ones, or
46 between the last fcTL and IEND chunks.
49 @item -ignore_loop @var{bool}
50 Ignore the loop variable in the file if set.
51 @item -max_fps @var{int}
52 Maximum framerate in frames per second (0 for no limit).
53 @item -default_fps @var{int}
54 Default framerate in frames per second when none is specified in the file
55 (0 meaning as fast as possible).
60 Advanced Systems Format demuxer.
62 This demuxer is used to demux ASF files and MMS network streams.
65 @item -no_resync_search @var{bool}
66 Do not try to resynchronize by looking for a certain optional start code.
72 Virtual concatenation script demuxer.
74 This demuxer reads a list of files and other directives from a text file and
75 demuxes them one after the other, as if all their packet had been muxed
78 The timestamps in the files are adjusted so that the first file starts at 0
79 and each next file starts where the previous one finishes. Note that it is
80 done globally and may cause gaps if all streams do not have exactly the same
83 All files must have the same streams (same codecs, same time base, etc.).
85 The duration of each file is used to adjust the timestamps of the next file:
86 if the duration is incorrect (because it was computed using the bit-rate or
87 because the file is truncated, for example), it can cause artifacts. The
88 @code{duration} directive can be used to override the duration stored in
93 The script is a text file in extended-ASCII, with one directive per line.
94 Empty lines, leading spaces and lines starting with '#' are ignored. The
95 following directive is recognized:
99 @item @code{file @var{path}}
100 Path to a file to read; special characters and spaces must be escaped with
101 backslash or single quotes.
103 All subsequent file-related directives apply to that file.
105 @item @code{ffconcat version 1.0}
106 Identify the script type and version. It also sets the @option{safe} option
107 to 1 if it was to its default -1.
109 To make FFmpeg recognize the format automatically, this directive must
110 appears exactly as is (no extra space or byte-order-mark) on the very first
113 @item @code{duration @var{dur}}
114 Duration of the file. This information can be specified from the file;
115 specifying it here may be more efficient or help if the information from the
116 file is not available or accurate.
118 If the duration is set for all files, then it is possible to seek in the
119 whole concatenated video.
121 @item @code{inpoint @var{timestamp}}
122 In point of the file. When the demuxer opens the file it instantly seeks to the
123 specified timestamp. Seeking is done so that all streams can be presented
124 successfully at In point.
126 This directive works best with intra frame codecs, because for non-intra frame
127 ones you will usually get extra packets before the actual In point and the
128 decoded content will most likely contain frames before In point too.
130 For each file, packets before the file In point will have timestamps less than
131 the calculated start timestamp of the file (negative in case of the first
132 file), and the duration of the files (if not specified by the @code{duration}
133 directive) will be reduced based on their specified In point.
135 Because of potential packets before the specified In point, packet timestamps
136 may overlap between two concatenated files.
138 @item @code{outpoint @var{timestamp}}
139 Out point of the file. When the demuxer reaches the specified decoding
140 timestamp in any of the streams, it handles it as an end of file condition and
141 skips the current and all the remaining packets from all streams.
143 Out point is exclusive, which means that the demuxer will not output packets
144 with a decoding timestamp greater or equal to Out point.
146 This directive works best with intra frame codecs and formats where all streams
147 are tightly interleaved. For non-intra frame codecs you will usually get
148 additional packets with presentation timestamp after Out point therefore the
149 decoded content will most likely contain frames after Out point too. If your
150 streams are not tightly interleaved you may not get all the packets from all
151 streams before Out point and you may only will be able to decode the earliest
152 stream until Out point.
154 The duration of the files (if not specified by the @code{duration}
155 directive) will be reduced based on their specified Out point.
157 @item @code{file_packet_metadata @var{key=value}}
158 Metadata of the packets of the file. The specified metadata will be set for
159 each file packet. You can specify this directive multiple times to add multiple
163 Introduce a stream in the virtual file.
164 All subsequent stream-related directives apply to the last introduced
166 Some streams properties must be set in order to allow identifying the
167 matching streams in the subfiles.
168 If no streams are defined in the script, the streams from the first file are
171 @item @code{exact_stream_id @var{id}}
172 Set the id of the stream.
173 If this directive is given, the string with the corresponding id in the
174 subfiles will be used.
175 This is especially useful for MPEG-PS (VOB) files, where the order of the
176 streams is not reliable.
182 This demuxer accepts the following option:
187 If set to 1, reject unsafe file paths. A file path is considered safe if it
188 does not contain a protocol specification and is relative and all components
189 only contain characters from the portable character set (letters, digits,
190 period, underscore and hyphen) and have no period at the beginning of a
193 If set to 0, any file name is accepted.
195 The default is -1, it is equivalent to 1 if the format was automatically
196 probed and 0 otherwise.
199 If set to 1, try to perform automatic conversions on packet data to make the
200 streams concatenable.
203 Currently, the only conversion is adding the h264_mp4toannexb bitstream
204 filter to H.264 streams in MP4 format. This is necessary in particular if
205 there are resolution changes.
211 Adobe Flash Video Format demuxer.
213 This demuxer is used to demux FLV files and RTMP network streams.
216 @item -flv_metadata @var{bool}
217 Allocate the streams according to the onMetaData array content.
222 The Game Music Emu library is a collection of video game music file emulators.
224 See @url{http://code.google.com/p/game-music-emu/} for more information.
226 Some files have multiple tracks. The demuxer will pick the first track by
227 default. The @option{track_index} option can be used to select a different
228 track. Track indexes start at 0. The demuxer exports the number of tracks as
229 @var{tracks} meta data entry.
231 For very large files, the @option{max_size} option may have to be adjusted.
235 Play media from Internet services using the quvi project.
237 The demuxer accepts a @option{format} option to request a specific quality. It
238 is by default set to @var{best}.
240 See @url{http://quvi.sourceforge.net/} for more information.
242 FFmpeg needs to be built with @code{--enable-libquvi} for this demuxer to be
247 Animated GIF demuxer.
249 It accepts the following options:
253 Set the minimum valid delay between frames in hundredths of seconds.
254 Range is 0 to 6000. Default value is 2.
257 Set the maximum valid delay between frames in hundredth of seconds.
258 Range is 0 to 65535. Default value is 65535 (nearly eleven minutes),
259 the maximum value allowed by the specification.
262 Set the default delay between frames in hundredths of seconds.
263 Range is 0 to 6000. Default value is 10.
266 GIF files can contain information to loop a certain number of times (or
267 infinitely). If @option{ignore_loop} is set to 1, then the loop setting
268 from the input will be ignored and looping will not occur. If set to 0,
269 then looping will occur and will cycle the number of times according to
270 the GIF. Default value is 1.
273 For example, with the overlay filter, place an infinitely looping GIF
276 ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -ignore_loop 0 -i input.gif -filter_complex overlay=shortest=1 out.mkv
279 Note that in the above example the shortest option for overlay filter is
280 used to end the output video at the length of the shortest input file,
281 which in this case is @file{input.mp4} as the GIF in this example loops
288 This demuxer reads from a list of image files specified by a pattern.
289 The syntax and meaning of the pattern is specified by the
290 option @var{pattern_type}.
292 The pattern may contain a suffix which is used to automatically
293 determine the format of the images contained in the files.
295 The size, the pixel format, and the format of each image must be the
296 same for all the files in the sequence.
298 This demuxer accepts the following options:
301 Set the frame rate for the video stream. It defaults to 25.
303 If set to 1, loop over the input. Default value is 0.
305 Select the pattern type used to interpret the provided filename.
307 @var{pattern_type} accepts one of the following values.
310 Disable pattern matching, therefore the video will only contain the specified
311 image. You should use this option if you do not want to create sequences from
312 multiple images and your filenames may contain special pattern characters.
314 Select a sequence pattern type, used to specify a sequence of files
315 indexed by sequential numbers.
317 A sequence pattern may contain the string "%d" or "%0@var{N}d", which
318 specifies the position of the characters representing a sequential
319 number in each filename matched by the pattern. If the form
320 "%d0@var{N}d" is used, the string representing the number in each
321 filename is 0-padded and @var{N} is the total number of 0-padded
322 digits representing the number. The literal character '%' can be
323 specified in the pattern with the string "%%".
325 If the sequence pattern contains "%d" or "%0@var{N}d", the first filename of
326 the file list specified by the pattern must contain a number
327 inclusively contained between @var{start_number} and
328 @var{start_number}+@var{start_number_range}-1, and all the following
329 numbers must be sequential.
331 For example the pattern "img-%03d.bmp" will match a sequence of
332 filenames of the form @file{img-001.bmp}, @file{img-002.bmp}, ...,
333 @file{img-010.bmp}, etc.; the pattern "i%%m%%g-%d.jpg" will match a
334 sequence of filenames of the form @file{i%m%g-1.jpg},
335 @file{i%m%g-2.jpg}, ..., @file{i%m%g-10.jpg}, etc.
337 Note that the pattern must not necessarily contain "%d" or
338 "%0@var{N}d", for example to convert a single image file
339 @file{img.jpeg} you can employ the command:
341 ffmpeg -i img.jpeg img.png
345 Select a glob wildcard pattern type.
347 The pattern is interpreted like a @code{glob()} pattern. This is only
348 selectable if libavformat was compiled with globbing support.
350 @item glob_sequence @emph{(deprecated, will be removed)}
351 Select a mixed glob wildcard/sequence pattern.
353 If your version of libavformat was compiled with globbing support, and
354 the provided pattern contains at least one glob meta character among
355 @code{%*?[]@{@}} that is preceded by an unescaped "%", the pattern is
356 interpreted like a @code{glob()} pattern, otherwise it is interpreted
357 like a sequence pattern.
359 All glob special characters @code{%*?[]@{@}} must be prefixed
360 with "%". To escape a literal "%" you shall use "%%".
362 For example the pattern @code{foo-%*.jpeg} will match all the
363 filenames prefixed by "foo-" and terminating with ".jpeg", and
364 @code{foo-%?%?%?.jpeg} will match all the filenames prefixed with
365 "foo-", followed by a sequence of three characters, and terminating
368 This pattern type is deprecated in favor of @var{glob} and
372 Default value is @var{glob_sequence}.
374 Set the pixel format of the images to read. If not specified the pixel
375 format is guessed from the first image file in the sequence.
377 Set the index of the file matched by the image file pattern to start
378 to read from. Default value is 0.
379 @item start_number_range
380 Set the index interval range to check when looking for the first image
381 file in the sequence, starting from @var{start_number}. Default value
384 If set to 1, will set frame timestamp to modification time of image file. Note
385 that monotonity of timestamps is not provided: images go in the same order as
386 without this option. Default value is 0.
387 If set to 2, will set frame timestamp to the modification time of the image file in
388 nanosecond precision.
390 Set the video size of the images to read. If not specified the video
391 size is guessed from the first image file in the sequence.
398 Use @command{ffmpeg} for creating a video from the images in the file
399 sequence @file{img-001.jpeg}, @file{img-002.jpeg}, ..., assuming an
400 input frame rate of 10 frames per second:
402 ffmpeg -framerate 10 -i 'img-%03d.jpeg' out.mkv
406 As above, but start by reading from a file with index 100 in the sequence:
408 ffmpeg -framerate 10 -start_number 100 -i 'img-%03d.jpeg' out.mkv
412 Read images matching the "*.png" glob pattern , that is all the files
413 terminating with the ".png" suffix:
415 ffmpeg -framerate 10 -pattern_type glob -i "*.png" out.mkv
421 MPEG-2 transport stream demuxer.
423 This demuxer accepts the following options:
426 Set size limit for looking up a new synchronization. Default value is
429 @item fix_teletext_pts
430 Override teletext packet PTS and DTS values with the timestamps calculated
431 from the PCR of the first program which the teletext stream is part of and is
432 not discarded. Default value is 1, set this option to 0 if you want your
433 teletext packet PTS and DTS values untouched.
436 Output option carrying the raw packet size in bytes.
437 Show the detected raw packet size, cannot be set by the user.
440 Scan and combine all PMTs. The value is an integer with value from -1
441 to 1 (-1 means automatic setting, 1 means enabled, 0 means
442 disabled). Default value is -1.
449 This demuxer allows one to read raw video data. Since there is no header
450 specifying the assumed video parameters, the user must specify them
451 in order to be able to decode the data correctly.
453 This demuxer accepts the following options:
457 Set input video frame rate. Default value is 25.
460 Set the input video pixel format. Default value is @code{yuv420p}.
463 Set the input video size. This value must be specified explicitly.
466 For example to read a rawvideo file @file{input.raw} with
467 @command{ffplay}, assuming a pixel format of @code{rgb24}, a video
468 size of @code{320x240}, and a frame rate of 10 images per second, use
471 ffplay -f rawvideo -pixel_format rgb24 -video_size 320x240 -framerate 10 input.raw
476 SBaGen script demuxer.
478 This demuxer reads the script language used by SBaGen
479 @url{http://uazu.net/sbagen/} to generate binaural beats sessions. A SBG
480 script looks like that:
483 a: 300-2.5/3 440+4.5/0
484 b: 300-2.5/0 440+4.5/3
493 A SBG script can mix absolute and relative timestamps. If the script uses
494 either only absolute timestamps (including the script start time) or only
495 relative ones, then its layout is fixed, and the conversion is
496 straightforward. On the other hand, if the script mixes both kind of
497 timestamps, then the @var{NOW} reference for relative timestamps will be
498 taken from the current time of day at the time the script is read, and the
499 script layout will be frozen according to that reference. That means that if
500 the script is directly played, the actual times will match the absolute
501 timestamps up to the sound controller's clock accuracy, but if the user
502 somehow pauses the playback or seeks, all times will be shifted accordingly.
506 JSON captions used for @url{http://www.ted.com/, TED Talks}.
508 TED does not provide links to the captions, but they can be guessed from the
509 page. The file @file{tools/bookmarklets.html} from the FFmpeg source tree
510 contains a bookmarklet to expose them.
512 This demuxer accepts the following option:
515 Set the start time of the TED talk, in milliseconds. The default is 15000
516 (15s). It is used to sync the captions with the downloadable videos, because
517 they include a 15s intro.
520 Example: convert the captions to a format most players understand:
522 ffmpeg -i http://www.ted.com/talks/subtitles/id/1/lang/en talk1-en.srt