1 \input texinfo @c -*- texinfo -*-
3 @settitle ffprobe Documentation
5 @center @titlefont{ffprobe Documentation}
14 The generic syntax is:
18 ffprobe [options] [@file{input_file}]
23 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
25 ffprobe gathers information from multimedia streams and prints it in
26 human- and machine-readable fashion.
28 For example it can be used to check the format of the container used
29 by a multimedia stream and the format and type of each media stream
32 If a filename is specified in input, ffprobe will try to open and
33 probe the file content. If the file cannot be opened or recognized as
34 a multimedia file, a positive exit code is returned.
36 ffprobe may be employed both as a standalone application or in
37 combination with a textual filter, which may perform more
38 sophisticated processing, e.g. statistical processing or plotting.
40 Options are used to list some of the formats supported by ffprobe or
41 for specifying which information to display, and for setting how
44 ffprobe output is designed to be easily parsable by a textual filter,
45 and consists of one or more sections of a form defined by the selected
46 writer, which is specified by the @option{print_format} option.
48 Metadata tags stored in the container or in the streams are recognized
49 and printed in the corresponding "FORMAT" or "STREAM" section.
56 @include avtools-common-opts.texi
66 Show the unit of the displayed values.
69 Use SI prefixes for the displayed values.
70 Unless the "-byte_binary_prefix" option is used all the prefixes
73 @item -byte_binary_prefix
74 Force the use of binary prefixes for byte values.
77 Use sexagesimal format HH:MM:SS.MICROSECONDS for time values.
80 Prettify the format of the displayed values, it corresponds to the
81 options "-unit -prefix -byte_binary_prefix -sexagesimal".
83 @item -print_format @var{writer_name}[=@var{writer_options}]
84 Set the output printing format.
86 @var{writer_name} specifies the name of the writer, and
87 @var{writer_options} specifies the options to be passed to the writer.
89 For example for printing the output in JSON format, specify:
94 For more details on the available output printing formats, see the
95 Writers section below.
98 Show information about the container format of the input multimedia
101 All the container format information is printed within a section with
105 Show information about each packet contained in the input multimedia
108 The information for each single packet is printed within a dedicated
109 section with name "PACKET".
112 Show information about each media stream contained in the input
115 Each media stream information is printed within a dedicated section
118 @item -i @var{input_file}
119 Read @var{input_file}.
127 A writer defines the output format adopted by @file{ffprobe}, and will be
128 used for printing all the parts of the output.
130 A writer may accept one or more arguments, which specify the options to
133 A description of the currently available writers follows.
138 Print each section in the form:
147 Metadata tags are printed as a line in the corresponding FORMAT or
148 STREAM section, and are prefixed by the string "TAG:".
153 Each section is printed using JSON notation.
155 For more information about JSON, see @url{http://www.json.org/}.
159 @include decoders.texi
160 @include demuxers.texi
161 @include protocols.texi
167 @settitle ffprobe media prober
170 ffmpeg(1), ffplay(1), ffserver(1) and the FFmpeg HTML documentation
174 The FFmpeg developers