@sp 3
@end titlepage
+@chapter Synopsis
-@chapter Introduction
+The generic syntax is:
+
+@example
+@c man begin SYNOPSIS
+ffmpeg [[infile options][@option{-i} @var{infile}]]... @{[outfile options] @var{outfile}@}...
+@c man end
+@end example
+
+@chapter Description
+@c man begin DESCRIPTION
FFmpeg is a very fast video and audio converter. It can also grab from
a live audio/video source.
FFmpeg can also convert from any sample rate to any other, and resize
video on the fly with a high quality polyphase filter.
-@chapter Quick Start
-
-@c man begin EXAMPLES
-@section Video and Audio grabbing
-
-FFmpeg can grab video and audio from devices given that you specify the input
-format and device.
-
-@example
-ffmpeg -f oss -i /dev/dsp -f video4linux2 -i /dev/video0 /tmp/out.mpg
-@end example
-
-Note that you must activate the right video source and channel before
-launching FFmpeg with any TV viewer such as xawtv
-(@url{http://linux.bytesex.org/xawtv/}) by Gerd Knorr. You also
-have to set the audio recording levels correctly with a
-standard mixer.
-
-@section X11 grabbing
-
-FFmpeg can grab the X11 display.
-
-@example
-ffmpeg -f x11grab -s cif -i :0.0 /tmp/out.mpg
-@end example
-
-0.0 is display.screen number of your X11 server, same as
-the DISPLAY environment variable.
-
-@example
-ffmpeg -f x11grab -s cif -i :0.0+10,20 /tmp/out.mpg
-@end example
-
-0.0 is display.screen number of your X11 server, same as the DISPLAY environment
-variable. 10 is the x-offset and 20 the y-offset for the grabbing.
-
-@section Video and Audio file format conversion
-
-* FFmpeg can use any supported file format and protocol as input:
-
-Examples:
-
-* You can use YUV files as input:
-
-@example
-ffmpeg -i /tmp/test%d.Y /tmp/out.mpg
-@end example
-
-It will use the files:
-@example
-/tmp/test0.Y, /tmp/test0.U, /tmp/test0.V,
-/tmp/test1.Y, /tmp/test1.U, /tmp/test1.V, etc...
-@end example
-
-The Y files use twice the resolution of the U and V files. They are
-raw files, without header. They can be generated by all decent video
-decoders. You must specify the size of the image with the @option{-s} option
-if FFmpeg cannot guess it.
-
-* You can input from a raw YUV420P file:
-
-@example
-ffmpeg -i /tmp/test.yuv /tmp/out.avi
-@end example
-
-test.yuv is a file containing raw YUV planar data. Each frame is composed
-of the Y plane followed by the U and V planes at half vertical and
-horizontal resolution.
-
-* You can output to a raw YUV420P file:
-
-@example
-ffmpeg -i mydivx.avi hugefile.yuv
-@end example
-
-* You can set several input files and output files:
-
-@example
-ffmpeg -i /tmp/a.wav -s 640x480 -i /tmp/a.yuv /tmp/a.mpg
-@end example
-
-Converts the audio file a.wav and the raw YUV video file a.yuv
-to MPEG file a.mpg.
-
-* You can also do audio and video conversions at the same time:
-
-@example
-ffmpeg -i /tmp/a.wav -ar 22050 /tmp/a.mp2
-@end example
-
-Converts a.wav to MPEG audio at 22050 Hz sample rate.
-
-* You can encode to several formats at the same time and define a
-mapping from input stream to output streams:
-
-@example
-ffmpeg -i /tmp/a.wav -ab 64k /tmp/a.mp2 -ab 128k /tmp/b.mp2 -map 0:0 -map 0:0
-@end example
-
-Converts a.wav to a.mp2 at 64 kbits and to b.mp2 at 128 kbits. '-map
-file:index' specifies which input stream is used for each output
-stream, in the order of the definition of output streams.
-
-* You can transcode decrypted VOBs:
-
-@example
-ffmpeg -i snatch_1.vob -f avi -vcodec mpeg4 -b 800k -g 300 -bf 2 -acodec libmp3lame -ab 128k snatch.avi
-@end example
-
-This is a typical DVD ripping example; the input is a VOB file, the
-output an AVI file with MPEG-4 video and MP3 audio. Note that in this
-command we use B-frames so the MPEG-4 stream is DivX5 compatible, and
-GOP size is 300 which means one intra frame every 10 seconds for 29.97fps
-input video. Furthermore, the audio stream is MP3-encoded so you need
-to enable LAME support by passing @code{--enable-libmp3lame} to configure.
-The mapping is particularly useful for DVD transcoding
-to get the desired audio language.
-
-NOTE: To see the supported input formats, use @code{ffmpeg -formats}.
-
-* You can extract images from a video, or create a video from many images:
-
-For extracting images from a video:
-@example
-ffmpeg -i foo.avi -r 1 -s WxH -f image2 foo-%03d.jpeg
-@end example
-
-This will extract one video frame per second from the video and will
-output them in files named @file{foo-001.jpeg}, @file{foo-002.jpeg},
-etc. Images will be rescaled to fit the new WxH values.
-
-If you want to extract just a limited number of frames, you can use the
-above command in combination with the -vframes or -t option, or in
-combination with -ss to start extracting from a certain point in time.
-
-For creating a video from many images:
-@example
-ffmpeg -f image2 -i foo-%03d.jpeg -r 12 -s WxH foo.avi
-@end example
-
-The syntax @code{foo-%03d.jpeg} specifies to use a decimal number
-composed of three digits padded with zeroes to express the sequence
-number. It is the same syntax supported by the C printf function, but
-only formats accepting a normal integer are suitable.
-
-* You can put many streams of the same type in the output:
-
-@example
-ffmpeg -i test1.avi -i test2.avi -vcodec copy -acodec copy -vcodec copy -acodec copy test12.avi -newvideo -newaudio
-@end example
-
-In addition to the first video and audio streams, the resulting
-output file @file{test12.avi} will contain the second video
-and the second audio stream found in the input streams list.
-
-The @code{-newvideo}, @code{-newaudio} and @code{-newsubtitle}
-options have to be specified immediately after the name of the output
-file to which you want to add them.
-@c man end
-
-@chapter Invocation
-
-@section Syntax
-
-The generic syntax is:
-
-@example
-@c man begin SYNOPSIS
-ffmpeg [[infile options][@option{-i} @var{infile}]]... @{[outfile options] @var{outfile}@}...
-@c man end
-@end example
-@c man begin DESCRIPTION
As a general rule, options are applied to the next specified
file. Therefore, order is important, and you can have the same
option on the command line multiple times. Each occurrence is
By default, FFmpeg tries to convert as losslessly as possible: It
uses the same audio and video parameters for the outputs as the one
specified for the inputs.
-@c man end
-@c man begin OPTIONS
-@section Main options
-
-@table @option
-@item -L
-Show license.
-
-@item -h
-Show help.
-
-@item -version
-Show version.
-
-@item -formats
-Show available formats.
+@c man end DESCRIPTION
-The fields preceding the format names have the following meanings:
-@table @samp
-@item D
-Decoding available
-@item E
-Encoding available
-@end table
-
-@item -codecs
-Show available codecs.
+@chapter Options
+@c man begin OPTIONS
-The fields preceding the codec names have the following meanings:
-@table @samp
-@item D
-Decoding available
-@item E
-Encoding available
-@item V/A/S
-Video/audio/subtitle codec
-@item S
-Codec supports slices
-@item D
-Codec supports direct rendering
-@item T
-Codec can handle input truncated at random locations instead of only at frame boundaries
-@end table
+@include fftools-common-opts.texi
-@item -bsfs
-Show available bitstream filters.
+@section Main options
-@item -protocols
-Show available protocols.
+@table @option
@item -f @var{fmt}
Force format.
@item -v @var{number}
Set the logging verbosity level.
-@item -loglevel @var{loglevel}
-Set the logging level used by the library.
-@var{loglevel} is a number or a string containing one of the following values:
-@table @samp
-@item quiet
-@item panic
-@item fatal
-@item error
-@item warning
-@item info
-@item verbose
-@item debug
-@end table
-
@item -target @var{type}
Specify target file type ("vcd", "svcd", "dvd", "dv", "dv50", "pal-vcd",
"ntsc-svcd", ... ). All the format options (bitrate, codecs,
@item -newvideo
Add a new video stream to the current output stream.
+@item -vlang @var{code}
+Set the ISO 639 language code (3 letters) of the current video stream.
+
@end table
@section Advanced Video Options
Set pixel format. Use 'list' as parameter to show all the supported
pixel formats.
@item -sws_flags @var{flags}
-Set SwScaler flags (only available when compiled with swscale support).
+Set SwScaler flags.
@item -g @var{gop_size}
Set the group of pictures size.
@item -intra
Set the audio sampling frequency (default = 44100 Hz).
@item -ab @var{bitrate}
Set the audio bitrate in bit/s (default = 64k).
+@item -aq @var{q}
+Set the audio quality (codec-specific, VBR).
@item -ac @var{channels}
Set the number of audio channels (default = 1).
@item -an
@item -debug
Print specific debug info.
@item -benchmark
-Add timings for benchmarking.
+Show benchmarking information at the end of an encode.
+Shows CPU time used and maximum memory consumption.
+Maximum memory consumption is not supported on all systems,
+it will usually display as 0 if not supported.
@item -dump
Dump each input packet.
@item -hex
@item -threads @var{count}
Thread count.
@item -vsync @var{parameter}
-Video sync method. Video will be stretched/squeezed to match the timestamps,
-it is done by duplicating and dropping frames. With -map you can select from
+Video sync method.
+0 Each frame is passed with its timestamp from the demuxer to the muxer
+1 Frames will be duplicated and dropped to achieve exactly the requested
+ constant framerate.
+2 Frames are passed through with their timestamp or dropped so as to prevent
+ 2 frames from having the same timestamp
+-1 Chooses between 1 and 2 depending on muxer capabilities. This is the default method.
+
+With -map you can select from
which stream the timestamps should be taken. You can leave either video or
audio unchanged and sync the remaining stream(s) to the unchanged one.
@item -async @var{samples_per_second}
following rules:
First ffmpeg searches for a file named @var{arg}.ffpreset in the
-directories @file{$HOME/.ffmpeg}, and in the datadir defined at
-configuration time (usually @file{PREFIX/share/ffmpeg}) in that
-order. For example, if the argument is @code{libx264-max}, it will
+directories @file{$FFMPEG_DATADIR} (if set), and @file{$HOME/.ffmpeg}, and in
+the datadir defined at configuration time (usually @file{PREFIX/share/ffmpeg})
+in that order. For example, if the argument is @code{libx264-max}, it will
search for the file @file{libx264-max.ffpreset}.
If no such file is found, then ffmpeg will search for a file named
@c man end
-@ignore
-
-@setfilename ffmpeg
-@settitle FFmpeg video converter
-
-@c man begin SEEALSO
-ffserver(1), ffplay(1) and the HTML documentation of @file{ffmpeg}.
-@c man end
-
-@c man begin AUTHOR
-Fabrice Bellard
-@c man end
-
-@end ignore
-
@section Protocols
The file name can be @file{-} to read from standard input or to write
video player it will also be used for streaming :-)
@chapter Tips
+@c man begin TIPS
@itemize
-@item For streaming at very low bitrate application, use a low frame rate
+@item
+For streaming at very low bitrate application, use a low frame rate
and a small GOP size. This is especially true for RealVideo where
the Linux player does not seem to be very fast, so it can miss
frames. An example is:
ffmpeg -g 3 -r 3 -t 10 -b 50k -s qcif -f rv10 /tmp/b.rm
@end example
-@item The parameter 'q' which is displayed while encoding is the current
+@item
+The parameter 'q' which is displayed while encoding is the current
quantizer. The value 1 indicates that a very good quality could
be achieved. The value 31 indicates the worst quality. If q=31 appears
too often, it means that the encoder cannot compress enough to meet
your bitrate. You must either increase the bitrate, decrease the
frame rate or decrease the frame size.
-@item If your computer is not fast enough, you can speed up the
+@item
+If your computer is not fast enough, you can speed up the
compression at the expense of the compression ratio. You can use
'-me zero' to speed up motion estimation, and '-intra' to disable
motion estimation completely (you have only I-frames, which means it
is about as good as JPEG compression).
-@item To have very low audio bitrates, reduce the sampling frequency
+@item
+To have very low audio bitrates, reduce the sampling frequency
(down to 22050 Hz for MPEG audio, 22050 or 11025 for AC-3).
-@item To have a constant quality (but a variable bitrate), use the option
+@item
+To have a constant quality (but a variable bitrate), use the option
'-qscale n' when 'n' is between 1 (excellent quality) and 31 (worst
quality).
-@item When converting video files, you can use the '-sameq' option which
+@item
+When converting video files, you can use the '-sameq' option which
uses the same quality factor in the encoder as in the decoder.
It allows almost lossless encoding.
@end itemize
+@c man end TIPS
+
+@chapter Examples
+@c man begin EXAMPLES
+
+@section Video and Audio grabbing
+
+FFmpeg can grab video and audio from devices given that you specify the input
+format and device.
+
+@example
+ffmpeg -f oss -i /dev/dsp -f video4linux2 -i /dev/video0 /tmp/out.mpg
+@end example
+
+Note that you must activate the right video source and channel before
+launching FFmpeg with any TV viewer such as xawtv
+(@url{http://linux.bytesex.org/xawtv/}) by Gerd Knorr. You also
+have to set the audio recording levels correctly with a
+standard mixer.
+
+@section X11 grabbing
+
+FFmpeg can grab the X11 display.
+
+@example
+ffmpeg -f x11grab -s cif -i :0.0 /tmp/out.mpg
+@end example
+
+0.0 is display.screen number of your X11 server, same as
+the DISPLAY environment variable.
+
+@example
+ffmpeg -f x11grab -s cif -i :0.0+10,20 /tmp/out.mpg
+@end example
+
+0.0 is display.screen number of your X11 server, same as the DISPLAY environment
+variable. 10 is the x-offset and 20 the y-offset for the grabbing.
+
+@section Video and Audio file format conversion
+
+* FFmpeg can use any supported file format and protocol as input:
+
+Examples:
+
+* You can use YUV files as input:
+
+@example
+ffmpeg -i /tmp/test%d.Y /tmp/out.mpg
+@end example
+
+It will use the files:
+@example
+/tmp/test0.Y, /tmp/test0.U, /tmp/test0.V,
+/tmp/test1.Y, /tmp/test1.U, /tmp/test1.V, etc...
+@end example
+
+The Y files use twice the resolution of the U and V files. They are
+raw files, without header. They can be generated by all decent video
+decoders. You must specify the size of the image with the @option{-s} option
+if FFmpeg cannot guess it.
+
+* You can input from a raw YUV420P file:
+
+@example
+ffmpeg -i /tmp/test.yuv /tmp/out.avi
+@end example
+
+test.yuv is a file containing raw YUV planar data. Each frame is composed
+of the Y plane followed by the U and V planes at half vertical and
+horizontal resolution.
+
+* You can output to a raw YUV420P file:
+
+@example
+ffmpeg -i mydivx.avi hugefile.yuv
+@end example
+
+* You can set several input files and output files:
+
+@example
+ffmpeg -i /tmp/a.wav -s 640x480 -i /tmp/a.yuv /tmp/a.mpg
+@end example
+
+Converts the audio file a.wav and the raw YUV video file a.yuv
+to MPEG file a.mpg.
+
+* You can also do audio and video conversions at the same time:
+
+@example
+ffmpeg -i /tmp/a.wav -ar 22050 /tmp/a.mp2
+@end example
+
+Converts a.wav to MPEG audio at 22050 Hz sample rate.
+
+* You can encode to several formats at the same time and define a
+mapping from input stream to output streams:
+
+@example
+ffmpeg -i /tmp/a.wav -ab 64k /tmp/a.mp2 -ab 128k /tmp/b.mp2 -map 0:0 -map 0:0
+@end example
+
+Converts a.wav to a.mp2 at 64 kbits and to b.mp2 at 128 kbits. '-map
+file:index' specifies which input stream is used for each output
+stream, in the order of the definition of output streams.
+
+* You can transcode decrypted VOBs:
+
+@example
+ffmpeg -i snatch_1.vob -f avi -vcodec mpeg4 -b 800k -g 300 -bf 2 -acodec libmp3lame -ab 128k snatch.avi
+@end example
+
+This is a typical DVD ripping example; the input is a VOB file, the
+output an AVI file with MPEG-4 video and MP3 audio. Note that in this
+command we use B-frames so the MPEG-4 stream is DivX5 compatible, and
+GOP size is 300 which means one intra frame every 10 seconds for 29.97fps
+input video. Furthermore, the audio stream is MP3-encoded so you need
+to enable LAME support by passing @code{--enable-libmp3lame} to configure.
+The mapping is particularly useful for DVD transcoding
+to get the desired audio language.
+
+NOTE: To see the supported input formats, use @code{ffmpeg -formats}.
+
+* You can extract images from a video, or create a video from many images:
+
+For extracting images from a video:
+@example
+ffmpeg -i foo.avi -r 1 -s WxH -f image2 foo-%03d.jpeg
+@end example
+
+This will extract one video frame per second from the video and will
+output them in files named @file{foo-001.jpeg}, @file{foo-002.jpeg},
+etc. Images will be rescaled to fit the new WxH values.
+
+If you want to extract just a limited number of frames, you can use the
+above command in combination with the -vframes or -t option, or in
+combination with -ss to start extracting from a certain point in time.
+
+For creating a video from many images:
+@example
+ffmpeg -f image2 -i foo-%03d.jpeg -r 12 -s WxH foo.avi
+@end example
+
+The syntax @code{foo-%03d.jpeg} specifies to use a decimal number
+composed of three digits padded with zeroes to express the sequence
+number. It is the same syntax supported by the C printf function, but
+only formats accepting a normal integer are suitable.
+
+* You can put many streams of the same type in the output:
+
+@example
+ffmpeg -i test1.avi -i test2.avi -vcodec copy -acodec copy -vcodec copy -acodec copy test12.avi -newvideo -newaudio
+@end example
+
+In addition to the first video and audio streams, the resulting
+output file @file{test12.avi} will contain the second video
+and the second audio stream found in the input streams list.
+
+The @code{-newvideo}, @code{-newaudio} and @code{-newsubtitle}
+options have to be specified immediately after the name of the output
+file to which you want to add them.
+@c man end EXAMPLES
+
+@ignore
+
+@setfilename ffmpeg
+@settitle FFmpeg video converter
+
+@c man begin SEEALSO
+ffplay(1), ffprobe(1), ffserver(1) and the FFmpeg HTML documentation
+@c man end
+
+@c man begin AUTHORS
+The FFmpeg developers
+@c man end
+
+@end ignore
@bye
projects / ffmpeg / blobdiff