Cheatsheet FFmpeg

ffmpeg -i input.avi output.mp4
ffmpeg -i input.mov output.webm
ffmpeg -i input.mkv output.mp4

Simple container conversion.

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 \
  -c:v libx264 -c:a aac output.mp4

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 \
  -c:v libvpx-vp9 -c:a libopus out.webm

Specify video/audio codecs.

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -crf 23 output.mp4
# CRF: 18 (great) to 28 (acceptable)

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -b:v 2M output.mp4
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -b:a 192k output.mp4

Control quality.

ffmpeg -i input.mp4
ffprobe -v quiet -print_format json \
  -show_format -show_streams input.mp4

# See duration, codecs, resolution

Inspect media.

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -ss 00:01:00 \
  -to 00:02:30 -c copy output.mp4

# -ss = start, -to = end
# -c copy = no re-encoding (fast)

Extract a video segment.

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -an output.mp4
# -an = no audio

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vn output.mp3
# -vn = no video (audio only)

Extract individual streams.

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf scale=1280:720 \
  output.mp4

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf scale=-1:720 \
  output.mp4  # keep aspect ratio

Change resolution.

# 2x faster:
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "setpts=0.5*PTS" \
  -af "atempo=2.0" output.mp4

# Slow motion (0.5x):
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "setpts=2*PTS" \
  -af "atempo=0.5" output.mp4

Change speed.

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 \
  -vf "transpose=1" output.mp4
# 0=90°CCW 1=90°CW 2=180°

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 \
  -vf "crop=640:480:100:50" output.mp4

Rotate and crop.

ffmpeg -i input.wav output.mp3
ffmpeg -i input.mp3 -b:a 320k out.mp3
ffmpeg -i input.flac output.aac
ffmpeg -i input.m4a output.ogg

Format conversion.

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -vn -acodec copy \
  audio.aac

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -vn -b:a 192k \
  audio.mp3

Get the audio track.

ffmpeg -i input.mp3 -af "volume=1.5" \
  output.mp3

ffmpeg -i input.mp3 -af "volume=-3dB" \
  output.mp3

Increase/decrease volume.

ffmpeg -i input.mp3 -ss 00:00:30 \
  -to 00:01:00 -c copy output.mp3

ffmpeg -i input.mp3 -t 30 output.mp3
# First 30 seconds

Extract an audio segment.

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -ss 00:00:05 \
  -vframes 1 thumb.jpg

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -vf fps=1/60 \
  thumb_%03d.jpg  # 1 frame/min

Capture frames the images.

ffmpeg -framerate 30 -i img_%03d.png \
  -c:v libx264 -pix_fmt yuv420p \
  output.mp4

# Images: img_001.png, img_002.png...

Sequence → video.

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -vf \
  "fps=10,scale=480:-1:flags=lanczos" \
  output.gif

# With palette (better quality):
ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -vf \
  "fps=10,scale=480:-1,split[s0][s1];
  [s0]palettegen[p];[s1][p]paletteuse" \
  output.gif

Create optimized GIFs.

ffmpeg -i photo.png -vf scale=800:600 \
  photo_small.png

ffmpeg -i photo.jpg -vf "pad=1920:1080:
  (ow-iw)/2:(oh-ih)/2:black" out.jpg

Resize and padding.

# list.txt:
# file 'part1.mp4'
# file 'part2.mp4'

ffmpeg -f concat -safe 0 -i list.txt \
  -c copy output.mp4

Join multiple videos.

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -i music.mp3 \
  -c:v copy -c:a aac -shortest \
  output.mp4

# -shortest = end with the shortest one

Mux video + audio.

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -i logo.png \
  -filter_complex "overlay=10:10" \
  output.mp4

# overlay=W-w-10:H-h-10 (bottom right corner)

Overlay an image.

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:v libx264 \
  -c:a aac -hls_time 10 \
  -hls_list_size 0 -f hls output.m3u8

# Generates .m3u8 + .ts segments

Prepare for HLS streaming.

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf \
  "eq=brightness=0.1:contrast=1.2" out.mp4

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf \
  "hue=s=0" output.mp4  # black and white

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf \
  "drawtext=text='Hello':fontsize=48" out.mp4

Color and text filters.

ffmpeg -i main.mp4 -i pip.mp4 \
  -filter_complex \
  "[1:v]scale=320:-1[pip];
  [0:v][pip]overlay=W-w-10:H-h-10" \
  output.mp4

Video inside a video.

# Bash:
for f in *.avi; do
  ffmpeg -i "$f" "${f%.avi}.mp4"
done

# PowerShell:
Get-ChildItem *.avi | ForEach-Object {
  ffmpeg -i $_.Name ($_.BaseName + ".mp4")
}

Process multiple files.

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -preset fast output.mp4
# Presets: ultrafast, fast, medium, slow

# GPU (NVIDIA):
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:v h264_nvenc out.mp4
# GPU (Intel):
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:v h264_qsv out.mp4

Speed and GPU acceleration.