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      <h1>
      ffmpeg Documentation
      </h1>


<a name="SEC_Top"></a>

<div class="region-contents" id="SEC_Contents">
<h2 class="contents-heading">Table of Contents</h2>

<div class="contents">

<ul class="toc-numbered-mark">
  <li><a id="toc-Synopsis" href="#Synopsis">1 Synopsis</a></li>
  <li><a id="toc-Description" href="#Description">2 Description</a></li>
  <li><a id="toc-Detailed-description" href="#Detailed-description">3 Detailed description</a>
  <ul class="toc-numbered-mark">
    <li><a id="toc-Streamcopy" href="#Streamcopy">3.1 Streamcopy</a></li>
    <li><a id="toc-Transcoding" href="#Transcoding">3.2 Transcoding</a></li>
    <li><a id="toc-Filtering" href="#Filtering">3.3 Filtering</a>
    <ul class="toc-numbered-mark">
      <li><a id="toc-Simple-filtergraphs" href="#Simple-filtergraphs">3.3.1 Simple filtergraphs</a></li>
      <li><a id="toc-Complex-filtergraphs" href="#Complex-filtergraphs">3.3.2 Complex filtergraphs</a></li>
    </ul></li>
    <li><a id="toc-Loopback-decoders" href="#Loopback-decoders-1">3.4 Loopback decoders</a></li>
  </ul></li>
  <li><a id="toc-Stream-selection" href="#Stream-selection-1">4 Stream selection</a>
  <ul class="toc-numbered-mark">
    <li><a id="toc-Description-1" href="#Description-1">4.1 Description</a>
    <ul class="toc-numbered-mark">
      <li><a id="toc-Automatic-stream-selection" href="#Automatic-stream-selection">4.1.1 Automatic stream selection</a></li>
      <li><a id="toc-Manual-stream-selection" href="#Manual-stream-selection">4.1.2 Manual stream selection</a></li>
      <li><a id="toc-Complex-filtergraphs-1" href="#Complex-filtergraphs-1">4.1.3 Complex filtergraphs</a></li>
      <li><a id="toc-Stream-handling" href="#Stream-handling">4.1.4 Stream handling</a></li>
    </ul></li>
    <li><a id="toc-Examples" href="#Examples">4.2 Examples</a></li>
  </ul></li>
  <li><a id="toc-Options" href="#Options">5 Options</a>
  <ul class="toc-numbered-mark">
    <li><a id="toc-Stream-specifiers" href="#Stream-specifiers-1">5.1 Stream specifiers</a></li>
    <li><a id="toc-Generic-options" href="#Generic-options">5.2 Generic options</a></li>
    <li><a id="toc-AVOptions" href="#AVOptions">5.3 AVOptions</a></li>
    <li><a id="toc-Main-options" href="#Main-options">5.4 Main options</a></li>
    <li><a id="toc-Video-Options" href="#Video-Options">5.5 Video Options</a></li>
    <li><a id="toc-Advanced-Video-options" href="#Advanced-Video-options">5.6 Advanced Video options</a></li>
    <li><a id="toc-Audio-Options" href="#Audio-Options">5.7 Audio Options</a></li>
    <li><a id="toc-Advanced-Audio-options" href="#Advanced-Audio-options">5.8 Advanced Audio options</a></li>
    <li><a id="toc-Subtitle-options" href="#Subtitle-options">5.9 Subtitle options</a></li>
    <li><a id="toc-Advanced-Subtitle-options" href="#Advanced-Subtitle-options">5.10 Advanced Subtitle options</a></li>
    <li><a id="toc-Advanced-options" href="#Advanced-options">5.11 Advanced options</a></li>
    <li><a id="toc-Preset-files" href="#Preset-files">5.12 Preset files</a>
    <ul class="toc-numbered-mark">
      <li><a id="toc-ffpreset-files" href="#ffpreset-files">5.12.1 ffpreset files</a></li>
      <li><a id="toc-avpreset-files" href="#avpreset-files">5.12.2 avpreset files</a></li>
    </ul></li>
    <li><a id="toc-vstats-file-format" href="#vstats-file-format">5.13 vstats file format</a></li>
  </ul></li>
  <li><a id="toc-Examples-1" href="#Examples-1">6 Examples</a>
  <ul class="toc-numbered-mark">
    <li><a id="toc-Video-and-Audio-grabbing" href="#Video-and-Audio-grabbing">6.1 Video and Audio grabbing</a></li>
    <li><a id="toc-X11-grabbing" href="#X11-grabbing">6.2 X11 grabbing</a></li>
    <li><a id="toc-Video-and-Audio-file-format-conversion" href="#Video-and-Audio-file-format-conversion">6.3 Video and Audio file format conversion</a></li>
  </ul></li>
  <li><a id="toc-See-Also" href="#See-Also">7 See Also</a></li>
  <li><a id="toc-Authors" href="#Authors">8 Authors</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>

<a name="Synopsis"></a>
<h2 class="chapter">1 Synopsis<span class="pull-right"><a class="anchor hidden-xs" href="#Synopsis" aria-hidden="true">#</a> <a class="anchor hidden-xs"href="#toc-Synopsis" aria-hidden="true">TOC</a></span></h2>

<p>ffmpeg [<var class="var">global_options</var>] {[<var class="var">input_file_options</var>] -i <samp class="file">input_url</samp>} ... {[<var class="var">output_file_options</var>] <samp class="file">output_url</samp>} ...
</p>
<a name="Description"></a>
<h2 class="chapter">2 Description<span class="pull-right"><a class="anchor hidden-xs" href="#Description" aria-hidden="true">#</a> <a class="anchor hidden-xs"href="#toc-Description" aria-hidden="true">TOC</a></span></h2>

<p><code class="command">ffmpeg</code> is a universal media converter. It can read a wide variety of
inputs - including live grabbing/recording devices - filter, and transcode them
into a plethora of output formats.
</p>
<p><code class="command">ffmpeg</code> reads from an arbitrary number of inputs (which can be regular
files, pipes, network streams, grabbing devices, etc.), specified by the
<code class="code">-i</code> option, and writes to an arbitrary number of outputs, which are
specified by a plain output url. Anything found on the command line which cannot
be interpreted as an option is considered to be an output url.
</p>
<p>Each input or output can, in principle, contain any number of elementary streams
of different types (video/audio/subtitle/attachment/data), though the allowed
stream counts and/or types may be limited by the container format. Selecting
which streams from which inputs will go into which output is either done
automatically or with the <code class="code">-map</code> option (see the <a class="ref" href="#Stream-selection">Stream selection</a>
chapter).
</p>
<p>To refer to inputs/outputs in options, you must use their indices (0-based).
E.g. the first input is <code class="code">0</code>, the second is <code class="code">1</code>, etc. Similarly,
streams within an input/output are referred to by their indices. E.g. <code class="code">2:3</code>
refers to the fourth stream in the third input or output. Also see the
<a class="ref" href="#Stream-specifiers">Stream specifiers</a> chapter.
</p>
<p>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
then applied to the next input or output file.
Exceptions from this rule are the global options (e.g. verbosity level),
which should be specified first.
</p>
<p>Do not mix input and output files &ndash; first specify all input files, then all
output files. Also do not mix options which belong to different files. All
options apply ONLY to the next input or output file and are reset between files.
</p>
<p>Some simple examples follow.
</p>
<ul class="itemize mark-bullet">
<li>Convert an input media file to a different format, by re-encoding media streams:
<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i input.avi output.mp4
</pre></div>

</li><li>Set the video bitrate of the output file to 64 kbit/s:
<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i input.avi -b:v 64k -bufsize 64k output.mp4
</pre></div>

</li><li>Force the frame rate of the output file to 24 fps:
<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i input.avi -r 24 output.mp4
</pre></div>

</li><li>Force the frame rate of the input file (valid for raw formats only) to 1 fps and
the frame rate of the output file to 24 fps:
<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -r 1 -i input.m2v -r 24 output.mp4
</pre></div>
</li></ul>

<p>The format option may be needed for raw input files.
</p>

<a name="Detailed-description"></a>
<h2 class="chapter">3 Detailed description<span class="pull-right"><a class="anchor hidden-xs" href="#Detailed-description" aria-hidden="true">#</a> <a class="anchor hidden-xs"href="#toc-Detailed-description" aria-hidden="true">TOC</a></span></h2>

<p><code class="command">ffmpeg</code> builds a transcoding pipeline out of the components listed
below. The program&rsquo;s operation then consists of input data chunks flowing from
the sources down the pipes towards the sinks, while being transformed by the
components they encounter along the way.
</p>
<p>The following kinds of components are available:
</p><ul class="itemize mark-bullet">
<li><em class="emph">Demuxers</em> (short for &quot;demultiplexers&quot;) read an input source in order to
extract

<ul class="itemize mark-bullet">
<li>global properties such as metadata or chapters;
</li><li>list of input elementary streams and their properties
</li></ul>

<p>One demuxer instance is created for each <samp class="option">-i</samp> option, and sends encoded
<em class="emph">packets</em> to <em class="emph">decoders</em> or <em class="emph">muxers</em>.
</p>
<p>In other literature, demuxers are sometimes called <em class="emph">splitters</em>, because
their main function is splitting a file into elementary streams (though some
files only contain one elementary stream).
</p>
<p>A schematic representation of a demuxer looks like this:
</p><pre class="verbatim">┌──────────┬───────────────────────┐
│ demuxer  │                       │ packets for stream 0
╞══════════╡ elementary stream 0   ├──────────────────────►
│          │                       │
│  global  ├───────────────────────┤
│properties│                       │ packets for stream 1
│   and    │ elementary stream 1   ├──────────────────────►
│ metadata │                       │
│          ├───────────────────────┤
│          │                       │
│          │     ...........       │
│          │                       │
│          ├───────────────────────┤
│          │                       │ packets for stream N
│          │ elementary stream N   ├──────────────────────►
│          │                       │
└──────────┴───────────────────────┘
     ▲
     │
     │ read from file, network stream,
     │     grabbing device, etc.
     │
</pre>
</li><li><em class="emph">Decoders</em> receive encoded (compressed) <em class="emph">packets</em> for an audio, video,
or subtitle elementary stream, and decode them into raw <em class="emph">frames</em> (arrays of
pixels for video, PCM for audio). A decoder is typically associated with (and
receives its input from) an elementary stream in a <em class="emph">demuxer</em>, but sometimes
may also exist on its own (see <a class="ref" href="#Loopback-decoders">Loopback decoders</a>).

<p>A schematic representation of a decoder looks like this:
</p><pre class="verbatim">          ┌─────────┐
 packets  │         │ raw frames
─────────►│ decoder ├────────────►
          │         │
          └─────────┘
</pre>
</li><li><em class="emph">Filtergraphs</em> process and transform raw audio or video <em class="emph">frames</em>. A
filtergraph consists of one or more individual <em class="emph">filters</em> linked into a
graph. Filtergraphs come in two flavors - <em class="emph">simple</em> and <em class="emph">complex</em>,
configured with the <samp class="option">-filter</samp> and <samp class="option">-filter_complex</samp> options,
respectively.

<p>A simple filtergraph is associated with an <em class="emph">output elementary stream</em>; it
receives the input to be filtered from a <em class="emph">decoder</em> and sends filtered
output to that output stream&rsquo;s <em class="emph">encoder</em>.
</p>
<p>A simple video filtergraph that performs deinterlacing (using the <code class="code">yadif</code>
deinterlacer) followed by resizing (using the <code class="code">scale</code> filter) can look like
this:
</p><pre class="verbatim">
             ┌────────────────────────┐
             │  simple filtergraph    │
 frames from ╞════════════════════════╡ frames for
 a decoder   │  ┌───────┐  ┌───────┐  │ an encoder
────────────►├─►│ yadif ├─►│ scale ├─►│────────────►
             │  └───────┘  └───────┘  │
             └────────────────────────┘
</pre>
<p>A complex filtergraph is standalone and not associated with any specific stream.
It may have multiple (or zero) inputs, potentially of different types (audio or
video), each of which receiving data either from a decoder or another complex
filtergraph&rsquo;s output. It also has one or more outputs that feed either an
encoder or another complex filtergraph&rsquo;s input.
</p>
<p>The following example diagram represents a complex filtergraph with 3 inputs and
2 outputs (all video):
</p><pre class="verbatim">          ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
          │               complex filtergraph               │
          ╞═════════════════════════════════════════════════╡
 frames   ├───────┐  ┌─────────┐      ┌─────────┐  ┌────────┤ frames
─────────►│input 0├─►│ overlay ├─────►│ overlay ├─►│output 0├────────►
          ├───────┘  │         │      │         │  └────────┤
 frames   ├───────┐╭►│         │    ╭►│         │           │
─────────►│input 1├╯ └─────────┘    │ └─────────┘           │
          ├───────┘                 │                       │
 frames   ├───────┐ ┌─────┐ ┌─────┬─╯              ┌────────┤ frames
─────────►│input 2├►│scale├►│split├───────────────►│output 1├────────►
          ├───────┘ └─────┘ └─────┘                └────────┤
          └─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
</pre><p>Frames from second input are overlaid over those from the first. Frames from the
third input are rescaled, then the duplicated into two identical streams. One of
them is overlaid over the combined first two inputs, with the result exposed as
the filtergraph&rsquo;s first output. The other duplicate ends up being the
filtergraph&rsquo;s second output.
</p>
</li><li><em class="emph">Encoders</em> receive raw audio, video, or subtitle <em class="emph">frames</em> and encode
them into encoded <em class="emph">packets</em>. The encoding (compression) process is
typically <em class="emph">lossy</em> - it degrades stream quality to make the output smaller;
some encoders are <em class="emph">lossless</em>, but at the cost of much higher output size. A
video or audio encoder receives its input from some filtergraph&rsquo;s output,
subtitle encoders receive input from a decoder (since subtitle filtering is not
supported yet). Every encoder is associated with some muxer&rsquo;s <em class="emph">output
elementary stream</em> and sends its output to that muxer.

<p>A schematic representation of an encoder looks like this:
</p><pre class="verbatim">             ┌─────────┐
 raw frames  │         │ packets
────────────►│ encoder ├─────────►
             │         │
             └─────────┘
</pre>
</li><li><em class="emph">Muxers</em> (short for &quot;multiplexers&quot;) receive encoded <em class="emph">packets</em> for
their elementary streams from encoders (the <em class="emph">transcoding</em> path) or directly
from demuxers (the <em class="emph">streamcopy</em> path), interleave them (when there is more
than one elementary stream), and write the resulting bytes into the output file
(or pipe, network stream, etc.).

<p>A schematic representation of a muxer looks like this:
</p><pre class="verbatim">                       ┌──────────────────────┬───────────┐
 packets for stream 0  │                      │   muxer   │
──────────────────────►│  elementary stream 0 ╞═══════════╡
                       │                      │           │
                       ├──────────────────────┤  global   │
 packets for stream 1  │                      │properties │
──────────────────────►│  elementary stream 1 │   and     │
                       │                      │ metadata  │
                       ├──────────────────────┤           │
                       │                      │           │
                       │     ...........      │           │
                       │                      │           │
                       ├──────────────────────┤           │
 packets for stream N  │                      │           │
──────────────────────►│  elementary stream N │           │
                       │                      │           │
                       └──────────────────────┴─────┬─────┘
                                                    │
                     write to file, network stream, │
                         grabbing device, etc.      │
                                                    │
                                                    ▼
</pre>
</li></ul>

<a name="Streamcopy"></a>
<h3 class="section">3.1 Streamcopy<span class="pull-right"><a class="anchor hidden-xs" href="#Streamcopy" aria-hidden="true">#</a> <a class="anchor hidden-xs"href="#toc-Streamcopy" aria-hidden="true">TOC</a></span></h3>
<p>The simplest pipeline in <code class="command">ffmpeg</code> is single-stream
<em class="emph">streamcopy</em>, that is copying one <em class="emph">input elementary stream</em>&rsquo;s packets
without decoding, filtering, or encoding them. As an example, consider an input
file called <samp class="file">INPUT.mkv</samp> with 3 elementary streams, from which we take the
second and write it to file <samp class="file">OUTPUT.mp4</samp>. A schematic representation of
such a pipeline looks like this:
</p><pre class="verbatim">┌──────────┬─────────────────────┐
│ demuxer  │                     │ unused
╞══════════╡ elementary stream 0 ├────────╳
│          │                     │
│INPUT.mkv ├─────────────────────┤          ┌──────────────────────┬───────────┐
│          │                     │ packets  │                      │   muxer   │
│          │ elementary stream 1 ├─────────►│  elementary stream 0 ╞═══════════╡
│          │                     │          │                      │OUTPUT.mp4 │
│          ├─────────────────────┤          └──────────────────────┴───────────┘
│          │                     │ unused
│          │ elementary stream 2 ├────────╳
│          │                     │
└──────────┴─────────────────────┘
</pre>
<p>The above pipeline can be constructed with the following commandline:
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i INPUT.mkv -map 0:1 -c copy OUTPUT.mp4
</pre></div>

<p>In this commandline
</p><ul class="itemize mark-bullet">
<li>there is a single input <samp class="file">INPUT.mkv</samp>;

</li><li>there are no input options for this input;

</li><li>there is a single output <samp class="file">OUTPUT.mp4</samp>;

</li><li>there are two output options for this output:

<ul class="itemize mark-bullet">
<li><code class="code">-map 0:1</code> selects the input stream to be used - from input with index 0
(i.e. the first one) the stream with index 1 (i.e. the second one);

</li><li><code class="code">-c copy</code> selects the <code class="code">copy</code> encoder, i.e. streamcopy with no decoding
or encoding.
</li></ul>

</li></ul>

<p>Streamcopy is useful for changing the elementary stream count, container format,
or modifying container-level metadata. Since there is no decoding or encoding,
it is very fast and there is no quality loss. However, it might not work in some
cases because of a variety of factors (e.g. certain information required by the
target container is not available in the source). Applying filters is obviously
also impossible, since filters work on decoded frames.
</p>
<p>More complex streamcopy scenarios can be constructed - e.g. combining streams
from two input files into a single output:
</p><pre class="verbatim">┌──────────┬────────────────────┐         ┌────────────────────┬───────────┐
│ demuxer 0│                    │ packets │                    │   muxer   │
╞══════════╡elementary stream 0 ├────────►│elementary stream 0 ╞═══════════╡
│INPUT0.mkv│                    │         │                    │OUTPUT.mp4 │
└──────────┴────────────────────┘         ├────────────────────┤           │
┌──────────┬────────────────────┐         │                    │           │
│ demuxer 1│                    │ packets │elementary stream 1 │           │
╞══════════╡elementary stream 0 ├────────►│                    │           │
│INPUT1.aac│                    │         └────────────────────┴───────────┘
└──────────┴────────────────────┘
</pre><p>that can be built by the commandline
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i INPUT0.mkv -i INPUT1.aac -map 0:0 -map 1:0 -c copy OUTPUT.mp4
</pre></div>

<p>The output <samp class="option">-map</samp> option is used twice here, creating two streams in the
output file - one fed by the first input and one by the second. The single
instance of the <samp class="option">-c</samp> option selects streamcopy for both of those streams.
You could also use multiple instances of this option together with
<a class="ref" href="#Stream-specifiers">Stream specifiers</a> to apply different values to each stream, as will be
demonstrated in following sections.
</p>
<p>A converse scenario is splitting multiple streams from a single input into
multiple outputs:
</p><pre class="verbatim">┌──────────┬─────────────────────┐          ┌───────────────────┬───────────┐
│ demuxer  │                     │ packets  │                   │ muxer 0   │
╞══════════╡ elementary stream 0 ├─────────►│elementary stream 0╞═══════════╡
│          │                     │          │                   │OUTPUT0.mp4│
│INPUT.mkv ├─────────────────────┤          └───────────────────┴───────────┘
│          │                     │ packets  ┌───────────────────┬───────────┐
│          │ elementary stream 1 ├─────────►│                   │ muxer 1   │
│          │                     │          │elementary stream 0╞═══════════╡
└──────────┴─────────────────────┘          │                   │OUTPUT1.mp4│
                                            └───────────────────┴───────────┘
</pre><p>built with
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i INPUT.mkv -map 0:0 -c copy OUTPUT0.mp4 -map 0:1 -c copy OUTPUT1.mp4
</pre></div>
<p>Note how a separate instance of the <samp class="option">-c</samp> option is needed for every
output file even though their values are the same. This is because non-global
options (which is most of them) only apply in the context of the file before
which they are placed.
</p>
<p>These  examples can of course be further generalized into arbitrary remappings
of any number of inputs into any number of outputs.
</p>
<a name="Transcoding"></a>
<h3 class="section">3.2 Transcoding<span class="pull-right"><a class="anchor hidden-xs" href="#Transcoding" aria-hidden="true">#</a> <a class="anchor hidden-xs"href="#toc-Transcoding" aria-hidden="true">TOC</a></span></h3>
<p><em class="emph">Transcoding</em> is the process of decoding a stream and then encoding it
again. Since encoding tends to be computationally expensive and in most cases
degrades the stream quality (i.e. it is <em class="emph">lossy</em>), you should only transcode
when you need to and perform streamcopy otherwise. Typical reasons to transcode
are:
</p>
<ul class="itemize mark-bullet">
<li>applying filters - e.g. resizing, deinterlacing, or overlaying video; resampling
or mixing audio;

</li><li>you want to feed the stream to something that cannot decode the original codec.
</li></ul>
<p>Note that <code class="command">ffmpeg</code> will transcode all audio, video, and subtitle streams
unless you specify <samp class="option">-c copy</samp> for them.
</p>
<p>Consider an example pipeline that reads an input file with one audio and one
video stream, transcodes the video and copies the audio into a single output
file. This can be schematically represented as follows
</p><pre class="verbatim">┌──────────┬─────────────────────┐
│ demuxer  │                     │       audio packets
╞══════════╡ stream 0 (audio)    ├─────────────────────────────────────╮
│          │                     │                                     │
│INPUT.mkv ├─────────────────────┤ video    ┌─────────┐     raw        │
│          │                     │ packets  │  video  │ video frames   │
│          │ stream 1 (video)    ├─────────►│ decoder ├──────────────╮ │
│          │                     │          │         │              │ │
└──────────┴─────────────────────┘          └─────────┘              │ │
                                                                     ▼ ▼
                                                                     │ │
┌──────────┬─────────────────────┐ video    ┌─────────┐              │ │
│ muxer    │                     │ packets  │  video  │              │ │
╞══════════╡ stream 0 (video)    │◄─────────┤ encoder ├──────────────╯ │
│          │                     │          │(libx264)│                │
│OUTPUT.mp4├─────────────────────┤          └─────────┘                │
│          │                     │                                     │
│          │ stream 1 (audio)    │◄────────────────────────────────────╯
│          │                     │
└──────────┴─────────────────────┘
</pre><p>and implemented with the following commandline:
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i INPUT.mkv -map 0:v -map 0:a -c:v libx264 -c:a copy OUTPUT.mp4
</pre></div>
<p>Note how it uses stream specifiers <code class="code">:v</code> and <code class="code">:a</code> to select input
streams and apply different values of the <samp class="option">-c</samp> option to them; see the
<a class="ref" href="#Stream-specifiers">Stream specifiers</a> section for more details.
</p>

<a name="Filtering"></a>
<h3 class="section">3.3 Filtering<span class="pull-right"><a class="anchor hidden-xs" href="#Filtering" aria-hidden="true">#</a> <a class="anchor hidden-xs"href="#toc-Filtering" aria-hidden="true">TOC</a></span></h3>

<p>When transcoding, audio and video streams can be filtered before encoding, with
either a <em class="emph">simple</em> or <em class="emph">complex</em> filtergraph.
</p>
<a name="Simple-filtergraphs"></a>
<h4 class="subsection">3.3.1 Simple filtergraphs<span class="pull-right"><a class="anchor hidden-xs" href="#Simple-filtergraphs" aria-hidden="true">#</a> <a class="anchor hidden-xs"href="#toc-Simple-filtergraphs" aria-hidden="true">TOC</a></span></h4>

<p>Simple filtergraphs are those that have exactly one input and output, both of
the same type (audio or video). They are configured with the per-stream
<samp class="option">-filter</samp> option (with <samp class="option">-vf</samp> and <samp class="option">-af</samp> aliases for
<samp class="option">-filter:v</samp> (video) and <samp class="option">-filter:a</samp> (audio) respectively). Note
that simple filtergraphs are tied to their output stream, so e.g. if you have
multiple audio streams, <samp class="option">-af</samp> will create a separate filtergraph for each
one.
</p>
<p>Taking the transcoding example from above, adding filtering (and omitting audio,
for clarity) makes it look like this:
</p><pre class="verbatim">┌──────────┬───────────────┐
│ demuxer  │               │          ┌─────────┐
╞══════════╡ video stream  │ packets  │  video  │ frames
│INPUT.mkv │               ├─────────►│ decoder ├─────►───╮
│          │               │          └─────────┘         │
└──────────┴───────────────┘                              │
                                  ╭───────────◄───────────╯
                                  │   ┌────────────────────────┐
                                  │   │  simple filtergraph    │
                                  │   ╞════════════════════════╡
                                  │   │  ┌───────┐  ┌───────┐  │
                                  ╰──►├─►│ yadif ├─►│ scale ├─►├╮
                                      │  └───────┘  └───────┘  ││
                                      └────────────────────────┘│
                                                                │
                                                                │
┌──────────┬───────────────┐ video    ┌─────────┐               │
│ muxer    │               │ packets  │  video  │               │
╞══════════╡ video stream  │◄─────────┤ encoder ├───────◄───────╯
│OUTPUT.mp4│               │          │         │
│          │               │          └─────────┘
└──────────┴───────────────┘
</pre>
<a name="Complex-filtergraphs"></a>
<h4 class="subsection">3.3.2 Complex filtergraphs<span class="pull-right"><a class="anchor hidden-xs" href="#Complex-filtergraphs" aria-hidden="true">#</a> <a class="anchor hidden-xs"href="#toc-Complex-filtergraphs" aria-hidden="true">TOC</a></span></h4>

<p>Complex filtergraphs are those which cannot be described as simply a linear
processing chain applied to one stream. This is the case, for example, when the
graph has more than one input and/or output, or when output stream type is
different from input. Complex filtergraphs are configured with the
<samp class="option">-filter_complex</samp> option. Note that this option is global, since a
complex filtergraph, by its nature, cannot be unambiguously associated with a
single stream or file. Each instance of <samp class="option">-filter_complex</samp> creates a new
complex filtergraph, and there can be any number of them.
</p>
<p>A trivial example of a complex filtergraph is the <code class="code">overlay</code> filter, which
has two video inputs and one video output, containing one video overlaid on top
of the other. Its audio counterpart is the <code class="code">amix</code> filter.
</p>
<a class="anchor" id="Loopback-decoders"></a><a name="Loopback-decoders-1"></a>
<h3 class="section">3.4 Loopback decoders<span class="pull-right"><a class="anchor hidden-xs" href="#Loopback-decoders" aria-hidden="true">#</a> <a class="anchor hidden-xs"href="#toc-Loopback-decoders" aria-hidden="true">TOC</a></span></h3>
<p>While decoders are normally associated with demuxer streams, it is also possible
to create &quot;loopback&quot; decoders that decode the output from some encoder and allow
it to be fed back to complex filtergraphs. This is done with the <code class="code">-dec</code>
directive, which takes as a parameter the index of the output stream that should
be decoded. Every such directive creates a new loopback decoder, indexed with
successive integers starting at zero. These indices should then be used to refer
to loopback decoders in complex filtergraph link labels, as described in the
documentation for <samp class="option">-filter_complex</samp>.
</p>
<p>Decoding AVOptions can be passed to loopback decoders by placing them before
<code class="code">-dec</code>, analogously to input/output options.
</p>
<p>E.g. the following example:
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i INPUT                                        \
  -map 0:v:0 -c:v libx264 -crf 45 -f null -            \
  -threads 3 -dec 0:0                                  \
  -filter_complex '[0:v][dec:0]hstack[stack]'          \
  -map '[stack]' -c:v ffv1 OUTPUT
</pre></div>

<p>reads an input video and
</p><ul class="itemize mark-bullet">
<li>(line 2) encodes it with <code class="code">libx264</code> at low quality;

</li><li>(line 3) decodes this encoded stream using 3 threads;

</li><li>(line 4) places decoded video side by side with the original input video;

</li><li>(line 5) combined video is then losslessly encoded and written into
<samp class="file">OUTPUT</samp>.

</li></ul>

<p>Such a transcoding pipeline can be represented with the following diagram:
</p><pre class="verbatim">┌──────────┬───────────────┐
│ demuxer  │               │   ┌─────────┐            ┌─────────┐    ┌────────────────────┐
╞══════════╡ video stream  │   │  video  │            │  video  │    │ null muxer         │
│   INPUT  │               ├──►│ decoder ├──┬────────►│ encoder ├─┬─►│(discards its input)│
│          │               │   └─────────┘  │         │(libx264)│ │  └────────────────────┘
└──────────┴───────────────┘                │         └─────────┘ │
                                 ╭───────◄──╯   ┌─────────┐       │
                                 │              │loopback │       │
                                 │ ╭─────◄──────┤ decoder ├────◄──╯
                                 │ │            └─────────┘
                                 │ │
                                 │ │
                                 │ │  ┌───────────────────┐
                                 │ │  │complex filtergraph│
                                 │ │  ╞═══════════════════╡
                                 │ │  │  ┌─────────────┐  │
                                 ╰─╫─►├─►│   hstack    ├─►├╮
                                   ╰─►├─►│             │  ││
                                      │  └─────────────┘  ││
                                      └───────────────────┘│
                                                           │
┌──────────┬───────────────┐  ┌─────────┐                  │
│ muxer    │               │  │  video  │                  │
╞══════════╡ video stream  │◄─┤ encoder ├───────◄──────────╯
│  OUTPUT  │               │  │ (ffv1)  │
│          │               │  └─────────┘
└──────────┴───────────────┘
</pre>


<a class="anchor" id="Stream-selection"></a><a name="Stream-selection-1"></a>
<h2 class="chapter">4 Stream selection<span class="pull-right"><a class="anchor hidden-xs" href="#Stream-selection" aria-hidden="true">#</a> <a class="anchor hidden-xs"href="#toc-Stream-selection" aria-hidden="true">TOC</a></span></h2>

<p><code class="command">ffmpeg</code> provides the <code class="code">-map</code> option for manual control of stream selection in each
output file. Users can skip <code class="code">-map</code> and let ffmpeg perform automatic stream selection as
described below. The <code class="code">-vn / -an / -sn / -dn</code> options can be used to skip inclusion of
video, audio, subtitle and data streams respectively, whether manually mapped or automatically
selected, except for those streams which are outputs of complex filtergraphs.
</p>
<a name="Description-1"></a>
<h3 class="section">4.1 Description<span class="pull-right"><a class="anchor hidden-xs" href="#Description-1" aria-hidden="true">#</a> <a class="anchor hidden-xs"href="#toc-Description-1" aria-hidden="true">TOC</a></span></h3>
<p>The sub-sections that follow describe the various rules that are involved in stream selection.
The examples that follow next show how these rules are applied in practice.
</p>
<p>While every effort is made to accurately reflect the behavior of the program, FFmpeg is under
continuous development and the code may have changed since the time of this writing.
</p>
<a name="Automatic-stream-selection"></a>
<h4 class="subsection">4.1.1 Automatic stream selection<span class="pull-right"><a class="anchor hidden-xs" href="#Automatic-stream-selection" aria-hidden="true">#</a> <a class="anchor hidden-xs"href="#toc-Automatic-stream-selection" aria-hidden="true">TOC</a></span></h4>

<p>In the absence of any map options for a particular output file, ffmpeg inspects the output
format to check which type of streams can be included in it, viz. video, audio and/or
subtitles. For each acceptable stream type, ffmpeg will pick one stream, when available,
from among all the inputs.
</p>
<p>It will select that stream based upon the following criteria:
</p><ul class="itemize mark-bullet">
<li>for video, it is the stream with the highest resolution,
</li><li>for audio, it is the stream with the most channels,
</li><li>for subtitles, it is the first subtitle stream found but there&rsquo;s a caveat.
The output format&rsquo;s default subtitle encoder can be either text-based or image-based,
and only a subtitle stream of the same type will be chosen.
</li></ul>

<p>In the case where several streams of the same type rate equally, the stream with the lowest
index is chosen.
</p>
<p>Data or attachment streams are not automatically selected and can only be included
using <code class="code">-map</code>.
</p><a name="Manual-stream-selection"></a>
<h4 class="subsection">4.1.2 Manual stream selection<span class="pull-right"><a class="anchor hidden-xs" href="#Manual-stream-selection" aria-hidden="true">#</a> <a class="anchor hidden-xs"href="#toc-Manual-stream-selection" aria-hidden="true">TOC</a></span></h4>

<p>When <code class="code">-map</code> is used, only user-mapped streams are included in that output file,
with one possible exception for filtergraph outputs described below.
</p>
<a name="Complex-filtergraphs-1"></a>
<h4 class="subsection">4.1.3 Complex filtergraphs<span class="pull-right"><a class="anchor hidden-xs" href="#Complex-filtergraphs-1" aria-hidden="true">#</a> <a class="anchor hidden-xs"href="#toc-Complex-filtergraphs-1" aria-hidden="true">TOC</a></span></h4>

<p>If there are any complex filtergraph output streams with unlabeled pads, they will be added
to the first output file. This will lead to a fatal error if the stream type is not supported
by the output format. In the absence of the map option, the inclusion of these streams leads
to the automatic stream selection of their types being skipped. If map options are present,
these filtergraph streams are included in addition to the mapped streams.
</p>
<p>Complex filtergraph output streams with labeled pads must be mapped once and exactly once.
</p>
<a name="Stream-handling"></a>
<h4 class="subsection">4.1.4 Stream handling<span class="pull-right"><a class="anchor hidden-xs" href="#Stream-handling" aria-hidden="true">#</a> <a class="anchor hidden-xs"href="#toc-Stream-handling" aria-hidden="true">TOC</a></span></h4>

<p>Stream handling is independent of stream selection, with an exception for subtitles described
below. Stream handling is set via the <code class="code">-codec</code> option addressed to streams within a
specific <em class="emph">output</em> file. In particular, codec options are applied by ffmpeg after the
stream selection process and thus do not influence the latter. If no <code class="code">-codec</code> option is
specified for a stream type, ffmpeg will select the default encoder registered by the output
file muxer.
</p>
<p>An exception exists for subtitles. If a subtitle encoder is specified for an output file, the
first subtitle stream found of any type, text or image, will be included. ffmpeg does not validate
if the specified encoder can convert the selected stream or if the converted stream is acceptable
within the output format. This applies generally as well: when the user sets an encoder manually,
the stream selection process cannot check if the encoded stream can be muxed into the output file.
If it cannot, ffmpeg will abort and <em class="emph">all</em> output files will fail to be processed.
</p>
<a name="Examples"></a>
<h3 class="section">4.2 Examples<span class="pull-right"><a class="anchor hidden-xs" href="#Examples" aria-hidden="true">#</a> <a class="anchor hidden-xs"href="#toc-Examples" aria-hidden="true">TOC</a></span></h3>

<p>The following examples illustrate the behavior, quirks and limitations of ffmpeg&rsquo;s stream
selection methods.
</p>
<p>They assume the following three input files.
</p>
<pre class="verbatim">
input file 'A.avi'
      stream 0: video 640x360
      stream 1: audio 2 channels

input file 'B.mp4'
      stream 0: video 1920x1080
      stream 1: audio 2 channels
      stream 2: subtitles (text)
      stream 3: audio 5.1 channels
      stream 4: subtitles (text)

input file 'C.mkv'
      stream 0: video 1280x720
      stream 1: audio 2 channels
      stream 2: subtitles (image)
</pre>
<a name="Example_003a-automatic-stream-selection"></a>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i A.avi -i B.mp4 out1.mkv out2.wav -map 1:a -c:a copy out3.mov
</pre></div>
<p>There are three output files specified, and for the first two, no <code class="code">-map</code> options
are set, so ffmpeg will select streams for these two files automatically.
</p>
<p><samp class="file">out1.mkv</samp> is a Matroska container file and accepts video, audio and subtitle streams,
so ffmpeg will try to select one of each type.<br>
For video, it will select <code class="code">stream 0</code> from <samp class="file">B.mp4</samp>, which has the highest
resolution among all the input video streams.<br>
For audio, it will select <code class="code">stream 3</code> from <samp class="file">B.mp4</samp>, since it has the greatest
number of channels.<br>
For subtitles, it will select <code class="code">stream 2</code> from <samp class="file">B.mp4</samp>, which is the first subtitle
stream from among <samp class="file">A.avi</samp> and <samp class="file">B.mp4</samp>.
</p>
<p><samp class="file">out2.wav</samp> accepts only audio streams, so only <code class="code">stream 3</code> from <samp class="file">B.mp4</samp> is
selected.
</p>
<p>For <samp class="file">out3.mov</samp>, since a <code class="code">-map</code> option is set, no automatic stream selection will
occur. The <code class="code">-map 1:a</code> option will select all audio streams from the second input
<samp class="file">B.mp4</samp>. No other streams will be included in this output file.
</p>
<p>For the first two outputs, all included streams will be transcoded. The encoders chosen will
be the default ones registered by each output format, which may not match the codec of the
selected input streams.
</p>
<p>For the third output, codec option for audio streams has been set
to <code class="code">copy</code>, so no decoding-filtering-encoding operations will occur, or <em class="emph">can</em> occur.
Packets of selected streams shall be conveyed from the input file and muxed within the output
file.
</p>
<a name="Example_003a-automatic-subtitles-selection"></a>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i C.mkv out1.mkv -c:s dvdsub -an out2.mkv
</pre></div>
<p>Although <samp class="file">out1.mkv</samp> is a Matroska container file which accepts subtitle streams, only a
video and audio stream shall be selected. The subtitle stream of <samp class="file">C.mkv</samp> is image-based
and the default subtitle encoder of the Matroska muxer is text-based, so a transcode operation
for the subtitles is expected to fail and hence the stream isn&rsquo;t selected. However, in
<samp class="file">out2.mkv</samp>, a subtitle encoder is specified in the command and so, the subtitle stream is
selected, in addition to the video stream. The presence of <code class="code">-an</code> disables audio stream
selection for <samp class="file">out2.mkv</samp>.
</p>
<a name="Example_003a-unlabeled-filtergraph-outputs"></a>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i A.avi -i C.mkv -i B.mp4 -filter_complex &quot;overlay&quot; out1.mp4 out2.srt
</pre></div>
<p>A filtergraph is setup here using the <code class="code">-filter_complex</code> option and consists of a single
video filter. The <code class="code">overlay</code> filter requires exactly two video inputs, but none are
specified, so the first two available video streams are used, those of <samp class="file">A.avi</samp> and
<samp class="file">C.mkv</samp>. The output pad of the filter has no label and so is sent to the first output file
<samp class="file">out1.mp4</samp>. Due to this, automatic selection of the video stream is skipped, which would
have selected the stream in <samp class="file">B.mp4</samp>. The audio stream with most channels viz. <code class="code">stream 3</code>
in <samp class="file">B.mp4</samp>, is chosen automatically. No subtitle stream is chosen however, since the MP4
format has no default subtitle encoder registered, and the user hasn&rsquo;t specified a subtitle encoder.
</p>
<p>The 2nd output file, <samp class="file">out2.srt</samp>, only accepts text-based subtitle streams. So, even though
the first subtitle stream available belongs to <samp class="file">C.mkv</samp>, it is image-based and hence skipped.
The selected stream, <code class="code">stream 2</code> in <samp class="file">B.mp4</samp>, is the first text-based subtitle stream.
</p>
<a name="Example_003a-labeled-filtergraph-outputs"></a>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i A.avi -i B.mp4 -i C.mkv -filter_complex &quot;[1:v]hue=s=0[outv];overlay;aresample&quot; \
       -map '[outv]' -an        out1.mp4 \
                                out2.mkv \
       -map '[outv]' -map 1:a:0 out3.mkv
</pre></div>

<p>The above command will fail, as the output pad labelled <code class="code">[outv]</code> has been mapped twice.
None of the output files shall be processed.
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i A.avi -i B.mp4 -i C.mkv -filter_complex &quot;[1:v]hue=s=0[outv];overlay;aresample&quot; \
       -an        out1.mp4 \
                  out2.mkv \
       -map 1:a:0 out3.mkv
</pre></div>

<p>This command above will also fail as the hue filter output has a label, <code class="code">[outv]</code>,
and hasn&rsquo;t been mapped anywhere.
</p>
<p>The command should be modified as follows,
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i A.avi -i B.mp4 -i C.mkv -filter_complex &quot;[1:v]hue=s=0,split=2[outv1][outv2];overlay;aresample&quot; \
        -map '[outv1]' -an        out1.mp4 \
                                  out2.mkv \
        -map '[outv2]' -map 1:a:0 out3.mkv
</pre></div>
<p>The video stream from <samp class="file">B.mp4</samp> is sent to the hue filter, whose output is cloned once using
the split filter, and both outputs labelled. Then a copy each is mapped to the first and third
output files.
</p>
<p>The overlay filter, requiring two video inputs, uses the first two unused video streams. Those
are the streams from <samp class="file">A.avi</samp> and <samp class="file">C.mkv</samp>. The overlay output isn&rsquo;t labelled, so it is
sent to the first output file <samp class="file">out1.mp4</samp>, regardless of the presence of the <code class="code">-map</code> option.
</p>
<p>The aresample filter is sent the first unused audio stream, that of <samp class="file">A.avi</samp>. Since this filter
output is also unlabelled, it too is mapped to the first output file. The presence of <code class="code">-an</code>
only suppresses automatic or manual stream selection of audio streams, not outputs sent from
filtergraphs. Both these mapped streams shall be ordered before the mapped stream in <samp class="file">out1.mp4</samp>.
</p>
<p>The video, audio and subtitle streams mapped to <code class="code">out2.mkv</code> are entirely determined by
automatic stream selection.
</p>
<p><samp class="file">out3.mkv</samp> consists of the cloned video output from the hue filter and the first audio
stream from <samp class="file">B.mp4</samp>.
<br>
</p>

<a name="Options"></a>
<h2 class="chapter">5 Options<span class="pull-right"><a class="anchor hidden-xs" href="#Options" aria-hidden="true">#</a> <a class="anchor hidden-xs"href="#toc-Options" aria-hidden="true">TOC</a></span></h2>

<p>All the numerical options, if not specified otherwise, accept a string
representing a number as input, which may be followed by one of the SI
unit prefixes, for example: &rsquo;K&rsquo;, &rsquo;M&rsquo;, or &rsquo;G&rsquo;.
</p>
<p>If &rsquo;i&rsquo; is appended to the SI unit prefix, the complete prefix will be
interpreted as a unit prefix for binary multiples, which are based on
powers of 1024 instead of powers of 1000. Appending &rsquo;B&rsquo; to the SI unit
prefix multiplies the value by 8. This allows using, for example:
&rsquo;KB&rsquo;, &rsquo;MiB&rsquo;, &rsquo;G&rsquo; and &rsquo;B&rsquo; as number suffixes.
</p>
<p>Options which do not take arguments are boolean options, and set the
corresponding value to true. They can be set to false by prefixing
the option name with &quot;no&quot;. For example using &quot;-nofoo&quot;
will set the boolean option with name &quot;foo&quot; to false.
</p>
<p>Options that take arguments support a special syntax where the argument given on
the command line is interpreted as a path to the file from which the actual
argument value is loaded. To use this feature, add a forward slash &rsquo;/&rsquo;
immediately before the option name (after the leading dash). E.g.
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i INPUT -/filter:v filter.script OUTPUT
</pre></div>
<p>will load a filtergraph description from the file named <samp class="file">filter.script</samp>.
</p>
<a class="anchor" id="Stream-specifiers"></a><a name="Stream-specifiers-1"></a>
<h3 class="section">5.1 Stream specifiers<span class="pull-right"><a class="anchor hidden-xs" href="#Stream-specifiers" aria-hidden="true">#</a> <a class="anchor hidden-xs"href="#toc-Stream-specifiers" aria-hidden="true">TOC</a></span></h3>
<p>Some options are applied per-stream, e.g. bitrate or codec. Stream specifiers
are used to precisely specify which stream(s) a given option belongs to.
</p>
<p>A stream specifier is a string generally appended to the option name and
separated from it by a colon. E.g. <code class="code">-codec:a:1 ac3</code> contains the
<code class="code">a:1</code> stream specifier, which matches the second audio stream. Therefore, it
would select the ac3 codec for the second audio stream.
</p>
<p>A stream specifier can match several streams, so that the option is applied to all
of them. E.g. the stream specifier in <code class="code">-b:a 128k</code> matches all audio
streams.
</p>
<p>An empty stream specifier matches all streams. For example, <code class="code">-codec copy</code>
or <code class="code">-codec: copy</code> would copy all the streams without reencoding.
</p>
<p>Possible forms of stream specifiers are:
</p><dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option"><var class="var">stream_index</var></samp></dt>
<dd><p>Matches the stream with this index. E.g. <code class="code">-threads:1 4</code> would set the
thread count for the second stream to 4. If <var class="var">stream_index</var> is used as an
additional stream specifier (see below), then it selects stream number
<var class="var">stream_index</var> from the matching streams. Stream numbering is based on the
order of the streams as detected by libavformat except when a stream group
specifier or program ID is also specified. In this case it is based on the
ordering of the streams in the group or program.
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option"><var class="var">stream_type</var>[:<var class="var">additional_stream_specifier</var>]</samp></dt>
<dd><p><var class="var">stream_type</var> is one of following: &rsquo;v&rsquo; or &rsquo;V&rsquo; for video, &rsquo;a&rsquo; for audio, &rsquo;s&rsquo;
for subtitle, &rsquo;d&rsquo; for data, and &rsquo;t&rsquo; for attachments. &rsquo;v&rsquo; matches all video
streams, &rsquo;V&rsquo; only matches video streams which are not attached pictures, video
thumbnails or cover arts. If <var class="var">additional_stream_specifier</var> is used, then
it matches streams which both have this type and match the
<var class="var">additional_stream_specifier</var>. Otherwise, it matches all streams of the
specified type.
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">g:<var class="var">group_specifier</var>[:<var class="var">additional_stream_specifier</var>]</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Matches streams which are in the group with the specifier <var class="var">group_specifier</var>.
if <var class="var">additional_stream_specifier</var> is used, then it matches streams which both
are part of the group and match the <var class="var">additional_stream_specifier</var>.
<var class="var">group_specifier</var> may be one of the following:
</p><dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option"><var class="var">group_index</var></samp></dt>
<dd><p>Match the stream with this group index.
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">#<var class="var">group_id</var> or i:<var class="var">group_id</var></samp></dt>
<dd><p>Match the stream with this group id.
</p></dd>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">p:<var class="var">program_id</var>[:<var class="var">additional_stream_specifier</var>]</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Matches streams which are in the program with the id <var class="var">program_id</var>. If
<var class="var">additional_stream_specifier</var> is used, then it matches streams which both
are part of the program and match the <var class="var">additional_stream_specifier</var>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">#<var class="var">stream_id</var> or i:<var class="var">stream_id</var></samp></dt>
<dd><p>Match the stream by stream id (e.g. PID in MPEG-TS container).
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">m:<var class="var">key</var>[:<var class="var">value</var>]</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Matches streams with the metadata tag <var class="var">key</var> having the specified value. If
<var class="var">value</var> is not given, matches streams that contain the given tag with any
value. The colon character &rsquo;:&rsquo; in <var class="var">key</var> or <var class="var">value</var> needs to be
backslash-escaped.
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">disp:<var class="var">dispositions</var>[:<var class="var">additional_stream_specifier</var>]</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Matches streams with the given disposition(s). <var class="var">dispositions</var> is a list of
one or more dispositions (as printed by the <samp class="option">-dispositions</samp> option)
joined with &rsquo;+&rsquo;.
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">u</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Matches streams with usable configuration, the codec must be defined and the
essential information such as video dimension or audio sample rate must be present.
</p>
<p>Note that in <code class="command">ffmpeg</code>, matching by metadata will only work properly for
input files.
</p></dd>
</dl>

<a name="Generic-options"></a>
<h3 class="section">5.2 Generic options<span class="pull-right"><a class="anchor hidden-xs" href="#Generic-options" aria-hidden="true">#</a> <a class="anchor hidden-xs"href="#toc-Generic-options" aria-hidden="true">TOC</a></span></h3>

<p>These options are shared amongst the ff* tools.
</p>
<dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option">-L</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Show license.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-h, -?, -help, --help [<var class="var">arg</var>]</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Show help. An optional parameter may be specified to print help about a specific
item. If no argument is specified, only basic (non advanced) tool
options are shown.
</p>
<p>Possible values of <var class="var">arg</var> are:
</p><dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option">long</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Print advanced tool options in addition to the basic tool options.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">full</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Print complete list of options, including shared and private options
for encoders, decoders, demuxers, muxers, filters, etc.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">decoder=<var class="var">decoder_name</var></samp></dt>
<dd><p>Print detailed information about the decoder named <var class="var">decoder_name</var>. Use the
<samp class="option">-decoders</samp> option to get a list of all decoders.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">encoder=<var class="var">encoder_name</var></samp></dt>
<dd><p>Print detailed information about the encoder named <var class="var">encoder_name</var>. Use the
<samp class="option">-encoders</samp> option to get a list of all encoders.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">demuxer=<var class="var">demuxer_name</var></samp></dt>
<dd><p>Print detailed information about the demuxer named <var class="var">demuxer_name</var>. Use the
<samp class="option">-formats</samp> option to get a list of all demuxers and muxers.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">muxer=<var class="var">muxer_name</var></samp></dt>
<dd><p>Print detailed information about the muxer named <var class="var">muxer_name</var>. Use the
<samp class="option">-formats</samp> option to get a list of all muxers and demuxers.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">filter=<var class="var">filter_name</var></samp></dt>
<dd><p>Print detailed information about the filter named <var class="var">filter_name</var>. Use the
<samp class="option">-filters</samp> option to get a list of all filters.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">bsf=<var class="var">bitstream_filter_name</var></samp></dt>
<dd><p>Print detailed information about the bitstream filter named <var class="var">bitstream_filter_name</var>.
Use the <samp class="option">-bsfs</samp> option to get a list of all bitstream filters.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">protocol=<var class="var">protocol_name</var></samp></dt>
<dd><p>Print detailed information about the protocol named <var class="var">protocol_name</var>.
Use the <samp class="option">-protocols</samp> option to get a list of all protocols.
</p></dd>
</dl>

</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-version</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Show version.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-buildconf</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Show the build configuration, one option per line.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-formats</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Show available formats (including devices).
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-demuxers</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Show available demuxers.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-muxers</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Show available muxers.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-devices</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Show available devices.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-codecs</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Show all codecs known to libavcodec.
</p>
<p>Note that the term &rsquo;codec&rsquo; is used throughout this documentation as a shortcut
for what is more correctly called a media bitstream format.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-decoders</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Show available decoders.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-encoders</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Show all available encoders.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-bsfs</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Show available bitstream filters.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-protocols</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Show available protocols.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-filters</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Show available libavfilter filters.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-pix_fmts</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Show available pixel formats.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-sample_fmts</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Show available sample formats.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-layouts</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Show channel names and standard channel layouts.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-dispositions</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Show stream dispositions.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-colors</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Show recognized color names.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-sources <var class="var">device</var>[,<var class="var">opt1</var>=<var class="var">val1</var>[,<var class="var">opt2</var>=<var class="var">val2</var>]...]</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Show autodetected sources of the input device.
Some devices may provide system-dependent source names that cannot be autodetected.
The returned list cannot be assumed to be always complete.
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -sources pulse,server=192.168.0.4
</pre></div>

</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-sinks <var class="var">device</var>[,<var class="var">opt1</var>=<var class="var">val1</var>[,<var class="var">opt2</var>=<var class="var">val2</var>]...]</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Show autodetected sinks of the output device.
Some devices may provide system-dependent sink names that cannot be autodetected.
The returned list cannot be assumed to be always complete.
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -sinks pulse,server=192.168.0.4
</pre></div>

</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-loglevel [<var class="var">flags</var>+]<var class="var">loglevel</var> | -v [<var class="var">flags</var>+]<var class="var">loglevel</var></samp></dt>
<dd><p>Set logging level and flags used by the library.
</p>
<p>The optional <var class="var">flags</var> prefix can consist of the following values:
</p><dl class="table">
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">repeat</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><p>Indicates that repeated log output should not be compressed to the first line
and the &quot;Last message repeated n times&quot; line will be omitted.
</p></dd>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">level</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><p>Indicates that log output should add a <code class="code">[level]</code> prefix to each message
line. This can be used as an alternative to log coloring, e.g. when dumping the
log to file.
</p></dd>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">time</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><p>Indicates that log lines should be prefixed with time information.
</p></dd>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">datetime</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><p>Indicates that log lines should be prefixed with date and time information.
</p></dd>
</dl>
<p>Flags can also be used alone by adding a &rsquo;+&rsquo;/&rsquo;-&rsquo; prefix to set/reset a single
flag without affecting other <var class="var">flags</var> or changing <var class="var">loglevel</var>. When
setting both <var class="var">flags</var> and <var class="var">loglevel</var>, a &rsquo;+&rsquo; separator is expected
between the last <var class="var">flags</var> value and before <var class="var">loglevel</var>.
</p>
<p><var class="var">loglevel</var> is a string or a number containing one of the following values:
</p><dl class="table">
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">quiet, -8</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><p>Show nothing at all; be silent.
</p></dd>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">panic, 0</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><p>Only show fatal errors which could lead the process to crash, such as
an assertion failure. This is not currently used for anything.
</p></dd>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">fatal, 8</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><p>Only show fatal errors. These are errors after which the process absolutely
cannot continue.
</p></dd>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">error, 16</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><p>Show all errors, including ones which can be recovered from.
</p></dd>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">warning, 24</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><p>Show all warnings and errors. Any message related to possibly
incorrect or unexpected events will be shown.
</p></dd>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">info, 32</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><p>Show informative messages during processing. This is in addition to
warnings and errors. This is the default value.
</p></dd>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">verbose, 40</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><p>Same as <code class="code">info</code>, except more verbose.
</p></dd>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">debug, 48</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><p>Show everything, including debugging information.
</p></dd>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">trace, 56</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
</dl>

<p>For example to enable repeated log output, add the <code class="code">level</code> prefix, and set
<var class="var">loglevel</var> to <code class="code">verbose</code>:
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -loglevel repeat+level+verbose -i input output
</pre></div>
<p>Another example that enables repeated log output without affecting current
state of <code class="code">level</code> prefix flag or <var class="var">loglevel</var>:
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg [...] -loglevel +repeat
</pre></div>

<p>By default the program logs to stderr. If coloring is supported by the
terminal, colors are used to mark errors and warnings. Log coloring
can be disabled setting the environment variable
<code class="env">AV_LOG_FORCE_NOCOLOR</code>, or can be forced setting
the environment variable <code class="env">AV_LOG_FORCE_COLOR</code>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-report</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Dump full command line and log output to a file named
<code class="code"><var class="var">program</var>-<var class="var">YYYYMMDD</var>-<var class="var">HHMMSS</var>.log</code> in the current
directory.
This file can be useful for bug reports.
It also implies <code class="code">-loglevel debug</code>.
</p>
<p>Setting the environment variable <code class="env">FFREPORT</code> to any value has the
same effect. If the value is a &rsquo;:&rsquo;-separated key=value sequence, these
options will affect the report; option values must be escaped if they
contain special characters or the options delimiter &rsquo;:&rsquo; (see the
&ldquo;Quoting and escaping&rdquo; section in the ffmpeg-utils manual).
</p>
<p>The following options are recognized:
</p><dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option">file</samp></dt>
<dd><p>set the file name to use for the report; <code class="code">%p</code> is expanded to the name
of the program, <code class="code">%t</code> is expanded to a timestamp, <code class="code">%%</code> is expanded
to a plain <code class="code">%</code>
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">level</samp></dt>
<dd><p>set the log verbosity level using a numerical value (see <code class="code">-loglevel</code>).
</p></dd>
</dl>

<p>For example, to output a report to a file named <samp class="file">ffreport.log</samp>
using a log level of <code class="code">32</code> (alias for log level <code class="code">info</code>):
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">FFREPORT=file=ffreport.log:level=32 ffmpeg -i input output
</pre></div>

<p>Errors in parsing the environment variable are not fatal, and will not
appear in the report.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-hide_banner</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Suppress printing banner.
</p>
<p>All FFmpeg tools will normally show a copyright notice, build options
and library versions. This option can be used to suppress printing
this information.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-cpuflags flags (<em class="emph">global</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Allows setting and clearing cpu flags. This option is intended
for testing. Do not use it unless you know what you&rsquo;re doing.
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -cpuflags -sse+mmx ...
ffmpeg -cpuflags mmx ...
ffmpeg -cpuflags 0 ...
</pre></div>
<p>Possible flags for this option are:
</p><dl class="table">
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">x86</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><dl class="table">
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">mmx</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">mmxext</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">sse</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">sse2</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">sse2slow</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">sse3</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">sse3slow</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">ssse3</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">atom</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">sse4.1</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">sse4.2</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">avx</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">avx2</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">xop</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">fma3</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">fma4</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">3dnow</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">3dnowext</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">bmi1</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">bmi2</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">cmov</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">ARM</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><dl class="table">
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">armv5te</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">armv6</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">armv6t2</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">vfp</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">vfpv3</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">neon</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">setend</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">AArch64</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><dl class="table">
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">armv8</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">vfp</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">neon</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">PowerPC</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><dl class="table">
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">altivec</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">Specific Processors</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><dl class="table">
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">pentium2</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">pentium3</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">pentium4</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">k6</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">k62</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">athlon</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">athlonxp</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">k8</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
</dl>
</dd>
</dl>

</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-cpucount <var class="var">count</var> (<em class="emph">global</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Override detection of CPU count. This option is intended
for testing. Do not use it unless you know what you&rsquo;re doing.
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -cpucount 2
</pre></div>

</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-max_alloc <var class="var">bytes</var></samp></dt>
<dd><p>Set the maximum size limit for allocating a block on the heap by ffmpeg&rsquo;s
family of malloc functions. Exercise <strong class="strong">extreme caution</strong> when using
this option. Don&rsquo;t use if you do not understand the full consequence of doing so.
Default is INT_MAX.
</p></dd>
</dl>

<a name="AVOptions"></a>
<h3 class="section">5.3 AVOptions<span class="pull-right"><a class="anchor hidden-xs" href="#AVOptions" aria-hidden="true">#</a> <a class="anchor hidden-xs"href="#toc-AVOptions" aria-hidden="true">TOC</a></span></h3>

<p>These options are provided directly by the libavformat, libavdevice and
libavcodec libraries. To see the list of available AVOptions, use the
<samp class="option">-help</samp> option. They are separated into two categories:
</p><dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option">generic</samp></dt>
<dd><p>These options can be set for any container, codec or device. Generic options
are listed under AVFormatContext options for containers/devices and under
AVCodecContext options for codecs.
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">private</samp></dt>
<dd><p>These options are specific to the given container, device or codec. Private
options are listed under their corresponding containers/devices/codecs.
</p></dd>
</dl>

<p>For example to write an ID3v2.3 header instead of a default ID3v2.4 to
an MP3 file, use the <samp class="option">id3v2_version</samp> private option of the MP3
muxer:
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i input.flac -id3v2_version 3 out.mp3
</pre></div>

<p>All codec AVOptions are per-stream, and thus a stream specifier
should be attached to them:
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i multichannel.mxf -map 0:v:0 -map 0:a:0 -map 0:a:0 -c:a:0 ac3 -b:a:0 640k -ac:a:1 2 -c:a:1 aac -b:2 128k out.mp4
</pre></div>

<p>In the above example, a multichannel audio stream is mapped twice for output.
The first instance is encoded with codec ac3 and bitrate 640k.
The second instance is downmixed to 2 channels and encoded with codec aac. A bitrate of 128k is specified for it using
absolute index of the output stream.
</p>
<p>Note: the <samp class="option">-nooption</samp> syntax cannot be used for boolean
AVOptions, use <samp class="option">-option 0</samp>/<samp class="option">-option 1</samp>.
</p>
<p>Note: the old undocumented way of specifying per-stream AVOptions by
prepending v/a/s to the options name is now obsolete and will be
removed soon.
</p>
<a name="Main-options"></a>
<h3 class="section">5.4 Main options<span class="pull-right"><a class="anchor hidden-xs" href="#Main-options" aria-hidden="true">#</a> <a class="anchor hidden-xs"href="#toc-Main-options" aria-hidden="true">TOC</a></span></h3>

<dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option">-f <var class="var">fmt</var> (<em class="emph">input/output</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Force input or output file format. The format is normally auto detected for input
files and guessed from the file extension for output files, so this option is not
needed in most cases.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-i <var class="var">url</var> (<em class="emph">input</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>input file url
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-y (<em class="emph">global</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Overwrite output files without asking.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-n (<em class="emph">global</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Do not overwrite output files, and exit immediately if a specified
output file already exists.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-stream_loop <var class="var">number</var> (<em class="emph">input</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Set number of times input stream shall be looped. Loop 0 means no loop,
loop -1 means infinite loop.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-recast_media (<em class="emph">global</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Allow forcing a decoder of a different media type than the one
detected or designated by the demuxer. Useful for decoding media
data muxed as data streams.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-c[:<var class="var">stream_specifier</var>] <var class="var">codec</var> (<em class="emph">input/output,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dt><samp class="option">-codec[:<var class="var">stream_specifier</var>] <var class="var">codec</var> (<em class="emph">input/output,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Select an encoder (when used before an output file) or a decoder (when used
before an input file) for one or more streams. <var class="var">codec</var> is the name of a
decoder/encoder or a special value <code class="code">copy</code> (output only) to indicate that
the stream is not to be re-encoded.
</p>
<p>For example
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i INPUT -map 0 -c:v libx264 -c:a copy OUTPUT
</pre></div>
<p>encodes all video streams with libx264 and copies all audio streams.
</p>
<p>For each stream, the last matching <code class="code">c</code> option is applied, so
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i INPUT -map 0 -c copy -c:v:1 libx264 -c:a:137 libvorbis OUTPUT
</pre></div>
<p>will copy all the streams except the second video, which will be encoded with
libx264, and the 138th audio, which will be encoded with libvorbis.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-t <var class="var">duration</var> (<em class="emph">input/output</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>When used as an input option (before <code class="code">-i</code>), limit the <var class="var">duration</var> of
data read from the input file.
</p>
<p>When used as an output option (before an output url), stop writing the
output after its duration reaches <var class="var">duration</var>.
</p>
<p><var class="var">duration</var> must be a time duration specification,
see <a data-manual="ffmpeg-utils" href="./ffmpeg-utils.html#time-duration-syntax">the Time duration section in the ffmpeg-utils(1) manual</a>.
</p>
<p>-to and -t are mutually exclusive and -t has priority.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-to <var class="var">position</var> (<em class="emph">input/output</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Stop writing the output or reading the input at <var class="var">position</var>.
<var class="var">position</var> must be a time duration specification,
see <a data-manual="ffmpeg-utils" href="./ffmpeg-utils.html#time-duration-syntax">the Time duration section in the ffmpeg-utils(1) manual</a>.
</p>
<p>-to and -t are mutually exclusive and -t has priority.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-fs <var class="var">limit_size</var> (<em class="emph">output</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Set the file size limit, expressed in bytes. No further chunk of bytes is written
after the limit is exceeded. The size of the output file is slightly more than the
requested file size.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-ss <var class="var">position</var> (<em class="emph">input/output</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>When used as an input option (before <code class="code">-i</code>), seeks in this input file to
<var class="var">position</var>. Note that in most formats it is not possible to seek exactly,
so <code class="command">ffmpeg</code> will seek to the closest seek point before <var class="var">position</var>.
When transcoding and <samp class="option">-accurate_seek</samp> is enabled (the default), this
extra segment between the seek point and <var class="var">position</var> will be decoded and
discarded. When doing stream copy or when <samp class="option">-noaccurate_seek</samp> is used, it
will be preserved.
</p>
<p>When used as an output option (before an output url), decodes but discards
input until the timestamps reach <var class="var">position</var>.
</p>
<p><var class="var">position</var> must be a time duration specification,
see <a data-manual="ffmpeg-utils" href="./ffmpeg-utils.html#time-duration-syntax">the Time duration section in the ffmpeg-utils(1) manual</a>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-sseof <var class="var">position</var> (<em class="emph">input</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd>
<p>Like the <code class="code">-ss</code> option but relative to the &quot;end of file&quot;. That is negative
values are earlier in the file, 0 is at EOF.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-isync <var class="var">input_index</var> (<em class="emph">input</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Assign an input as a sync source.
</p>
<p>This will take the difference between the start times of the target and reference inputs and
offset the timestamps of the target file by that difference. The source timestamps of the two
inputs should derive from the same clock source for expected results. If <code class="code">copyts</code> is set
then <code class="code">start_at_zero</code> must also be set. If either of the inputs has no starting timestamp
then no sync adjustment is made.
</p>
<p>Acceptable values are those that refer to a valid ffmpeg input index. If the sync reference is
the target index itself or <var class="var">-1</var>, then no adjustment is made to target timestamps. A sync
reference may not itself be synced to any other input.
</p>
<p>Default value is <var class="var">-1</var>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-itsoffset <var class="var">offset</var> (<em class="emph">input</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Set the input time offset.
</p>
<p><var class="var">offset</var> must be a time duration specification,
see <a data-manual="ffmpeg-utils" href="./ffmpeg-utils.html#time-duration-syntax">the Time duration section in the ffmpeg-utils(1) manual</a>.
</p>
<p>The offset is added to the timestamps of the input files. Specifying
a positive offset means that the corresponding streams are delayed by
the time duration specified in <var class="var">offset</var>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-itsscale <var class="var">scale</var> (<em class="emph">input,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Rescale input timestamps. <var class="var">scale</var> should be a floating point number.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-timestamp <var class="var">date</var> (<em class="emph">output</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Set the recording timestamp in the container.
</p>
<p><var class="var">date</var> must be a date specification,
see <a data-manual="ffmpeg-utils" href="./ffmpeg-utils.html#date-syntax">the Date section in the ffmpeg-utils(1) manual</a>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-metadata[:metadata_specifier] <var class="var">key</var>=<var class="var">value</var> (<em class="emph">output,per-metadata</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Set a metadata key/value pair.
</p>
<p>An optional <var class="var">metadata_specifier</var> may be given to set metadata
on streams, chapters or programs. See <code class="code">-map_metadata</code>
documentation for details.
</p>
<p>This option overrides metadata set with <code class="code">-map_metadata</code>. It is
also possible to delete metadata by using an empty value.
</p>
<p>For example, for setting the title in the output file:
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i in.avi -metadata title=&quot;my title&quot; out.flv
</pre></div>

<p>To set the language of the first audio stream:
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i INPUT -metadata:s:a:0 language=eng OUTPUT
</pre></div>

</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-disposition[:stream_specifier] <var class="var">value</var> (<em class="emph">output,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Sets the disposition flags for a stream.
</p>
<p>Default value: by default, all disposition flags are copied from the input stream,
unless the output stream this option applies to is fed by a complex filtergraph
- in that case no disposition flags are set by default.
</p>
<p><var class="var">value</var> is a sequence of disposition flags separated by &rsquo;+&rsquo; or &rsquo;-&rsquo;. A &rsquo;+&rsquo;
prefix adds the given disposition, &rsquo;-&rsquo; removes it. If the first flag is also
prefixed with &rsquo;+&rsquo; or &rsquo;-&rsquo;, the resulting disposition is the default value
updated by <var class="var">value</var>. If the first flag is not prefixed, the resulting
disposition is <var class="var">value</var>. It is also possible to clear the disposition by
setting it to 0.
</p>
<p>If no <code class="code">-disposition</code> options were specified for an output file, ffmpeg will
automatically set the &rsquo;default&rsquo; disposition flag on the first stream of each type,
when there are multiple streams of this type in the output file and no stream of
that type is already marked as default.
</p>
<p>The <code class="code">-dispositions</code> option lists the known disposition flags.
</p>
<p>For example, to make the second audio stream the default stream:
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i in.mkv -c copy -disposition:a:1 default out.mkv
</pre></div>

<p>To make the second subtitle stream the default stream and remove the default
disposition from the first subtitle stream:
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i in.mkv -c copy -disposition:s:0 0 -disposition:s:1 default out.mkv
</pre></div>

<p>To add an embedded cover/thumbnail:
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -i IMAGE -map 0 -map 1 -c copy -c:v:1 png -disposition:v:1 attached_pic out.mp4
</pre></div>

<p>To add the &rsquo;original&rsquo; and remove the &rsquo;comment&rsquo; disposition flag from the first
audio stream without removing its other disposition flags:
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i in.mkv -c copy -disposition:a:0 +original-comment out.mkv
</pre></div>

<p>To remove the &rsquo;original&rsquo; and add the &rsquo;comment&rsquo; disposition flag to the first
audio stream without removing its other disposition flags:
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i in.mkv -c copy -disposition:a:0 -original+comment out.mkv
</pre></div>

<p>To set only the &rsquo;original&rsquo; and &rsquo;comment&rsquo; disposition flags on the first audio
stream (and remove its other disposition flags):
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i in.mkv -c copy -disposition:a:0 original+comment out.mkv
</pre></div>

<p>To remove all disposition flags from the first audio stream:
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i in.mkv -c copy -disposition:a:0 0 out.mkv
</pre></div>

<p>Not all muxers support embedded thumbnails, and those who do, only support a few formats, like JPEG or PNG.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-program [title=<var class="var">title</var>:][program_num=<var class="var">program_num</var>:]st=<var class="var">stream</var>[:st=<var class="var">stream</var>...] (<em class="emph">output</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd>
<p>Creates a program with the specified <var class="var">title</var>, <var class="var">program_num</var> and adds the specified
<var class="var">stream</var>(s) to it.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-stream_group [map=<var class="var">input_file_id</var>=<var class="var">stream_group</var>][type=<var class="var">type</var>:]st=<var class="var">stream</var>[:st=<var class="var">stream</var>][:stg=<var class="var">stream_group</var>][:id=<var class="var">stream_group_id</var>...] (<em class="emph">output</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd>
<p>Creates a stream group of the specified <var class="var">type</var> and <var class="var">stream_group_id</var>, or by
<var class="var">map</var>ping an input group, adding the specified <var class="var">stream</var>(s) and/or previously
defined <var class="var">stream_group</var>(s) to it.
</p>
<p><var class="var">type</var> can be one of the following:
</p><dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option">iamf_audio_element</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Groups <var class="var">stream</var>s that belong to the same IAMF Audio Element
</p>
<p>For this group <var class="var">type</var>, the following options are available
</p><dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option">audio_element_type</samp></dt>
<dd><p>The Audio Element type. The following values are supported:
</p>
<dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option">channel</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Scalable channel audio representation
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">scene</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Ambisonics representation
</p></dd>
</dl>

</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">demixing</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Demixing information used to reconstruct a scalable channel audio representation.
This option must be separated from the rest with a &rsquo;,&rsquo;, and takes the following
key=value options
</p>
<dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option">parameter_id</samp></dt>
<dd><p>An identifier parameters blocks in frames may refer to
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">dmixp_mode</samp></dt>
<dd><p>A pre-defined combination of demixing parameters
</p></dd>
</dl>

</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">recon_gain</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Recon gain information used to reconstruct a scalable channel audio representation.
This option must be separated from the rest with a &rsquo;,&rsquo;, and takes the following
key=value options
</p>
<dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option">parameter_id</samp></dt>
<dd><p>An identifier parameters blocks in frames may refer to
</p></dd>
</dl>

</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">layer</samp></dt>
<dd><p>A layer defining a Channel Layout in the Audio Element.
This option must be separated from the rest with a &rsquo;,&rsquo;. Several &rsquo;,&rsquo; separated entries
can be defined, and at least one must be set.
</p>
<p>It takes the following &quot;:&quot;-separated key=value options
</p>
<dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option">ch_layout</samp></dt>
<dd><p>The layer&rsquo;s channel layout
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">flags</samp></dt>
<dd><p>The following flags are available:
</p>
<dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option">recon_gain</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Whether to signal if recon_gain is present as metadata in parameter blocks within frames
</p></dd>
</dl>

</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">output_gain</samp></dt>
<dt><samp class="option">output_gain_flags</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Which channels output_gain applies to. The following flags are available:
</p>
<dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option">FL</samp></dt>
<dt><samp class="option">FR</samp></dt>
<dt><samp class="option">BL</samp></dt>
<dt><samp class="option">BR</samp></dt>
<dt><samp class="option">TFL</samp></dt>
<dt><samp class="option">TFR</samp></dt>
</dl>

</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">ambisonics_mode</samp></dt>
<dd><p>The ambisonics mode. This has no effect if audio_element_type is set to channel.
</p>
<p>The following values are supported:
</p>
<dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option">mono</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Each ambisonics channel is coded as an individual mono stream in the group
</p></dd>
</dl>

</dd>
</dl>

</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">default_w</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Default weight value
</p>
</dd>
</dl>

</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">iamf_mix_presentation</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Groups <var class="var">stream</var>s that belong to all IAMF Audio Element the same
IAMF Mix Presentation references
</p>
<p>For this group <var class="var">type</var>, the following options are available
</p>
<dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option">submix</samp></dt>
<dd><p>A sub-mix within the Mix Presentation.
This option must be separated from the rest with a &rsquo;,&rsquo;. Several &rsquo;,&rsquo; separated entries
can be defined, and at least one must be set.
</p>
<p>It takes the following &quot;:&quot;-separated key=value options
</p>
<dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option">parameter_id</samp></dt>
<dd><p>An identifier parameters blocks in frames may refer to, for post-processing the mixed
audio signal to generate the audio signal for playback
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">parameter_rate</samp></dt>
<dd><p>The sample rate duration fields in parameters blocks in frames that refer to this
<var class="var">parameter_id</var> are expressed as
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">default_mix_gain</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Default mix gain value to apply when there are no parameter blocks sharing the same
<var class="var">parameter_id</var> for a given frame
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">element</samp></dt>
<dd><p>References an Audio Element used in this Mix Presentation to generate the final output
audio signal for playback.
This option must be separated from the rest with a &rsquo;|&rsquo;. Several &rsquo;|&rsquo; separated entries
can be defined, and at least one must be set.
</p>
<p>It takes the following &quot;:&quot;-separated key=value options:
</p>
<dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option">stg</samp></dt>
<dd><p>The <var class="var">stream_group_id</var> for an Audio Element which this sub-mix refers to
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">parameter_id</samp></dt>
<dd><p>An identifier parameters blocks in frames may refer to, for applying any processing to
the referenced and rendered Audio Element before being summed with other processed Audio
Elements
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">parameter_rate</samp></dt>
<dd><p>The sample rate duration fields in parameters blocks in frames that refer to this
<var class="var">parameter_id</var> are expressed as
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">default_mix_gain</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Default mix gain value to apply when there are no parameter blocks sharing the same
<var class="var">parameter_id</var> for a given frame
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">annotations</samp></dt>
<dd><p>A key=value string describing the sub-mix element where &quot;key&quot; is a string conforming to
BCP-47 that specifies the language for the &quot;value&quot; string. &quot;key&quot; must be the same as the
one in the mix&rsquo;s <var class="var">annotations</var>
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">headphones_rendering_mode</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Indicates whether the input channel-based Audio Element is rendered to stereo loudspeakers
or spatialized with a binaural renderer when played back on headphones.
This has no effect if the referenced Audio Element&rsquo;s <var class="var">audio_element_type</var> is set to
channel.
</p>
<p>The following values are supported:
</p>
<dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option">stereo</samp></dt>
<dt><samp class="option">binaural</samp></dt>
</dl>

</dd>
</dl>

</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">layout</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Specifies the layouts for this sub-mix on which the loudness information was measured.
This option must be separated from the rest with a &rsquo;|&rsquo;. Several &rsquo;|&rsquo; separated entries
can be defined, and at least one must be set.
</p>
<p>It takes the following &quot;:&quot;-separated key=value options:
</p>
<dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option">layout_type</samp></dt>
<dd>
<dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option">loudspeakers</samp></dt>
<dd><p>The layout follows the loudspeaker sound system convention of ITU-2051-3.
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">binaural</samp></dt>
<dd><p>The layout is binaural.
</p></dd>
</dl>

</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">sound_system</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Channel layout matching one of Sound Systems A to J of ITU-2051-3, plus 7.1.2 and 3.1.2
This has no effect if <var class="var">layout_type</var> is set to binaural.
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">integrated_loudness</samp></dt>
<dd><p>The program integrated loudness information, as defined in ITU-1770-4.
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">digital_peak</samp></dt>
<dd><p>The digital (sampled) peak value of the audio signal, as defined in ITU-1770-4.
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">true_peak</samp></dt>
<dd><p>The true peak of the audio signal, as defined in ITU-1770-4.
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">dialog_anchored_loudness</samp></dt>
<dd><p>The Dialogue loudness information, as defined in ITU-1770-4.
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">album_anchored_loudness</samp></dt>
<dd><p>The Album loudness information, as defined in ITU-1770-4.
</p></dd>
</dl>

</dd>
</dl>

</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">annotations</samp></dt>
<dd><p>A key=value string string describing the mix where &quot;key&quot; is a string conforming to BCP-47
that specifies the language for the &quot;value&quot; string. &quot;key&quot; must be the same as the ones in
all sub-mix element&rsquo;s <var class="var">annotations</var>s
</p></dd>
</dl>

</dd>
</dl>

<p>E.g. to create an scalable 5.1 IAMF file from several WAV input files
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i front.wav -i back.wav -i center.wav -i lfe.wav
-map 0:0 -map 1:0 -map 2:0 -map 3:0 -c:a opus
-stream_group type=iamf_audio_element:id=1:st=0:st=1:st=2:st=3,
demixing=parameter_id=998,
recon_gain=parameter_id=101,
layer=ch_layout=stereo,
layer=ch_layout=5.1(side),
-stream_group type=iamf_mix_presentation:id=2:stg=0:annotations=en-us=Mix_Presentation,
submix=parameter_id=100:parameter_rate=48000|element=stg=0:parameter_id=100:annotations=en-us=Scalable_Submix|layout=sound_system=stereo|layout=sound_system=5.1(side)
-streamid 0:0 -streamid 1:1 -streamid 2:2 -streamid 3:3 output.iamf
</pre></div>

<p>To copy the two stream groups (Audio Element and Mix Presentation) from an input IAMF file with four
streams into an mp4 output
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i input.iamf -c:a copy -stream_group map=0=0:st=0:st=1:st=2:st=3 -stream_group map=0=1:stg=0
-streamid 0:0 -streamid 1:1 -streamid 2:2 -streamid 3:3 output.mp4
</pre></div>

</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-target <var class="var">type</var> (<em class="emph">output</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Specify target file type (<code class="code">vcd</code>, <code class="code">svcd</code>, <code class="code">dvd</code>, <code class="code">dv</code>,
<code class="code">dv50</code>). <var class="var">type</var> may be prefixed with <code class="code">pal-</code>, <code class="code">ntsc-</code> or
<code class="code">film-</code> to use the corresponding standard. All the format options
(bitrate, codecs, buffer sizes) are then set automatically. You can just type:
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i myfile.avi -target vcd /tmp/vcd.mpg
</pre></div>

<p>Nevertheless you can specify additional options as long as you know
they do not conflict with the standard, as in:
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i myfile.avi -target vcd -bf 2 /tmp/vcd.mpg
</pre></div>

<p>The parameters set for each target are as follows.
</p>
<p><strong class="strong">VCD</strong>
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted"><var class="var">pal</var>:
-f vcd -muxrate 1411200 -muxpreload 0.44 -packetsize 2324
-s 352x288 -r 25
-codec:v mpeg1video -g 15 -b:v 1150k -maxrate:v 1150k -minrate:v 1150k -bufsize:v 327680
-ar 44100 -ac 2
-codec:a mp2 -b:a 224k

<var class="var">ntsc</var>:
-f vcd -muxrate 1411200 -muxpreload 0.44 -packetsize 2324
-s 352x240 -r 30000/1001
-codec:v mpeg1video -g 18 -b:v 1150k -maxrate:v 1150k -minrate:v 1150k -bufsize:v 327680
-ar 44100 -ac 2
-codec:a mp2 -b:a 224k

<var class="var">film</var>:
-f vcd -muxrate 1411200 -muxpreload 0.44 -packetsize 2324
-s 352x240 -r 24000/1001
-codec:v mpeg1video -g 18 -b:v 1150k -maxrate:v 1150k -minrate:v 1150k -bufsize:v 327680
-ar 44100 -ac 2
-codec:a mp2 -b:a 224k
</pre></div>

<p><strong class="strong">SVCD</strong>
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted"><var class="var">pal</var>:
-f svcd -packetsize 2324
-s 480x576 -pix_fmt yuv420p -r 25
-codec:v mpeg2video -g 15 -b:v 2040k -maxrate:v 2516k -minrate:v 0 -bufsize:v 1835008 -scan_offset 1
-ar 44100
-codec:a mp2 -b:a 224k

<var class="var">ntsc</var>:
-f svcd -packetsize 2324
-s 480x480 -pix_fmt yuv420p -r 30000/1001
-codec:v mpeg2video -g 18 -b:v 2040k -maxrate:v 2516k -minrate:v 0 -bufsize:v 1835008 -scan_offset 1
-ar 44100
-codec:a mp2 -b:a 224k

<var class="var">film</var>:
-f svcd -packetsize 2324
-s 480x480 -pix_fmt yuv420p -r 24000/1001
-codec:v mpeg2video -g 18 -b:v 2040k -maxrate:v 2516k -minrate:v 0 -bufsize:v 1835008 -scan_offset 1
-ar 44100
-codec:a mp2 -b:a 224k
</pre></div>

<p><strong class="strong">DVD</strong>
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted"><var class="var">pal</var>:
-f dvd -muxrate 10080k -packetsize 2048
-s 720x576 -pix_fmt yuv420p -r 25
-codec:v mpeg2video -g 15 -b:v 6000k -maxrate:v 9000k -minrate:v 0 -bufsize:v 1835008
-ar 48000
-codec:a ac3 -b:a 448k

<var class="var">ntsc</var>:
-f dvd -muxrate 10080k -packetsize 2048
-s 720x480 -pix_fmt yuv420p -r 30000/1001
-codec:v mpeg2video -g 18 -b:v 6000k -maxrate:v 9000k -minrate:v 0 -bufsize:v 1835008
-ar 48000
-codec:a ac3 -b:a 448k

<var class="var">film</var>:
-f dvd -muxrate 10080k -packetsize 2048
-s 720x480 -pix_fmt yuv420p -r 24000/1001
-codec:v mpeg2video -g 18 -b:v 6000k -maxrate:v 9000k -minrate:v 0 -bufsize:v 1835008
-ar 48000
-codec:a ac3 -b:a 448k
</pre></div>

<p><strong class="strong">DV</strong>
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted"><var class="var">pal</var>:
-f dv
-s 720x576 -pix_fmt yuv420p -r 25
-ar 48000 -ac 2

<var class="var">ntsc</var>:
-f dv
-s 720x480 -pix_fmt yuv411p -r 30000/1001
-ar 48000 -ac 2

<var class="var">film</var>:
-f dv
-s 720x480 -pix_fmt yuv411p -r 24000/1001
-ar 48000 -ac 2
</pre></div>
<p>The <code class="code">dv50</code> target is identical to the <code class="code">dv</code> target except that the pixel format set is <code class="code">yuv422p</code> for all three standards.
</p>
<p>Any user-set value for a parameter above will override the target preset value. In that case, the output may
not comply with the target standard.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-dn (<em class="emph">input/output</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>As an input option, blocks all data streams of a file from being filtered or
being automatically selected or mapped for any output. See <code class="code">-discard</code>
option to disable streams individually.
</p>
<p>As an output option, disables data recording i.e. automatic selection or
mapping of any data stream. For full manual control see the <code class="code">-map</code>
option.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-dframes <var class="var">number</var> (<em class="emph">output</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Set the number of data frames to output. This is an obsolete alias for
<code class="code">-frames:d</code>, which you should use instead.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-frames[:<var class="var">stream_specifier</var>] <var class="var">framecount</var> (<em class="emph">output,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Stop writing to the stream after <var class="var">framecount</var> frames.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-q[:<var class="var">stream_specifier</var>] <var class="var">q</var> (<em class="emph">output,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dt><samp class="option">-qscale[:<var class="var">stream_specifier</var>] <var class="var">q</var> (<em class="emph">output,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Use fixed quality scale (VBR). The meaning of <var class="var">q</var>/<var class="var">qscale</var> is
codec-dependent.
If <var class="var">qscale</var> is used without a <var class="var">stream_specifier</var> then it applies only
to the video stream, this is to maintain compatibility with previous behavior
and as specifying the same codec specific value to 2 different codecs that is
audio and video generally is not what is intended when no stream_specifier is
used.
</p>
<a class="anchor" id="filter_005foption"></a></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-filter[:<var class="var">stream_specifier</var>] <var class="var">filtergraph</var> (<em class="emph">output,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Create the filtergraph specified by <var class="var">filtergraph</var> and use it to
filter the stream.
</p>
<p><var class="var">filtergraph</var> is a description of the filtergraph to apply to
the stream, and must have a single input and a single output of the
same type of the stream. In the filtergraph, the input is associated
to the label <code class="code">in</code>, and the output to the label <code class="code">out</code>. See
the ffmpeg-filters manual for more information about the filtergraph
syntax.
</p>
<p>See the <a class="ref" href="#filter_005fcomplex_005foption">-filter_complex option</a> if you
want to create filtergraphs with multiple inputs and/or outputs.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-reinit_filter[:<var class="var">stream_specifier</var>] <var class="var">integer</var> (<em class="emph">input,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>This boolean option determines if the filtergraph(s) to which this stream is fed gets
reinitialized when input frame parameters change mid-stream. This option is enabled by
default as most video and all audio filters cannot handle deviation in input frame properties.
Upon reinitialization, existing filter state is lost, like e.g. the frame count <code class="code">n</code>
reference available in some filters. Any frames buffered at time of reinitialization are lost.
The properties where a change triggers reinitialization are,
for video, frame resolution or pixel format;
for audio, sample format, sample rate, channel count or channel layout.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-drop_changed[:<var class="var">stream_specifier</var>] <var class="var">integer</var> (<em class="emph">input,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>This boolean option determines whether a frame with differing frame parameters mid-stream
gets dropped instead of leading to filtergraph reinitialization, as that would lead to loss
of filter state. Generally useful to avoid corrupted yet decodable packets in live streaming
inputs. Default is false.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-filter_threads <var class="var">nb_threads</var> (<em class="emph">global</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Defines how many threads are used to process a filter pipeline. Each pipeline
will produce a thread pool with this many threads available for parallel processing.
The default is the number of available CPUs.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-filter_buffered_frames <var class="var">nb_frames</var> (<em class="emph">global</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Defines the maximum number of buffered frames allowed in a filtergraph. Under
normal circumstances, a filtergraph should not buffer more than a few frames,
especially if frames are being fed to it and read from it in a balanced way
(which is the intended behavior in ffmpeg). That said, this option allows you
to limit the total number of frames buffered across all links in a filtergraph.
If more frames are generated, filtering is aborted and an error is returned.
The default value is 0, which means no limit.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-pre[:<var class="var">stream_specifier</var>] <var class="var">preset_name</var> (<em class="emph">output,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Specify the preset for matching stream(s).
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-stats (<em class="emph">global</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Log encoding progress/statistics as &quot;info&quot;-level log (see <code class="code">-loglevel</code>).
It is on by default, to explicitly disable it you need to specify <code class="code">-nostats</code>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-stats_period <var class="var">time</var> (<em class="emph">global</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Set period at which encoding progress/statistics are updated. Default is 0.5 seconds.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-print_graphs (<em class="emph">global</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Prints execution graph details to stderr in the format set via -print_graphs_format.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-print_graphs_file <var class="var">filename</var> (<em class="emph">global</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Writes execution graph details to the specified file in the format set via -print_graphs_format.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-print_graphs_format <var class="var">format</var> (<em class="emph">global</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Sets the output format (available formats are: default, compact, csv, flat, ini, json, xml, mermaid, mermaidhtml)
The default format is json.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-progress <var class="var">url</var> (<em class="emph">global</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Send program-friendly progress information to <var class="var">url</var>.
</p>
<p>Progress information is written periodically and at the end of
the encoding process. It is made of &quot;<var class="var">key</var>=<var class="var">value</var>&quot; lines. <var class="var">key</var>
consists of only alphanumeric characters. The last key of a sequence of
progress information is always &quot;progress&quot; with the value &quot;continue&quot; or &quot;end&quot;.
</p>
<p>The update period is set using <code class="code">-stats_period</code>.
</p>
<p>For example, log progress information to stdout:
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -progress pipe:1 -i in.mkv out.mkv
</pre></div>

<a class="anchor" id="stdin-option"></a></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-stdin</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Enable interaction on standard input. On by default unless standard input is
used as an input. To explicitly disable interaction you need to specify
<code class="code">-nostdin</code>.
</p>
<p>Disabling interaction on standard input is useful, for example, if
ffmpeg is in the background process group. Roughly the same result can
be achieved with <code class="code">ffmpeg ... &lt; /dev/null</code> but it requires a
shell.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-debug_ts (<em class="emph">global</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Print timestamp/latency information. It is off by default. This option is
mostly useful for testing and debugging purposes, and the output
format may change from one version to another, so it should not be
employed by portable scripts.
</p>
<p>See also the option <code class="code">-fdebug ts</code>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-attach <var class="var">filename</var> (<em class="emph">output</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Add an attachment to the output file. This is supported by a few formats
like Matroska for e.g. fonts used in rendering subtitles. Attachments
are implemented as a specific type of stream, so this option will add
a new stream to the file. It is then possible to use per-stream options
on this stream in the usual way. Attachment streams created with this
option will be created after all the other streams (i.e. those created
with <code class="code">-map</code> or automatic mappings).
</p>
<p>Note that for Matroska you also have to set the mimetype metadata tag:
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i INPUT -attach DejaVuSans.ttf -metadata:s:2 mimetype=application/x-truetype-font out.mkv
</pre></div>
<p>(assuming that the attachment stream will be third in the output file).
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-dump_attachment[:<var class="var">stream_specifier</var>] <var class="var">filename</var> (<em class="emph">input,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Extract the matching attachment stream into a file named <var class="var">filename</var>. If
<var class="var">filename</var> is empty, then the value of the <code class="code">filename</code> metadata tag
will be used.
</p>
<p>E.g. to extract the first attachment to a file named &rsquo;out.ttf&rsquo;:
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -dump_attachment:t:0 out.ttf -i INPUT
</pre></div>
<p>To extract all attachments to files determined by the <code class="code">filename</code> tag:
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -dump_attachment:t &quot;&quot; -i INPUT
</pre></div>

<p>Technical note &ndash; attachments are implemented as codec extradata, so this
option can actually be used to extract extradata from any stream, not just
attachments.
</p></dd>
</dl>

<a name="Video-Options"></a>
<h3 class="section">5.5 Video Options<span class="pull-right"><a class="anchor hidden-xs" href="#Video-Options" aria-hidden="true">#</a> <a class="anchor hidden-xs"href="#toc-Video-Options" aria-hidden="true">TOC</a></span></h3>

<dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option">-vframes <var class="var">number</var> (<em class="emph">output</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Set the number of video frames to output. This is an obsolete alias for
<code class="code">-frames:v</code>, which you should use instead.
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-r[:<var class="var">stream_specifier</var>] <var class="var">fps</var> (<em class="emph">input/output,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Set frame rate (Hz value, fraction or abbreviation).
</p>
<p>As an input option, ignore any timestamps stored in the file and instead
generate timestamps assuming constant frame rate <var class="var">fps</var>.
This is not the same as the <samp class="option">-framerate</samp> option used for some input formats
like image2 or v4l2 (it used to be the same in older versions of FFmpeg).
If in doubt use <samp class="option">-framerate</samp> instead of the input option <samp class="option">-r</samp>.
</p>
<p>As an output option:
</p><dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option">video encoding</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Duplicate or drop frames right before encoding them to achieve constant output
frame rate <var class="var">fps</var>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">video streamcopy</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Indicate to the muxer that <var class="var">fps</var> is the stream frame rate. No data is
dropped or duplicated in this case. This may produce invalid files if <var class="var">fps</var>
does not match the actual stream frame rate as determined by packet timestamps.
See also the <code class="code">setts</code> bitstream filter.
</p>
</dd>
</dl>

</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-fpsmax[:<var class="var">stream_specifier</var>] <var class="var">fps</var> (<em class="emph">output,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Set maximum frame rate (Hz value, fraction or abbreviation).
</p>
<p>Clamps output frame rate when output framerate is auto-set and is higher than this value.
Useful in batch processing or when input framerate is wrongly detected as very high.
It cannot be set together with <code class="code">-r</code>. It is ignored during streamcopy.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-s[:<var class="var">stream_specifier</var>] <var class="var">size</var> (<em class="emph">input/output,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Set frame size.
</p>
<p>As an input option, this is a shortcut for the <samp class="option">video_size</samp> private
option, recognized by some demuxers for which the frame size is either not
stored in the file or is configurable &ndash; e.g. raw video or video grabbers.
</p>
<p>As an output option, this inserts the <code class="code">scale</code> video filter to the
<em class="emph">end</em> of the corresponding filtergraph. Please use the <code class="code">scale</code> filter
directly to insert it at the beginning or some other place.
</p>
<p>The format is &lsquo;<samp class="samp">wxh</samp>&rsquo; (default - same as source).
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-aspect[:<var class="var">stream_specifier</var>] <var class="var">aspect</var> (<em class="emph">output,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Set the video display aspect ratio specified by <var class="var">aspect</var>.
</p>
<p><var class="var">aspect</var> can be a floating point number string, or a string of the
form <var class="var">num</var>:<var class="var">den</var>, where <var class="var">num</var> and <var class="var">den</var> are the
numerator and denominator of the aspect ratio. For example &quot;4:3&quot;,
&quot;16:9&quot;, &quot;1.3333&quot;, and &quot;1.7777&quot; are valid argument values.
</p>
<p>If used together with <samp class="option">-vcodec copy</samp>, it will affect the aspect ratio
stored at container level, but not the aspect ratio stored in encoded
frames, if it exists.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-display_rotation[:<var class="var">stream_specifier</var>] <var class="var">rotation</var> (<em class="emph">input,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Set video rotation metadata.
</p>
<p><var class="var">rotation</var> is a decimal number specifying the amount in degree by
which the video should be rotated counter-clockwise before being
displayed.
</p>
<p>This option overrides the rotation/display transform metadata stored in
the file, if any. When the video is being transcoded (rather than
copied) and <code class="code">-autorotate</code> is enabled, the video will be rotated at
the filtering stage. Otherwise, the metadata will be written into the
output file if the muxer supports it.
</p>
<p>If the <code class="code">-display_hflip</code> and/or <code class="code">-display_vflip</code> options are
given, they are applied after the rotation specified by this option.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-display_hflip[:<var class="var">stream_specifier</var>] (<em class="emph">input,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Set whether on display the image should be horizontally flipped.
</p>
<p>See the <code class="code">-display_rotation</code> option for more details.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-display_vflip[:<var class="var">stream_specifier</var>] (<em class="emph">input,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Set whether on display the image should be vertically flipped.
</p>
<p>See the <code class="code">-display_rotation</code> option for more details.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-vn (<em class="emph">input/output</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>As an input option, blocks all video streams of a file from being filtered or
being automatically selected or mapped for any output. See <code class="code">-discard</code>
option to disable streams individually.
</p>
<p>As an output option, disables video recording i.e. automatic selection or
mapping of any video stream. For full manual control see the <code class="code">-map</code>
option.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-vcodec <var class="var">codec</var> (<em class="emph">output</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Set the video codec. This is an alias for <code class="code">-codec:v</code>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-pass[:<var class="var">stream_specifier</var>] <var class="var">n</var> (<em class="emph">output,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Select the pass number (1 or 2). It is used to do two-pass
video encoding. The statistics of the video are recorded in the first
pass into a log file (see also the option -passlogfile),
and in the second pass that log file is used to generate the video
at the exact requested bitrate.
On pass 1, you may just deactivate audio and set output to null,
examples for Windows and Unix:
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i foo.mov -c:v libxvid -pass 1 -an -f rawvideo -y NUL
ffmpeg -i foo.mov -c:v libxvid -pass 1 -an -f rawvideo -y /dev/null
</pre></div>

</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-passlogfile[:<var class="var">stream_specifier</var>] <var class="var">prefix</var> (<em class="emph">output,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Set two-pass log file name prefix to <var class="var">prefix</var>, the default file name
prefix is &ldquo;ffmpeg2pass&rdquo;. The complete file name will be
<samp class="file">PREFIX-N.log</samp>, where N is a number specific to the output
stream
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-vf <var class="var">filtergraph</var> (<em class="emph">output</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Create the filtergraph specified by <var class="var">filtergraph</var> and use it to
filter the stream.
</p>
<p>This is an alias for <code class="code">-filter:v</code>, see the <a class="ref" href="#filter_005foption">-filter option</a>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-autorotate</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Automatically rotate the video according to file metadata. Enabled by
default, use <samp class="option">-noautorotate</samp> to disable it.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-autoscale</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Automatically scale the video according to the resolution of first frame.
Enabled by default, use <samp class="option">-noautoscale</samp> to disable it. When autoscale is
disabled, all output frames of filter graph might not be in the same resolution
and may be inadequate for some encoder/muxer. Therefore, it is not recommended
to disable it unless you really know what you are doing.
Disable autoscale at your own risk.
</p></dd>
</dl>

<a name="Advanced-Video-options"></a>
<h3 class="section">5.6 Advanced Video options<span class="pull-right"><a class="anchor hidden-xs" href="#Advanced-Video-options" aria-hidden="true">#</a> <a class="anchor hidden-xs"href="#toc-Advanced-Video-options" aria-hidden="true">TOC</a></span></h3>

<dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option">-pix_fmt[:<var class="var">stream_specifier</var>] <var class="var">format</var> (<em class="emph">input/output,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Set pixel format. Use <code class="code">-pix_fmts</code> to show all the supported
pixel formats.
If the selected pixel format can not be selected, ffmpeg will print a
warning and select the best pixel format supported by the encoder.
If <var class="var">pix_fmt</var> is prefixed by a <code class="code">+</code>, ffmpeg will exit with an error
if the requested pixel format can not be selected, and automatic conversions
inside filtergraphs are disabled.
If <var class="var">pix_fmt</var> is a single <code class="code">+</code>, ffmpeg selects the same pixel format
as the input (or graph output) and automatic conversions are disabled.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-sws_flags <var class="var">flags</var> (<em class="emph">input/output</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Set default flags for the libswscale library. These flags are used by
automatically inserted <code class="code">scale</code> filters and those within simple
filtergraphs, if not overridden within the filtergraph definition.
</p>
<p>See the <a data-manual="ffmpeg-scaler" href="./ffmpeg-scaler.html#scaler_005foptions">ffmpeg-scaler manual</a> for a list
of scaler options.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-rc_override[:<var class="var">stream_specifier</var>] <var class="var">override</var> (<em class="emph">output,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Rate control override for specific intervals, formatted as &quot;int,int,int&quot;
list separated with slashes. Two first values are the beginning and
end frame numbers, last one is quantizer to use if positive, or quality
factor if negative.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-vstats</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Dump video coding statistics to <samp class="file">vstats_HHMMSS.log</samp>. See the
<a class="ref" href="#vstats_005ffile_005fformat">vstats file format</a> section for the format description.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-vstats_file <var class="var">file</var></samp></dt>
<dd><p>Dump video coding statistics to <var class="var">file</var>. See the
<a class="ref" href="#vstats_005ffile_005fformat">vstats file format</a> section for the format description.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-vstats_version <var class="var">file</var></samp></dt>
<dd><p>Specify which version of the vstats format to use. Default is <code class="code">2</code>. See the
<a class="ref" href="#vstats_005ffile_005fformat">vstats file format</a> section for the format description.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-vtag <var class="var">fourcc/tag</var> (<em class="emph">output</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Force video tag/fourcc. This is an alias for <code class="code">-tag:v</code>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-force_key_frames[:<var class="var">stream_specifier</var>] <var class="var">time</var>[,<var class="var">time</var>...] (<em class="emph">output,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dt><samp class="option">-force_key_frames[:<var class="var">stream_specifier</var>] expr:<var class="var">expr</var> (<em class="emph">output,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dt><samp class="option">-force_key_frames[:<var class="var">stream_specifier</var>] source (<em class="emph">output,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd>
<p><var class="var">force_key_frames</var> can take arguments of the following form:
</p>
<dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option"><var class="var">time</var>[,<var class="var">time</var>...]</samp></dt>
<dd><p>If the argument consists of timestamps, ffmpeg will round the specified times to the nearest
output timestamp as per the encoder time base and force a keyframe at the first frame having
timestamp equal or greater than the computed timestamp. Note that if the encoder time base is too
coarse, then the keyframes may be forced on frames with timestamps lower than the specified time.
The default encoder time base is the inverse of the output framerate but may be set otherwise
via <code class="code">-enc_time_base</code>.
</p>
<p>If one of the times is &quot;<code class="code">chapters</code>[<var class="var">delta</var>]&quot;, it is expanded into
the time of the beginning of all chapters in the file, shifted by
<var class="var">delta</var>, expressed as a time in seconds.
This option can be useful to ensure that a seek point is present at a
chapter mark or any other designated place in the output file.
</p>
<p>For example, to insert a key frame at 5 minutes, plus key frames 0.1 second
before the beginning of every chapter:
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">-force_key_frames 0:05:00,chapters-0.1
</pre></div>

</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">expr:<var class="var">expr</var></samp></dt>
<dd><p>If the argument is prefixed with <code class="code">expr:</code>, the string <var class="var">expr</var>
is interpreted like an expression and is evaluated for each frame. A
key frame is forced in case the evaluation is non-zero.
</p>
<p>The expression in <var class="var">expr</var> can contain the following constants:
</p><dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option">n</samp></dt>
<dd><p>the number of current processed frame, starting from 0
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">n_forced</samp></dt>
<dd><p>the number of forced frames
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">prev_forced_n</samp></dt>
<dd><p>the number of the previous forced frame, it is <code class="code">NAN</code> when no
keyframe was forced yet
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">prev_forced_t</samp></dt>
<dd><p>the time of the previous forced frame, it is <code class="code">NAN</code> when no
keyframe was forced yet
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">t</samp></dt>
<dd><p>the time of the current processed frame
</p></dd>
</dl>

<p>For example to force a key frame every 5 seconds, you can specify:
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">-force_key_frames expr:gte(t,n_forced*5)
</pre></div>

<p>To force a key frame 5 seconds after the time of the last forced one,
starting from second 13:
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">-force_key_frames expr:if(isnan(prev_forced_t),gte(t,13),gte(t,prev_forced_t+5))
</pre></div>

</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">source</samp></dt>
<dd><p>If the argument is <code class="code">source</code>, ffmpeg will force a key frame if
the current frame being encoded is marked as a key frame in its source.
In cases where this particular source frame has to be dropped,
enforce the next available frame to become a key frame instead.
</p>
</dd>
</dl>

<p>Note that forcing too many keyframes is very harmful for the lookahead
algorithms of certain encoders: using fixed-GOP options or similar
would be more efficient.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-apply_cropping[:<var class="var">stream_specifier</var>] <var class="var">source</var> (<em class="emph">input,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Automatically crop the video after decoding according to file metadata.
Default is <em class="emph">all</em>.
</p>
<dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option">none (0)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Don&rsquo;t apply any cropping metadata.
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">all (1)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Apply both codec and container level croppping. This is the default mode.
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">codec (2)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Apply codec level croppping.
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">container (3)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Apply container level croppping.
</p></dd>
</dl>

</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-copyinkf[:<var class="var">stream_specifier</var>] (<em class="emph">output,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>When doing stream copy, copy also non-key frames found at the
beginning.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-init_hw_device <var class="var">type</var>[=<var class="var">name</var>][:<var class="var">device</var>[,<var class="var">key=value</var>...]]</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Initialise a new hardware device of type <var class="var">type</var> called <var class="var">name</var>, using the
given device parameters.
If no name is specified it will receive a default name of the form &quot;<var class="var">type</var>%d&quot;.
</p>
<p>The meaning of <var class="var">device</var> and the following arguments depends on the
device type:
</p><dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option">cuda</samp></dt>
<dd><p><var class="var">device</var> is the number of the CUDA device.
</p>
<p>The following options are recognized:
</p><dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option">primary_ctx</samp></dt>
<dd><p>If set to 1, uses the primary device context instead of creating a new one.
</p></dd>
</dl>

<p>Examples:
</p><dl class="table">
<dt><em class="emph">-init_hw_device cuda:1</em></dt>
<dd><p>Choose the second device on the system.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><em class="emph">-init_hw_device cuda:0,primary_ctx=1</em></dt>
<dd><p>Choose the first device and use the primary device context.
</p></dd>
</dl>

</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">dxva2</samp></dt>
<dd><p><var class="var">device</var> is the number of the Direct3D 9 display adapter.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">d3d11va</samp></dt>
<dd><p><var class="var">device</var> is the number of the Direct3D 11 display adapter.
If not specified, it will attempt to use the default Direct3D 11 display adapter
or the first Direct3D 11 display adapter whose hardware VendorId is specified
by &lsquo;<samp class="samp">vendor_id</samp>&rsquo;.
</p>
<p>Examples:
</p><dl class="table">
<dt><em class="emph">-init_hw_device d3d11va</em></dt>
<dd><p>Create a d3d11va device on the default Direct3D 11 display adapter.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><em class="emph">-init_hw_device d3d11va:1</em></dt>
<dd><p>Create a d3d11va device on the Direct3D 11 display adapter specified by index 1.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><em class="emph">-init_hw_device d3d11va:,vendor_id=0x8086</em></dt>
<dd><p>Create a d3d11va device on the first Direct3D 11 display adapter whose hardware VendorId is 0x8086.
</p></dd>
</dl>

</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">vaapi</samp></dt>
<dd><p><var class="var">device</var> is either an X11 display name, a DRM render node or a DirectX adapter index.
If not specified, it will attempt to open the default X11 display (<em class="emph">$DISPLAY</em>)
and then the first DRM render node (<em class="emph">/dev/dri/renderD128</em>), or the default
DirectX adapter on Windows.
</p>
<p>The following options are recognized:
</p><dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option">kernel_driver</samp></dt>
<dd><p>When <var class="var">device</var> is not specified, use this option to specify the name of the kernel
driver associated with the desired device. This option is available only when
the hardware acceleration method <em class="emph">drm</em> and <em class="emph">vaapi</em> are enabled.
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">vendor_id</samp></dt>
<dd><p>When <var class="var">device</var> and <var class="var">kernel_driver</var> are not specified, use this option to specify
the vendor id associated with the desired device. This option is available only when the
hardware acceleration method <em class="emph">drm</em> and <em class="emph">vaapi</em> are enabled and <em class="emph">kernel_driver</em>
is not specified.
</p></dd>
</dl>

<p>Examples:
</p><dl class="table">
<dt><em class="emph">-init_hw_device vaapi</em></dt>
<dd><p>Create a vaapi device on the default device.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><em class="emph">-init_hw_device vaapi:/dev/dri/renderD129</em></dt>
<dd><p>Create a vaapi device on DRM render node <samp class="file">/dev/dri/renderD129</samp>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><em class="emph">-init_hw_device vaapi:1</em></dt>
<dd><p>Create a vaapi device on DirectX adapter 1.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><em class="emph">-init_hw_device vaapi:,kernel_driver=i915</em></dt>
<dd><p>Create a vaapi device on a device associated with kernel driver &lsquo;<samp class="samp">i915</samp>&rsquo;.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><em class="emph">-init_hw_device vaapi:,vendor_id=0x8086</em></dt>
<dd><p>Create a vaapi device on a device associated with vendor id &lsquo;<samp class="samp">0x8086</samp>&rsquo;.
</p></dd>
</dl>

</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">vdpau</samp></dt>
<dd><p><var class="var">device</var> is an X11 display name.
If not specified, it will attempt to open the default X11 display (<em class="emph">$DISPLAY</em>).
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">qsv</samp></dt>
<dd><p><var class="var">device</var> selects a value in &lsquo;<samp class="samp">MFX_IMPL_*</samp>&rsquo;. Allowed values are:
</p><dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option">auto</samp></dt>
<dt><samp class="option">sw</samp></dt>
<dt><samp class="option">hw</samp></dt>
<dt><samp class="option">auto_any</samp></dt>
<dt><samp class="option">hw_any</samp></dt>
<dt><samp class="option">hw2</samp></dt>
<dt><samp class="option">hw3</samp></dt>
<dt><samp class="option">hw4</samp></dt>
</dl>
<p>If not specified, &lsquo;<samp class="samp">auto_any</samp>&rsquo; is used.
(Note that it may be easier to achieve the desired result for QSV by creating the
platform-appropriate subdevice (&lsquo;<samp class="samp">dxva2</samp>&rsquo; or &lsquo;<samp class="samp">d3d11va</samp>&rsquo; or &lsquo;<samp class="samp">vaapi</samp>&rsquo;) and then deriving a
QSV device from that.)
</p>
<p>The following options are recognized:
</p><dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option">child_device</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Specify a DRM render node on Linux or DirectX adapter on Windows.
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">child_device_type</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Choose platform-appropriate subdevice type. On Windows &lsquo;<samp class="samp">d3d11va</samp>&rsquo; is used
as default subdevice type when <code class="code">--enable-libvpl</code> is specified at configuration time,
&lsquo;<samp class="samp">dxva2</samp>&rsquo; is used as default subdevice type when <code class="code">--enable-libmfx</code> is specified at
configuration time. On Linux user can use &lsquo;<samp class="samp">vaapi</samp>&rsquo; only as subdevice type.
</p></dd>
</dl>

<p>Examples:
</p><dl class="table">
<dt><em class="emph">-init_hw_device qsv:hw,child_device=/dev/dri/renderD129</em></dt>
<dd><p>Create a QSV device with &lsquo;<samp class="samp">MFX_IMPL_HARDWARE</samp>&rsquo; on DRM render node <samp class="file">/dev/dri/renderD129</samp>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><em class="emph">-init_hw_device qsv:hw,child_device=1</em></dt>
<dd><p>Create a QSV device with &lsquo;<samp class="samp">MFX_IMPL_HARDWARE</samp>&rsquo; on DirectX adapter 1.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><em class="emph">-init_hw_device qsv:hw,child_device_type=d3d11va</em></dt>
<dd><p>Choose the GPU subdevice with type &lsquo;<samp class="samp">d3d11va</samp>&rsquo; and create QSV device with &lsquo;<samp class="samp">MFX_IMPL_HARDWARE</samp>&rsquo;.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><em class="emph">-init_hw_device qsv:hw,child_device_type=dxva2</em></dt>
<dd><p>Choose the GPU subdevice with type &lsquo;<samp class="samp">dxva2</samp>&rsquo; and create QSV device with &lsquo;<samp class="samp">MFX_IMPL_HARDWARE</samp>&rsquo;.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><em class="emph">-init_hw_device qsv:hw,child_device=1,child_device_type=d3d11va</em></dt>
<dd><p>Create a QSV device with &lsquo;<samp class="samp">MFX_IMPL_HARDWARE</samp>&rsquo; on DirectX adapter 1 with subdevice type &lsquo;<samp class="samp">d3d11va</samp>&rsquo;.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><em class="emph">-init_hw_device vaapi=va:/dev/dri/renderD129 -init_hw_device qsv=hw1@<var class="var">va</var></em></dt>
<dd><p>Create a VAAPI device called &lsquo;<samp class="samp">va</samp>&rsquo; on <samp class="file">/dev/dri/renderD129</samp>, then derive a QSV device called &lsquo;<samp class="samp">hw1</samp>&rsquo;
from device &lsquo;<samp class="samp">va</samp>&rsquo;.
</p>
</dd>
</dl>

</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">opencl</samp></dt>
<dd><p><var class="var">device</var> selects the platform and device as <em class="emph">platform_index.device_index</em>.
</p>
<p>The set of devices can also be filtered using the key-value pairs to find only
devices matching particular platform or device strings.
</p>
<p>The strings usable as filters are:
</p><dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option">platform_profile</samp></dt>
<dt><samp class="option">platform_version</samp></dt>
<dt><samp class="option">platform_name</samp></dt>
<dt><samp class="option">platform_vendor</samp></dt>
<dt><samp class="option">platform_extensions</samp></dt>
<dt><samp class="option">device_name</samp></dt>
<dt><samp class="option">device_vendor</samp></dt>
<dt><samp class="option">driver_version</samp></dt>
<dt><samp class="option">device_version</samp></dt>
<dt><samp class="option">device_profile</samp></dt>
<dt><samp class="option">device_extensions</samp></dt>
<dt><samp class="option">device_type</samp></dt>
</dl>

<p>The indices and filters must together uniquely select a device.
</p>
<p>Examples:
</p><dl class="table">
<dt><em class="emph">-init_hw_device opencl:0.1</em></dt>
<dd><p>Choose the second device on the first platform.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><em class="emph">-init_hw_device opencl:,device_name=Foo9000</em></dt>
<dd><p>Choose the device with a name containing the string <em class="emph">Foo9000</em>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><em class="emph">-init_hw_device opencl:1,device_type=gpu,device_extensions=cl_khr_fp16</em></dt>
<dd><p>Choose the GPU device on the second platform supporting the <em class="emph">cl_khr_fp16</em>
extension.
</p></dd>
</dl>

</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">vulkan</samp></dt>
<dd><p>If <var class="var">device</var> is an integer, it selects the device by its index in a
system-dependent list of devices.  If <var class="var">device</var> is any other string, it
selects the first device with a name containing that string as a substring.
</p>
<p>The following options are recognized:
</p><dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option">debug</samp></dt>
<dd><p>If set to 1, enables the validation layer, if installed.
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">linear_images</samp></dt>
<dd><p>If set to 1, images allocated by the hwcontext will be linear and locally mappable.
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">instance_extensions</samp></dt>
<dd><p>A plus separated list of additional instance extensions to enable.
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">device_extensions</samp></dt>
<dd><p>A plus separated list of additional device extensions to enable.
</p></dd>
</dl>

<p>Examples:
</p><dl class="table">
<dt><em class="emph">-init_hw_device vulkan:1</em></dt>
<dd><p>Choose the second device on the system.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><em class="emph">-init_hw_device vulkan:RADV</em></dt>
<dd><p>Choose the first device with a name containing the string <em class="emph">RADV</em>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><em class="emph">-init_hw_device vulkan:0,instance_extensions=VK_KHR_wayland_surface+VK_KHR_xcb_surface</em></dt>
<dd><p>Choose the first device and enable the Wayland and XCB instance extensions.
</p></dd>
</dl>

</dd>
</dl>

</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-init_hw_device <var class="var">type</var>[=<var class="var">name</var>]@<var class="var">source</var></samp></dt>
<dd><p>Initialise a new hardware device of type <var class="var">type</var> called <var class="var">name</var>,
deriving it from the existing device with the name <var class="var">source</var>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-init_hw_device list</samp></dt>
<dd><p>List all hardware device types supported in this build of ffmpeg.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-filter_hw_device <var class="var">name</var></samp></dt>
<dd><p>Pass the hardware device called <var class="var">name</var> to all filters in any filter graph.
This can be used to set the device to upload to with the <code class="code">hwupload</code> filter,
or the device to map to with the <code class="code">hwmap</code> filter.  Other filters may also
make use of this parameter when they require a hardware device.  Note that this
is typically only required when the input is not already in hardware frames -
when it is, filters will derive the device they require from the context of the
frames they receive as input.
</p>
<p>This is a global setting, so all filters will receive the same device.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-hwaccel[:<var class="var">stream_specifier</var>] <var class="var">hwaccel</var> (<em class="emph">input,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Use hardware acceleration to decode the matching stream(s). The allowed values
of <var class="var">hwaccel</var> are:
</p><dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option">none</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Do not use any hardware acceleration (the default).
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">auto</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Automatically select the hardware acceleration method.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">vdpau</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Use VDPAU (Video Decode and Presentation API for Unix) hardware acceleration.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">dxva2</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Use DXVA2 (DirectX Video Acceleration) hardware acceleration.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">d3d11va</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Use D3D11VA (DirectX Video Acceleration) hardware acceleration.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">vaapi</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Use VAAPI (Video Acceleration API) hardware acceleration.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">qsv</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Use the Intel QuickSync Video acceleration for video transcoding.
</p>
<p>Unlike most other values, this option does not enable accelerated decoding (that
is used automatically whenever a qsv decoder is selected), but accelerated
transcoding, without copying the frames into the system memory.
</p>
<p>For it to work, both the decoder and the encoder must support QSV acceleration
and no filters must be used.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">videotoolbox</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Use Video Toolbox hardware acceleration.
</p></dd>
</dl>

<p>This option has no effect if the selected hwaccel is not available or not
supported by the chosen decoder.
</p>
<p>Note that most acceleration methods are intended for playback and will not be
faster than software decoding on modern CPUs. Additionally, <code class="command">ffmpeg</code>
will usually need to copy the decoded frames from the GPU memory into the system
memory, resulting in further performance loss. This option is thus mainly
useful for testing.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-hwaccel_device[:<var class="var">stream_specifier</var>] <var class="var">hwaccel_device</var> (<em class="emph">input,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Select a device to use for hardware acceleration.
</p>
<p>This option only makes sense when the <samp class="option">-hwaccel</samp> option is also specified.
It can either refer to an existing device created with <samp class="option">-init_hw_device</samp>
by name, or it can create a new device as if
&lsquo;<samp class="samp">-init_hw_device</samp>&rsquo; <var class="var">type</var>:<var class="var">hwaccel_device</var>
were called immediately before.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-hwaccels</samp></dt>
<dd><p>List all hardware acceleration components enabled in this build of ffmpeg.
Actual runtime availability depends on the hardware and its suitable driver
being installed.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-fix_sub_duration_heartbeat[:<var class="var">stream_specifier</var>]</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Set a specific output video stream as the heartbeat stream according to which
to split and push through currently in-progress subtitle upon receipt of a
random access packet.
</p>
<p>This lowers the latency of subtitles for which the end packet or the following
subtitle has not yet been received. As a drawback, this will most likely lead
to duplication of subtitle events in order to cover the full duration, so
when dealing with use cases where latency of when the subtitle event is passed
on to output is not relevant this option should not be utilized.
</p>
<p>Requires <samp class="option">-fix_sub_duration</samp> to be set for the relevant input subtitle
stream for this to have any effect, as well as for the input subtitle stream
having to be directly mapped to the same output in which the heartbeat stream
resides.
</p>
</dd>
</dl>

<a name="Audio-Options"></a>
<h3 class="section">5.7 Audio Options<span class="pull-right"><a class="anchor hidden-xs" href="#Audio-Options" aria-hidden="true">#</a> <a class="anchor hidden-xs"href="#toc-Audio-Options" aria-hidden="true">TOC</a></span></h3>

<dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option">-aframes <var class="var">number</var> (<em class="emph">output</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Set the number of audio frames to output. This is an obsolete alias for
<code class="code">-frames:a</code>, which you should use instead.
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-ar[:<var class="var">stream_specifier</var>] <var class="var">freq</var> (<em class="emph">input/output,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Set the audio sampling frequency. For output streams it is set by
default to the frequency of the corresponding input stream. For input
streams this option only makes sense for audio grabbing devices and raw
demuxers and is mapped to the corresponding demuxer options.
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-aq <var class="var">q</var> (<em class="emph">output</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Set the audio quality (codec-specific, VBR). This is an alias for -q:a.
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-ac[:<var class="var">stream_specifier</var>] <var class="var">channels</var> (<em class="emph">input/output,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Set the number of audio channels. For output streams it is set by
default to the number of input audio channels. For input streams
this option only makes sense for audio grabbing devices and raw demuxers
and is mapped to the corresponding demuxer options.
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-an (<em class="emph">input/output</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>As an input option, blocks all audio streams of a file from being filtered or
being automatically selected or mapped for any output. See <code class="code">-discard</code>
option to disable streams individually.
</p>
<p>As an output option, disables audio recording i.e. automatic selection or
mapping of any audio stream. For full manual control see the <code class="code">-map</code>
option.
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-acodec <var class="var">codec</var> (<em class="emph">input/output</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Set the audio codec. This is an alias for <code class="code">-codec:a</code>.
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-sample_fmt[:<var class="var">stream_specifier</var>] <var class="var">sample_fmt</var> (<em class="emph">output,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Set the audio sample format. Use <code class="code">-sample_fmts</code> to get a list
of supported sample formats.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-af <var class="var">filtergraph</var> (<em class="emph">output</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Create the filtergraph specified by <var class="var">filtergraph</var> and use it to
filter the stream.
</p>
<p>This is an alias for <code class="code">-filter:a</code>, see the <a class="ref" href="#filter_005foption">-filter option</a>.
</p></dd>
</dl>

<a name="Advanced-Audio-options"></a>
<h3 class="section">5.8 Advanced Audio options<span class="pull-right"><a class="anchor hidden-xs" href="#Advanced-Audio-options" aria-hidden="true">#</a> <a class="anchor hidden-xs"href="#toc-Advanced-Audio-options" aria-hidden="true">TOC</a></span></h3>

<dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option">-atag <var class="var">fourcc/tag</var> (<em class="emph">output</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Force audio tag/fourcc. This is an alias for <code class="code">-tag:a</code>.
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-ch_layout[:<var class="var">stream_specifier</var>] <var class="var">layout</var> (<em class="emph">input/output,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Alias for <code class="code">-channel_layout</code>.
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-channel_layout[:<var class="var">stream_specifier</var>] <var class="var">layout</var> (<em class="emph">input/output,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Set the audio channel layout. For output streams it is set by default to the
input channel layout. For input streams it overrides the channel layout of the
input. Not all decoders respect the overridden channel layout. This option
also sets the channel layout for audio grabbing devices and raw demuxers
and is mapped to the corresponding demuxer option.
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-guess_layout_max <var class="var">channels</var> (<em class="emph">input,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>If some input channel layout is not known, try to guess only if it
corresponds to at most the specified number of channels. For example, 2
tells to <code class="command">ffmpeg</code> to recognize 1 channel as mono and 2 channels as
stereo but not 6 channels as 5.1. The default is to always try to guess. Use
0 to disable all guessing. Using the <code class="code">-channel_layout</code> option to
explicitly specify an input layout also disables guessing.
</p></dd>
</dl>

<a name="Subtitle-options"></a>
<h3 class="section">5.9 Subtitle options<span class="pull-right"><a class="anchor hidden-xs" href="#Subtitle-options" aria-hidden="true">#</a> <a class="anchor hidden-xs"href="#toc-Subtitle-options" aria-hidden="true">TOC</a></span></h3>

<dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option">-scodec <var class="var">codec</var> (<em class="emph">input/output</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Set the subtitle codec. This is an alias for <code class="code">-codec:s</code>.
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-sn (<em class="emph">input/output</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>As an input option, blocks all subtitle streams of a file from being filtered or
being automatically selected or mapped for any output. See <code class="code">-discard</code>
option to disable streams individually.
</p>
<p>As an output option, disables subtitle recording i.e. automatic selection or
mapping of any subtitle stream. For full manual control see the <code class="code">-map</code>
option.
</p></dd>
</dl>

<a name="Advanced-Subtitle-options"></a>
<h3 class="section">5.10 Advanced Subtitle options<span class="pull-right"><a class="anchor hidden-xs" href="#Advanced-Subtitle-options" aria-hidden="true">#</a> <a class="anchor hidden-xs"href="#toc-Advanced-Subtitle-options" aria-hidden="true">TOC</a></span></h3>

<dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option">-fix_sub_duration</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Fix subtitles durations. For each subtitle, wait for the next packet in the
same stream and adjust the duration of the first to avoid overlap. This is
necessary with some subtitles codecs, especially DVB subtitles, because the
duration in the original packet is only a rough estimate and the end is
actually marked by an empty subtitle frame. Failing to use this option when
necessary can result in exaggerated durations or muxing failures due to
non-monotonic timestamps.
</p>
<p>Note that this option will delay the output of all data until the next
subtitle packet is decoded: it may increase memory consumption and latency a
lot.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-canvas_size <var class="var">size</var></samp></dt>
<dd><p>Set the size of the canvas used to render subtitles.
</p>
</dd>
</dl>

<a name="Advanced-options"></a>
<h3 class="section">5.11 Advanced options<span class="pull-right"><a class="anchor hidden-xs" href="#Advanced-options" aria-hidden="true">#</a> <a class="anchor hidden-xs"href="#toc-Advanced-options" aria-hidden="true">TOC</a></span></h3>

<dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option">-map [-]<var class="var">input_file_id</var>[:<var class="var">stream_specifier</var>][:<var class="var">view_specifier</var>][:?] | <var class="var">[linklabel]</var> (<em class="emph">output</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd>
<p>Create one or more streams in the output file. This option has two forms for
specifying the data source(s): the first selects one or more streams from some
input file (specified with <code class="code">-i</code>), the second takes an output from some
complex filtergraph (specified with <code class="code">-filter_complex</code>).
</p>
<p>In the first form, an output stream is created for every stream from the input
file with the index <var class="var">input_file_id</var>. If <var class="var">stream_specifier</var> is given,
only those streams that match the specifier are used (see the
<a class="ref" href="#Stream-specifiers">Stream specifiers</a> section for the <var class="var">stream_specifier</var> syntax).
</p>
<p>A <code class="code">-</code> character before the stream identifier creates a &quot;negative&quot; mapping.
It disables matching streams from already created mappings.
</p>
<p>An optional <var class="var">view_specifier</var> may be given after the stream specifier, which
for multiview video specifies the view to be used. The view specifier may have
one of the following formats:
</p><dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option">view:<var class="var">view_id</var></samp></dt>
<dd><p>select a view by its ID; <var class="var">view_id</var> may be set to &rsquo;all&rsquo; to use all the views
interleaved into one stream;
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">vidx:<var class="var">view_idx</var></samp></dt>
<dd><p>select a view by its index; i.e. 0 is the base view, 1 is the first non-base
view, etc.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">vpos:<var class="var">position</var></samp></dt>
<dd><p>select a view by its display position; <var class="var">position</var> may be <code class="code">left</code> or
<code class="code">right</code>
</p></dd>
</dl>
<p>The default for transcoding is to only use the base view, i.e. the equivalent of
<code class="code">vidx:0</code>. For streamcopy, view specifiers are not supported and all views
are always copied.
</p>
<p>A trailing <code class="code">?</code> after the stream index will allow the map to be
optional: if the map matches no streams the map will be ignored instead
of failing. Note the map will still fail if an invalid input file index
is used; such as if the map refers to a non-existent input.
</p>
<p>An alternative <var class="var">[linklabel]</var> form will map outputs from complex filter
graphs (see the <samp class="option">-filter_complex</samp> option) to the output file.
<var class="var">linklabel</var> must correspond to a defined output link label in the graph.
</p>
<p>This option may be specified multiple times, each adding more streams to the
output file. Any given input stream may also be mapped any number of times as a
source for different output streams, e.g. in order to use different encoding
options and/or filters. The streams are created in the output in the same order
in which the <code class="code">-map</code> options are given on the commandline.
</p>
<p>Using this option disables the default mappings for this output file.
</p>
<p>Examples:
</p>
<dl class="table">
<dt><em class="emph">map everything</em></dt>
<dd><p>To map ALL streams from the first input file to output
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i INPUT -map 0 output
</pre></div>

</dd>
<dt><em class="emph">select specific stream</em></dt>
<dd><p>If you have two audio streams in the first input file, these streams are
identified by <var class="var">0:0</var> and <var class="var">0:1</var>. You can use <code class="code">-map</code> to select which
streams to place in an output file. For example:
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i INPUT -map 0:1 out.wav
</pre></div>
<p>will map the second input stream in <samp class="file">INPUT</samp> to the (single) output stream
in <samp class="file">out.wav</samp>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><em class="emph">create multiple streams</em></dt>
<dd><p>To select the stream with index 2 from input file <samp class="file">a.mov</samp> (specified by the
identifier <var class="var">0:2</var>), and stream with index 6 from input <samp class="file">b.mov</samp>
(specified by the identifier <var class="var">1:6</var>), and copy them to the output file
<samp class="file">out.mov</samp>:
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i a.mov -i b.mov -c copy -map 0:2 -map 1:6 out.mov
</pre></div>

</dd>
<dt><em class="emph">create multiple streams 2</em></dt>
<dd><p>To select all video and the third audio stream from an input file:
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i INPUT -map 0:v -map 0:a:2 OUTPUT
</pre></div>

</dd>
<dt><em class="emph">negative map</em></dt>
<dd><p>To map all the streams except the second audio, use negative mappings
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i INPUT -map 0 -map -0:a:1 OUTPUT
</pre></div>

</dd>
<dt><em class="emph">optional map</em></dt>
<dd><p>To map the video and audio streams from the first input, and using the
trailing <code class="code">?</code>, ignore the audio mapping if no audio streams exist in
the first input:
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i INPUT -map 0:v -map 0:a? OUTPUT
</pre></div>

</dd>
<dt><em class="emph">map by language</em></dt>
<dd><p>To pick the English audio stream:
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i INPUT -map 0:m:language:eng OUTPUT
</pre></div>

</dd>
</dl>

</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-ignore_unknown</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Ignore input streams with unknown type instead of failing if copying
such streams is attempted.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-copy_unknown</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Allow input streams with unknown type to be copied instead of failing if copying
such streams is attempted.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-map_metadata[:<var class="var">metadata_spec_out</var>] <var class="var">infile</var>[:<var class="var">metadata_spec_in</var>] (<em class="emph">output,per-metadata</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Set metadata information of the next output file from <var class="var">infile</var>. Note that
those are file indices (zero-based), not filenames.
Optional <var class="var">metadata_spec_in/out</var> parameters specify, which metadata to copy.
A metadata specifier can have the following forms:
</p><dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option"><var class="var">g</var></samp></dt>
<dd><p>global metadata, i.e. metadata that applies to the whole file
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option"><var class="var">s</var>[:<var class="var">stream_spec</var>]</samp></dt>
<dd><p>per-stream metadata. <var class="var">stream_spec</var> is a stream specifier as described
in the <a class="ref" href="#Stream-specifiers">Stream specifiers</a> chapter. In an input metadata specifier, the first
matching stream is copied from. In an output metadata specifier, all matching
streams are copied to.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option"><var class="var">c</var>:<var class="var">chapter_index</var></samp></dt>
<dd><p>per-chapter metadata. <var class="var">chapter_index</var> is the zero-based chapter index.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option"><var class="var">p</var>:<var class="var">program_index</var></samp></dt>
<dd><p>per-program metadata. <var class="var">program_index</var> is the zero-based program index.
</p></dd>
</dl>
<p>If metadata specifier is omitted, it defaults to global.
</p>
<p>By default, global metadata is copied from the first input file,
per-stream and per-chapter metadata is copied along with streams/chapters. These
default mappings are disabled by creating any mapping of the relevant type. A negative
file index can be used to create a dummy mapping that just disables automatic copying.
</p>
<p>For example to copy metadata from the first stream of the input file to global metadata
of the output file:
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i in.ogg -map_metadata 0:s:0 out.mp3
</pre></div>

<p>To do the reverse, i.e. copy global metadata to all audio streams:
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i in.mkv -map_metadata:s:a 0:g out.mkv
</pre></div>
<p>Note that simple <code class="code">0</code> would work as well in this example, since global
metadata is assumed by default.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-map_chapters <var class="var">input_file_index</var> (<em class="emph">output</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Copy chapters from input file with index <var class="var">input_file_index</var> to the next
output file. If no chapter mapping is specified, then chapters are copied from
the first input file with at least one chapter. Use a negative file index to
disable any chapter copying.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-benchmark (<em class="emph">global</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Show benchmarking information at the end of an encode.
Shows real, system and user time used and maximum memory consumption.
Maximum memory consumption is not supported on all systems,
it will usually display as 0 if not supported.
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-benchmark_all (<em class="emph">global</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Show benchmarking information during the encode.
Shows real, system and user time used in various steps (audio/video encode/decode).
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-timelimit <var class="var">duration</var> (<em class="emph">global</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Exit after ffmpeg has been running for <var class="var">duration</var> seconds in CPU user time.
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-dump (<em class="emph">global</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Dump each input packet to stderr.
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-hex (<em class="emph">global</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>When dumping packets, also dump the payload.
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-readrate <var class="var">speed</var> (<em class="emph">input</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Limit input read speed.
</p>
<p>Its value is a floating-point positive number which represents the maximum duration of
media, in seconds, that should be ingested in one second of wallclock time.
Default value is zero and represents no imposed limitation on speed of ingestion.
Value <code class="code">1</code> represents real-time speed and is equivalent to <code class="code">-re</code>.
</p>
<p>Mainly used to simulate a capture device or live input stream (e.g. when reading from a file).
Should not be used with a low value when input is an actual capture device or live stream as
it may cause packet loss.
</p>
<p>It is useful for when flow speed of output packets is important, such as live streaming.
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-re (<em class="emph">input</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Read input at native frame rate. This is equivalent to setting <code class="code">-readrate 1</code>.
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-readrate_initial_burst <var class="var">seconds</var></samp></dt>
<dd><p>Set an initial read burst time, in seconds, after which <samp class="option">-re/-readrate</samp>
will be enforced.
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-readrate_catchup <var class="var">speed</var> (<em class="emph">input</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>If either the input or output is blocked leading to actual read speed falling behind the
specified readrate, then this rate takes effect till the input catches up with the
specified readrate. Must not be lower than the primary readrate.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-vsync <var class="var">parameter</var> (<em class="emph">global</em>)</samp></dt>
<dt><samp class="option">-fps_mode[:<var class="var">stream_specifier</var>] <var class="var">parameter</var> (<em class="emph">output,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Set video sync method / framerate mode. vsync is applied to all output video streams
but can be overridden for a stream by setting fps_mode. vsync is deprecated and will be
removed in the future.
</p>
<p>For compatibility reasons some of the values for vsync can be specified as numbers (shown
in parentheses in the following table).
</p>
<dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option">passthrough (0)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Each frame is passed with its timestamp from the demuxer to the muxer.
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">cfr (1)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Frames will be duplicated and dropped to achieve exactly the requested
constant frame rate.
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">vfr (2)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Frames are passed through with their timestamp or dropped so as to
prevent 2 frames from having the same timestamp.
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">auto (-1)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Chooses between cfr and vfr depending on muxer capabilities. This is the
default method.
</p></dd>
</dl>

<p>Note that the timestamps may be further modified by the muxer, after this.
For example, in the case that the format option <samp class="option">avoid_negative_ts</samp>
is enabled.
</p>
<p>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.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-frame_drop_threshold <var class="var">parameter</var></samp></dt>
<dd><p>Frame drop threshold, which specifies how much behind video frames can
be before they are dropped. In frame rate units, so 1.0 is one frame.
The default is -1.1. One possible usecase is to avoid framedrops in case
of noisy timestamps or to increase frame drop precision in case of exact
timestamps.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-apad <var class="var">parameters</var> (<em class="emph">output,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Pad the output audio stream(s). This is the same as applying <code class="code">-af apad</code>.
Argument is a string of filter parameters composed the same as with the <code class="code">apad</code> filter.
<code class="code">-shortest</code> must be set for this output for the option to take effect.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-copyts</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Do not process input timestamps, but keep their values without trying
to sanitize them. In particular, do not remove the initial start time
offset value.
</p>
<p>Note that, depending on the <samp class="option">vsync</samp> option or on specific muxer
processing (e.g. in case the format option <samp class="option">avoid_negative_ts</samp>
is enabled) the output timestamps may mismatch with the input
timestamps even when this option is selected.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-start_at_zero</samp></dt>
<dd><p>When used with <samp class="option">copyts</samp>, shift input timestamps so they start at zero.
</p>
<p>This means that using e.g. <code class="code">-ss 50</code> will make output timestamps start at
50 seconds, regardless of what timestamp the input file started at.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-copytb <var class="var">mode</var></samp></dt>
<dd><p>Specify how to set the encoder timebase when stream copying.  <var class="var">mode</var> is an
integer numeric value, and can assume one of the following values:
</p>
<dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option">1</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Use the demuxer timebase.
</p>
<p>The time base is copied to the output encoder from the corresponding input
demuxer. This is sometimes required to avoid non monotonically increasing
timestamps when copying video streams with variable frame rate.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">0</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Use the decoder timebase.
</p>
<p>The time base is copied to the output encoder from the corresponding input
decoder.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-1</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Try to make the choice automatically, in order to generate a sane output.
</p></dd>
</dl>

<p>Default value is -1.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-enc_time_base[:<var class="var">stream_specifier</var>] <var class="var">timebase</var> (<em class="emph">output,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Set the encoder timebase. <var class="var">timebase</var> can assume one of the following values:
</p>
<dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option">0</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Assign a default value according to the media type.
</p>
<p>For video - use 1/framerate, for audio - use 1/samplerate.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">demux</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Use the timebase from the demuxer.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">filter</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Use the timebase from the filtergraph.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">a positive number</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Use the provided number as the timebase.
</p>
<p>This field can be provided as a ratio of two integers (e.g. 1:24, 1:48000)
or as a decimal number (e.g. 0.04166, 2.0833e-5)
</p></dd>
</dl>

<p>Default value is 0.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-bitexact (<em class="emph">input/output</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Enable bitexact mode for (de)muxer and (de/en)coder
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-shortest (<em class="emph">output</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Finish encoding when the shortest output stream ends.
</p>
<p>Note that this option may require buffering frames, which introduces extra
latency. The maximum amount of this latency may be controlled with the
<code class="code">-shortest_buf_duration</code> option.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-shortest_buf_duration <var class="var">duration</var> (<em class="emph">output</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>The <code class="code">-shortest</code> option may require buffering potentially large amounts
of data when at least one of the streams is &quot;sparse&quot; (i.e. has large gaps
between frames – this is typically the case for subtitles).
</p>
<p>This option controls the maximum duration of buffered frames in seconds.
Larger values may allow the <code class="code">-shortest</code> option to produce more accurate
results, but increase memory use and latency.
</p>
<p>The default value is 10 seconds.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-dts_delta_threshold <var class="var">threshold</var></samp></dt>
<dd><p>Timestamp discontinuity delta threshold, expressed as a decimal number
of seconds.
</p>
<p>The timestamp discontinuity correction enabled by this option is only
applied to input formats accepting timestamp discontinuity (for which
the <code class="code">AVFMT_TS_DISCONT</code> flag is enabled), e.g. MPEG-TS and HLS, and
is automatically disabled when employing the <code class="code">-copyts</code> option
(unless wrapping is detected).
</p>
<p>If a timestamp discontinuity is detected whose absolute value is
greater than <var class="var">threshold</var>, ffmpeg will remove the discontinuity by
decreasing/increasing the current DTS and PTS by the corresponding
delta value.
</p>
<p>The default value is 10.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-dts_error_threshold <var class="var">threshold</var></samp></dt>
<dd><p>Timestamp error delta threshold, expressed as a decimal number of
seconds.
</p>
<p>The timestamp correction enabled by this option is only applied to
input formats not accepting timestamp discontinuity (for which the
<code class="code">AVFMT_TS_DISCONT</code> flag is not enabled).
</p>
<p>If a timestamp discontinuity is detected whose absolute value is
greater than <var class="var">threshold</var>, ffmpeg will drop the PTS/DTS timestamp
value.
</p>
<p>The default value is <code class="code">3600*30</code> (30 hours), which is arbitrarily
picked and quite conservative.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-muxdelay <var class="var">seconds</var> (<em class="emph">output</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Set the maximum demux-decode delay.
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-muxpreload <var class="var">seconds</var> (<em class="emph">output</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Set the initial demux-decode delay.
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-streamid <var class="var">output-stream-index</var>:<var class="var">new-value</var> (<em class="emph">output</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Assign a new stream-id value to an output stream. This option should be
specified prior to the output filename to which it applies.
For the situation where multiple output files exist, a streamid
may be reassigned to a different value.
</p>
<p>For example, to set the stream 0 PID to 33 and the stream 1 PID to 36 for
an output mpegts file:
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i inurl -streamid 0:33 -streamid 1:36 out.ts
</pre></div>

</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-bsf[:<var class="var">stream_specifier</var>] <var class="var">bitstream_filters</var> (<em class="emph">input/output,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Apply bitstream filters to matching streams. The filters are applied to each
packet as it is received from the demuxer (when used as an input option) or
before it is sent to the muxer (when used as an output option).
</p>
<p><var class="var">bitstream_filters</var> is a comma-separated list of bitstream filter
specifications, each of the form
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted"><var class="var">filter</var>[=<var class="var">optname0</var>=<var class="var">optval0</var>:<var class="var">optname1</var>=<var class="var">optval1</var>:...]
</pre></div>
<p>Any of the &rsquo;,=:&rsquo; characters that are to be a part of an option value need to be
escaped with a backslash.
</p>
<p>Use the <code class="code">-bsfs</code> option to get the list of bitstream filters.
</p>
<p>E.g.
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -bsf:v h264_mp4toannexb -i h264.mp4 -c:v copy -an out.h264
</pre></div>
<p>applies the <code class="code">h264_mp4toannexb</code> bitstream filter (which converts
MP4-encapsulated H.264 stream to Annex B) to the <em class="emph">input</em> video stream.
</p>
<p>On the other hand,
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i file.mov -an -vn -bsf:s mov2textsub -c:s copy -f rawvideo sub.txt
</pre></div>
<p>applies the <code class="code">mov2textsub</code> bitstream filter (which extracts text from MOV
subtitles) to the <em class="emph">output</em> subtitle stream. Note, however, that since both
examples use <code class="code">-c copy</code>, it matters little whether the filters are applied
on input or output - that would change if transcoding was happening.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-tag[:<var class="var">stream_specifier</var>] <var class="var">codec_tag</var> (<em class="emph">input/output,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Force a tag/fourcc for matching streams.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-timecode <var class="var">hh</var>:<var class="var">mm</var>:<var class="var">ss</var>SEP<var class="var">ff</var></samp></dt>
<dd><p>Specify Timecode for writing. <var class="var">SEP</var> is &rsquo;:&rsquo; for non drop timecode and &rsquo;;&rsquo;
(or &rsquo;.&rsquo;) for drop.
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i input.mpg -timecode 01:02:03.04 -r 30000/1001 -s ntsc output.mpg
</pre></div>

<a class="anchor" id="filter_005fcomplex_005foption"></a></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-filter_complex <var class="var">filtergraph</var> (<em class="emph">global</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Define a complex filtergraph, i.e. one with arbitrary number of inputs and/or
outputs. For simple graphs &ndash; those with one input and one output of the same
type &ndash; see the <samp class="option">-filter</samp> options. <var class="var">filtergraph</var> is a description of
the filtergraph, as described in the &ldquo;Filtergraph syntax&rdquo; section of the
ffmpeg-filters manual. This option may be specified multiple times - each use
creates a new complex filtergraph.
</p>
<p>Inputs to a complex filtergraph may come from different source types,
distinguished by the format of the corresponding link label:
</p><ul class="itemize mark-bullet">
<li>To connect an input stream, use <code class="code">[file_index:stream_specifier]</code> (i.e. the
same syntax as <samp class="option">-map</samp>). If <var class="var">stream_specifier</var> matches multiple
streams, the first one will be used. For multiview video, the stream specifier
may be followed by the view specifier, see documentation for the <samp class="option">-map</samp>
option for its syntax.

</li><li>To connect a loopback decoder use [dec:<var class="var">dec_idx</var>], where <var class="var">dec_idx</var> is
the index of the loopback decoder to be connected to given input. For multiview
video, the decoder index may be followed by the view specifier, see
documentation for the <samp class="option">-map</samp> option for its syntax.

</li><li>To connect an output from another complex filtergraph, use its link label. E.g
the following example:

<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i input.mkv \
  -filter_complex '[0:v]scale=size=hd1080,split=outputs=2[for_enc][orig_scaled]' \
  -c:v libx264 -map '[for_enc]' output.mkv \
  -dec 0:0 \
  -filter_complex '[dec:0][orig_scaled]hstack[stacked]' \
  -map '[stacked]' -c:v ffv1 comparison.mkv
</pre></div>

<p>reads an input video and
</p><ul class="itemize mark-bullet">
<li>(line 2) uses a complex filtergraph with one input and two outputs
to scale the video to 1920x1080 and duplicate the result to both
outputs;

</li><li>(line 3) encodes one scaled output with <code class="code">libx264</code> and writes the result to
<samp class="file">output.mkv</samp>;

</li><li>(line 4) decodes this encoded stream with a loopback decoder;

</li><li>(line 5) places the output of the loopback decoder (i.e. the
<code class="code">libx264</code>-encoded video) side by side with the scaled original input;

</li><li>(line 6) combined video is then losslessly encoded and written into
<samp class="file">comparison.mkv</samp>.

</li></ul>

<p>Note that the two filtergraphs cannot be combined into one, because then there
would be a cycle in the transcoding pipeline (filtergraph output goes to
encoding, from there to decoding, then back to the same graph), and such cycles
are not allowed.
</p>
</li></ul>

<p>An unlabeled input will be connected to the first unused input stream of the
matching type.
</p>
<p>Output link labels are referred to with <samp class="option">-map</samp>. Unlabeled outputs are
added to the first output file.
</p>
<p>Note that with this option it is possible to use only lavfi sources without
normal input files.
</p>
<p>For example, to overlay an image over video
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i video.mkv -i image.png -filter_complex '[0:v][1:v]overlay[out]' -map
'[out]' out.mkv
</pre></div>
<p>Here <code class="code">[0:v]</code> refers to the first video stream in the first input file,
which is linked to the first (main) input of the overlay filter. Similarly the
first video stream in the second input is linked to the second (overlay) input
of overlay.
</p>
<p>Assuming there is only one video stream in each input file, we can omit input
labels, so the above is equivalent to
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i video.mkv -i image.png -filter_complex 'overlay[out]' -map
'[out]' out.mkv
</pre></div>

<p>Furthermore we can omit the output label and the single output from the filter
graph will be added to the output file automatically, so we can simply write
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i video.mkv -i image.png -filter_complex 'overlay' out.mkv
</pre></div>

<p>As a special exception, you can use a bitmap subtitle stream as input: it
will be converted into a video with the same size as the largest video in
the file, or 720x576 if no video is present. Note that this is an
experimental and temporary solution. It will be removed once libavfilter has
proper support for subtitles.
</p>
<p>For example, to hardcode subtitles on top of a DVB-T recording stored in
MPEG-TS format, delaying the subtitles by 1 second:
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i input.ts -filter_complex \
  '[#0x2ef] setpts=PTS+1/TB [sub] ; [#0x2d0] [sub] overlay' \
  -sn -map '#0x2dc' output.mkv
</pre></div>
<p>(0x2d0, 0x2dc and 0x2ef are the MPEG-TS PIDs of respectively the video,
audio and subtitles streams; 0:0, 0:3 and 0:7 would have worked too)
</p>
<p>To generate 5 seconds of pure red video using lavfi <code class="code">color</code> source:
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -filter_complex 'color=c=red' -t 5 out.mkv
</pre></div>

</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-filter_complex_threads <var class="var">nb_threads</var> (<em class="emph">global</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Defines how many threads are used to process a filter_complex graph.
Similar to filter_threads but used for <code class="code">-filter_complex</code> graphs only.
The default is the number of available CPUs.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-lavfi <var class="var">filtergraph</var> (<em class="emph">global</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Define a complex filtergraph, i.e. one with arbitrary number of inputs and/or
outputs. Equivalent to <samp class="option">-filter_complex</samp>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-accurate_seek (<em class="emph">input</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>This option enables or disables accurate seeking in input files with the
<samp class="option">-ss</samp> option. It is enabled by default, so seeking is accurate when
transcoding. Use <samp class="option">-noaccurate_seek</samp> to disable it, which may be useful
e.g. when copying some streams and transcoding the others.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-seek_timestamp (<em class="emph">input</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>This option enables or disables seeking by timestamp in input files with the
<samp class="option">-ss</samp> option. It is disabled by default. If enabled, the argument
to the <samp class="option">-ss</samp> option is considered an actual timestamp, and is not
offset by the start time of the file. This matters only for files which do
not start from timestamp 0, such as transport streams.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-thread_queue_size <var class="var">size</var> (<em class="emph">input/output</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>For input, this option sets the maximum number of queued packets when reading
from the file or device. With low latency / high rate live streams, packets may
be discarded if they are not read in a timely manner; setting this value can
force ffmpeg to use a separate input thread and read packets as soon as they
arrive. By default ffmpeg only does this if multiple inputs are specified.
</p>
<p>For output, this option specified the maximum number of packets that may be
queued to each muxing thread.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-sdp_file <var class="var">file</var> (<em class="emph">global</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Print sdp information for an output stream to <var class="var">file</var>.
This allows dumping sdp information when at least one output isn&rsquo;t an
rtp stream. (Requires at least one of the output formats to be rtp).
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-discard (<em class="emph">input</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Allows discarding specific streams or frames from streams.
Any input stream can be fully discarded, using value <code class="code">all</code> whereas
selective discarding of frames from a stream occurs at the demuxer
and is not supported by all demuxers.
</p>
<dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option">none</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Discard no frame.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">default</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Default, which discards no frames.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">noref</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Discard all non-reference frames.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">bidir</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Discard all bidirectional frames.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">nokey</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Discard all frames excepts keyframes.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">all</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Discard all frames.
</p></dd>
</dl>

</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-abort_on <var class="var">flags</var> (<em class="emph">global</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Stop and abort on various conditions. The following flags are available:
</p>
<dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option">empty_output</samp></dt>
<dd><p>No packets were passed to the muxer, the output is empty.
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">empty_output_stream</samp></dt>
<dd><p>No packets were passed to the muxer in some of the output streams.
</p></dd>
</dl>

</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-max_error_rate (<em class="emph">global</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Set fraction of decoding frame failures across all inputs which when crossed
ffmpeg will return exit code 69. Crossing this threshold does not terminate
processing. Range is a floating-point number between 0 to 1. Default is 2/3.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-xerror (<em class="emph">global</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Stop and exit on error
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-max_muxing_queue_size <var class="var">packets</var> (<em class="emph">output,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>When transcoding audio and/or video streams, ffmpeg will not begin writing into
the output until it has one packet for each such stream. While waiting for that
to happen, packets for other streams are buffered. This option sets the size of
this buffer, in packets, for the matching output stream.
</p>
<p>The default value of this option should be high enough for most uses, so only
touch this option if you are sure that you need it.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-muxing_queue_data_threshold <var class="var">bytes</var> (<em class="emph">output,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>This is a minimum threshold until which the muxing queue size is not taken into
account. Defaults to 50 megabytes per stream, and is based on the overall size
of packets passed to the muxer.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-auto_conversion_filters (<em class="emph">global</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Enable automatically inserting format conversion filters in all filter
graphs, including those defined by <samp class="option">-vf</samp>, <samp class="option">-af</samp>,
<samp class="option">-filter_complex</samp> and <samp class="option">-lavfi</samp>. If filter format negotiation
requires a conversion, the initialization of the filters will fail.
Conversions can still be performed by inserting the relevant conversion
filter (scale, aresample) in the graph.
On by default, to explicitly disable it you need to specify
<code class="code">-noauto_conversion_filters</code>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-bits_per_raw_sample[:<var class="var">stream_specifier</var>] <var class="var">value</var> (<em class="emph">output,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Declare the number of bits per raw sample in the given output stream to be
<var class="var">value</var>. Note that this option sets the information provided to the
encoder/muxer, it does not change the stream to conform to this value. Setting
values that do not match the stream properties may result in encoding failures
or invalid output files.
</p>
<a class="anchor" id="stats_005fenc_005foptions"></a></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-stats_enc_pre[:<var class="var">stream_specifier</var>] <var class="var">path</var> (<em class="emph">output,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dt><samp class="option">-stats_enc_post[:<var class="var">stream_specifier</var>] <var class="var">path</var> (<em class="emph">output,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dt><samp class="option">-stats_mux_pre[:<var class="var">stream_specifier</var>] <var class="var">path</var> (<em class="emph">output,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Write per-frame encoding information about the matching streams into the file
given by <var class="var">path</var>.
</p>
<p><samp class="option">-stats_enc_pre</samp> writes information about raw video or audio frames right
before they are sent for encoding, while <samp class="option">-stats_enc_post</samp> writes
information about encoded packets as they are received from the encoder.
<samp class="option">-stats_mux_pre</samp> writes information about packets just as they are about to
be sent to the muxer. Every frame or packet produces one line in the specified
file. The format of this line is controlled by <samp class="option">-stats_enc_pre_fmt</samp> /
<samp class="option">-stats_enc_post_fmt</samp> / <samp class="option">-stats_mux_pre_fmt</samp>.
</p>
<p>When stats for multiple streams are written into a single file, the lines
corresponding to different streams will be interleaved. The precise order of
this interleaving is not specified and not guaranteed to remain stable between
different invocations of the program, even with the same options.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">-stats_enc_pre_fmt[:<var class="var">stream_specifier</var>] <var class="var">format_spec</var> (<em class="emph">output,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dt><samp class="option">-stats_enc_post_fmt[:<var class="var">stream_specifier</var>] <var class="var">format_spec</var> (<em class="emph">output,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dt><samp class="option">-stats_mux_pre_fmt[:<var class="var">stream_specifier</var>] <var class="var">format_spec</var> (<em class="emph">output,per-stream</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Specify the format for the lines written with <samp class="option">-stats_enc_pre</samp> /
<samp class="option">-stats_enc_post</samp> / <samp class="option">-stats_mux_pre</samp>.
</p>
<p><var class="var">format_spec</var> is a string that may contain directives of the form
<var class="var">{fmt}</var>. <var class="var">format_spec</var> is backslash-escaped &mdash; use \{, \}, and \\
to write a literal {, }, or \, respectively, into the output.
</p>
<p>The directives given with <var class="var">fmt</var> may be one of the following:
</p><dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option">fidx</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Index of the output file.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">sidx</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Index of the output stream in the file.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">n</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Frame number. Pre-encoding: number of frames sent to the encoder so far.
Post-encoding: number of packets received from the encoder so far.
Muxing: number of packets submitted to the muxer for this stream so far.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">ni</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Input frame number. Index of the input frame (i.e. output by a decoder) that
corresponds to this output frame or packet. -1 if unavailable.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">tb</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Timebase in which this frame/packet&rsquo;s timestamps are expressed, as a rational
number <var class="var">num/den</var>. Note that encoder and muxer may use different timebases.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">tbi</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Timebase for <var class="var">ptsi</var>, as a rational number <var class="var">num/den</var>. Available when
<var class="var">ptsi</var> is available, <var class="var">0/1</var> otherwise.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">pts</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Presentation timestamp of the frame or packet, as an integer. Should be
multiplied by the timebase to compute presentation time.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">ptsi</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Presentation timestamp of the input frame (see <var class="var">ni</var>), as an integer. Should
be multiplied by <var class="var">tbi</var> to compute presentation time. Printed as
(2^63 - 1 = 9223372036854775807) when not available.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">t</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Presentation time of the frame or packet, as a decimal number. Equal to
<var class="var">pts</var> multiplied by <var class="var">tb</var>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">ti</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Presentation time of the input frame (see <var class="var">ni</var>), as a decimal number. Equal
to <var class="var">ptsi</var> multiplied by <var class="var">tbi</var>. Printed as inf when not available.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">dts (<em class="emph">packet</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Decoding timestamp of the packet, as an integer. Should be multiplied by the
timebase to compute presentation time.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">dt (<em class="emph">packet</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Decoding time of the frame or packet, as a decimal number. Equal to
<var class="var">dts</var> multiplied by <var class="var">tb</var>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">sn (<em class="emph">frame,audio</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Number of audio samples sent to the encoder so far.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">samp (<em class="emph">frame,audio</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Number of audio samples in the frame.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">size (<em class="emph">packet</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Size of the encoded packet in bytes.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">br (<em class="emph">packet</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Current bitrate in bits per second.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">abr (<em class="emph">packet</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Average bitrate for the whole stream so far, in bits per second, -1 if it cannot
be determined at this point.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">key (<em class="emph">packet</em>)</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Character &rsquo;K&rsquo; if the packet contains a keyframe, character &rsquo;N&rsquo; otherwise.
</p></dd>
</dl>

<p>Directives tagged with <em class="emph">packet</em> may only be used with
<samp class="option">-stats_enc_post_fmt</samp> and <samp class="option">-stats_mux_pre_fmt</samp>.
</p>
<p>Directives tagged with <em class="emph">frame</em> may only be used with
<samp class="option">-stats_enc_pre_fmt</samp>.
</p>
<p>Directives tagged with <em class="emph">audio</em> may only be used with audio streams.
</p>
<p>The default format strings are:
</p><dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option">pre-encoding</samp></dt>
<dd><p>{fidx} {sidx} {n} {t}
</p></dd>
<dt><samp class="option">post-encoding</samp></dt>
<dd><p>{fidx} {sidx} {n} {t}
</p></dd>
</dl>
<p>In the future, new items may be added to the end of the default formatting
strings. Users who depend on the format staying exactly the same, should
prescribe it manually.
</p>
<p>Note that stats for different streams written into the same file may have
different formats.
</p>
</dd>
</dl>

<a name="Preset-files"></a>
<h3 class="section">5.12 Preset files<span class="pull-right"><a class="anchor hidden-xs" href="#Preset-files" aria-hidden="true">#</a> <a class="anchor hidden-xs"href="#toc-Preset-files" aria-hidden="true">TOC</a></span></h3>
<p>A preset file contains a sequence of <var class="var">option</var>=<var class="var">value</var> pairs,
one for each line, specifying a sequence of options which would be
awkward to specify on the command line. Lines starting with the hash
(&rsquo;#&rsquo;) character are ignored and are used to provide comments. Check
the <samp class="file">presets</samp> directory in the FFmpeg source tree for examples.
</p>
<p>There are two types of preset files: ffpreset and avpreset files.
</p>
<a name="ffpreset-files"></a>
<h4 class="subsection">5.12.1 ffpreset files<span class="pull-right"><a class="anchor hidden-xs" href="#ffpreset-files" aria-hidden="true">#</a> <a class="anchor hidden-xs"href="#toc-ffpreset-files" aria-hidden="true">TOC</a></span></h4>
<p>ffpreset files are specified with the <code class="code">vpre</code>, <code class="code">apre</code>,
<code class="code">spre</code>, and <code class="code">fpre</code> options. The <code class="code">fpre</code> option takes the
filename of the preset instead of a preset name as input and can be
used for any kind of codec. For the <code class="code">vpre</code>, <code class="code">apre</code>, and
<code class="code">spre</code> options, the options specified in a preset file are
applied to the currently selected codec of the same type as the preset
option.
</p>
<p>The argument passed to the <code class="code">vpre</code>, <code class="code">apre</code>, and <code class="code">spre</code>
preset options identifies the preset file to use according to the
following rules:
</p>
<p>First ffmpeg searches for a file named <var class="var">arg</var>.ffpreset in the
directories <samp class="file">$FFMPEG_DATADIR</samp> (if set), and <samp class="file">$HOME/.ffmpeg</samp>, and in
the datadir defined at configuration time (usually <samp class="file">PREFIX/share/ffmpeg</samp>)
or in a <samp class="file">ffpresets</samp> folder along the executable on win32,
in that order. For example, if the argument is <code class="code">libvpx-1080p</code>, it will
search for the file <samp class="file">libvpx-1080p.ffpreset</samp>.
</p>
<p>If no such file is found, then ffmpeg will search for a file named
<var class="var">codec_name</var>-<var class="var">arg</var>.ffpreset in the above-mentioned
directories, where <var class="var">codec_name</var> is the name of the codec to which
the preset file options will be applied. For example, if you select
the video codec with <code class="code">-vcodec libvpx</code> and use <code class="code">-vpre 1080p</code>,
then it will search for the file <samp class="file">libvpx-1080p.ffpreset</samp>.
</p>
<a name="avpreset-files"></a>
<h4 class="subsection">5.12.2 avpreset files<span class="pull-right"><a class="anchor hidden-xs" href="#avpreset-files" aria-hidden="true">#</a> <a class="anchor hidden-xs"href="#toc-avpreset-files" aria-hidden="true">TOC</a></span></h4>
<p>avpreset files are specified with the <code class="code">pre</code> option. They work similar to
ffpreset files, but they only allow encoder- specific options. Therefore, an
<var class="var">option</var>=<var class="var">value</var> pair specifying an encoder cannot be used.
</p>
<p>When the <code class="code">pre</code> option is specified, ffmpeg will look for files with the
suffix .avpreset in the directories <samp class="file">$AVCONV_DATADIR</samp> (if set), and
<samp class="file">$HOME/.avconv</samp>, and in the datadir defined at configuration time (usually
<samp class="file">PREFIX/share/ffmpeg</samp>), in that order.
</p>
<p>First ffmpeg searches for a file named <var class="var">codec_name</var>-<var class="var">arg</var>.avpreset in
the above-mentioned directories, where <var class="var">codec_name</var> is the name of the codec
to which the preset file options will be applied. For example, if you select the
video codec with <code class="code">-vcodec libvpx</code> and use <code class="code">-pre 1080p</code>, then it will
search for the file <samp class="file">libvpx-1080p.avpreset</samp>.
</p>
<p>If no such file is found, then ffmpeg will search for a file named
<var class="var">arg</var>.avpreset in the same directories.
</p>
<a class="anchor" id="vstats_005ffile_005fformat"></a><a name="vstats-file-format"></a>
<h3 class="section">5.13 vstats file format<span class="pull-right"><a class="anchor hidden-xs" href="#vstats-file-format" aria-hidden="true">#</a> <a class="anchor hidden-xs"href="#toc-vstats-file-format" aria-hidden="true">TOC</a></span></h3>
<p>The <code class="code">-vstats</code> and <code class="code">-vstats_file</code> options enable generation of a file
containing statistics about the generated video outputs.
</p>
<p>The <code class="code">-vstats_version</code> option controls the format version of the generated
file.
</p>
<p>With version <code class="code">1</code> the format is:
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">frame= <var class="var">FRAME</var> q= <var class="var">FRAME_QUALITY</var> PSNR= <var class="var">PSNR</var> f_size= <var class="var">FRAME_SIZE</var> s_size= <var class="var">STREAM_SIZE</var>kB time= <var class="var">TIMESTAMP</var> br= <var class="var">BITRATE</var>kbits/s avg_br= <var class="var">AVERAGE_BITRATE</var>kbits/s
</pre></div>

<p>With version <code class="code">2</code> the format is:
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">out= <var class="var">OUT_FILE_INDEX</var> st= <var class="var">OUT_FILE_STREAM_INDEX</var> frame= <var class="var">FRAME_NUMBER</var> q= <var class="var">FRAME_QUALITY</var>f PSNR= <var class="var">PSNR</var> f_size= <var class="var">FRAME_SIZE</var> s_size= <var class="var">STREAM_SIZE</var>kB time= <var class="var">TIMESTAMP</var> br= <var class="var">BITRATE</var>kbits/s avg_br= <var class="var">AVERAGE_BITRATE</var>kbits/s
</pre></div>

<p>The value corresponding to each key is described below:
</p><dl class="table">
<dt><samp class="option">avg_br</samp></dt>
<dd><p>average bitrate expressed in Kbits/s
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">br</samp></dt>
<dd><p>bitrate expressed in Kbits/s
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">frame</samp></dt>
<dd><p>number of encoded frame
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">out</samp></dt>
<dd><p>out file index
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">PSNR</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Peak Signal to Noise Ratio
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">q</samp></dt>
<dd><p>quality of the frame
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">f_size</samp></dt>
<dd><p>encoded packet size expressed as number of bytes
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">s_size</samp></dt>
<dd><p>stream size expressed in KiB
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">st</samp></dt>
<dd><p>out file stream index
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">time</samp></dt>
<dd><p>time of the packet
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp class="option">type</samp></dt>
<dd><p>picture type
</p></dd>
</dl>

<p>See also the <a class="ref" href="#stats_005fenc_005foptions">-stats_enc options</a> for an alternative way
to show encoding statistics.
</p>

<a name="Examples-1"></a>
<h2 class="chapter">6 Examples<span class="pull-right"><a class="anchor hidden-xs" href="#Examples-1" aria-hidden="true">#</a> <a class="anchor hidden-xs"href="#toc-Examples-1" aria-hidden="true">TOC</a></span></h2>

<a name="Video-and-Audio-grabbing"></a>
<h3 class="section">6.1 Video and Audio grabbing<span class="pull-right"><a class="anchor hidden-xs" href="#Video-and-Audio-grabbing" aria-hidden="true">#</a> <a class="anchor hidden-xs"href="#toc-Video-and-Audio-grabbing" aria-hidden="true">TOC</a></span></h3>

<p>If you specify the input format and device then ffmpeg can grab video
and audio directly.
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -f oss -i /dev/dsp -f video4linux2 -i /dev/video0 /tmp/out.mpg
</pre></div>

<p>Or with an ALSA audio source (mono input, card id 1) instead of OSS:
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -f alsa -ac 1 -i hw:1 -f video4linux2 -i /dev/video0 /tmp/out.mpg
</pre></div>

<p>Note that you must activate the right video source and channel before
launching ffmpeg with any TV viewer such as
<a class="uref" href="http://linux.bytesex.org/xawtv/">xawtv</a> by Gerd Knorr. You also
have to set the audio recording levels correctly with a
standard mixer.
</p>
<a name="X11-grabbing"></a>
<h3 class="section">6.2 X11 grabbing<span class="pull-right"><a class="anchor hidden-xs" href="#X11-grabbing" aria-hidden="true">#</a> <a class="anchor hidden-xs"href="#toc-X11-grabbing" aria-hidden="true">TOC</a></span></h3>

<p>Grab the X11 display with ffmpeg via
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -f x11grab -video_size cif -framerate 25 -i :0.0 /tmp/out.mpg
</pre></div>

<p>0.0 is display.screen number of your X11 server, same as
the DISPLAY environment variable.
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -f x11grab -video_size cif -framerate 25 -i :0.0+10,20 /tmp/out.mpg
</pre></div>

<p>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.
</p>
<a name="Video-and-Audio-file-format-conversion"></a>
<h3 class="section">6.3 Video and Audio file format conversion<span class="pull-right"><a class="anchor hidden-xs" href="#Video-and-Audio-file-format-conversion" aria-hidden="true">#</a> <a class="anchor hidden-xs"href="#toc-Video-and-Audio-file-format-conversion" aria-hidden="true">TOC</a></span></h3>

<p>Any supported file format and protocol can serve as input to ffmpeg:
</p>
<p>Examples:
</p><ul class="itemize mark-bullet">
<li>You can use YUV files as input:

<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i /tmp/test%d.Y /tmp/out.mpg
</pre></div>

<p>It will use the files:
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">/tmp/test0.Y, /tmp/test0.U, /tmp/test0.V,
/tmp/test1.Y, /tmp/test1.U, /tmp/test1.V, etc...
</pre></div>

<p>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 <samp class="option">-s</samp> option
if ffmpeg cannot guess it.
</p>
</li><li>You can input from a raw YUV420P file:

<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i /tmp/test.yuv /tmp/out.avi
</pre></div>

<p>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.
</p>
</li><li>You can output to a raw YUV420P file:

<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i mydivx.avi hugefile.yuv
</pre></div>

</li><li>You can set several input files and output files:

<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i /tmp/a.wav -s 640x480 -i /tmp/a.yuv /tmp/a.mpg
</pre></div>

<p>Converts the audio file a.wav and the raw YUV video file a.yuv
to MPEG file a.mpg.
</p>
</li><li>You can also do audio and video conversions at the same time:

<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i /tmp/a.wav -ar 22050 /tmp/a.mp2
</pre></div>

<p>Converts a.wav to MPEG audio at 22050 Hz sample rate.
</p>
</li><li>You can encode to several formats at the same time and define a
mapping from input stream to output streams:

<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i /tmp/a.wav -map 0:a -b:a 64k /tmp/a.mp2 -map 0:a -b:a 128k /tmp/b.mp2
</pre></div>

<p>Converts a.wav to a.mp2 at 64 kbits and to b.mp2 at 128 kbits. &rsquo;-map
file:index&rsquo; specifies which input stream is used for each output
stream, in the order of the definition of output streams.
</p>
</li><li>You can transcode decrypted VOBs:

<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i snatch_1.vob -f avi -c:v mpeg4 -b:v 800k -g 300 -bf 2 -c:a libmp3lame -b:a 128k snatch.avi
</pre></div>

<p>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 class="code">--enable-libmp3lame</code> to configure.
The mapping is particularly useful for DVD transcoding
to get the desired audio language.
</p>
<p>NOTE: To see the supported input formats, use <code class="code">ffmpeg -demuxers</code>.
</p>
</li><li>You can extract images from a video, or create a video from many images:

<p>For extracting images from a video:
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i foo.avi -r 1 -s WxH -f image2 foo-%03d.jpeg
</pre></div>

<p>This will extract one video frame per second from the video and will
output them in files named <samp class="file">foo-001.jpeg</samp>, <samp class="file">foo-002.jpeg</samp>,
etc. Images will be rescaled to fit the new WxH values.
</p>
<p>If you want to extract just a limited number of frames, you can use the
above command in combination with the <code class="code">-frames:v</code> or <code class="code">-t</code> option,
or in combination with -ss to start extracting from a certain point in time.
</p>
<p>For creating a video from many images:
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -f image2 -framerate 12 -i foo-%03d.jpeg -s WxH foo.avi
</pre></div>

<p>The syntax <code class="code">foo-%03d.jpeg</code> 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.
</p>
<p>When importing an image sequence, -i also supports expanding
shell-like wildcard patterns (globbing) internally, by selecting the
image2-specific <code class="code">-pattern_type glob</code> option.
</p>
<p>For example, for creating a video from filenames matching the glob pattern
<code class="code">foo-*.jpeg</code>:
</p><div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -f image2 -pattern_type glob -framerate 12 -i 'foo-*.jpeg' -s WxH foo.avi
</pre></div>

</li><li>You can put many streams of the same type in the output:

<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i test1.avi -i test2.avi -map 1:1 -map 1:0 -map 0:1 -map 0:0 -c copy -y test12.nut
</pre></div>

<p>The resulting output file <samp class="file">test12.nut</samp> will contain the first four streams
from the input files in reverse order.
</p>
</li><li>To force CBR video output:
<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i myfile.avi -b 4000k -minrate 4000k -maxrate 4000k -bufsize 1835k out.m2v
</pre></div>

</li><li>The four options lmin, lmax, mblmin and mblmax use &rsquo;lambda&rsquo; units,
but you may use the QP2LAMBDA constant to easily convert from &rsquo;q&rsquo; units:
<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">ffmpeg -i src.ext -lmax 21*QP2LAMBDA dst.ext
</pre></div>

</li></ul>


<a name="See-Also"></a>
<h2 class="chapter">7 See Also<span class="pull-right"><a class="anchor hidden-xs" href="#See-Also" aria-hidden="true">#</a> <a class="anchor hidden-xs"href="#toc-See-Also" aria-hidden="true">TOC</a></span></h2>

<p><a class="url" href="ffmpeg-all.html">ffmpeg-all</a>,
<a class="url" href="ffplay.html">ffplay</a>, <a class="url" href="ffprobe.html">ffprobe</a>,
<a class="url" href="ffmpeg-utils.html">ffmpeg-utils</a>,
<a class="url" href="ffmpeg-scaler.html">ffmpeg-scaler</a>,
<a class="url" href="ffmpeg-resampler.html">ffmpeg-resampler</a>,
<a class="url" href="ffmpeg-codecs.html">ffmpeg-codecs</a>,
<a class="url" href="ffmpeg-bitstream-filters.html">ffmpeg-bitstream-filters</a>,
<a class="url" href="ffmpeg-formats.html">ffmpeg-formats</a>,
<a class="url" href="ffmpeg-devices.html">ffmpeg-devices</a>,
<a class="url" href="ffmpeg-protocols.html">ffmpeg-protocols</a>,
<a class="url" href="ffmpeg-filters.html">ffmpeg-filters</a>
</p>

<a name="Authors"></a>
<h2 class="chapter">8 Authors<span class="pull-right"><a class="anchor hidden-xs" href="#Authors" aria-hidden="true">#</a> <a class="anchor hidden-xs"href="#toc-Authors" aria-hidden="true">TOC</a></span></h2>

<p>The FFmpeg developers.
</p>
<p>For details about the authorship, see the Git history of the project
(https://git.ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg), e.g. by typing the command
<code class="command">git log</code> in the FFmpeg source directory, or browsing the
online repository at <a class="url" href="https://git.ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg">https://git.ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg</a>.
</p>
<p>Maintainers for the specific components are listed in the file
<samp class="file">MAINTAINERS</samp> in the source code tree.
</p>

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