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FFmpeg is a very fast video and audio converter. It can also grab from a live audio/video source. The command line interface is designed to be intuitive, in the sense that ffmpeg tries to figure out all the parameters, when possible. You have usually to give only the target bitrate you want.
FFmpeg can also convert from any sample rate to any other, and resize video on the fly with a high quality polyphase filter.
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FFmpeg can use a video4linux compatible video source and any Open Sound System audio source:
ffmpeg /tmp/out.mpg |
Note that you must activate the right video source and channel before launching ffmpeg. You can use any TV viewer such as xawtv (http://bytesex.org/xawtv/) by Gerd Knorr which I find very good. You must also set correctly the audio recording levels with a standard mixer.
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* ffmpeg can use any supported file format and protocol as input:
Examples:
* You can input from YUV files:
ffmpeg -i /tmp/test%d.Y /tmp/out.mpg |
It will use the files:
/tmp/test0.Y, /tmp/test0.U, /tmp/test0.V, /tmp/test1.Y, /tmp/test1.U, /tmp/test1.V, etc... |
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 `-s' option if ffmpeg cannot guess it.
* You can input from a RAW YUV420P file:
ffmpeg -i /tmp/test.yuv /tmp/out.avi |
The RAW YUV420P is a file containing RAW YUV planar, for each frame first come the Y plane followed by U and V planes, which are half vertical and horizontal resolution.
* You can output to a RAW YUV420P file:
ffmpeg -i mydivx.avi -o hugefile.yuv |
* You can set several input files and output files:
ffmpeg -i /tmp/a.wav -s 640x480 -i /tmp/a.yuv /tmp/a.mpg |
Convert the audio file a.wav and the raw yuv video file a.yuv to mpeg file a.mpg
* You can also do audio and video conversions at the same time:
ffmpeg -i /tmp/a.wav -ar 22050 /tmp/a.mp2 |
Convert the sample rate of a.wav to 22050 Hz and encode it to MPEG audio.
* You can encode to several formats at the same time and define a mapping from input stream to output streams:
ffmpeg -i /tmp/a.wav -ab 64 /tmp/a.mp2 -ab 128 /tmp/b.mp2 -map 0:0 -map 0:0 |
Convert a.wav to a.mp2 at 64 kbits and b.mp2 at 128 kbits. '-map file:index' specify which input stream is used for each output stream, in the order of the definition of output streams.
* You can transcode decrypted VOBs
ffmpeg -i snatch_1.vob -f avi -vcodec mpeg4 -b 800 -g 300 -bf 2 -acodec mp3 -ab 128 snatch.avi |
This is a typical DVD ripper example, input from a VOB file, output
to 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, GOP
size is 300 that means an INTRA frame every 10 seconds for 29.97 fps
input video. Also the audio stream is MP3 encoded so you need LAME
support which is enabled using --enable-mp3lame
when
configuring. The mapping is particularly useful for DVD transcoding
to get the desired audio language.
NOTE: to see the supported input formats, use ffmpeg -formats
.
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The generic syntax is:
ffmpeg [[infile options][`-i' infile]]... {[outfile options] outfile}... |
As a general rule, options are applied to the next specified file. For example, if you give the `-b 64' option, it sets the video bitrate of the next file. Format option may be needed for raw input files.
By default, ffmpeg tries to convert as losslessly as possible: it uses the same audio and video parameter for the outputs as the one specified for the inputs.
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hh:mm:ss[.xxx]
syntax is also
supported.
hh:mm:ss[.xxx]
syntax is also
supported.
ffmpeg -i myfile.avi -target vcd /tmp/vcd.mpg |
Nevertheless you can specify additional options as long as you know they do not compromise the standard, as in:
ffmpeg -i myfile.avi -target vcd -bf 2 /tmp/vcd.mpg |
[-]hh:mm:ss[.xxx]
syntax
is also supported. This option affects all the input files that
follow it. The offset is added to the input files' timestamps;
specifying a positive offset means that the corresponding streams are
delayed by 'offset' seconds.
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copy
special value to
tell that the raw codec data must be copied as is.
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tex^qComp
.
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copy
special value to
tell that the raw codec data must be copied as is.
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When evaluating a rate control string, FFmpeg uses an internal formula evaluator.
The following binary operators are available: +
, -
,
*
, /
, ^
.
The following unary operators are available: +
, -
,
(...)
.
The following functions are available:
The following constants are available:
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The filename can be `-' to read from the standard input or to write to the standard output.
ffmpeg handles also many protocols specified with the URL syntax.
Use 'ffmpeg -formats' to have a list of the supported protocols.
The protocol http:
is currently used only to communicate with
ffserver (see the ffserver documentation). When ffmpeg will be a
video player it will also be used for streaming :-)
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ffmpeg -g 3 -r 3 -t 10 -b 50 -s qcif -f rv10 /tmp/b.rm |
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You can use the -formats
option to have an exhaustive list.
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FFmpeg supports the following file formats through the libavformat
library:
Supported File Format | Encoding | Decoding | Comments |
MPEG audio | X | X | |
MPEG1 systems | X | X | muxed audio and video |
MPEG2 PS | X | X | also known as VOB file
|
MPEG2 TS | X | also known as DVB Transport Stream | |
ASF | X | X | |
AVI | X | X | |
WAV | X | X | |
Macromedia Flash | X | X | Only embedded audio is decoded |
FLV | X | X | Macromedia Flash video files |
Real Audio and Video | X | X | |
Raw AC3 | X | X | |
Raw MJPEG | X | X | |
Raw MPEG video | X | X | |
Raw PCM8/16 bits, mulaw/Alaw | X | X | |
Raw CRI ADX audio | X | X | |
Raw Shorten audio | X | ||
SUN AU format | X | X | |
NUT | X | X | NUT Open Container Format |
Quicktime | X | X | |
MPEG4 | X | X | MPEG4 is a variant of Quicktime |
Raw MPEG4 video | X | X | |
DV | X | X | |
4xm | X | 4X Technologies format, used in some games | |
Playstation STR | X | ||
Id RoQ | X | used in Quake III, Jedi Knight 2, other computer games | |
Interplay MVE | X | format used in various Interplay computer games | |
WC3 Movie | X | multimedia format used in Origin's Wing Commander III computer game | |
Sega FILM/CPK | X | used in many Sega Saturn console games | |
Westwood Studios VQA/AUD | X | Multimedia formats used in Westwood Studios games | |
Id Cinematic (.cin) | X | Used in Quake II | |
FLIC format | X | .fli/.flc files | |
Sierra VMD | X | used in Sierra CD-ROM games | |
Sierra Online | X | .sol files used in Sierra Online games | |
Matroska | X | ||
Electronic Arts Multimedia | X | used in various EA games; files have extensions like WVE and UV2 | |
Nullsoft Video (NSV) format | X |
X
means that the encoding (resp. decoding) is supported.
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FFmpeg can read and write images for each frame of a video sequence. The following image formats are supported:
Supported Image Format | Encoding | Decoding | Comments |
PGM, PPM | X | X | |
PAM | X | X | PAM is a PNM extension with alpha support |
PGMYUV | X | X | PGM with U and V components in YUV 4:2:0 |
JPEG | X | X | Progressive JPEG is not supported |
.Y.U.V | X | X | One raw file per component |
Animated GIF | X | X | Only uncompressed GIFs are generated |
PNG | X | X | 2 bit and 4 bit/pixel not supported yet |
SGI | X | X | SGI RGB image format |
X
means that the encoding (resp. decoding) is supported.
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Supported Codec | Encoding | Decoding | Comments |
MPEG1 video | X | X | |
MPEG2 video | X | X | |
MPEG4 | X | X | Also known as DIVX4/5 |
MSMPEG4 V1 | X | X | |
MSMPEG4 V2 | X | X | |
MSMPEG4 V3 | X | X | Also known as DIVX3 |
WMV7 | X | X | |
WMV8 | X | X | Not completely working |
H.261 | X | X | |
H.263(+) | X | X | Also known as Real Video 1.0 |
H.264 | X | ||
MJPEG | X | X | |
Lossless MJPEG | X | X | |
Apple MJPEG-B | X | ||
Sunplus MJPEG | X | fourcc: SP5X | |
DV | X | X | |
Huff YUV | X | X | |
FFmpeg Video 1 | X | X | Experimental lossless codec (fourcc: FFV1) |
FFmpeg Snow | X | X | Experimental wavelet codec (fourcc: SNOW) |
Asus v1 | X | X | fourcc: ASV1 |
Asus v2 | X | X | fourcc: ASV2 |
Creative YUV | X | fourcc: CYUV | |
Sorenson Video 1 | X | X | fourcc: SVQ1 |
Sorenson Video 3 | X | fourcc: SVQ3 | |
On2 VP3 | X | still experimental | |
Theora | X | still experimental | |
Intel Indeo 3 | X | ||
FLV | X | X | Sorenson H.263 used in Flash |
ATI VCR1 | X | fourcc: VCR1 | |
ATI VCR2 | X | fourcc: VCR2 | |
Cirrus Logic AccuPak | X | fourcc: CLJR | |
4X Video | X | used in certain computer games | |
Sony Playstation MDEC | X | ||
Id RoQ | X | used in Quake III, Jedi Knight 2, other computer games | |
Xan/WC3 | X | used in Wing Commander III .MVE files | |
Interplay Video | X | used in Interplay .MVE files | |
Apple Animation | X | fourcc: 'rle ' | |
Apple Graphics | X | fourcc: 'smc ' | |
Apple Video | X | fourcc: rpza | |
Apple QuickDraw | X | fourcc: qdrw | |
Cinepak | X | ||
Microsoft RLE | X | ||
Microsoft Video-1 | X | ||
Westwood VQA | X | ||
Id Cinematic Video | X | used in Quake II | |
Planar RGB | X | fourcc: 8BPS | |
FLIC video | X | ||
Duck TrueMotion v1 | X | fourcc: DUCK | |
VMD Video | X | used in Sierra VMD files | |
MSZH | X | Part of LCL | |
ZLIB | X | X | Part of LCL, encoder experimental |
TechSmith Camtasia | X | fourcc: TSCC | |
IBM Ultimotion | X | fourcc: ULTI | |
Miro VideoXL | X | fourcc: VIXL | |
QPEG | X | fourccs: QPEG, Q1.0, Q1.1 | |
LOCO | X | ||
Winnov WNV1 | X | ||
Autodesk Animator Studio Codec | X | fourcc: AASC | |
Fraps FPS1 | X |
X
means that the encoding (resp. decoding) is supported.
Check at http://www.mplayerhq.hu/~michael/codec-features.html to get a precise comparison of FFmpeg MPEG4 codec compared to the other solutions.
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Supported Codec | Encoding | Decoding | Comments |
MPEG audio layer 2 | IX | IX | |
MPEG audio layer 1/3 | IX | IX | MP3 encoding is supported through the external library LAME |
AC3 | IX | IX | liba52 is used internally for decoding |
Vorbis | X | X | supported through the external library libvorbis |
WMA V1/V2 | X | ||
AAC | X | X | supported through the external library libfaac/libfaad |
Microsoft ADPCM | X | X | |
MS IMA ADPCM | X | X | |
QT IMA ADPCM | X | ||
4X IMA ADPCM | X | ||
G.726 ADPCM | X | X | |
Duck DK3 IMA ADPCM | X | used in some Sega Saturn console games | |
Duck DK4 IMA ADPCM | X | used in some Sega Saturn console games | |
Westwood Studios IMA ADPCM | X | used in Westwood Studios games like Command and Conquer | |
SMJPEG IMA ADPCM | X | used in certain Loki game ports | |
CD-ROM XA ADPCM | X | ||
CRI ADX ADPCM | X | X | used in Sega Dreamcast games |
Electronic Arts ADPCM | X | used in various EA titles | |
Creative ADPCM | X | ||
RA144 | X | Real 14400 bit/s codec | |
RA288 | X | Real 28800 bit/s codec | |
RADnet | X | IX | Real lowbitrate AC3 codec, liba52 is used for decoding |
AMR-NB | X | X | supported through an external library |
AMR-WB | X | X | supported through an external library |
DV audio | X | ||
Id RoQ DPCM | X | used in Quake III, Jedi Knight 2, other computer games | |
Interplay MVE DPCM | X | used in various Interplay computer games | |
Xan DPCM | X | used in Origin's Wing Commander IV AVI files | |
Sierra Online DPCM | X | used in Sierra Online game audio files | |
Apple MACE 3 | X | ||
Apple MACE 6 | X | ||
FLAC lossless audio | X | ||
Shorten lossless audio | X | ||
Apple lossless audio | X | QuickTime fourcc 'alac' | |
FFmpeg Sonic | X | X | Experimental lossy/lossless codec |
X
means that the encoding (resp. decoding) is supported.
I
means that an integer only version is available too (ensures highest
performances on systems without hardware floating point support).
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ffmpeg should be compiled with at least GCC 2.95.3. GCC 3.2 is the preferred compiler now for ffmpeg. All future optimizations will depend on features only found in GCC 3.2.
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Notes:
./configure --enable-shared
when configuring ffmpeg,
you can build `avcodec.dll' and `avformat.dll'. With
make install
you install the FFmpeg DLLs and the associated
headers in `Program Files/FFmpeg'.
./configure --enable-shared
when configuring FFmpeg, then FFmpeg tries to use the Microsoft Visual
C++ lib
tool to build avcodec.lib
and
avformat.lib
. With these libraries, you can link your Visual C++
code directly with the FFmpeg DLLs.
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You must use the MinGW cross compilation tools available at http://www.mingw.org/.
Then configure ffmpeg with the following options:
./configure --enable-mingw32 --cross-prefix=i386-mingw32msvc- |
Then you can easily test ffmpeg with wine (http://www.winehq.com/).
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The configure script should guess the configuration itself. Networking support is currently not finished. errno issues fixed by Andrew Bachmann.
Old stuff:
François Revol - revol at free dot fr - April 2002
The configure script should guess the configuration itself, however I still didn't tested building on net_server version of BeOS.
ffserver is broken (needs poll() implementation).
There is still issues with errno codes, which are negative in BeOs, and that ffmpeg negates when returning. This ends up turning errors into valid results, then crashes. (To be fixed)
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You can integrate all the source code of the libraries to link them statically to avoid any version problem. All you need is to provide a 'config.mak' and a 'config.h' in the parent directory. See the defines generated by ./configure to understand what is needed.
You can use libavcodec or libavformat in your commercial program, but any patch you make must be published. The best way to proceed is to send your patches to the ffmpeg mailing list.
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ffmpeg is programmed in the ISO C90 language with a few additional features from ISO C99, namely:
These features are supported by all compilers we care about, so we won't accept patches to remove their use unless they absolutely don't impair clarity and performance.
All code must compile with gcc 2.95 and gcc 3.3. Currently, ffmpeg also compiles with several other compilers, such as the Compaq ccc compiler or Sun Studio 9, and we would like to keep it that way unless it would be exceedingly involved. To ensure compatibility, please don't use any additional C99 features or gcc extensions. Watch out especially for:
Indent size is 4. The TAB character should not be used. The presentation is the one specified by 'indent -i4 -kr'.
Main priority in ffmpeg is simplicity and small code size (=less bugs).
Comments: use the JavaDoc/Doxygen format (see examples below) so that a documentation can be generated automatically. All non trivial functions should have a comment above it explaining what the function does, even if its just one sentance. All Structures and their member variables should be documented too.
/** * @file mpeg.c * mpeg codec. * @author ... */ /** * Summary sentance. * more text ... * ... */ typedef struct Foobar{ int var1; /**< var1 description */ int var2; ///< var2 description /** var3 description */ int var3; } Foobar; /** * Summary sentance. * more text ... * ... * @param my_parameter description of my_parameter * @return return value description */ int myfunc(int my_parameter) ... |
fprintf and printf are forbidden in libavformat and libavcodec, please use av_log() instead.
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NOTE: If you had to put if(){ .. } over a large (> 5 lines) chunk of code, then either do NOT change the indentation of the inner part within (don't move it to the right)! or do so in a seperate commit
Never revert changes made a long time ago or buggy code. Fix it in the normal way instead.
We think our rules are not too hard. If you have comments, contact us.
Note, these rules are mostly borrowed from the MPlayer project.
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First, (see section 7.3 Coding Rules) above if you didn't yet.
When you submit your patch, try to send a unified diff (diff '-up' option). I cannot read other diffs :-)
Run the regression tests before submitting a patch so that you can verify that there are no big problems.
Patches should be posted as base64 encoded attachments (or any other encoding which ensures that the patch wont be trashed during transmission) to the ffmpeg-devel mailinglist, see http://www1.mplayerhq.hu/mailman/listinfo/ffmpeg-devel
It also helps quite a bit if you tell us what the patch does (for example 'replaces lrint by lrintf') , and why (for example '*bsd isnt c99 compliant and has no lrint()')
We reply to all patches submitted and either apply or reject with some explanation why, but sometimes we are quite busy so it can take a week or 2
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Before submitting a patch (or committing with CVS), you should at least test that you did not break anything.
The regression test build a synthetic video stream and a synthetic audio stream. Then these are encoded then decoded with all codecs or formats. The CRC (or MD5) of each generated file is recorded in a result file. Then a 'diff' is launched with the reference results and the result file.
The regression test then goes on to test the ffserver code with a limited set of streams. It is important that this step runs correctly as well.
Run 'make test' to test all the codecs and formats.
Run 'make fulltest' to test all the codecs, formats and ffserver.
[Of course, some patches may change the regression tests results. In this case, the regression tests reference results shall be modified accordingly].
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[Top] | [Contents] | [Index] | [ ? ] |
1. Introduction
2. Quick Start
3. Invocation
4. Tips
5. Supported File Formats and Codecs
6. Platform Specific information
7. Developers Guide
[Top] | [Contents] | [Index] | [ ? ] |
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