FFmpeg

FFmpeg is a Linux utility for processing audio and video content, subtitles and associated metadata.

Installation from repository

FFmpeg can be installed in any familiar and convenient way:

Install via GNOME Software

In three clicks 😊

Follow the link install FFmpeg and confirm the “open application” operation in the browser. The Application Center will open, select the source "Sisyphus" in it, and click the "download" button

Installation via terminal

apt-get

su -
apt-get update
apt-get install ffmpeg

epm

epm -i ffmpeg

Summary of options

Specify input file

ffmpeg -i

To view the entire list of all supported formats, use:

ffmpeg -formats

Hide the banner about the information of the FFmpeg program itself in the output

ffmpeg -hide_banner

Get information about a media file

1. ffmpeg -i input_file.mp4
2. ffmpeg -i /home/input_file.mp4

The example contains two methods:

1. You are in the current directory where this file is located.
2. You indicate the full path to the file.

Regardless of the file extension, information about the media file will be displayed.

Converting media files

Convert various multimedia formats. To do this, you can simply specify the file names, since FFmpeg will get the required format from the extensions. This works to convert video to video and audio to audio.

Examples:

ffmpeg -i "video_input.mp4" "video_output.avi"
ffmpeg -i "video_input.webm" "video_output.flv"
ffmpeg -i "audio_input.mp3" "audio_output.ogg"
ffmpeg -i "audio_input.wav" "audio_output.flac"

Подсказка

Below are examples where you can iterate through all the files in the current directory, which will ultimately affect absolutely all files, regardless of their extension. Instead of for i in *.mkv; write for i in *;

Changing the video resolution or aspect ratio

Another simple task for FFmpeg. All you need to do to resize a video is specify the new resolution using the s flag

The -c copy flag is used to preserve the original quality (In simple terms, repacking from one container to another while making changes)

One file

ffmpeg -i "File.avi" -s 1024x576 -c copy "File1.avi"

Multiple files

for i in *.mkv; do ffmpeg -hide_banner -i "$i" -s 1024x576 -c copy "/mnt/Hard/Result/${i}"; done

Trim video without recoding

For example, you can cut the first 45 minutes from a video:

One file

ffmpeg -i "Video.mkv" -ss 00:45:00 -c copy "Video2.mkv"

Multiple files

for i in *.mkv; do ffmpeg -hide_banner -i "$i" -ss 00:45:00 -c copy "/mnt/Hard/Result/${i}"; done

Trim video from a specific time to a specific time:

One file

ffmpeg -i "Видео.mkv" -ss 00:45:00 -to 1:55:00 -c copy "Видео2.mkv"

Multiple files

for i in *.mkv; do ffmpeg -hide_banner -i "$i" -ss 00:45:00 -to 1:55:00 -c copy "/mnt/Hard/Result/${i}"; done

Preserve original content quality when encoding

There are several options with which you can get closer to the original:

1. -qscale 0 - constant bitrate. If you need to process audio in parallel with this option, you need to separately specify -q:a or -aq q, since by default only the video codec is processed.
2. -crf 18 - variable bitrate. If you specify a lower CRF, the file will be larger with better visual quality.

• 18 - often considered “visually lossless” compression
• 23 - considered standard.

Внимание

In FFmpeg support you can often find a mention that -qscale does not work well with H.264

One file

ffmpeg -hide_banner -i "File.avi" -qscale 0 "File.mp4"
ffmpeg -hide_banner -i "File.avi" -crf 18 "File.mp4"

Multiple files

for i in *.mkv; do ffmpeg -hide_banner -i "$i" -qscale 0 "/mnt/Hard/Restul/${i}"; done
for i in *.mkv; do ffmpeg -hide_banner -i "$i" -crf 18 "/mnt/Hard/Restul/${i}"; done

A handwritten script extracts the video bitrate from the input file to preserve the original quality during conversion.

for i in *; do
  bitrate=$(ffmpeg -hide_banner -i "$i" 2>&1 | grep -oP 'bitrate: \K[0-9]+')
  ffmpeg -hide_banner -i "$i" -map 0:v:0 -map 0:a:0 -c:v libx264 -b:v ${bitrate}k -c:a copy "/mnt/Hard/Result/${i%.*}.mkv";
done

Информация

To use hardware acceleration of the video card, edit the -c:v libx264 key

• NVIDIA NVENC: -c:v h264_nvenc
• AMD AMF: -c:v h264_amf
• Intel Quick Sync Video: -c:v h264_qsv

Changing the structure of a video file container without changing the video quality

Let's say we have a video file with 5 audio tracks and 3 subtitle tracks, and we need a video specifically with the first audio track and the second subtitle stream.

One file

ffmpeg -hide_banner -i "файл.mkv" -map 0:v:0 -map 0:a:0 -map 0:s:1 -c:v copy -c:a copy -c:s copy "/path/to/save/file.mkv"

Multiple files

for i in *.mkv; do ffmpeg -hide_banner -i "$i" -map 0:v:0 -map 0:a:0 -map 0:s:1 -c:v copy -c:a copy -c:s copy "/path/to/save/${i}"; done

• Select the first video track: -map 0:v:0
• Select the first audio track: -map 0:a:0
• Select the second subtitle stream: -map 0:s:1
• Using -c copy is equivalent to specifying -c:v copy -c:a copy -c:s copy if the desired tracks were previously selected.

Be careful

Track indexing starts at zero, so the first track will be numbered 0 rather than 1.

Change the audio codec without affecting the video itself.

The key for copying the audio codec (-c:a copy) is replaced with another key: -c:a ac3

One file

ffmpeg -hide_banner -i "file.mkv" -map 0:v:0 -map 0:a:0 -map 0:s:1 -c:v copy -c:a ac3 -c:s copy "/path/to/save/file.mkv"

Multiple files

for i in *.mkv; do ffmpeg -hide_banner -i "$i" -map 0:v:0 -map 0:a:0 -map 0:s:1 -c:v copy -c:a ac3 -c:s copy "/path/to/save/${i}"; done

We combine video without recoding with the extension .mkv (current directory), audio with the extension .mka and subtitles with the extension .ass with the same names. The originality of the name and extension of video files is also preserved.

Let's assume that you have a series and two catalogs with the desired audio translation and subtitles:

With subtitles

for i in *.mkv; do
  ffmpeg -hide_banner -i "$i" \
  -i "/path/to/audio/${i%.*}.mka" \
  -i "/path/to/subtitles/${i%.*}.ass" \
  -map 0:v:0 -map 1:a -map 2:s \
  -c copy \
  "/path/to/result/${i%.*}.mkv"
done

Without subtitles

for i in *.mkv; do
  ffmpeg -hide_banner -i "$i" \
  -i "/path/to/audio/${i%.*}.mka" \
  -map 0:v:0 -map 1:a \
  -c copy \
  "/path/to/result/${i%.*}.mkv"
done

Displays the name of the audio codec, number of audio channels, language and audio track name.

for file in *; do
  echo "File: $file"
  ffprobe -v error -select_streams a -show_entries stream=codec_name,channels,tags:stream_tags=language,title -of csv=p=0 "$file"
done

Useful keyword searches in media file metadata.

Информация

To specify a search parameter, change the line "Stream\|Audio\|Subtitle", \| - the "or" operator.

for file in *; do
  if [[ -f "$file" ]]; then
    echo "$file"
    ffmpeg -i "$file" 2>&1 | grep "Stream\|Audio\|Subtitle"
  fi
done

Working with GIF

Convert videos with MP4 extension to GIF

ffmpeg -i "file.mp4" "file.gif"

MP4 conversion with 3 frames per second and 320 width scaling (height adjusts automatically):

ffmpeg -i "video.mp4" -vf "fps=3,scale=320:-1:flags=lanczos" "gif.gif"

GIF animation is 2 times slower. By editing the option setpts=PTS*2 the animation speed is adjusted:

ffmpeg -i "gif.gif" -filter_complex "setpts=PTS*2" "gif1.gif"

Splitting a GIF into separate frames:

ffmpeg -i "gif.gif" "gif_%04d.png"

Splitting GIF into separate frames, but independently adjusting the number by editing the value fps=10:

ffmpeg -i "gif.gif" -vf "fps=10" "gif_%04d.png"

Combining images into GIF:

Внимание

It is necessary to rename the files using one pattern: gif_0001.png, gif_0002.png and so on

ffmpeg -i "gif_%04d.png" -vf "fps=10" "gif.gif"

Adding text at bottom center:

ffmpeg -i gif.gif -vf "drawtext=text='ALT Gnome Wiki':x=(w-text_w)/2:y=main_h-text_h-10:fontsize=24:fontcolor=white" text.gif

How to upload a short video without sound to Telegram so that it is saved as a video and not converted to GIF:

ffmpeg -i "file.mp4" -f lavfi -i anullsrc -c:v copy -c:a aac -shortest "file2.mp4"