ffmpeg Command Examples

Video conversion tool. More information: https://ffmpeg.org.

• Extract the sound from a video and save it as MP3:

ffmpeg -i {{path/to/video.mp4}} -vn {{path/to/sound.mp3}}

• Transcode a FLAC file to Red Book CD format (44100kHz, 16bit):

ffmpeg -i {{path/to/input_audio.flac}} -ar 44100 -sample_fmt s16 {{path/to/output_audio.wav}}

• Save a video as GIF, scaling the height to 1000px and setting framerate to 15:

ffmpeg -i {{path/to/video.mp4}} {{[-vf|-filter:v]}} 'scale=-1:{{1000}}' -r {{15}} {{path/to/output.gif}}

• Combine numbered images (frame_1.jpg, frame_2.jpg, etc) into a video or GIF:

ffmpeg -i {{path/to/frame_%d.jpg}} -f image2 {{video.mpg|video.gif}}

• Trim a video from a given start time mm:ss to an end time mm2:ss2 (omit the -to flag to trim till the end):

ffmpeg -i {{path/to/input_video.mp4}} -ss {{mm:ss}} -to {{mm2:ss2}} {{[-c|-codec]}} copy {{path/to/output_video.mp4}}

• Convert AVI video to MP4. AAC Audio @ 128kbit, h264 Video @ CRF 23:

ffmpeg -i {{path/to/input_video}}.avi {{[-c|-codec]}}:a aac -b:a 128k {{[-c|-codec]}}:v libx264 -crf 23 {{path/to/output_video}}.mp4

• Remux MKV video to MP4 without re-encoding audio or video streams:

ffmpeg -i {{path/to/input_video}}.mkv {{[-c|-codec]}} copy {{path/to/output_video}}.mp4

• Convert MP4 video to VP9 codec. For the best quality, use a CRF value (recommended range 15-35) and -b:v MUST be 0:

ffmpeg -i {{path/to/input_video}}.mp4 {{[-c|-codec]}}:v libvpx-vp9 -crf {{30}} -b:v 0 {{[-c|-codec]}}:a libopus -vbr on -threads {{number_of_threads}} {{path/to/output_video}}.webm