| FFMPEG-FORMATS(1) | FFMPEG-FORMATS(1) |
ffmpeg-formats - FFmpeg formats
This document describes the supported formats (muxers and demuxers) provided by the libavformat library.
The libavformat library provides some generic global options, which can be set on all the muxers and demuxers. In addition each muxer or demuxer may support so-called private options, which are specific for that component.
Options may be set by specifying -option value in the FFmpeg tools, or by setting the value explicitly in the "AVFormatContext" options or using the libavutil/opt.h API for programmatic use.
The list of supported options follows:
Possible values for input files:
Possible values for output files:
Possible values:
Possible values:
To ensure all the streams are interleaved correctly, libavformat will wait until it has at least one packet for each stream before actually writing any packets to the output file. When some streams are "sparse" (i.e. there are large gaps between successive packets), this can result in excessive buffering.
This field specifies the maximum difference between the timestamps of the first and the last packet in the muxing queue, above which libavformat will output a packet regardless of whether it has queued a packet for all the streams.
If set to 0, libavformat will continue buffering packets until it has a packet for each stream, regardless of the maximum timestamp difference between the buffered packets.
When shifting is enabled, all output timestamps are shifted by the same amount. Audio, video, and subtitles desynching and relative timestamp differences are preserved compared to how they would have been without shifting.
offset must be a time duration specification, see the Time duration section in the ffmpeg-utils(1) manual.
The offset is added by the muxer to the output timestamps.
Specifying a positive offset means that the corresponding streams are delayed bt the time duration specified in offset. Default value is 0 (meaning that no offset is applied).
ffprobe -dump_separator "
" -i ~/videos/matrixbench_mpeg2.mpg
Possible values:
Format stream specifiers allow selection of one or more streams that match specific properties.
The exact semantics of stream specifiers is defined by the avformat_match_stream_specifier() function declared in the libavformat/avformat.h header and documented in the Stream specifiers section in the ffmpeg(1) manual.
Demuxers are configured elements in FFmpeg that can read the multimedia streams from a particular type of file.
When you configure your FFmpeg build, all the supported demuxers are enabled by default. You can list all available ones using the configure option "--list-demuxers".
You can disable all the demuxers using the configure option "--disable-demuxers", and selectively enable a single demuxer with the option "--enable-demuxer=DEMUXER", or disable it with the option "--disable-demuxer=DEMUXER".
The option "-demuxers" of the ff* tools will display the list of enabled demuxers. Use "-formats" to view a combined list of enabled demuxers and muxers.
The description of some of the currently available demuxers follows.
Audible Format 2, 3, and 4 demuxer.
This demuxer is used to demux Audible Format 2, 3, and 4 (.aa) files.
Raw Audio Data Transport Stream AAC demuxer.
This demuxer is used to demux an ADTS input containing a single AAC stream alongwith any ID3v1/2 or APE tags in it.
Animated Portable Network Graphics demuxer.
This demuxer is used to demux APNG files. All headers, but the PNG signature, up to (but not including) the first fcTL chunk are transmitted as extradata. Frames are then split as being all the chunks between two fcTL ones, or between the last fcTL and IEND chunks.
Advanced Systems Format demuxer.
This demuxer is used to demux ASF files and MMS network streams.
Virtual concatenation script demuxer.
This demuxer reads a list of files and other directives from a text file and demuxes them one after the other, as if all their packets had been muxed together.
The timestamps in the files are adjusted so that the first file starts at 0 and each next file starts where the previous one finishes. Note that it is done globally and may cause gaps if all streams do not have exactly the same length.
All files must have the same streams (same codecs, same time base, etc.).
The duration of each file is used to adjust the timestamps of the next file: if the duration is incorrect (because it was computed using the bit-rate or because the file is truncated, for example), it can cause artifacts. The "duration" directive can be used to override the duration stored in each file.
Syntax
The script is a text file in extended-ASCII, with one directive per line. Empty lines, leading spaces and lines starting with '#' are ignored. The following directive is recognized:
All subsequent file-related directives apply to that file.
To make FFmpeg recognize the format automatically, this directive must appear exactly as is (no extra space or byte-order-mark) on the very first line of the script.
If the duration is set for all files, then it is possible to seek in the whole concatenated video.
This directive works best with intra frame codecs, because for non-intra frame ones you will usually get extra packets before the actual In point and the decoded content will most likely contain frames before In point too.
For each file, packets before the file In point will have timestamps less than the calculated start timestamp of the file (negative in case of the first file), and the duration of the files (if not specified by the "duration" directive) will be reduced based on their specified In point.
Because of potential packets before the specified In point, packet timestamps may overlap between two concatenated files.
Out point is exclusive, which means that the demuxer will not output packets with a decoding timestamp greater or equal to Out point.
This directive works best with intra frame codecs and formats where all streams are tightly interleaved. For non-intra frame codecs you will usually get additional packets with presentation timestamp after Out point therefore the decoded content will most likely contain frames after Out point too. If your streams are not tightly interleaved you may not get all the packets from all streams before Out point and you may only will be able to decode the earliest stream until Out point.
The duration of the files (if not specified by the "duration" directive) will be reduced based on their specified Out point.
Options
This demuxer accepts the following option:
If set to 0, any file name is accepted.
The default is 1.
Currently, the only conversion is adding the h264_mp4toannexb bitstream filter to H.264 streams in MP4 format. This is necessary in particular if there are resolution changes.
Examples
# my first filename
file /mnt/share/file-1.wav
# my second filename including whitespace
file '/mnt/share/file 2.wav'
# my third filename including whitespace plus single quote
file '/mnt/share/file 3'\''.wav'
ffconcat version 1.0
file file-1.wav
duration 20.0
file subdir/file-2.wav
Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP demuxer.
This demuxer presents all AVStreams found in the manifest. By setting the discard flags on AVStreams the caller can decide which streams to actually receive. Each stream mirrors the "id" and "bandwidth" properties from the "<Representation>" as metadata keys named "id" and "variant_bitrate" respectively.
Options
This demuxer accepts the following option:
DVD-Video demuxer, powered by libdvdnav and libdvdread.
Can directly ingest DVD titles, specifically sequential PGCs, into a conversion pipeline. Menu assets, such as background video or audio, can also be demuxed given the menu's coordinates (at best effort). Seeking is not supported at this time.
Block devices (DVD drives), ISO files, and directory structures are accepted. Activate with "-f dvdvideo" in front of one of these inputs.
This demuxer does NOT have decryption code of any kind. You are on your own working with encrypted DVDs, and should not expect support on the matter.
Underlying playback is handled by libdvdnav, and structure parsing by libdvdread. FFmpeg must be built with GPL library support available as well as the configure switches "--enable-libdvdnav" and "--enable-libdvdread".
You will need to provide either the desired "title number" or exact PGC/PG coordinates. Many open-source DVD players and tools can aid in providing this information. If not specified, the demuxer will default to title 1 which works for many discs. However, due to the flexibility of the format, it is recommended to check manually. There are many discs that are authored strangely or with invalid headers.
If the input is a real DVD drive, please note that there are some drives which may silently fail on reading bad sectors from the disc, returning random bits instead which is effectively corrupt data. This is especially prominent on aging or rotting discs. A second pass and integrity checks would be needed to detect the corruption. This is not an FFmpeg issue.
Background
DVD-Video is not a directly accessible, linear container format in the traditional sense. Instead, it allows for complex and programmatic playback of carefully muxed MPEG-PS streams that are stored in headerless VOB files. To the end-user, these streams are known simply as "titles", but the actual logical playback sequence is defined by one or more "PGCs", or Program Group Chains, within the title. The PGC is in turn comprised of multiple "PGs", or Programs", which are the actual video segments (and for a typical video feature, sequentially ordered). The PGC structure, along with stream layout and metadata, are stored in IFO files that need to be parsed. PGCs can be thought of as playlists in easier terms.
An actual DVD player relies on user GUI interaction via menus and an internal VM to drive the direction of demuxing. Generally, the user would either navigate (via menus) or automatically be redirected to the PGC of their choice. During this process and the subsequent playback, the DVD player's internal VM also maintains a state and executes instructions that can create jumps to different sectors during playback. This is why libdvdnav is involved, as a linear read of the MPEG-PS blobs on the disc (VOBs) is not enough to produce the right sequence in many cases.
There are many other DVD structures (a long subject) that will not be discussed here. NAV packets, in particular, are handled by this demuxer to build accurate timing but not emitted as a stream. For a good high-level understanding, refer to: <https://code.videolan.org/videolan/libdvdnav/-/blob/master/doc/dvd_structures>
Options
This demuxer accepts the following options:
Examples
ffmpeg -f dvdvideo -title 3 -i <path to DVD> ...
ffmpeg -f dvdvideo -chapter_start 3 -chapter_end 6 -title 1 -i <path to DVD> ...
ffmpeg -f dvdvideo -chapter_start 5 -chapter_end 5 -title 1 -i <path to DVD> ...
ffmpeg -f dvdvideo -menu 1 -menu_lu 1 -menu_vts 1 -pgc 1 -pg 1 -i <path to DVD> ...
Electronic Arts Multimedia format demuxer.
This format is used by various Electronic Arts games.
Options
Interoperable Master Format demuxer.
This demuxer presents audio and video streams found in an IMF Composition, as specified in <https://doi.org/10.5594/SMPTE.ST2067-2.2020>.
ffmpeg [-assetmaps <path of ASSETMAP1>,<path of ASSETMAP2>,...] -i <path of CPL> ...
If "-assetmaps" is not specified, the demuxer looks for a file called ASSETMAP.xml in the same directory as the CPL.
Adobe Flash Video Format demuxer.
This demuxer is used to demux FLV files and RTMP network streams. In case of live network streams, if you force format, you may use live_flv option instead of flv to survive timestamp discontinuities. KUX is a flv variant used on the Youku platform.
ffmpeg -f flv -i myfile.flv ...
ffmpeg -f live_flv -i rtmp://<any.server>/anything/key ....
Animated GIF demuxer.
It accepts the following options:
For example, with the overlay filter, place an infinitely looping GIF over another video:
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -ignore_loop 0 -i input.gif -filter_complex overlay=shortest=1 out.mkv
Note that in the above example the shortest option for overlay filter is used to end the output video at the length of the shortest input file, which in this case is input.mp4 as the GIF in this example loops infinitely.
HLS demuxer
Apple HTTP Live Streaming demuxer.
This demuxer presents all AVStreams from all variant streams. The id field is set to the bitrate variant index number. By setting the discard flags on AVStreams (by pressing 'a' or 'v' in ffplay), the caller can decide which variant streams to actually receive. The total bitrate of the variant that the stream belongs to is available in a metadata key named "variant_bitrate".
It accepts the following options:
Image file demuxer.
This demuxer reads from a list of image files specified by a pattern. The syntax and meaning of the pattern is specified by the option pattern_type.
The pattern may contain a suffix which is used to automatically determine the format of the images contained in the files.
The size, the pixel format, and the format of each image must be the same for all the files in the sequence.
This demuxer accepts the following options:
pattern_type accepts one of the following values.
A sequence pattern may contain the string "%d" or "%0Nd", which specifies the position of the characters representing a sequential number in each filename matched by the pattern. If the form "%d0Nd" is used, the string representing the number in each filename is 0-padded and N is the total number of 0-padded digits representing the number. The literal character '%' can be specified in the pattern with the string "%%".
If the sequence pattern contains "%d" or "%0Nd", the first filename of the file list specified by the pattern must contain a number inclusively contained between start_number and start_number+start_number_range-1, and all the following numbers must be sequential.
For example the pattern "img-%03d.bmp" will match a sequence of filenames of the form img-001.bmp, img-002.bmp, ..., img-010.bmp, etc.; the pattern "i%%m%%g-%d.jpg" will match a sequence of filenames of the form i%m%g-1.jpg, i%m%g-2.jpg, ..., i%m%g-10.jpg, etc.
Note that the pattern must not necessarily contain "%d" or "%0Nd", for example to convert a single image file img.jpeg you can employ the command:
ffmpeg -i img.jpeg img.png
The pattern is interpreted like a glob() pattern. This is only selectable if libavformat was compiled with globbing support.
If your version of libavformat was compiled with globbing support, and the provided pattern contains at least one glob meta character among "%*?[]{}" that is preceded by an unescaped "%", the pattern is interpreted like a glob() pattern, otherwise it is interpreted like a sequence pattern.
All glob special characters "%*?[]{}" must be prefixed with "%". To escape a literal "%" you shall use "%%".
For example the pattern "foo-%*.jpeg" will match all the filenames prefixed by "foo-" and terminating with ".jpeg", and "foo-%?%?%?.jpeg" will match all the filenames prefixed with "foo-", followed by a sequence of three characters, and terminating with ".jpeg".
This pattern type is deprecated in favor of glob and sequence.
Default value is glob_sequence.
Examples
ffmpeg -framerate 10 -i 'img-%03d.jpeg' out.mkv
ffmpeg -framerate 10 -start_number 100 -i 'img-%03d.jpeg' out.mkv
ffmpeg -framerate 10 -pattern_type glob -i "*.png" out.mkv
The Game Music Emu library is a collection of video game music file emulators.
See <https://bitbucket.org/mpyne/game-music-emu/overview> for more information.
It accepts the following options:
ModPlug based module demuxer
See <https://github.com/Konstanty/libmodplug>
It will export one 2-channel 16-bit 44.1 kHz audio stream. Optionally, a "pal8" 16-color video stream can be exported with or without printed metadata.
It accepts the following options:
libopenmpt based module demuxer
See <https://lib.openmpt.org/libopenmpt/> for more information.
Some files have multiple subsongs (tracks) this can be set with the subsong option.
It accepts the following options:
The default value is to let libopenmpt choose.
Demuxer for Quicktime File Format & ISO/IEC Base Media File Format (ISO/IEC 14496-12 or MPEG-4 Part 12, ISO/IEC 15444-12 or JPEG 2000 Part 12).
Registered extensions: mov, mp4, m4a, 3gp, 3g2, mj2, psp, m4b, ism, ismv, isma, f4v
Options
This demuxer accepts the following options:
Following options are available:
Unit is the track time scale. Range is 0 to UINT_MAX. Default is "UINT_MAX - 48000*10" which allows up to a 10 second dts correction for 48 kHz audio streams while accommodating 99.9% of "uint32" range.
Audible AAX
Audible AAX files are encrypted M4B files, and they can be decrypted by specifying a 4 byte activation secret.
ffmpeg -activation_bytes 1CEB00DA -i test.aax -vn -c:a copy output.mp4
MPEG-2 transport stream demuxer.
This demuxer accepts the following options:
MJPEG encapsulated in multi-part MIME demuxer.
This demuxer allows reading of MJPEG, where each frame is represented as a part of multipart/x-mixed-replace stream.
Raw video demuxer.
This demuxer allows one to read raw video data. Since there is no header specifying the assumed video parameters, the user must specify them in order to be able to decode the data correctly.
This demuxer accepts the following options:
For example to read a rawvideo file input.raw with ffplay, assuming a pixel format of "rgb24", a video size of "320x240", and a frame rate of 10 images per second, use the command:
ffplay -f rawvideo -pixel_format rgb24 -video_size 320x240 -framerate 10 input.raw
RCWT (Raw Captions With Time) is a format native to ccextractor, a commonly used open source tool for processing 608/708 Closed Captions (CC) sources. For more information on the format, see .
This demuxer implements the specification as of March 2024, which has been stable and unchanged since April 2014.
Examples
ffmpeg -i CC.rcwt.bin CC.ass
Note that if your output appears to be empty, you may have to manually set the decoder's data_field option to pick the desired CC substream.
ffmpeg -i CC.rcwt.bin -c:s copy CC.scc
Note that the SCC format does not support all of the possible CC extensions that can be stored in RCWT (such as EIA-708).
SBaGen script demuxer.
This demuxer reads the script language used by SBaGen <http://uazu.net/sbagen/> to generate binaural beats sessions. A SBG script looks like that:
-SE
a: 300-2.5/3 440+4.5/0
b: 300-2.5/0 440+4.5/3
off: -
NOW == a
+0:07:00 == b
+0:14:00 == a
+0:21:00 == b
+0:30:00 off
A SBG script can mix absolute and relative timestamps. If the script uses either only absolute timestamps (including the script start time) or only relative ones, then its layout is fixed, and the conversion is straightforward. On the other hand, if the script mixes both kind of timestamps, then the NOW reference for relative timestamps will be taken from the current time of day at the time the script is read, and the script layout will be frozen according to that reference. That means that if the script is directly played, the actual times will match the absolute timestamps up to the sound controller's clock accuracy, but if the user somehow pauses the playback or seeks, all times will be shifted accordingly.
JSON captions used for <http://www.ted.com/>.
TED does not provide links to the captions, but they can be guessed from the page. The file tools/bookmarklets.html from the FFmpeg source tree contains a bookmarklet to expose them.
This demuxer accepts the following option:
Example: convert the captions to a format most players understand:
ffmpeg -i http://www.ted.com/talks/subtitles/id/1/lang/en talk1-en.srt
Vapoursynth wrapper.
Due to security concerns, Vapoursynth scripts will not be autodetected so the input format has to be forced. For ff* CLI tools, add "-f vapoursynth" before the input "-i yourscript.vpy".
This demuxer accepts the following option:
Sony Wave64 Audio demuxer.
This demuxer accepts the following options:
RIFF Wave Audio demuxer.
This demuxer accepts the following options:
Muxers are configured elements in FFmpeg which allow writing multimedia streams to a particular type of file.
When you configure your FFmpeg build, all the supported muxers are enabled by default. You can list all available muxers using the configure option "--list-muxers".
You can disable all the muxers with the configure option "--disable-muxers" and selectively enable / disable single muxers with the options "--enable-muxer=MUXER" / "--disable-muxer=MUXER".
The option "-muxers" of the ff* tools will display the list of enabled muxers. Use "-formats" to view a combined list of enabled demuxers and muxers.
A description of some of the currently available muxers follows.
This section covers raw muxers. They accept a single stream matching the designated codec. They do not store timestamps or metadata. The recognized extension is the same as the muxer name unless indicated otherwise.
It comprises the following muxers. The media type and the eventual extensions used to automatically selects the muxer from the output extensions are also shown.
This muxer will write out the total sample count near the start of the first packet when the output is seekable and the count can be stored in 32 bits.
No extension is registered so format name has to be supplied e.g. with the ffmpeg CLI tool "-f codec2raw".
This muxer accepts a single stream with any codec of any type. The input stream has to be selected using the "-map" option with the ffmpeg CLI tool.
No extension is registered so format name has to be supplied e.g. with the ffmpeg CLI tool "-f data".
The Dirac Pro codec is a subset and is standardized as SMPTE VC-2.
It is standardized as SMPTE VC-3. Accepts DNxHR streams.
No extension is registered so format name has to be supplied e.g. with the ffmpeg CLI tool "-f g726".
No extension is registered so format name has to be supplied e.g. with the ffmpeg CLI tool "-f g726le".
Temporal delimiter OBUs will be inserted in all temporal units of the stream.
Examples
ffmpeg -f lavfi -i testsrc -t 10 -s hd1080p testsrc.yuv
Since the rawvideo muxer do not store the information related to size and format, this information must be provided when demuxing the file:
ffplay -video_size 1920x1080 -pixel_format rgb24 -f rawvideo testsrc.rgb
This section covers raw PCM (Pulse-Code Modulation) audio muxers.
They accept a single stream matching the designated codec. They do not store timestamps or metadata. The recognized extension is the same as the muxer name.
It comprises the following muxers. The optional additional extension used to automatically select the muxer from the output extension is also shown in parentheses.
This section covers formats belonging to the MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 Systems family.
The MPEG-1 Systems format (also known as ISO/IEEC 11172-1 or MPEG-1 program stream) has been adopted for the format of media track stored in VCD (Video Compact Disc).
The MPEG-2 Systems standard (also known as ISO/IEEC 13818-1) covers two containers formats, one known as transport stream and one known as program stream; only the latter is covered here.
The MPEG-2 program stream format (also known as VOB due to the corresponding file extension) is an extension of MPEG-1 program stream: in addition to support different codecs for the audio and video streams, it also stores subtitles and navigation metadata. MPEG-2 program stream has been adopted for storing media streams in SVCD and DVD storage devices.
This section comprises the following muxers.
This muxer can be used to generate tracks in the format accepted by the VCD (Video Compact Disc) storage devices.
It is the same as the mpeg muxer with a few differences.
This muxer can be used to generate tracks in the format accepted by the DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) storage devices.
This is the same as the vob muxer with a few differences.
This muxer can be used to generate tracks in the format accepted by the SVCD (Super Video Compact Disc) storage devices.
This is the same as the vob muxer with a few differences.
Options
This section covers formats belonging to the QuickTime / MOV family, including the MPEG-4 Part 14 format and ISO base media file format (ISOBMFF). These formats share a common structure based on the ISO base media file format (ISOBMFF).
The MOV format was originally developed for use with Apple QuickTime. It was later used as the basis for the MPEG-4 Part 1 (later Part 14) format, also known as ISO/IEC 14496-1. That format was then generalized into ISOBMFF, also named MPEG-4 Part 12 format, ISO/IEC 14496-12, or ISO/IEC 15444-12.
It comprises the following muxers.
Fragmentation
The mov, mp4, and ismv muxers support fragmentation. Normally, a MOV/MP4 file has all the metadata about all packets stored in one location.
This data is usually written at the end of the file, but it can be moved to the start for better playback by adding "+faststart" to the "-movflags", or using the qt-faststart tool).
A fragmented file consists of a number of fragments, where packets and metadata about these packets are stored together. Writing a fragmented file has the advantage that the file is decodable even if the writing is interrupted (while a normal MOV/MP4 is undecodable if it is not properly finished), and it requires less memory when writing very long files (since writing normal MOV/MP4 files stores info about every single packet in memory until the file is closed). The downside is that it is less compatible with other applications.
Fragmentation is enabled by setting one of the options that define how to cut the file into fragments:
If more than one condition is specified, fragments are cut when one of the specified conditions is fulfilled. The exception to this is the option min_frag_duration, which has to be fulfilled for any of the other conditions to apply.
Options
This option is implicitly set when writing ismv (Smooth Streaming) files.
If writing is aborted, the intermediate file can manually be remuxed to get a regular, non-fragmented file of what had been written into the unfinished file.
The following flags can be used:
Setting value to pts is applicable only for a live encoding use case, where PTS values are set as as wallclock time at the source. For example, an encoding use case with decklink capture source where video_pts and audio_pts are set to abs_wallclock.
Examples
ffmpeg -re <<normal input/transcoding options>> -movflags isml+frag_keyframe -f ismv http://server/publishingpoint.isml/Streams(Encoder1)
A64 Commodore 64 video muxer.
This muxer accepts a single "a64_multi" or "a64_multi5" codec video stream.
Raw AC-4 audio muxer.
This muxer accepts a single "ac4" audio stream.
Options
Audio Data Transport Stream muxer.
It accepts a single AAC stream.
Options
MD STUDIO audio muxer.
This muxer accepts a single ATRAC1 audio stream with either one or two channels and a sample rate of 44100Hz.
As AEA supports storing the track title, this muxer will also write the title from stream's metadata to the container.
Audio Interchange File Format muxer.
Options
High Voltage Software's Lego Racers game audio muxer.
It accepts a single ADPCM_IMA_ALP stream with no more than 2 channels and a sample rate not greater than 44100 Hz.
Extensions: "tun", "pcm"
Options
type accepts the following values:
3GPP AMR (Adaptive Multi-Rate) audio muxer.
It accepts a single audio stream containing an AMR NB stream.
AMV (Actions Media Video) format muxer.
Ubisoft Rayman 2 APM audio muxer.
It accepts a single ADPCM IMA APM audio stream.
Animated Portable Network Graphics muxer.
It accepts a single APNG video stream.
Options
Examples
ffmpeg -i INPUT -final_delay 0.5 -plays 2 out.apng
Argonaut Games ASF audio muxer.
It accepts a single ADPCM audio stream.
Options
Argonaut Games CVG audio muxer.
It accepts a single one-channel ADPCM 22050Hz audio stream.
The loop and reverb options set the corresponding flags in the header which can be later retrieved to process the audio stream accordingly.
Options
Advanced / Active Systems (or Streaming) Format audio muxer.
The asf_stream variant should be selected for streaming.
Note that Windows Media Audio (wma) and Windows Media Video (wmv) use this muxer too.
Options
ASS/SSA (SubStation Alpha) subtitles muxer.
It accepts a single ASS subtitles stream.
Options
AST (Audio Stream) muxer.
This format is used to play audio on some Nintendo Wii games.
It accepts a single audio stream.
The loopstart and loopend options can be used to define a section of the file to loop for players honoring such options.
Options
SUN AU audio muxer.
It accepts a single audio stream.
Audio Video Interleaved muxer.
AVI is a proprietary format developed by Microsoft, and later formally specified through the Open DML specification.
Because of differences in players implementations, it might be required to set some options to make sure that the generated output can be correctly played by the target player.
Options
The required index space depends on the output file size and should be about 16 bytes per gigabyte. When this option is omitted or set to zero the necessary index space is guessed.
Default value is 0.
This option is enabled by default. Disabling the channel mask can be useful in specific scenarios, e.g. when merging multiple audio streams into one for compatibility with software that only supports a single audio stream in AVI (see the "amerge" section in the ffmpeg-filters manual).
AV1 (Alliance for Open Media Video codec 1) image format muxer.
This muxers stores images encoded using the AV1 codec.
It accepts one or two video streams. In case two video streams are provided, the second one shall contain a single plane storing the alpha mask.
In case more than one image is provided, the generated output is considered an animated AVIF and the number of loops can be specified with the loop option.
This is based on the specification by Alliance for Open Media at url <https://aomediacodec.github.io/av1-avif>.
Options
ShockWave Flash (SWF) / ActionScript Virtual Machine 2 (AVM2) format muxer.
It accepts one audio stream, one video stream, or both.
G.729 (.bit) file format muxer.
It accepts a single G.729 audio stream.
Apple CAF (Core Audio Format) muxer.
It accepts a single audio stream.
Codec2 audio audio muxer.
It accepts a single codec2 audio stream.
Chromaprint fingerprinter muxers.
To enable compilation of this filter you need to configure FFmpeg with "--enable-chromaprint".
This muxer feeds audio data to the Chromaprint library, which generates a fingerprint for the provided audio data. See: <https://acoustid.org/chromaprint>
It takes a single signed native-endian 16-bit raw audio stream of at most 2 channels.
Options
Silence detection must be disabled for use with the AcoustID service. Default is -1.
CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check) muxer.
This muxer computes and prints the Adler-32 CRC of all the input audio and video frames. By default audio frames are converted to signed 16-bit raw audio and video frames to raw video before computing the CRC.
The output of the muxer consists of a single line of the form: CRC=0xCRC, where CRC is a hexadecimal number 0-padded to 8 digits containing the CRC for all the decoded input frames.
See also the framecrc muxer.
Examples
ffmpeg -i INPUT -f crc out.crc
ffmpeg -i INPUT -f crc -
ffmpeg -i INPUT -c:a pcm_u8 -c:v mpeg2video -f crc -
Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH) muxer.
This muxer creates segments and manifest files according to the MPEG-DASH standard ISO/IEC 23009-1:2014 and following standard updates.
For more information see:
This muxer creates an MPD (Media Presentation Description) manifest file and segment files for each stream. Segment files are placed in the same directory of the MPD manifest file.
The segment filename might contain pre-defined identifiers used in the manifest "SegmentTemplate" section as defined in section 5.3.9.4.4 of the standard.
Available identifiers are "$RepresentationID$", "$Number$", "$Bandwidth$", and "$Time$". In addition to the standard identifiers, an ffmpeg-specific "$ext$" identifier is also supported. When specified, ffmpeg will replace "$ext$" in the file name with muxing format's extensions such as "mp4", "webm" etc.
Options
An adaptation set contains a set of one or more streams accessed as a single subset, e.g. corresponding streams encoded at different size selectable by the user depending on the available bandwidth, or to different audio streams with a different language.
Each adaptation set is specified with the syntax:
id=<index>,streams=<streams>
where index must be a numerical index, and streams is a sequence of ","-separated stream indices. Multiple adaptation sets can be specified, separated by spaces.
To map all video (or audio) streams to an adaptation set, "v" (or "a") can be used as stream identifier instead of IDs.
When no assignment is defined, this defaults to an adaptation set for each stream.
The following optional fields can also be specified:
For example:
<SupplementalProperty schemeIdUri=\"urn:mpeg:dash:srd:2014\" value=\"0,0,0,1,1,2,2\"/>
The descriptor string should be a self-closing XML tag.
A few examples of possible values for the adaptation_sets option follow:
id=0,seg_duration=2,frag_duration=1,frag_type=duration,streams=v id=1,seg_duration=2,frag_type=none,streams=a
id=0,seg_duration=2,frag_type=none,streams=0 id=1,seg_duration=10,frag_type=none,trick_id=0,streams=1
Possible values:
Possible values:
When enabled, the logic monitors the flow of segment indexes. If a streams's segment index value is not at the expected real time position, then the logic corrects that index value.
Typically this logic is needed in live streaming use cases. The network bandwidth fluctuations are common during long run streaming. Each fluctuation can cause the segment indexes fall behind the expected real time position.
This option tries to comply with the above open spec. It enables streaming and hls_playlist options automatically. This is an experimental feature.
Note: This is not Apple's version LHLS. See <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-pantos-hls-rfc8216bis>
Possible values:
Default value is "dash".
Default value is 5.
The name of the single file can be specified with the single_file_name option, if not specified assume the basename of the manifest file with the output format extension.
Default value is 0.
If the value is 0, all segments are kept in the manifest. Default value is 0.
Example
Generate a DASH output reading from an input source in realtime using ffmpeg.
Two multimedia streams are generated from the input file, both containing a video stream encoded through libx264, and an audio stream encoded with libfdk_aac. The first multimedia stream contains video with a bitrate of 800k and audio at the default rate, the second with video scaled to 320x170 pixels at 300k and audio resampled at 22005 Hz.
The window_size option keeps only the latest 5 segments with the default duration of 5 seconds.
ffmpeg -re -i <input> -map 0 -map 0 -c:a libfdk_aac -c:v libx264 \
-b:v:0 800k -profile:v:0 main \
-b:v:1 300k -s:v:1 320x170 -profile:v:1 baseline -ar:a:1 22050 \
-bf 1 -keyint_min 120 -g 120 -sc_threshold 0 -b_strategy 0 \
-use_timeline 1 -use_template 1 -window_size 5 \
-adaptation_sets "id=0,streams=v id=1,streams=a" \
-f dash /path/to/out.mpd
D-Cinema audio muxer.
It accepts a single 6-channels audio stream resampled at 96000 Hz encoded with the pcm_24daud codec.
Example
Use ffmpeg to mux input audio to a 5.1 channel layout resampled at 96000Hz:
ffmpeg -i INPUT -af aresample=96000,pan=5.1 slow.302
For ffmpeg versions before 7.0 you might have to use the asetnsamples filter to limit the muxed packet size, because this format does not support muxing packets larger than 65535 bytes (3640 samples). For newer ffmpeg versions audio is automatically packetized to 36000 byte (2000 sample) packets.
DV (Digital Video) muxer.
It accepts exactly one dvvideo video stream and at most two pcm_s16 audio streams. More constraints are defined by the property of the video, which must correspond to a DV video supported profile, and on the framerate.
Example
Use ffmpeg to convert the input:
ffmpeg -i INPUT -s:v 720x480 -pix_fmt yuv411p -r 29.97 -ac 2 -ar 48000 -y out.dv
FFmpeg metadata muxer.
This muxer writes the streams metadata in the ffmetadata format.
See the Metadata chapter for information about the format.
Example
Use ffmpeg to extract metadata from an input file to a metadata.ffmeta file in ffmetadata format:
ffmpeg -i INPUT -f ffmetadata metadata.ffmeta
FIFO (First-In First-Out) muxer.
The fifo pseudo-muxer allows the separation of encoding and muxing by using a first-in-first-out queue and running the actual muxer in a separate thread.
This is especially useful in combination with the tee muxer and can be used to send data to several destinations with different reliability/writing speed/latency.
The target muxer is either selected from the output name or specified through the fifo_format option.
The behavior of the fifo muxer if the queue fills up or if the output fails (e.g. if a packet cannot be written to the output) is selectable:
API users should be aware that callback functions ("interrupt_callback", "io_open" and "io_close") used within its "AVFormatContext" must be thread-safe.
Options
If set to "true", the time of the processed stream is taken into account instead (i.e. the recovery will be attempted after discarding the packets corresponding to the recovery_wait_time option).
By default this option is set to "false".
Example
Use ffmpeg to stream to an RTMP server, continue processing the stream at real-time rate even in case of temporary failure (network outage) and attempt to recover streaming every second indefinitely:
ffmpeg -re -i ... -c:v libx264 -c:a aac -f fifo -fifo_format flv \
-drop_pkts_on_overflow 1 -attempt_recovery 1 -recovery_wait_time 1 \
-map 0:v -map 0:a rtmp://example.com/live/stream_name
Sega film (.cpk) muxer.
This format was used as internal format for several Sega games.
For more information regarding the Sega film file format, visit <http://wiki.multimedia.cx/index.php?title=Sega_FILM>.
It accepts at maximum one cinepak or raw video stream, and at maximum one audio stream.
Adobe Filmstrip muxer.
This format is used by several Adobe tools to store a generated filmstrip export. It accepts a single raw video stream.
Flexible Image Transport System (FITS) muxer.
This image format is used to store astronomical data.
For more information regarding the format, visit <https://fits.gsfc.nasa.gov>.
Raw FLAC audio muxer.
This muxer accepts exactly one FLAC audio stream. Additionally, it is possible to add images with disposition attached_pic.
Options
Example
Use ffmpeg to store the audio stream from an input file, together with several pictures used with attached_pic disposition:
ffmpeg -i INPUT -i pic1.png -i pic2.jpg -map 0:a -map 1 -map 2 -disposition:v attached_pic OUTPUT
Adobe Flash Video Format muxer.
Options
Per-packet CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check) testing format.
This muxer computes and prints the Adler-32 CRC for each audio and video packet. By default audio frames are converted to signed 16-bit raw audio and video frames to raw video before computing the CRC.
The output of the muxer consists of a line for each audio and video packet of the form:
<stream_index>, <packet_dts>, <packet_pts>, <packet_duration>, <packet_size>, 0x<CRC>
CRC is a hexadecimal number 0-padded to 8 digits containing the CRC of the packet.
Examples
For example to compute the CRC of the audio and video frames in INPUT, converted to raw audio and video packets, and store it in the file out.crc:
ffmpeg -i INPUT -f framecrc out.crc
To print the information to stdout, use the command:
ffmpeg -i INPUT -f framecrc -
With ffmpeg, you can select the output format to which the audio and video frames are encoded before computing the CRC for each packet by specifying the audio and video codec. For example, to compute the CRC of each decoded input audio frame converted to PCM unsigned 8-bit and of each decoded input video frame converted to MPEG-2 video, use the command:
ffmpeg -i INPUT -c:a pcm_u8 -c:v mpeg2video -f framecrc -
See also the crc muxer.
Per-packet hash testing format.
This muxer computes and prints a cryptographic hash for each audio and video packet. This can be used for packet-by-packet equality checks without having to individually do a binary comparison on each.
By default audio frames are converted to signed 16-bit raw audio and video frames to raw video before computing the hash, but the output of explicit conversions to other codecs can also be used. It uses the SHA-256 cryptographic hash function by default, but supports several other algorithms.
The output of the muxer consists of a line for each audio and video packet of the form:
<stream_index>, <packet_dts>, <packet_pts>, <packet_duration>, <packet_size>, <hash>
hash is a hexadecimal number representing the computed hash for the packet.
Examples
To compute the SHA-256 hash of the audio and video frames in INPUT, converted to raw audio and video packets, and store it in the file out.sha256:
ffmpeg -i INPUT -f framehash out.sha256
To print the information to stdout, using the MD5 hash function, use the command:
ffmpeg -i INPUT -f framehash -hash md5 -
See also the hash muxer.
Per-packet MD5 testing format.
This is a variant of the framehash muxer. Unlike that muxer, it defaults to using the MD5 hash function.
Examples
To compute the MD5 hash of the audio and video frames in INPUT, converted to raw audio and video packets, and store it in the file out.md5:
ffmpeg -i INPUT -f framemd5 out.md5
To print the information to stdout, use the command:
ffmpeg -i INPUT -f framemd5 -
See also the framehash and md5 muxers.
Animated GIF muxer.
Note that the GIF format has a very large time base: the delay between two frames can therefore not be smaller than one centi second.
Options
Example
Encode a gif looping 10 times, with a 5 seconds delay between the loops:
ffmpeg -i INPUT -loop 10 -final_delay 500 out.gif
Note 1: if you wish to extract the frames into separate GIF files, you need to force the image2 muxer:
ffmpeg -i INPUT -c:v gif -f image2 "out%d.gif"
General eXchange Format (GXF) muxer.
GXF was developed by Grass Valley Group, then standardized by SMPTE as SMPTE 360M and was extended in SMPTE RDD 14-2007 to include high-definition video resolutions.
It accepts at most one video stream with codec mjpeg, or mpeg1video, or mpeg2video, or dvvideo with resolution 512x480 or 608x576, and several audio streams with rate 48000Hz and codec pcm16_le.
Hash testing format.
This muxer computes and prints a cryptographic hash of all the input audio and video frames. This can be used for equality checks without having to do a complete binary comparison.
By default audio frames are converted to signed 16-bit raw audio and video frames to raw video before computing the hash, but the output of explicit conversions to other codecs can also be used. Timestamps are ignored. It uses the SHA-256 cryptographic hash function by default, but supports several other algorithms.
The output of the muxer consists of a single line of the form: algo=hash, where algo is a short string representing the hash function used, and hash is a hexadecimal number representing the computed hash.
Examples
To compute the SHA-256 hash of the input converted to raw audio and video, and store it in the file out.sha256:
ffmpeg -i INPUT -f hash out.sha256
To print an MD5 hash to stdout use the command:
ffmpeg -i INPUT -f hash -hash md5 -
See also the framehash muxer.
HTTP Dynamic Streaming (HDS) muxer.
HTTP dynamic streaming, or HDS, is an adaptive bitrate streaming method developed by Adobe. HDS delivers MP4 video content over HTTP connections. HDS can be used for on-demand streaming or live streaming.
This muxer creates an .f4m (Adobe Flash Media Manifest File) manifest, an .abst (Adobe Bootstrap File) for each stream, and segment files in a directory specified as the output.
These needs to be accessed by an HDS player throuhg HTTPS for it to be able to perform playback on the generated stream.
Options
Example
Use ffmpeg to generate HDS files to the output.hds directory in real-time rate:
ffmpeg -re -i INPUT -f hds -b:v 200k output.hds
Apple HTTP Live Streaming muxer that segments MPEG-TS according to the HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) specification.
It creates a playlist file, and one or more segment files. The output filename specifies the playlist filename.
By default, the muxer creates a file for each segment produced. These files have the same name as the playlist, followed by a sequential number and a .ts extension.
Make sure to require a closed GOP when encoding and to set the GOP size to fit your segment time constraint.
For example, to convert an input file with ffmpeg:
ffmpeg -i in.mkv -c:v h264 -flags +cgop -g 30 -hls_time 1 out.m3u8
This example will produce the playlist, out.m3u8, and segment files: out0.ts, out1.ts, out2.ts, etc.
See also the segment muxer, which provides a more generic and flexible implementation of a segmenter, and can be used to perform HLS segmentation.
Options
duration must be a time duration specification, see the Time duration section in the ffmpeg-utils(1) manual.
Segment will be cut on the next key frame after this time has passed on the first m3u8 list. After the initial playlist is filled, ffmpeg will cut segments at duration equal to hls_time.
duration must be a time duration specification, see the Time duration section in the ffmpeg-utils(1) manual. Segment will be cut on the next key frame after this time has passed.
It accepts the following values:
Note that the playlist sequence number must be unique for each segment and it is not to be confused with the segment filename sequence number which can be cyclic, for example if the wrap option is specified.
For example:
ffmpeg -i in.nut -hls_segment_filename 'file%03d.ts' out.m3u8
will produce the playlist, out.m3u8, and segment files: file000.ts, file001.ts, file002.ts, etc.
filename may contain a full path or relative path specification, but only the file name part without any path will be contained in the m3u8 segment list. Should a relative path be specified, the path of the created segment files will be relative to the current working directory. When strftime_mkdir is set, the whole expanded value of filename will be written into the m3u8 segment list.
When var_stream_map is set with two or more variant streams, the filename pattern must contain the string "%v", and this string will be expanded to the position of variant stream index in the generated segment file names.
For example:
ffmpeg -i in.ts -b:v:0 1000k -b:v:1 256k -b:a:0 64k -b:a:1 32k \
-map 0:v -map 0:a -map 0:v -map 0:a -f hls -var_stream_map "v:0,a:0 v:1,a:1" \
-hls_segment_filename 'file_%v_%03d.ts' out_%v.m3u8
will produce the playlists segment file sets: file_0_000.ts, file_0_001.ts, file_0_002.ts, etc. and file_1_000.ts, file_1_001.ts, file_1_002.ts, etc.
The string "%v" may be present in the filename or in the last directory name containing the file, but only in one of them. (Additionally, %v may appear multiple times in the last sub-directory or filename.) If the string %v is present in the directory name, then sub-directories are created after expanding the directory name pattern. This enables creation of segments corresponding to different variant streams in subdirectories.
For example:
ffmpeg -i in.ts -b:v:0 1000k -b:v:1 256k -b:a:0 64k -b:a:1 32k \
-map 0:v -map 0:a -map 0:v -map 0:a -f hls -var_stream_map "v:0,a:0 v:1,a:1" \
-hls_segment_filename 'vs%v/file_%03d.ts' vs%v/out.m3u8
will produce the playlists segment file sets: vs0/file_000.ts, vs0/file_001.ts, vs0/file_002.ts, etc. and vs1/file_000.ts, vs1/file_001.ts, vs1/file_002.ts, etc.
For example:
ffmpeg -i in.nut -strftime 1 -hls_segment_filename 'file-%Y%m%d-%s.ts' out.m3u8
will produce the playlist, out.m3u8, and segment files: file-20160215-1455569023.ts, file-20160215-1455569024.ts, etc. Note: On some systems/environments, the %s specifier is not available. See strftime() documentation.
For example:
ffmpeg -i in.nut -strftime 1 -hls_flags second_level_segment_index -hls_segment_filename 'file-%Y%m%d-%%04d.ts' out.m3u8
will produce the playlist, out.m3u8, and segment files: file-20160215-0001.ts, file-20160215-0002.ts, etc.
For example:
ffmpeg -i in.nut -strftime 1 -strftime_mkdir 1 -hls_segment_filename '%Y%m%d/file-%Y%m%d-%s.ts' out.m3u8
will create a directory 201560215 (if it does not exist), and then produce the playlist, out.m3u8, and segment files: 20160215/file-20160215-1455569023.ts, 20160215/file-20160215-1455569024.ts, etc.
For example:
ffmpeg -i in.nut -strftime 1 -strftime_mkdir 1 -hls_segment_filename '%Y/%m/%d/file-%Y%m%d-%s.ts' out.m3u8
will create a directory hierarchy 2016/02/15 (if any of them do not exist), and then produce the playlist, out.m3u8, and segment files: 2016/02/15/file-20160215-1455569023.ts, 2016/02/15/file-20160215-1455569024.ts, etc.
Key info file format:
<key URI>
<key file path>
<IV> (optional)
Example key URIs:
http://server/file.key
/path/to/file.key
file.key
Example key file paths:
file.key
/path/to/file.key
Example IV:
0123456789ABCDEF0123456789ABCDEF
Key info file example:
http://server/file.key
/path/to/file.key
0123456789ABCDEF0123456789ABCDEF
Example shell script:
#!/bin/sh
BASE_URL=${1:-'.'}
openssl rand 16 > file.key
echo $BASE_URL/file.key > file.keyinfo
echo file.key >> file.keyinfo
echo $(openssl rand -hex 16) >> file.keyinfo
ffmpeg -f lavfi -re -i testsrc -c:v h264 -hls_flags delete_segments \
-hls_key_info_file file.keyinfo out.m3u8
When strftime is enabled, filename is expanded to the segment filename with localtime.
For example:
ffmpeg -i in.nut -hls_segment_type fmp4 -strftime 1 -hls_fmp4_init_filename "%s_init.mp4" out.m3u8
will produce init like this 1602678741_init.mp4.
When var_stream_map is set with two or more variant streams, the filename pattern must contain the string "%v", this string specifies the position of variant stream index in the generated init file names. The string "%v" may be present in the filename or in the last directory name containing the file. If the string is present in the directory name, then sub-directories are created after expanding the directory name pattern. This enables creation of init files corresponding to different variant streams in subdirectories.
For example:
ffmpeg -i in.nut -hls_flags single_file out.m3u8
will produce the playlist, out.m3u8, and a single segment file, out.ts.
For example:
ffmpeg -i sample.mpeg \
-f hls -hls_time 3 -hls_list_size 5 \
-hls_flags second_level_segment_index+second_level_segment_size+second_level_segment_duration \
-strftime 1 -strftime_mkdir 1 -hls_segment_filename "segment_%Y%m%d%H%M%S_%%04d_%%08s_%%013t.ts" stream.m3u8
will produce segments like this: segment_20170102194334_0003_00122200_0000003000000.ts, segment_20170102194334_0004_00120072_0000003000000.ts etc.
A webserver serving up segments can be configured to reject requests to *.tmp to prevent access to in-progress segments before they have been added to the m3u8 playlist.
This flag also affects how m3u8 playlist files are created. If this flag is set, all playlist files will be written into a temporary file and renamed after they are complete, similarly as segments are handled. But playlists with "file" protocol and with hls_playlist_type type other than vod are always written into a temporary file regardless of this flag.
Master playlist files specified with master_pl_name, if any, with "file" protocol, are always written into temporary file regardless of this flag if master_pl_publish_rate value is other than zero.
If type is vod, emit "#EXT-X-PLAYLIST-TYPE:VOD" in the m3u8 header. This forces hls_list_size to 0; the playlist must not change.
For example:
ffmpeg -re -i in.ts -f hls -method PUT http://example.com/live/out.m3u8
will upload all the mpegts segment files to the HTTP server using the HTTP PUT method, and update the m3u8 files every "refresh" times using the same method. Note that the HTTP server must support the given method for uploading files.
Expected string format is like this "a:0,v:0 a:1,v:1 ....". Here a:, v:, s: are the keys to specify audio, video and subtitle streams respectively. Allowed values are 0 to 9 (limited just based on practical usage).
When there are two or more variant streams, the output filename pattern must contain the string "%v": this string specifies the position of variant stream index in the output media playlist filenames. The string "%v" may be present in the filename or in the last directory name containing the file. If the string is present in the directory name, then sub-directories are created after expanding the directory name pattern. This enables creation of variant streams in subdirectories.
A few examples follow.
ffmpeg -re -i in.ts -b:v:0 1000k -b:v:1 256k -b:a:0 64k -b:a:1 32k \
-map 0:v -map 0:a -map 0:v -map 0:a -f hls -var_stream_map "v:0,a:0 v:1,a:1" \
http://example.com/live/out_%v.m3u8
ffmpeg -re -i in.ts -b:v:0 1000k -b:v:1 256k -b:a:0 64k -b:a:1 32k \
-map 0:v -map 0:a -map 0:v -map 0:a -f hls -var_stream_map "v:0,a:0,name:my_hd v:1,a:1,name:my_sd" \
http://example.com/live/out_%v.m3u8
ffmpeg -re -i in.ts -b:v:0 1000k -b:v:1 256k -b:a:0 64k \
-map 0:v -map 0:a -map 0:v -f hls -var_stream_map "v:0 a:0 v:1" \
http://example.com/live/out_%v.m3u8
ffmpeg -re -i in.ts -b:v:0 1000k -b:v:1 256k -b:a:0 64k -b:a:1 32k \
-map 0:v -map 0:a -map 0:v -map 0:a -f hls -var_stream_map "v:0,a:0 v:1,a:1" \
http://example.com/live/vs_%v/out.m3u8
ffmpeg -re -i in.ts -b:a:0 32k -b:a:1 64k -b:v:0 1000k -b:v:1 3000k \
-map 0:a -map 0:a -map 0:v -map 0:v -f hls \
-var_stream_map "a:0,agroup:aud_low a:1,agroup:aud_high v:0,agroup:aud_low v:1,agroup:aud_high" \
-master_pl_name master.m3u8 \
http://example.com/live/out_%v.m3u8
ffmpeg -re -i in.ts -b:a:0 32k -b:a:1 64k -b:v:0 1000k \
-map 0:a -map 0:a -map 0:v -f hls \
-var_stream_map "a:0,agroup:aud_low,default:yes a:1,agroup:aud_low v:0,agroup:aud_low" \
-master_pl_name master.m3u8 \
http://example.com/live/out_%v.m3u8
ffmpeg -re -i in.ts -b:a:0 32k -b:a:1 64k -b:v:0 1000k \
-map 0:a -map 0:a -map 0:v -f hls \
-var_stream_map "a:0,agroup:aud_low,default:yes,language:ENG a:1,agroup:aud_low,language:CHN v:0,agroup:aud_low" \
-master_pl_name master.m3u8 \
http://example.com/live/out_%v.m3u8
ffmpeg -y -i input_with_subtitle.mkv \
-b:v:0 5250k -c:v h264 -pix_fmt yuv420p -profile:v main -level 4.1 \
-b:a:0 256k \
-c:s webvtt -c:a mp2 -ar 48000 -ac 2 -map 0:v -map 0:a:0 -map 0:s:0 \
-f hls -var_stream_map "v:0,a:0,s:0,sgroup:subtitle" \
-master_pl_name master.m3u8 -t 300 -hls_time 10 -hls_init_time 4 -hls_list_size \
10 -master_pl_publish_rate 10 -hls_flags \
delete_segments+discont_start+split_by_time ./tmp/video.m3u8
Expected string format is like this "ccgroup:<group name>,instreamid:<INSTREAM-ID>,language:<language code> ....". 'ccgroup' and 'instreamid' are mandatory attributes. 'language' is an optional attribute.
The closed captions groups configured using this option are mapped to different variant streams by providing the same 'ccgroup' name in the var_stream_map string.
For example:
ffmpeg -re -i in.ts -b:v:0 1000k -b:v:1 256k -b:a:0 64k -b:a:1 32k \
-a53cc:0 1 -a53cc:1 1 \
-map 0:v -map 0:a -map 0:v -map 0:a -f hls \
-cc_stream_map "ccgroup:cc,instreamid:CC1,language:en ccgroup:cc,instreamid:CC2,language:sp" \
-var_stream_map "v:0,a:0,ccgroup:cc v:1,a:1,ccgroup:cc" \
-master_pl_name master.m3u8 \
http://example.com/live/out_%v.m3u8
will add two "#EXT-X-MEDIA" tags with "TYPE=CLOSED-CAPTIONS" in the master playlist for the INSTREAM-IDs 'CC1' and 'CC2'. Also, it will add "CLOSED-CAPTIONS" attribute with group name 'cc' for the two output variant streams.
If var_stream_map is not set, then the first available ccgroup in cc_stream_map is mapped to the output variant stream.
For example:
ffmpeg -re -i in.ts -b:v 1000k -b:a 64k -a53cc 1 -f hls \
-cc_stream_map "ccgroup:cc,instreamid:CC1,language:en" \
-master_pl_name master.m3u8 \
http://example.com/live/out.m3u8
this will add "#EXT-X-MEDIA" tag with "TYPE=CLOSED-CAPTIONS" in the master playlist with group name 'cc', language 'en' (english) and INSTREAM-ID 'CC1'. Also, it will add "CLOSED-CAPTIONS" attribute with group name 'cc' for the output variant stream.
For example:
ffmpeg -re -i in.ts -f hls -master_pl_name master.m3u8 http://example.com/live/out.m3u8
creates an HLS master playlist with name master.m3u8 which is published at <http://example.com/live/>.
For example:
ffmpeg -re -i in.ts -f hls -master_pl_name master.m3u8 \
-hls_time 2 -master_pl_publish_rate 30 http://example.com/live/out.m3u8
creates an HLS master playlist with name master.m3u8 and keeps publishing it repeatedly every after 30 segments i.e. every after 60s.
Immersive Audio Model and Formats (IAMF) muxer.
IAMF is used to provide immersive audio content for presentation on a wide range of devices in both streaming and offline applications. These applications include internet audio streaming, multicasting/broadcasting services, file download, gaming, communication, virtual and augmented reality, and others. In these applications, audio may be played back on a wide range of devices, e.g., headphones, mobile phones, tablets, TVs, sound bars, home theater systems, and big screens.
This format was promoted and desgined by Alliance for Open Media.
For more information about this format, see <https://aomedia.org/iamf/>.
ICO file muxer.
Microsoft's icon file format (ICO) has some strict limitations that should be noted:
BMP Bit Depth FFmpeg Pixel Format
1bit pal8
4bit pal8
8bit pal8
16bit rgb555le
24bit bgr24
32bit bgra
Internet Low Bitrate Codec (iLBC) raw muxer.
It accepts a single ilbc audio stream.
Image file muxer.
The image2 muxer writes video frames to image files.
The output filenames are specified by a pattern, which can be used to produce sequentially numbered series of files. The pattern may contain the string "%d" or "%0Nd", this string specifies the position of the characters representing a numbering in the filenames. If the form "%0Nd" is used, the string representing the number in each filename is 0-padded to N digits. The literal character '%' can be specified in the pattern with the string "%%".
If the pattern contains "%d" or "%0Nd", the first filename of the file list specified will contain the number 1, all the following numbers will be sequential.
The pattern may contain a suffix which is used to automatically determine the format of the image files to write.
For example the pattern "img-%03d.bmp" will specify a sequence of filenames of the form img-001.bmp, img-002.bmp, ..., img-010.bmp, etc. The pattern "img%%-%d.jpg" will specify a sequence of filenames of the form img%-1.jpg, img%-2.jpg, ..., img%-10.jpg, etc.
The image muxer supports the .Y.U.V image file format. This format is special in that each image frame consists of three files, for each of the YUV420P components. To read or write this image file format, specify the name of the '.Y' file. The muxer will automatically open the '.U' and '.V' files as required.
The image2pipe muxer accepts the same options as the image2 muxer, but ignores the pattern verification and expansion, as it is supposed to write to the command output rather than to an actual stored file.
Options
Examples
ffmpeg -i in.avi -vsync cfr -r 1 -f image2 'img-%03d.jpeg'
Note that with ffmpeg, if the format is not specified with the "-f" option and the output filename specifies an image file format, the image2 muxer is automatically selected, so the previous command can be written as:
ffmpeg -i in.avi -vsync cfr -r 1 'img-%03d.jpeg'
Note also that the pattern must not necessarily contain "%d" or "%0Nd", for example to create a single image file img.jpeg from the start of the input video you can employ the command:
ffmpeg -i in.avi -f image2 -frames:v 1 img.jpeg
To generate image files from the strftime() "%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S" pattern, the following ffmpeg command can be used:
ffmpeg -f v4l2 -r 1 -i /dev/video0 -f image2 -strftime 1 "%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S.jpg"
ffmpeg -f v4l2 -r 1 -i /dev/video0 -copyts -f image2 -frame_pts true %d.jpg
ffmpeg -f x11grab -framerate 1 -i :0.0 -q:v 6 -update 1 -protocol_opts method=PUT http://example.com/desktop.jpg
Berkeley / IRCAM / CARL Sound Filesystem (BICSF) format muxer.
The Berkeley/IRCAM/CARL Sound Format, developed in the 1980s, is a result of the merging of several different earlier sound file formats and systems including the csound system developed by Dr Gareth Loy at the Computer Audio Research Lab (CARL) at UC San Diego, the IRCAM sound file system developed by Rob Gross and Dan Timis at the Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique / Musique in Paris and the Berkeley Fast Filesystem.
It was developed initially as part of the Berkeley/IRCAM/CARL Sound Filesystem, a suite of programs designed to implement a filesystem for audio applications running under Berkeley UNIX. It was particularly popular in academic music research centres, and was used a number of times in the creation of early computer-generated compositions.
This muxer accepts a single audio stream containing PCM data.
On2 IVF muxer.
IVF was developed by On2 Technologies (formerly known as Duck Corporation), to store internally developed codecs.
This muxer accepts a single vp8, vp9, or av1 video stream.
JACOsub subtitle format muxer.
This muxer accepts a single jacosub subtitles stream.
For more information about the format, see <http://unicorn.us.com/jacosub/jscripts.html>.
Simon & Schuster Interactive VAG muxer.
This custom VAG container is used by some Simon & Schuster Interactive games such as "Real War", and "Real War: Rogue States".
This muxer accepts a single adpcm_ima_ssi audio stream.
Bluetooth SIG Low Complexity Communication Codec audio (LC3), or ETSI TS 103 634 Low Complexity Communication Codec plus (LC3plus).
This muxer accepts a single lc3 audio stream.
LRC lyrics file format muxer.
LRC (short for LyRiCs) is a computer file format that synchronizes song lyrics with an audio file, such as MP3, Vorbis, or MIDI.
This muxer accepts a single subrip or text subtitles stream.
Metadata
The following metadata tags are converted to the format corresponding metadata:
If encoder_version is not explicitly set, it is automatically set to the libavformat version.
Matroska container muxer.
This muxer implements the matroska and webm container specs.
Metadata
The recognized metadata settings in this muxer are:
The language can be either the 3 letters bibliographic ISO-639-2 (ISO 639-2/B) form (like "fre" for French), or a language code mixed with a country code for specialities in languages (like "fre-ca" for Canadian French).
The following values are recognized:
For example a 3D WebM clip can be created using the following command line:
ffmpeg -i sample_left_right_clip.mpg -an -c:v libvpx -metadata stereo_mode=left_right -y stereo_clip.webm
Options
If this option is set to a non-zero value, the muxer will reserve size bytes of space in the file header and then try to write the cues there when the muxing finishes. If the reserved space does not suffice, no Cues will be written, the file will be finalized and writing the trailer will return an error. A safe size for most use cases should be about 50kB per hour of video.
Note that cues are only written if the output is seekable and this option will have no effect if it is not.
This option is ignored if the output is unseekable.
If not specified, the limit is set automatically to a sensible hardcoded fixed value.
If not specified, the limit is set automatically to a sensible hardcoded fixed value.
MD5 testing format.
This is a variant of the hash muxer. Unlike that muxer, it defaults to using the MD5 hash function.
See also the hash and framemd5 muxers.
Examples
ffmpeg -i INPUT -f md5 out.md5
ffmpeg -i INPUT -f md5 -
MicroDVD subtitle format muxer.
This muxer accepts a single microdvd subtitles stream.
Synthetic music Mobile Application Format (SMAF) format muxer.
SMAF is a music data format specified by Yamaha for portable electronic devices, such as mobile phones and personal digital assistants.
This muxer accepts a single adpcm_yamaha audio stream.
The MP3 muxer writes a raw MP3 stream with the following optional features:
The muxer supports writing attached pictures (APIC frames) to the ID3v2 header. The pictures are supplied to the muxer in form of a video stream with a single packet. There can be any number of those streams, each will correspond to a single APIC frame. The stream metadata tags title and comment map to APIC description and picture type respectively. See <http://id3.org/id3v2.4.0-frames> for allowed picture types.
Note that the APIC frames must be written at the beginning, so the muxer will buffer the audio frames until it gets all the pictures. It is therefore advised to provide the pictures as soon as possible to avoid excessive buffering.
Examples:
Write an mp3 with an ID3v2.3 header and an ID3v1 footer:
ffmpeg -i INPUT -id3v2_version 3 -write_id3v1 1 out.mp3
To attach a picture to an mp3 file select both the audio and the picture stream with "map":
ffmpeg -i input.mp3 -i cover.png -c copy -map 0 -map 1
-metadata:s:v title="Album cover" -metadata:s:v comment="Cover (Front)" out.mp3
Write a "clean" MP3 without any extra features:
ffmpeg -i input.wav -write_xing 0 -id3v2_version 0 out.mp3
MPEG transport stream muxer.
This muxer implements ISO 13818-1 and part of ETSI EN 300 468.
The recognized metadata settings in mpegts muxer are "service_provider" and "service_name". If they are not set the default for "service_provider" is FFmpeg and the default for "service_name" is Service01.
Options
The muxer options are:
ffmpeg -i source1.ts -codec copy -f mpegts -tables_version 0 udp://1.1.1.1:1111
ffmpeg -i source2.ts -codec copy -f mpegts -tables_version 1 udp://1.1.1.1:1111
...
ffmpeg -i source3.ts -codec copy -f mpegts -tables_version 31 udp://1.1.1.1:1111
ffmpeg -i source1.ts -codec copy -f mpegts -tables_version 0 udp://1.1.1.1:1111
ffmpeg -i source2.ts -codec copy -f mpegts -tables_version 1 udp://1.1.1.1:1111
...
Example
ffmpeg -i file.mpg -c copy \
-mpegts_original_network_id 0x1122 \
-mpegts_transport_stream_id 0x3344 \
-mpegts_service_id 0x5566 \
-mpegts_pmt_start_pid 0x1500 \
-mpegts_start_pid 0x150 \
-metadata service_provider="Some provider" \
-metadata service_name="Some Channel" \
out.ts
MXF muxer.
Options
The muxer options are:
Null muxer.
This muxer does not generate any output file, it is mainly useful for testing or benchmarking purposes.
For example to benchmark decoding with ffmpeg you can use the command:
ffmpeg -benchmark -i INPUT -f null out.null
Note that the above command does not read or write the out.null file, but specifying the output file is required by the ffmpeg syntax.
Alternatively you can write the command as:
ffmpeg -benchmark -i INPUT -f null -
Use of this option is not recommended, as the resulting files are very damage
sensitive and seeking is not possible. Also in general the overhead from
syncpoints is negligible. Note, -C<write_index> 0 can be used to disable
all growing data tables, allowing to mux endless streams with limited memory
and without these disadvantages.
The none and timestamped flags are experimental.
ffmpeg -i INPUT -f_strict experimental -syncpoints none - | processor
Ogg container muxer.
RCWT (Raw Captions With Time) is a format native to ccextractor, a commonly used open source tool for processing 608/708 Closed Captions (CC) sources. It can be used to archive the original extracted CC bitstream and to produce a source file for later processing or conversion. The format allows for interoperability between ccextractor and FFmpeg, is simple to parse, and can be used to create a backup of the CC presentation.
This muxer implements the specification as of March 2024, which has been stable and unchanged since April 2014.
This muxer will have some nuances from the way that ccextractor muxes RCWT. No compatibility issues when processing the output with ccextractor have been observed as a result of this so far, but mileage may vary and outputs will not be a bit-exact match.
A free specification of RCWT can be found here: <https://github.com/CCExtractor/ccextractor/blob/master/docs/BINARY_FILE_FORMAT.TXT>
Examples
ffmpeg -f lavfi -i "movie=INPUT.mkv[out+subcc]" -map 0:s:0 -c:s copy -f rcwt CC.rcwt.bin
Basic stream segmenter.
This muxer outputs streams to a number of separate files of nearly fixed duration. Output filename pattern can be set in a fashion similar to image2, or by using a "strftime" template if the strftime option is enabled.
"stream_segment" is a variant of the muxer used to write to streaming output formats, i.e. which do not require global headers, and is recommended for outputting e.g. to MPEG transport stream segments. "ssegment" is a shorter alias for "stream_segment".
Every segment starts with a keyframe of the selected reference stream, which is set through the reference_stream option.
Note that if you want accurate splitting for a video file, you need to make the input key frames correspond to the exact splitting times expected by the segmenter, or the segment muxer will start the new segment with the key frame found next after the specified start time.
The segment muxer works best with a single constant frame rate video.
Optionally it can generate a list of the created segments, by setting the option segment_list. The list type is specified by the segment_list_type option. The entry filenames in the segment list are set by default to the basename of the corresponding segment files.
See also the hls muxer, which provides a more specific implementation for HLS segmentation.
Options
The segment muxer supports the following options:
It currently supports the following flags:
The following values are recognized:
<segment_filename>,<segment_start_time>,<segment_end_time>
segment_filename is the name of the output file generated by the muxer according to the provided pattern. CSV escaping (according to RFC4180) is applied if required.
segment_start_time and segment_end_time specify the segment start and end time expressed in seconds.
A list file with the suffix ".csv" or ".ext" will auto-select this format.
ext is deprecated in favor or csv.
A list file with the suffix ".ffcat" or ".ffconcat" will auto-select this format.
A list file with the suffix ".m3u8" will auto-select this format.
If not specified the type is guessed from the list file name suffix.
Note that splitting may not be accurate, unless you force the reference stream key-frames at the given time. See the introductory notice and the examples below.
For example with segment_time set to "900" this makes it possible to create files at 12:00 o'clock, 12:15, 12:30, etc.
Default value is "0".
For example with segment_time set to "900" and segment_clocktime_offset set to "300" this makes it possible to create files at 12:05, 12:20, 12:35, etc.
Default value is "0".
Default is the maximum possible duration which means starting a new segment regardless of the elapsed time since the last clock time.
When delta is specified a key-frame will start a new segment if its PTS satisfies the relation:
PTS >= start_time - time_delta
This option is useful when splitting video content, which is always split at GOP boundaries, in case a key frame is found just before the specified split time.
In particular may be used in combination with the ffmpeg option force_key_frames. The key frame times specified by force_key_frames may not be set accurately because of rounding issues, with the consequence that a key frame time may result set just before the specified time. For constant frame rate videos a value of 1/(2*frame_rate) should address the worst case mismatch between the specified time and the time set by force_key_frames.
This option specifies to start a new segment whenever a reference stream key frame is found and the sequential number (starting from 0) of the frame is greater or equal to the next value in the list.
Make sure to require a closed GOP when encoding and to set the GOP size to fit your segment time constraint.
Examples
ffmpeg -i in.mkv -codec hevc -flags +cgop -g 60 -map 0 -f segment -segment_list out.list out%03d.nut
ffmpeg -i in.mkv -f segment -segment_time 10 -segment_format_options movflags=+faststart out%03d.mp4
ffmpeg -i in.mkv -codec copy -map 0 -f segment -segment_list out.csv -segment_times 1,2,3,5,8,13,21 out%03d.nut
ffmpeg -i in.mkv -force_key_frames 1,2,3,5,8,13,21 -codec:v mpeg4 -codec:a pcm_s16le -map 0 \
-f segment -segment_list out.csv -segment_times 1,2,3,5,8,13,21 -segment_time_delta 0.05 out%03d.nut
In order to force key frames on the input file, transcoding is required.
ffmpeg -i in.mkv -codec copy -map 0 -f segment -segment_list out.csv -segment_frames 100,200,300,500,800 out%03d.nut
ffmpeg -i in.mkv -map 0 -codec:v libx264 -codec:a aac -f ssegment -segment_list out.list out%03d.ts
ffmpeg -re -i in.mkv -codec copy -map 0 -f segment -segment_list playlist.m3u8 \
-segment_list_flags +live -segment_time 10 out%03d.mkv
Smooth Streaming muxer generates a set of files (Manifest, chunks) suitable for serving with conventional web server.
Per stream hash testing format.
This muxer computes and prints a cryptographic hash of all the input frames, on a per-stream basis. This can be used for equality checks without having to do a complete binary comparison.
By default audio frames are converted to signed 16-bit raw audio and video frames to raw video before computing the hash, but the output of explicit conversions to other codecs can also be used. Timestamps are ignored. It uses the SHA-256 cryptographic hash function by default, but supports several other algorithms.
The output of the muxer consists of one line per stream of the form: streamindex,streamtype,algo=hash, where streamindex is the index of the mapped stream, streamtype is a single character indicating the type of stream, algo is a short string representing the hash function used, and hash is a hexadecimal number representing the computed hash.
Examples
To compute the SHA-256 hash of the input converted to raw audio and video, and store it in the file out.sha256:
ffmpeg -i INPUT -f streamhash out.sha256
To print an MD5 hash to stdout use the command:
ffmpeg -i INPUT -f streamhash -hash md5 -
See also the hash and framehash muxers.
The tee muxer can be used to write the same data to several outputs, such as files or streams. It can be used, for example, to stream a video over a network and save it to disk at the same time.
It is different from specifying several outputs to the ffmpeg command-line tool. With the tee muxer, the audio and video data will be encoded only once. With conventional multiple outputs, multiple encoding operations in parallel are initiated, which can be a very expensive process. The tee muxer is not useful when using the libavformat API directly because it is then possible to feed the same packets to several muxers directly.
Since the tee muxer does not represent any particular output format, ffmpeg cannot auto-select output streams. So all streams intended for output must be specified using "-map". See the examples below.
Some encoders may need different options depending on the output format; the auto-detection of this can not work with the tee muxer, so they need to be explicitly specified. The main example is the global_header flag.
The slave outputs are specified in the file name given to the muxer, separated by '|'. If any of the slave name contains the '|' separator, leading or trailing spaces or any special character, those must be escaped (see the "Quoting and escaping" section in the ffmpeg-utils(1) manual).
Options
Muxer options can be specified for each slave by prepending them as a list of key=value pairs separated by ':', between square brackets. If the options values contain a special character or the ':' separator, they must be escaped; note that this is a second level escaping.
The following special options are also recognized:
It is possible to specify to which streams a given bitstream filter applies, by appending a stream specifier to the option separated by "/". spec must be a stream specifier (see Format stream specifiers).
If the stream specifier is not specified, the bitstream filters will be applied to all streams in the output. This will cause that output operation to fail if the output contains streams to which the bitstream filter cannot be applied e.g. "h264_mp4toannexb" being applied to an output containing an audio stream.
Options for a bitstream filter must be specified in the form of "opt=value".
Several bitstream filters can be specified, separated by ",".
You may use multiple stream specifiers separated by commas (",") e.g.: "a:0,v"
Examples
ffmpeg -i ... -c:v libx264 -c:a mp2 -f tee -map 0:v -map 0:a
"archive-20121107.mkv|[f=mpegts]udp://10.0.1.255:1234/"
ffmpeg -i ... -c:v libx264 -c:a mp2 -f tee -map 0:v -map 0:a
"[onfail=ignore]archive-20121107.mkv|[f=mpegts]udp://10.0.1.255:1234/"
ffmpeg -i ... -map 0 -flags +global_header -c:v libx264 -c:a aac
-f tee "[bsfs/v=dump_extra=freq=keyframe]out.ts|[movflags=+faststart]out.mp4|[select=a]out.aac"
ffmpeg -i ... -map 0 -flags +global_header -c:v libx264 -c:a aac
-f tee "[bsfs/v=dump_extra=freq=keyframe]out.ts|[movflags=+faststart]out.mp4|[select=\'a:1\']out.aac"
WebM Live Chunk Muxer.
This muxer writes out WebM headers and chunks as separate files which can be consumed by clients that support WebM Live streams via DASH.
Options
This muxer supports the following options:
Example
ffmpeg -f v4l2 -i /dev/video0 \
-f alsa -i hw:0 \
-map 0:0 \
-c:v libvpx-vp9 \
-s 640x360 -keyint_min 30 -g 30 \
-f webm_chunk \
-header webm_live_video_360.hdr \
-chunk_start_index 1 \
webm_live_video_360_%d.chk \
-map 1:0 \
-c:a libvorbis \
-b:a 128k \
-f webm_chunk \
-header webm_live_audio_128.hdr \
-chunk_start_index 1 \
-audio_chunk_duration 1000 \
webm_live_audio_128_%d.chk
WebM DASH Manifest muxer.
This muxer implements the WebM DASH Manifest specification to generate the DASH manifest XML. It also supports manifest generation for DASH live streams.
For more information see:
Options
This muxer supports the following options:
Example
ffmpeg -f webm_dash_manifest -i video1.webm \
-f webm_dash_manifest -i video2.webm \
-f webm_dash_manifest -i audio1.webm \
-f webm_dash_manifest -i audio2.webm \
-map 0 -map 1 -map 2 -map 3 \
-c copy \
-f webm_dash_manifest \
-adaptation_sets "id=0,streams=0,1 id=1,streams=2,3" \
manifest.xml
FFmpeg is able to dump metadata from media files into a simple UTF-8-encoded INI-like text file and then load it back using the metadata muxer/demuxer.
The file format is as follows:
Next a chapter section must contain chapter start and end times in form START=num, END=num, where num is a positive integer.
A ffmetadata file might look like this:
;FFMETADATA1
title=bike\\shed
;this is a comment
artist=FFmpeg troll team
[CHAPTER]
TIMEBASE=1/1000
START=0
#chapter ends at 0:01:00
END=60000
title=chapter \#1
[STREAM]
title=multi\
line
By using the ffmetadata muxer and demuxer it is possible to extract metadata from an input file to an ffmetadata file, and then transcode the file into an output file with the edited ffmetadata file.
Extracting an ffmetadata file with ffmpeg goes as follows:
ffmpeg -i INPUT -f ffmetadata FFMETADATAFILE
Reinserting edited metadata information from the FFMETADATAFILE file can be done as:
ffmpeg -i INPUT -i FFMETADATAFILE -map_metadata 1 -codec copy OUTPUT
ffmpeg(1), ffplay(1), ffprobe(1), libavformat(3)
The FFmpeg developers.
For details about the authorship, see the Git history of the project (https://git.ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg), e.g. by typing the command git log in the FFmpeg source directory, or browsing the online repository at <https://git.ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg>.
Maintainers for the specific components are listed in the file MAINTAINERS in the source code tree.