FFmpeg cheatsheet

Get system information

Get the available codecs in FFmpeg.

ffmpeg -codecs

ffmpeg -formats

Get video information

Displays detailed information about a video file, such as duration, resolution, audio and video codecs.

ffmpeg -i video.mp4

Get information without copyright banner

Displays information about a video file without showing the copyright banner.

ffmpeg -i video.flv -hide_banner

Save information to a JSON file

Saves detailed information about a video file in JSON format.

ffprobe -i video.flv -print_format json -hide_banner

Convert between video formats

Converts a video file from one format to another.

ffmpeg -i video_original.avi output.mp4

Recompress video

Recompresses a video using the libx264 codec to improve quality and reduce file size.

ffmpeg -i youtube.flv -c:v libx264 filename.mp4

Concatenate multiple videos

Merges several video files into one without re-encoding.

ffmpeg -i "concat:video1.mp4|video2.mp4|video3.mp4" -c copy output.mp4

Extract video segment

Cuts a specific segment from a video without re-encoding.

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -ss 00:01:30 -t 00:00:30 -codec copy output.mp4

Change video speed

Adjusts the video speed by changing the frames per second.

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -filter:v "setpts=0.5*PTS" output.mp4

Scale video

Changes the resolution of a video while maintaining the aspect ratio.

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -vf scale=640:360 output.mp4

Scale video proportionally

Adjusts the height of a video while maintaining the original aspect ratio.

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -vf scale=320:-1 output.mp4

Rotate video

Rotates a video clockwise.

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -vf transpose=clock output.mp4

Flip video

Flips a video horizontally or vertically.

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -vf hflip output.mp4
ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -vf vflip output.mp4

Crop video

Crops a video to specific resolution and position.

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -filter:v "crop=640:480:200:150" output.mp4

Where

• 640:480, width and height
• 200:150, X, Y coordinates of the crop

Add watermark

Adds a logo as a watermark on a video.

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -i logo.png -filter_complex overlay=10:10 output.mp4

Increase audio volume

Boosts the volume of a video.

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -af 'volume=0.5' output.mp4

Mute video

Removes the audio track from a video.

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -an output.mp4

Extract audio from a video

Extracts the audio track from a video file.

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -vn output.mp3

Add audio track

Adds an audio track to an existing video.

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -i audio.mp3 -map 0:v -map 0:a -map 1:a -vcodec copy output.mp4

Convert between audio formats

Converts an audio file from one format to another.

ffmpeg -i audio.mp3 -acodec pcm_s16le output.wav

Cut audio

Cuts a segment of audio without re-encoding.

ffmpeg -i audio.mp3 -ss 00:01:30 -t 30 -acodec copy output.mp3

Recompress audio

Recompresses an audio file with a bitrate of 128.

ffmpeg -i audio.mp3 -ab 128 output.mp3

Resample audio

Changes the sampling rate of an audio file.

ffmpeg -i audio.mp3 -ar 16000 output.mp3

Extract frames from a video

Extracts a specific frame from a video.

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -ss 00:00:30 -vframes 1 output.png

Extract images every 15 seconds (fps 1/15)

Extracts images from a video at specific intervals.

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -vf "fps=1/15,select='not(mod(n,1))'" output_%d.png

Extract a GIF from a video

Converts a video into an animated GIF.

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -vf scale=300:-1 -t 10 -r 10 output.gif

Combine images into a video

Combines static images into a video.

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -r 0.25 output_%04d.png

Create a video with a static image and audio

Creates a video with a static image and an audio file.

ffmpeg -loop 1 -y -i imagen.png -i audio.mp3 -shortest output.mp4

Concatenate images into a video

Combines JPG images into a video.

cat *.JPG | ffmpeg -f image2pipe -r 0.3 -vcodec mjpeg -i – -vcodec libx264 output.mp4