FFmpeg Patterns

Best practices for video and audio processing with FFmpeg.

Basic Operations Transcode Video

Convert to MP4 (H.264 + AAC)

ffmpeg -i input.mov -c:v libx264 -preset medium -crf 23 \ -c:a aac -b:a 128k output.mp4

Convert to WebM (VP9 + Opus)

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:v libvpx-vp9 -crf 30 -b:v 0 \ -c:a libopus -b:a 128k output.webm

Convert to HLS for streaming

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -codec: copy -start_number 0 \ -hls_time 10 -hls_list_size 0 -f hls output.m3u8

Extract Audio

Extract audio to MP3

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -vn -acodec mp3 -ab 192k audio.mp3

Extract audio to WAV (uncompressed)

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -vn -acodec pcm_s16le audio.wav

Extract audio from specific time range

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -ss 00:01:00 -t 00:00:30 -vn audio.mp3

Trim and Cut

Cut from timestamp to duration

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -ss 00:01:30 -t 00:02:00 -c copy output.mp4

Cut from start to end timestamp

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -ss 00:01:30 -to 00:03:30 -c copy output.mp4

Fast seek (put -ss before -i for large files)

ffmpeg -ss 00:10:00 -i large_video.mp4 -t 00:05:00 -c copy clip.mp4

Video Filters Resize and Scale

Scale to specific dimensions

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "scale=1920:1080" output.mp4

Scale preserving aspect ratio (fit within)

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "scale=1920:1080:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease" output.mp4

Scale with padding (letterbox/pillarbox)

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "scale=1920:1080:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,pad=1920:1080:(ow-iw)/2:(oh-ih)/2" output.mp4

Scale to 50%

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "scale=iw/2:ih/2" output.mp4

Speed Adjustment

Speed up video 2x (with audio pitch correction)

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -filter_complex "[0:v]setpts=0.5*PTS[v];[0:a]atempo=2.0[a]" \ -map "[v]" -map "[a]" output.mp4

Slow down video 0.5x

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -filter_complex "[0:v]setpts=2.0*PTS[v];[0:a]atempo=0.5[a]" \ -map "[v]" -map "[a]" output.mp4

Extreme slow motion (0.25x) - chain atempo filters

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -filter_complex "[0:v]setpts=4.0*PTS[v];[0:a]atempo=0.5,atempo=0.5[a]" \ -map "[v]" -map "[a]" output.mp4

Crop and Overlay

Crop video (width:height:x:y)

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "crop=640:480:100:50" output.mp4

Crop center to 16:9

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "crop=ih*16/9:ih" output.mp4

Add watermark

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -i watermark.png \ -filter_complex "overlay=W-w-10:H-h-10" output.mp4

Add text overlay

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "drawtext=text='Hello World':fontsize=24:fontcolor=white:x=10:y=10" output.mp4

Color and Effects

Adjust brightness, contrast, saturation

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "eq=brightness=0.1:contrast=1.2:saturation=1.3" output.mp4

Convert to grayscale

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "colorchannelmixer=.3:.4:.3:0:.3:.4:.3:0:.3:.4:.3" output.mp4

Add fade in/out

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "fade=t=in:st=0:d=2,fade=t=out:st=8:d=2" output.mp4

Blur video

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "boxblur=5:1" output.mp4

Audio Processing Volume and Normalization

Adjust volume

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -af "volume=1.5" output.mp4

Normalize audio (loudnorm)

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -af "loudnorm=I=-16:TP=-1.5:LRA=11" output.mp4

Detect silence

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -af "silencedetect=noise=-30dB:d=0.5" -f null -

Audio Filters

Remove background noise

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -af "afftdn=nf=-25" output.mp4

Add echo

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -af "aecho=0.8:0.88:60:0.4" output.mp4

High-pass filter (remove low frequencies)

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -af "highpass=f=200" output.mp4

Low-pass filter (remove high frequencies)

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -af "lowpass=f=3000" output.mp4

Combining Media Concatenate Videos

Create file list

cat > files.txt << EOF file 'video1.mp4' file 'video2.mp4' file 'video3.mp4' EOF

Concatenate (same codec)

ffmpeg -f concat -safe 0 -i files.txt -c copy output.mp4

Concatenate (different codecs - re-encode)

ffmpeg -f concat -safe 0 -i files.txt -c:v libx264 -c:a aac output.mp4

Merge Audio and Video

Replace audio track

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

Mix audio tracks

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -i background.mp3 \ -filter_complex "[0:a][1:a]amerge=inputs=2[a]" \ -map 0:v -map "[a]" -c:v copy -ac 2 output.mp4

Add audio to silent video

ffmpeg -i silent_video.mp4 -i audio.mp3 -c:v copy -c:a aac -shortest output.mp4

Picture-in-Picture

Overlay smaller video

ffmpeg -i main.mp4 -i overlay.mp4 \ -filter_complex "[1:v]scale=320:-1[pip];[0:v][pip]overlay=W-w-10:H-h-10" \ output.mp4

Side by side

ffmpeg -i left.mp4 -i right.mp4 \ -filter_complex "[0:v]scale=640:-1[l];[1:v]scale=640:-1[r];[l][r]hstack" \ output.mp4

Thumbnails and Screenshots

Single screenshot at timestamp

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -ss 00:00:10 -vframes 1 thumbnail.jpg

Generate thumbnails every N seconds

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -vf "fps=1/10" thumbnails_%03d.jpg

Generate thumbnail sheet/sprite

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -vf "fps=1/5,scale=160:-1,tile=5x5" sprite.jpg

Best quality thumbnail

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -ss 00:00:10 -vframes 1 -q:v 2 thumbnail.jpg

Streaming Formats HLS (HTTP Live Streaming)

Basic HLS

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:v libx264 -c:a aac \ -hls_time 10 -hls_playlist_type vod \ -hls_segment_filename "segment_%03d.ts" \ playlist.m3u8

Multi-bitrate HLS

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 \ -filter_complex "[0:v]split=3[v1][v2][v3]; \ [v1]scale=1920:1080[v1out]; \ [v2]scale=1280:720[v2out]; \ [v3]scale=854:480[v3out]" \ -map "[v1out]" -map 0:a -c:v libx264 -b:v 5M -c:a aac -b:a 192k \ -hls_time 10 -hls_playlist_type vod 1080p.m3u8 \ -map "[v2out]" -map 0:a -c:v libx264 -b:v 2M -c:a aac -b:a 128k \ -hls_time 10 -hls_playlist_type vod 720p.m3u8 \ -map "[v3out]" -map 0:a -c:v libx264 -b:v 1M -c:a aac -b:a 96k \ -hls_time 10 -hls_playlist_type vod 480p.m3u8

DASH (Dynamic Adaptive Streaming) ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:v libx264 -c:a aac \ -f dash -seg_duration 10 \ -use_template 1 -use_timeline 1 \ manifest.mpd

Batch Processing

Convert all MP4s to WebM

for f in *.mp4; do ffmpeg -i "$f" -c:v libvpx-vp9 -crf 30 -c:a libopus "${f%.mp4}.webm" done

Resize all images in directory

for f in *.jpg; do ffmpeg -i "$f" -vf "scale=1280:-1" "resized_$f" done

Extract audio from multiple videos

for f in *.mp4; do ffmpeg -i "$f" -vn -c:a mp3 -b:a 192k "${f%.mp4}.mp3" done

Hardware Acceleration

NVIDIA NVENC (encoding)

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:v h264_nvenc -preset fast output.mp4

NVIDIA NVDEC (decoding) + NVENC

ffmpeg -hwaccel cuda -i input.mp4 -c:v h264_nvenc output.mp4

macOS VideoToolbox

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:v h264_videotoolbox -b:v 5M output.mp4

Intel QuickSync

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:v h264_qsv output.mp4

Useful Probing Commands

Get video info

ffprobe -v quiet -print_format json -show_format -show_streams video.mp4

Get duration

ffprobe -v error -show_entries format=duration -of default=noprint_wrappers=1:nokey=1 video.mp4

Get resolution

ffprobe -v error -select_streams v:0 -show_entries stream=width,height -of csv=p=0 video.mp4

Get codec

ffprobe -v error -select_streams v:0 -show_entries stream=codec_name -of default=noprint_wrappers=1:nokey=1 video.mp4

References FFmpeg Documentation FFmpeg Filters FFmpeg Wiki