FFmpeg Cheat Sheet
A little FFmpeg 0.5 guide made by RodrigoPolo.com
IMPORTANT: This guide and commands are no longer mantained, some information about formats still relevant but encoding commands are not, please reffer to the official ffmpeg encoding guides, I have an unoficial cheat cheat about FFmpeg encoding here: https://github.com/rodrigopolo/cheatsheets/blob/master/ffmpeg.md.
This is a small personal cheat sheet for audio/video encoding where I put some of my most used stuff with FFmpeg 0.5 and other tools. I use H.264 and AAC on MP4, M4V or MKV container most of the time.
I also have a FFmpeg command generator tool here, If you have any question just contact me, if you want to help, give us a donation:
Content
Video Size and Aspect Ratios
iPhone 3 (480x320):
| Name | Size | Aspect |
| Wide 16:9 | 480x270 | 16:9 |
| Old TV 4:3 | 427x320 | 4:3 |
| Wide 16:9 /16 | 480x272 | 16:9 |
| Old TV 4:3 /16 | 432x320 | 4:3 |
iPhone 4 (960x640):
| Name | Size | Aspect |
| Wide 16:9 | 960x540 | 16:9 |
| Old TV 4:3 | 853x640 | 4:3 |
| Wide 16:9 /16 | 960x544 | 16:9 |
| Old TV 4:3 /16 | 848x640 | 4:3 |
iPhone 5 (1136x640):
| Name | Size | Aspect |
| Wide 16:9 | 1136x639 | 16:9 |
| Old TV 4:3 | 856x640 | 4:3 |
| Wide 16:9 /16 | 1136x640 | 16:9 |
| Old TV 4:3 /16 | 864x640 | 4:3 |
DV NTSC Video
| Name | Size | Aspect |
| Wide 16:9 | 720x480 | 16:9 |
| Old TV 4:3 | 720x480 | 4:3 |
Youtube and Vimeo Upload
| Name | Size | Aspect |
| SD 4:3 | 640:480 | 4:3 |
| HD 16:9 | 1280x720 | 16:9 |
| Full HD | 1920x1080 (1920x1072 base 16) | 16:9 |
HD, Blu-Ray, AVCHD
| Name | Size | Aspect |
| 720p | 1280x720 | 16:9 |
| 1080p/i Anamorphic | 1440x1080 | 16:9 |
| 1080p/i | 1920x1080 | 16:9 |
Frame Rates
| Name | Standard | Fps | FFmpeg |
| Movies | NTSC | 23.976 | 24000/1001 |
| TV Video | NTSC | 29.97 | 30000/1001 |
| Movies | PAL | 25 | 25 |
| TV Video | PAL | 30 | 30 |
FFmpeg Encoding
X264Presets
| default | fastfirstpass | lossless_ultrafast | lossless_slower |
| baseline | slowfirstpass | lossless_fast | lossless_max |
| normal | hq | lossless_medium | ipod320 |
| main | max | lossless_slow | ipod640 |
High quality 2 Pass
ffmpeg -y -i INPUT -r 30000/1001 -b 2M -bt 4M -vcodec libx264 -pass 1 -vpre fastfirstpass -an output.mp4
ffmpeg -y -i INPUT -r 30000/1001 -b 2M -bt 4M -vcodec libx264 -pass 2 -vpre hq -acodec libfaac -ac 2 -ar 48000 -ab 192k output.mp4
iPod-iPhone 320 width
ffmpeg -i INPUT -s 320x240 -r 30000/1001 -b 200k -bt 240k -vcodec libx264 -vpre ipod320 -acodec libfaac -ac 2 -ar 48000 -ab 192k output.mp4
iPod-iPhone 640 width
ffmpeg -i INPUT -s 640x480 -r 30000/1001 -b 200k -bt 240k -vcodec libx264 -vpre ipod640 -acodec libfaac -ac 2 -ar 48000 -ab 192k output.mp4
Hight quality, 2 pass without presset
ffmpeg -y -i input -r 24000/1001 -b 6144k -bt 8192k -vcodec libx264 -pass 1 -flags +loop -me_method dia -g 250 -qcomp 0.6 -qmin 10 -qmax 51 -qdiff 4 -bf 16 -b_strategy 1 -i_qfactor 0.71 -cmp +chroma -subq 1 -me_range 16 -coder 1 -sc_threshold 40 -flags2 -bpyramid-wpred-mixed_refs-dct8x8+fastpskip -keyint_min 25 -refs 1 -trellis 0 -directpred 1 -partitions -parti8x8-parti4x4-partp8x8-partp4x4-partb8x8-an output.mp4
ffmpeg -y -i input -r 24000/1001 -b 6144k -bt 8192k -vcodec libx264 -pass 2 -flags +loop -me_method umh -g 250 -qcomp 0.6 -qmin 10 -qmax 51 -qdiff 4 -bf 16 -b_strategy 1 -i_qfactor 0.71 -cmp +chroma -subq 8 -me_range 16 -coder 1 -sc_threshold 40 -flags2 +bpyramid+wpred+mixed_refs+dct8x8+fastpskip -keyint_min 25 -refs 4 -trellis 1 -directpred 3 -partitions +parti8x8+parti4x4+partp8x8+partb8x8-acodec libfaac -ac 2 -ar 44100 -ab 128k output.mp4
iPod-iPhone 320 width, without presset
ffmpeg -i INPUT -s 320x240 -r 30000/1001 -b 200k -bt 240k -vcodec libx264 -coder 0 -bf 0 -flags2 -wpred-dct8x8 -level 13 -maxrate 768k -bufsize 3M-acodec libfaac -ac 2 -ar 48000 -ab 192k output.mp4
iPod-iPhone 640 width, without presset
ffmpeg -i INPUT -s 320x240 -r 30000/1001 -b 200k -bt 240k -vcodec libx264 coder 0 -bf 0 -refs 1 -flags2 -wpred-dct8x8 -level 30 -maxrate 10M -bufsize 10M-acodec libfaac -ac 2 -ar 48000 -ab 192k output.mp4
iPod-iPhone, 2 pass custom
ffmpeg -y -i input -r 30000/1001 -s 480x272 -aspect 480:272 -vcodec libx264 -b 512k -bt 1024k -maxrate 4M -flags +loop -cmp +chroma -me_range 16 -g 300 -keyint_min 25 -sc_threshold 40 -i_qfactor 0.71 -rc_eq "blurCplx^(1-qComp)" -qcomp 0.6 -qmin 10 -qmax 51 -qdiff 4 -coder 0 -refs 1 -bufsize 4M -level 21 -partitions parti4x4+partp8x8+partb8x8 -subq 5 -f mp4 -pass 1 -an -title "Title" output.mp4
ffmpeg -y -i input -r 30000/1001 -s 480x272 -aspect 480:272 -vcodec libx264 -b 512k -bt 1024k -maxrate 4M -flags +loop -cmp +chroma -me_range 16 -g 300 keyint_min 25 -sc_threshold 40 -i_qfactor 0.71 -rc_eq "blurCplx^(1-qComp)" -qcomp 0.6 -qmin 10 -qmax 51 -qdiff 4 -coder 0 -refs 1 -bufsize 4M -level 21 -partitions parti4x4+partp8x8+partb8x8 -subq 5 -f mp4 -pass 2 -acodec libfaac -ac 2 -ar 44100 -ab 128k -title "Title" output.mp4
DV Video
To DV
ffmpeg -i input -target ntsc-dv -aspect 4:3 -y output.dv
From DV To Microsoft AVI DV
ffmpeg -i input.dv -vcodec copy -vtag dvsd -acodec pcm_s16le -f avi -aspect 4:3 -y output.avi
Audio
AAC Stereo HQ
-acodec libfaac -ac 2 -ar 48000 -ab 192k
AAC Stereo SQ
-acodec libfaac -ac 2 -ar 44100 -ab 128k
AAC 5.1 HQ
-acodec libfaac -ac 6 -ar 48000 -ab 448k
AAC 5.1 LQ
-acodec libfaac -ac 6 -ar 44100 -ab 224k
Eac3To
AC3 5.1 Channel Mapping Fix
eac3to from_true_hd.ac3 fixed_mapping.ac3 -blu-ray -448
AAC to AC3
- From AAC to WAV with faad2:
faad2 -o temp_audio.wav input.aac
- From WAV to AC3 with eac3to
eac3to temp_audio.wav output.ac3 -448
AC3 to AAC
- From AC3 to a remapped AC3 with eac3to:
eac3to input.ac3 temp_remaped.ac3 -448 -resampleTo48000 -2,1,0,3,4,5
- From remapped AC3 to AAC with FFmpeg
ffmpeg -y -i temp_remaped.ac3 -vn -acodec libfaac -ac 6 -ar 48000 -ab 384k output.m4a
Other FFmpeg Options
| -threads | thread count, 0 means all threads available |
| -y | overwrite output files |
| -ss | time_off set the start time offset |
| -t | duration record or transcode "duration" seconds of audio/video |
| -ildct | Interlaced |
FFmpeg Information Sources
IRC
Server: irc.freenode.net
Channel: #ffmpeg
Download
The bests binaries on the web, Easy installation without compiling, just runing an install file:
FFmpeg for Windows
FFmpeg for Macintosh OS X (Intel)
FFmpeg for Linux
You can also use this extremely easy guide to install FFmpeg on your Windows, GNU Linux or Macintosh machine:
http://rodrigopolo.com/about/wp-stream-video/ffmpeg-binary-installers-for-win-mac-and-linux
Win32 Binary Builds
http://ffmpeg.arrozcru.com/autobuilds
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=205275&package_id=248632
FFmpeg x264 encoding guide by Robert Swain
http://rob.opendot.cl/index.php/useful-stuff/ffmpeg-x264-encoding-guide
H.264 Profiles and Levels
| 8x8dct | high |
| cabac+bframes | main |
| -level | # |
Special Thanks To:
- Jason Garrett-Glaser, a.k.a., Dark Shikari for all the knowledge and information shared
Diary Of An x264 Developer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Dark_Shikari - Creators of VS4P (Video Scripts for Portables) for sharing one of the most functional building guide for FFmpeg on Ubuntu
http://code.google.com/p/vs4p/wiki/BackEndApps - Gianluigi Tiesi a.k.a, Sherpya for making one of the best Win32 FFmpeg binaries
http://oss.netfarm.it/mplayer-win32.php - Fabrice Bellard a.k.a, Gerard Lantau for giving the best video/audio encoder to the world of open source
http://www.ffmpeg.org
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabrice_Bellard - Howard Pritchett for his FFmpeg Guide (maping channels)
http://howto-pages.org/ffmpeg - Olivier Amato for a comprehensive guide about framerates and FFmpeg
http://www.itbroadcastanddigitalcinema.com/ffmpeg_howto.html#Encoding_H.264_Long_GOP - The comunity and people who write Wikipedia for all the information you share for free
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Audio_Coding
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVCHD
FFmpeg Cheat Sheet by Rodrigo Polo is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.