ffmprovisr

Making FFmpeg Easier

FFmpeg is a powerful tool for manipulating audiovisual files. Unfortunately, it also has a steep learning curve, especially for users unfamiliar with a command line interface. This app helps users through the command generation process so that more people can reap the benefits of FFmpeg.

Each button displays helpful information about how to perform a wide variety of tasks using FFmpeg. To use this site, click on the task you would like to perform. A new window will open up with a sample command and a description of how that command works. You can copy this command and understand how the command works with a breakdown of each of the flags.

Tutorials

For FFmpeg basics, check out the program’s official website.

For instructions on how to install FFmpeg on Mac, Linux, and Windows, refer to Reto Kromer’s installation instructions.

For Bash and command line basics, try the Command Line Crash Course. For a little more context presented in an ffmprovisr style, try explainshell.com!

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Sister projects

Script Ahoy: Community Resource for Archivists and Librarians Scripting

The Sourcecaster: an app that helps you use the command line to work through common challenges that come up when working with digital primary sources.

Cable Bible: A Guide to Cables and Connectors Used for Audiovisual Tech

What do you want to do?

Select from the following.

Change container (rewrap)

Change codec (transcode)

Change formats

Filters

Make derivative variations

Preservation

Create PowerShell script to batch process with ffmpeg

As of Windows 10, it is possible to run Bash via Bash on Ubuntu on Windows, allowing you to use bash scripting. To enable Bash on Windows, see these instructions.

On Windows, the primary native command line programme is PowerShell. PowerShell scripts are plain text files saved with a .ps1 extension. This entry explains how they work with the example of a PowerShell script named “rewrap-mp4.ps1”, which rewraps .mp4 files in a given directory to .mkv files.

“rewrap-mp4.ps1” contains the following text:

$inputfiles = ls *.mp4
foreach ($file in $inputfiles) {
  $output = [io.path]::ChangeExtension($file, '.mkv')
  ffmpeg -i $file -map 0 -c copy $output
}

$inputfiles = ls *.mp4: Creates the variable $inputfiles, which is a list of all the .mp4 files in the current folder.
In PowerShell, all variable names start with the dollar-sign character.
foreach ($file in $inputfiles): Creates a loop and states the subsequent code block will be applied to each file listed in $inputfiles.
$file is an arbitrary variable which will represent each .mp4 file in turn as it is looped over.
{: Opens the code block.
$output = [io.path]::ChangeExtension($file, '.mkv'): Sets up the output file: it will be located in the current folder and keep the same filename, but will have an .mkv extension instead of .mp4.
ffmpeg -i $file: Carry out the following ffmpeg command for each input file.
Note: To call ffmpeg here as just ‘ffmpeg’ (rather than entering the full path to ffmpeg.exe), you must make sure that it’s correctly configured. See this article, especially the section ‘Add to Path’.
-map 0: retain all streams
-c copy: enable stream copy (no re-encode)
$output: The output file is set to the value of the $output variable declared above: i.e., the current file name with an .mkv extension.
}: Closes the code block.

Note: the PowerShell script (.ps1 file) and all .mp4 files to be rewrapped must be contained within the same directory, and the script must be run from that directory.

Execute the .ps1 file by typing .\rewrap-mp4.ps1 in PowerShell.

Modify the script as needed to perform different transcodes, or to use with ffprobe. :)

➺ ffmprovisr ❥