FFmpeg Cheat Sheet

A quick reference for the most commonly used FFmpeg commands.

Inspect Files

# File info
ffprobe -hide_banner input.mp4

# JSON metadata
ffprobe -v error -show_format -show_streams -of json input.mp4

# Duration only
ffprobe -v error -show_entries format=duration -of default=noprint_wrappers=1:nokey=1 input.mp4

# Video codec, resolution, fps
ffprobe -v error -select_streams v:0 -show_entries stream=codec_name,width,height,r_frame_rate -of csv=p=0 input.mp4

Convert Formats

# MKV → MP4 (lossless remux)
ffmpeg -i input.mkv -c copy output.mp4

# Any → MP4 (H.264 + AAC, web optimized)
ffmpeg -i input.avi -c:v libx264 -preset fast -crf 22 \
  -c:a aac -b:a 128k -movflags +faststart output.mp4

# Any → WebM (VP9 + Opus)
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:v libvpx-vp9 -crf 30 -b:v 0 \
  -c:a libopus -b:a 128k output.webm

# Any → GIF (simple)
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "fps=15,scale=480:-1" -loop 0 output.gif

# Any → GIF (high quality)
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "fps=15,scale=480:-1:flags=lanczos,split[s0][s1];[s0]palettegen[p];[s1][p]paletteuse" -loop 0 output.gif

Video Processing

# Scale to 720p
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "scale=1280:-2" -c:v libx264 -preset fast output_720p.mp4

# Trim 30 seconds from 1:00
ffmpeg -ss 60 -i input.mp4 -t 30 -c copy output.mp4

# Accurate trim (re-encode)
ffmpeg -ss 60 -i input.mp4 -t 30 -c:v libx264 -crf 22 -c:a aac output.mp4

# Concatenate videos
ffmpeg -f concat -safe 0 -i list.txt -c copy merged.mp4

# Extract frames
ffmpeg -ss 00:01:00 -i input.mp4 -frames:v 1 screenshot.jpg

# Extract one frame per second
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "fps=1" frame_%04d.jpg

Audio Processing

# Extract audio (copy)
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vn -c:a copy audio.m4a

# Extract & convert to MP3
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vn -c:a libmp3lame -b:a 192k audio.mp3

# Add audio to video
ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -i audio.mp3 -c:v copy -c:a aac -b:a 128k -shortest output.mp4

# Normalize loudness
ffmpeg -i input.wav -af "loudnorm=I=-16:TP=-1.5:LRA=11" output.wav

# Fade in/out
ffmpeg -i input.mp3 -af "afade=t=in:ss=0:d=2,afade=t=out:st=57:d=3" output.mp3

Subtitles

# Extract subtitles
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -map 0:s:0 output.srt

# Burn subtitles into video
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "subtitles=subs.srt" \
  -c:v libx264 -crf 22 -c:a aac output_with_subs.mp4

# Add soft subtitles (track)
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -i subs.srt -c:v copy -c:a copy \
  -c:s srt -metadata:s:s:0 language=eng output.mp4

Watermarks & Overlays

# Image watermark (top-right)
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -i logo.png \
  -filter_complex "overlay=W-w-10:10" -c:a copy output.mp4

# Text watermark
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "drawtext=text='Copyright':fontsize=24:fontcolor=white:x=10:y=10" \
  -c:a copy output.mp4

Streaming

# HLS (VOD)
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:v libx264 -preset fast -crf 22 \
  -c:a aac -b:a 128k -hls_time 6 \
  -hls_playlist_type vod -hls_segment_filename "seg_%03d.ts" \
  stream.m3u8

# RTMP publish
ffmpeg -re -i input.mp4 -c:v libx264 -preset veryfast -b:v 4500k \
  -c:a aac -b:a 160k -f flv rtmp://server/live/stream_key

Encoding Quality

CRF Value	Quality	Use Case
18-20	Near lossless	High-quality archival
20-23	High	Default high quality
23-26	Good	Streaming
26-29	Acceptable	Low bandwidth
29+	Low	Minimum quality

H.264 Presets (Speed vs Compression)

Preset	Speed	Compression
ultrafast	Fastest	Lowest
superfast
veryfast
faster
fast
medium	Default
slow
slower
veryslow	Slowest	Best

Useful Flags

Flag	Description
-y	Overwrite without asking
-n	Never overwrite
-hide_banner	Hide startup banner
-c copy	Copy streams (no re-encode)
-c:v copy	Copy video only
-c:a copy	Copy audio only
-vn	No video
-an	No audio
-threads n	Limit CPU threads
-progress url	Log progress