ffplay

ffplay is a simple, portable media player built using FFmpeg's libraries and the SDL library.

Synopsis

ffplay [options] [input_url]

Basic Usage

# Play a file
ffplay input.mp4

# Play from URL (streaming)
ffplay rtmp://server/live/stream

# Play with window title
ffplay -window_title "My Video" input.mp4

Playback Controls

Key	Action
q / ESC	Quit
f	Toggle fullscreen
p / Space	Pause/Resume
m	Toggle mute
9 / 0	Decrease/Increase volume
/ / *	Decrease/Increase volume
s	Step frame by frame
left / right	Seek backward/forward 10 seconds
up / down	Seek forward/backward 1 minute
mouse click	Seek to position

Display Options

# Native resolution (no scaling)
ffplay -nodisp input.mp4

# Audio-only playback
ffplay -novideo input.mp3

# Loop playback
ffplay -loop 3 input.mp4    # Loop 3 times
ffplay -loop 0 input.mp4    # Loop infinitely

# Start at specific time
ffplay -ss 01:30 input.mp4

# Play for specific duration
ffplay -t 60 input.mp4

Audio Visualization

# Show audio waveform
ffplay -showmode 1 input.mp3

# Show audio spectrum
ffplay -showmode 2 input.mp3

Advanced Options

# Sync to audio (default)
ffplay -sync audio input.mp4

# Sync to video
ffplay -sync video input.mp4

# Sync to external clock
ffplay -sync ext input.mp4

# Set playback volume (0-100)
ffplay -volume 50 input.mp4

# Set video stream index
ffplay -ast 1 input.mp4

# Set audio stream index
ffplay -vst 0 input.mp4

# Buffer size (for network streams)
ffplay -buffersize 5000 input.mp4

Common Use Cases

# Quick preview before encoding
ffplay -nodisp -autoexit input.mkv

# Test audio normalization
ffplay -af "loudnorm=I=-16:TP=-1.5:LRA=11" input.wav

# Watch stream with low latency
ffplay -fflags nobuffer -flags low_delay rtmp://server/live

# Play frame-by-frame (no audio)
ffplay -nodisp -loop 0 input.mp4