FFmpeg Cheatsheet

Showing 46 of 46 commands. Run loads the recipe into the console below, where you add your own file — nothing is uploaded.

• Compress a video (H.264, quality based)

  The default way to shrink a file. Lower CRF = better quality, bigger file.

  RunCopy

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

  CRF 18 is visually lossless, 23 is the default, 28 is small. Slower presets give smaller files at the same quality.

• Compress with H.265 / HEVC (smaller files)

  Roughly 30–50% smaller than H.264 at the same quality, but slower to encode.

  RunCopy

  ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:v libx265 -crf 28 -preset medium -tag:v hvc1 -c:a aac -b:a 128k output.mp4

  -tag:v hvc1 keeps the file playable in QuickTime and on Apple devices.

• Trim / cut without re-encoding

  Instant cut between two timestamps, keeps the original quality.

  RunCopy

  ffmpeg -ss 00:00:30 -to 00:01:45 -i input.mp4 -c copy output.mp4

  Cuts land on the nearest keyframe. Drop -c copy to re-encode for frame-accurate cuts.

• Frame-accurate trim (re-encode)

  Use when the fast copy cut starts a second early or freezes.

  RunCopy

  ffmpeg -ss 00:00:30 -to 00:01:45 -i input.mp4 -c:v libx264 -crf 20 -c:a aac output.mp4

• Resize / scale to 1080p

  Scale by height and let the width follow the aspect ratio.

  RunCopy

  ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "scale=-2:1080" -c:v libx264 -crf 22 -c:a copy output.mp4

  -2 keeps the dimension even, which H.264 requires.

• Crop a region

  crop=width:height:x:y measured in pixels from the top-left.

  RunCopy

  ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "crop=1280:720:100:50" -c:a copy output.mp4

• Rotate 90° or flip

  transpose=1 rotates clockwise, 2 counter-clockwise, hflip mirrors.

  RunCopy

  ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "transpose=1" -c:a copy output.mp4

• Change frame rate

  Retime to 30 fps, dropping or duplicating frames as needed.

  RunCopy

  ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "fps=30" -c:v libx264 -crf 22 -c:a copy output.mp4

• Speed up 2× (video and audio)

  setpts halves the timestamps, atempo speeds the audio to match.

  RunCopy

  ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -filter:v "setpts=0.5*PTS" -filter:a "atempo=2.0" output.mp4

  atempo accepts 0.5–2.0; chain it (atempo=2.0,atempo=2.0) for 4×.

• Add an image watermark

  Overlay a PNG 20px from the bottom-right corner.

  RunCopy

  ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -i logo.png -filter_complex "overlay=W-w-20:H-h-20" -c:a copy output.mp4

• Burn text onto a video

  drawtext places a caption with a background box.

  RunCopy

  ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "drawtext=text='Coders Hub':fontsize=48:fontcolor=white:box=1:boxcolor=black@0.5:x=(w-tw)/2:y=h-100" -c:a copy output.mp4

• Join several videos (same codec)

  List the files then concatenate without re-encoding.

  RunCopy

  printf "file 'a.mp4'\nfile 'b.mp4'\n" > list.txt
  ffmpeg -f concat -safe 0 -i list.txt -c copy output.mp4

  All inputs must share codec, resolution and frame rate. Otherwise re-encode with the concat filter.

• Reverse a clip

  Plays video and audio backwards. Needs enough RAM for the clip.

  RunCopy

  ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf reverse -af areverse output.mp4

• Remove the audio track

  -an drops audio, the video stream is copied untouched.

  RunCopy

  ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:v copy -an output.mp4

• Fade in and out

  One-second fade from black at the start and to black at 00:59.

  RunCopy

  ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "fade=t=in:st=0:d=1,fade=t=out:st=59:d=1" -c:a copy output.mp4

• Extract audio from a video

  Copy the existing audio stream — no quality loss, no re-encode.

  RunCopy

  ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vn -acodec copy output.m4a

• Video to MP3

  Convert the soundtrack to a 192 kbps MP3.

  RunCopy

  ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vn -c:a libmp3lame -b:a 192k output.mp3

• Convert WAV to MP3 / AAC / Opus

  Swap the codec and bitrate for the target format.

  RunCopy

  ffmpeg -i input.wav -c:a libmp3lame -q:a 2 output.mp3
  ffmpeg -i input.wav -c:a aac -b:a 192k output.m4a
  ffmpeg -i input.wav -c:a libopus -b:a 96k output.opus

• Trim an audio file

  Cut 30 seconds starting at 1:00 without re-encoding.

  RunCopy

  ffmpeg -ss 00:01:00 -t 30 -i input.mp3 -c copy output.mp3

• Normalise loudness (EBU R128)

  Bring speech or music to the −16 LUFS podcast target.

  RunCopy

  ffmpeg -i input.mp3 -af loudnorm=I=-16:TP=-1.5:LRA=11 -c:a libmp3lame -b:a 192k output.mp3

• Change the volume

  1.5 is +50%, 0.5 is half. Use dB with volume=6dB.

  RunCopy

  ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -filter:a "volume=1.5" -c:v copy output.mp4

• Downmix to mono 16 kHz (speech / Whisper)

  The format most speech-to-text models expect.

  RunCopy

  ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vn -ac 1 -ar 16000 -c:a pcm_s16le output.wav

• Replace a video's audio track

  Keep the video stream, take audio from a second file.

  RunCopy

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

• Mix background music under a voice track

  Lower the music, then merge both streams.

  RunCopy

  ffmpeg -i voice.wav -i music.mp3 -filter_complex "[1:a]volume=0.25[m];[0:a][m]amix=inputs=2:duration=first" output.mp3

• Strip leading and trailing silence

  Useful before publishing recordings.

  RunCopy

  ffmpeg -i input.mp3 -af "silenceremove=start_periods=1:start_threshold=-50dB:start_silence=0.3,areverse,silenceremove=start_periods=1:start_threshold=-50dB:start_silence=0.3,areverse" output.mp3

• MKV to MP4 (remux, instant)

  Change the container only when the codecs are already MP4-friendly.

  RunCopy

  ffmpeg -i input.mkv -c copy output.mp4

• MOV / AVI to MP4

  Re-encode legacy footage to a widely supported MP4.

  RunCopy

  ffmpeg -i input.mov -c:v libx264 -crf 22 -preset medium -c:a aac -b:a 160k -movflags +faststart output.mp4

• MP4 to WebM (VP9 + Opus)

  Open format for the web, good compression.

  RunCopy

  ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:v libvpx-vp9 -crf 32 -b:v 0 -c:a libopus -b:a 96k output.webm

• Make an MP4 stream instantly

  Moves the moov atom to the front so playback starts before the download finishes.

  RunCopy

  ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c copy -movflags +faststart output.mp4

• Video to high-quality GIF (palette)

  Two passes: build an optimal palette, then encode with it.

  RunCopy

  ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "fps=15,scale=480:-1:flags=lanczos,palettegen" palette.png
  ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -i palette.png -lavfi "fps=15,scale=480:-1:flags=lanczos [x]; [x][1:v] paletteuse" output.gif

• GIF to MP4

  Far smaller than a GIF and plays everywhere.

  RunCopy

  ffmpeg -i input.gif -movflags +faststart -pix_fmt yuv420p -vf "scale=trunc(iw/2)*2:trunc(ih/2)*2" output.mp4

• Grab a single frame / thumbnail

  One JPEG from the 5-second mark.

  RunCopy

  ffmpeg -ss 00:00:05 -i input.mp4 -frames:v 1 -q:v 2 thumb.jpg

• Export every frame (or one per second)

  Numbered PNG sequence in the current folder.

  RunCopy

  ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf fps=1 frame_%04d.png

• Contact sheet / storyboard

  A 4×4 grid of evenly spaced frames.

  RunCopy

  ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "select=not(mod(n\,300)),scale=320:-1,tile=4x4" -frames:v 1 sheet.png

• Image sequence to video

  Turn numbered stills into a 30 fps clip.

  RunCopy

  ffmpeg -framerate 30 -i frame_%04d.png -c:v libx264 -pix_fmt yuv420p output.mp4

• Download an HLS (.m3u8) stream to MP4

  Saves the whole playlist and remuxes it into an MP4.

  RunCopy

  ffmpeg -i "https://example.com/stream.m3u8" -c copy -bsf:a aac_adtstoasc output.mp4

  Add -headers "Referer: https://example.com\r\n" when the CDN checks the referer.

• Package a video as HLS segments

  10-second segments plus a playlist for web players.

  RunCopy

  ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:v libx264 -crf 22 -c:a aac -hls_time 10 -hls_playlist_type vod -hls_segment_filename "seg_%03d.ts" playlist.m3u8

• Stream to YouTube / Twitch (RTMP)

  Live push of a local file or capture device.

  RunCopy

  ffmpeg -re -i input.mp4 -c:v libx264 -preset veryfast -b:v 4500k -maxrate 4500k -bufsize 9000k -c:a aac -b:a 128k -f flv rtmp://a.rtmp.youtube.com/live2/STREAM-KEY

• Record the screen

  Platform-specific capture inputs.

  RunCopy

  # Linux (X11)
  ffmpeg -f x11grab -framerate 30 -i :0.0 -c:v libx264 -preset ultrafast out.mp4
  # macOS
  ffmpeg -f avfoundation -framerate 30 -i "1:0" -c:v libx264 -preset ultrafast out.mp4
  # Windows
  ffmpeg -f gdigrab -framerate 30 -i desktop -c:v libx264 -preset ultrafast out.mp4

• Burn subtitles into the picture

  Hard-coded captions that always show.

  RunCopy

  ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "subtitles=subs.srt:force_style='FontSize=24'" -c:a copy output.mp4

• Add a soft subtitle track (toggleable)

  Embeds the SRT as a stream the player can switch off.

  RunCopy

  ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -i subs.srt -c copy -c:s mov_text -metadata:s:s:0 language=eng output.mp4

• Extract subtitles from an MKV

  Pull the first subtitle stream out as SRT.

  RunCopy

  ffmpeg -i input.mkv -map 0:s:0 subs.srt

• Inspect streams, codecs and duration

  ffprobe prints everything about the file as JSON.

  RunCopy

  ffprobe -v error -show_format -show_streams -of json input.mp4

• Print only the duration in seconds

  Handy inside shell scripts.

  RunCopy

  ffprobe -v error -show_entries format=duration -of csv=p=0 input.mp4

• Print resolution and frame rate

  Compact output ready to parse.

  RunCopy

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

• Batch convert every file in a folder

  Loop over MOV files and write MP4s next to them.

  RunCopy

  for f in *.mov; do ffmpeg -i "$f" -c:v libx264 -crf 22 -c:a aac "${f%.mov}.mp4"; done