Ffmpeg Processing

FFmpeg Processing Skill

FFmpeg 8.0 for video/audio transcoding, editing, streaming, and analysis. The recipes/ directory holds production-grade compound commands for automation pipelines; this file is the quick-reference index.

Capabilities

• Video/audio transcoding and format conversion
• Stream extraction and muxing
• Video editing (cut, concat, filters, reframing)
• Resolution and codec conversion (CPU + CUDA/QSV)
• Subtitle handling (burn-in styled, embedded tracks)
• Streaming protocols (HLS, DASH, RTMP)
• Image-to-video, slideshows, Ken Burns
• Audio processing, mixing, normalisation
• Scene-detected thumbnails and storyboards

When to Use

• Convert media formats
• Reframe horizontal video for vertical (Shorts/TikTok/Reels)
• Compose intro+main+outro with background music
• Burn styled subtitles or timed text overlays
• Generate thumbnails, storyboards, GIFs
• Build streaming manifests
• Multi-output single-pass encoding

When Not To Use

• Still image processing -- use imagemagick
• AI-generated images/video from text -- use comfyui
• 3D rendering and scene creation -- use blender
• Diagrams or charts -- use mermaid-diagrams or report-builder
• Browser-based playback testing -- use playwright or browser

Recipe Index

For production patterns (most automation tasks land here), open the matching recipe:

Stream Selector Glossary

Foundation for everything else.

Quick Reference

Info and Analysis

ffmpeg -i input.mp4                      # Show file info
ffprobe -v quiet -print_format json -show_format -show_streams input.mp4

# Duration / resolution / bitrate
ffprobe -v error -show_entries format=duration -of default=noprint_wrappers=1:nokey=1 input.mp4
ffprobe -v error -select_streams v:0 -show_entries stream=width,height -of csv=s=x:p=0 input.mp4
ffprobe -v error -show_entries format=bit_rate -of default=noprint_wrappers=1:nokey=1 input.mp4

Format Conversion

ffmpeg -y -i input.avi output.mp4              # Re-encode
ffmpeg -y -i input.mp4 -c copy output.mkv      # Remux (no re-encode, fast)

Resolution with aspect-ratio preservation

The correct production form -- preserves aspect, pads black, normalises SAR:

ffmpeg -y -i input.mp4 -vf \
  "scale=w=1920:h=1080:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,\
pad=1920:1080:(ow-iw)/2:(oh-ih)/2:color=black,setsar=1:1" \
  output.mp4

For naive scaling without padding (only when source aspect already matches):

ffmpeg -y -i input.mp4 -vf scale=-2:720 output.mp4

Quality and bitrate

ffmpeg -y -i input.mp4 -c:v libx264 -crf 18 -preset veryslow output.mp4   # Archive quality
ffmpeg -y -i input.mp4 -b:v 2M -b:a 192k output.mp4                       # Fixed bitrate

CRF: 0 lossless, 17-18 visually lossless, 23 default, 28+ small/lossy. ±6 ≈ ½× or 2× filesize.

Extract audio

ffmpeg -y -i video.mp4 -vn -acodec libmp3lame -q:a 2 audio.mp3   # MP3 high quality
ffmpeg -y -i video.mp4 -vn -c:a copy audio.aac                   # AAC remux (fastest)
ffmpeg -y -i video.mp4 -map 0:a:0 -acodec copy audio.aac         # Specific stream

Extract frames

ffmpeg -y -i input.mp4 frame%04d.png                                       # All
ffmpeg -y -i input.mp4 -vf fps=1 frame%04d.png                             # 1 fps
ffmpeg -y -ss 00:01:30 -i input.mp4 -frames:v 1 -q:v 2 thumb.jpg           # At timestamp

Trim

Output seeking (frame-accurate, requires re-encode for clean cuts):

ffmpeg -y -i input.mp4 -ss 00:00:10 -to 00:00:30 output.mp4

Input seeking (fast, keyframe-aligned, may produce black frames with -c copy):

ffmpeg -y -ss 00:00:10 -to 00:00:30 -i input.mp4 -c copy output.mp4

See recipes/gotchas.md for the full tradeoff.

Concat (file list, same codec/timebase)

# list.txt:
#   file 'a.mp4'
#   file 'b.mp4'
ffmpeg -y -f concat -safe 0 -i list.txt -c copy output.mp4

For mixed sources, see recipes/intro-main-outro.md.

Web-optimised default preset

Good baseline for VOD / archival / multi-device playback:

ffmpeg -y -i input.mp4 \
  -c:v libx264 -crf 18 -preset veryslow -tune fastdecode \
  -pix_fmt yuv420p -movflags +faststart \
  -c:a aac -b:a 192k \
  output.mp4

YouTube upload

ffmpeg -y -i input.mp4 \
  -c:v libx264 -preset slow -crf 18 -pix_fmt yuv420p \
  -c:a aac -b:a 192k -movflags +faststart \
  youtube.mp4

GIF (two-pass with palette for quality)

ffmpeg -y -i input.mp4 -vf "fps=10,scale=480:-1:flags=lanczos,palettegen" palette.png
ffmpeg -y -i input.mp4 -i palette.png \
  -lavfi "fps=10,scale=480:-1:flags=lanczos[x];[x][1:v]paletteuse" output.gif

Streaming

# HLS
ffmpeg -y -i input.mp4 -codec: copy -start_number 0 -hls_time 10 -hls_list_size 0 -f hls playlist.m3u8

# RTMP live
ffmpeg -re -i input.mp4 -c:v libx264 -preset veryfast -maxrate 3000k -bufsize 6000k \
  -pix_fmt yuv420p -g 50 -c:a aac -b:a 160k -ac 2 -f flv rtmp://server/live/streamkey

Hardware acceleration (CUDA quick form)

ffmpeg -y -hwaccel cuda -hwaccel_output_format cuda -i input.mp4 \
  -c:v h264_nvenc -preset p4 output.mp4

For full GPU matrix (NVENC, QSV, VAAPI) and tradeoffs, see recipes/gpu-encoding.md.

Batch

for f in *.mkv; do ffmpeg -y -i "$f" -c copy "${f%.mkv}.mp4"; done
for f in *.mp4; do ffmpeg -y -ss 00:00:05 -i "$f" -frames:v 1 "${f%.mp4}.jpg"; done

Common Codecs

Video

• H.264 (libx264) -- universal compatibility, default for MP4
• H.265 (libx265) -- ~30-50% smaller than H.264; add -tag:v hvc1 for Apple/iOS playback
• VP9 (libvpx-vp9) -- WebM, 20-50% smaller than H.264 at same quality, slower encode
• AV1 (libaom-av1) -- best compression, slowest encode; libsvtav1 is the fast alternative

Audio

• AAC (aac) -- universal, default for MP4
• MP3 (libmp3lame) -- legacy compatibility
• Opus (libopus) -- best quality/bitrate; default for WebM
• FLAC (flac) -- lossless

Performance Tips

1. Use -c copy whenever possible (no re-encode) -- but see recipes/gotchas.md
2. Hardware acceleration for batch jobs -- see recipes/gpu-encoding.md
3. Presets: ultrafast/superfast/veryfast/faster/fast/medium/slow/slower/veryslow -- slower = better compression at same quality
4. -threads 0 lets FFmpeg pick (default); only override for specific reasons
5. -progress pipe:1 for parseable progress output in pipelines
6. Single -filter_complex with split produces multiple outputs in one decode pass -- always cheaper than running ffmpeg twice

Troubleshooting

# Repair attempt
ffmpeg -y -err_detect ignore_err -i corrupted.mp4 -c copy repaired.mp4

# Fix A/V sync (offset audio +500ms)
ffmpeg -y -i input.mp4 -itsoffset 0.5 -i input.mp4 -map 0:v -map 1:a -c copy output.mp4

# Force pixel format compatibility (QuickTime, iOS, older players)
ffmpeg -y -i input.mp4 -c:v libx264 -pix_fmt yuv420p -c:a copy output.mp4

Notes

• FFmpeg 8.0 with full codec support
• CUDA acceleration available
• Recipes assume sample inputs are reachable via URL (FFmpeg downloads them); replace with local paths in production
• Always -y for non-interactive automation

Related Skills

• imagemagick -- still images
• comfyui -- AI-generated media
• blender -- 3D scenes
• jupyter-notebooks -- analyse media with Python
• playwright -- verify playback in a browser
• clipcannon -- AI-driven video editing (moment-finding, captions, voice clone, lip-sync); use this skill for plain transcode/mux/filter work instead