ffmpeg

compress video

using a quick preset:

ffmpeg -i input.mov -c:v libx264 -crf 22 -preset ultrafast -c:a copy output.mp4

to 1.5mbps

ffmpeg -i IMG_4329.mov -c:v libx264 -b:v 1.5M -c:a aac -b:a 128k meshtastic.mp4

convert video from to, e.G.: .flv to .mp4

ffmpeg -i input.flv -c copy output.mp4
for i in *.flv; do ffmpeg -i "$i" -c copy "${i%.flv}.mp4"; done

it might be required to encode the audio separately:

ffmpeg -i input.flv -c:v copy -c:a aac output.mp4
for i in *.flv; do ffmpeg -i "$i" -c:v copy -c:a aac "${i%.flv}.mp4"; done

cut video

just take the first 28 seconds, beginning at 0:

ffmpeg -ss 00:00:00.0 -to 00:00:28.0 -i input.mp4 output.mp4

fast seek (less accurate):

ffmpeg -ss 00:00:00.0 -i input.mp4 -t 28 -c copy output.mp4

accurate cut (re-encode):

ffmpeg -ss 00:00:00.0 -i input.mp4 -t 28 -c:v libx264 -c:a aac output.mp4

downsample mp3

hopefully make it somewhat smaller

ffmpeg -i filename.mp3 -b:a 64k out.mp3

using variable bitrate (vbr):

here’s a table of the different VBR levels.

ffmpeg -i filename.mp3 -q:a 9 out.mp3

extract audio from video

ffmpeg -i input-video.mov -vn -q:a 0 -map a output-audio.mp3

generate gif from video

endless loop:

ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -loop 0 out.gif

higher quality (palette):

ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -vf "fps=12,scale=640:-1:flags=lanczos,palettegen" -y palette.png
ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -i palette.png -loop 0 -vf "fps=12,scale=640:-1:flags=lanczos,paletteuse" out.gif

get file metadata

ffmpeg -i filename.ext

write metadata to a file:

ffmpeg -i filename.mp3 -f ffmetadata metadata.txt

merge / concat mp3 files

concatenate multiple audio files into one big one.

ffmpeg -i "concat:file1.mp3|file2.mp3" -acodec copy output.mp3

if you want to do this for a bunch of files in a folder

echo -n "ffmpeg -i \"concat:"; for i in *.mp3;do printf "%s${i}|";done;echo -n "\" -acodec copy output.mp3"

this will just spit out the ffmpeg command, for double checking, you know.

robust concat with the concat demuxer:

printf "file '%s'\n" *.mp3 > list.txt
ffmpeg -f concat -safe 0 -i list.txt -c copy output.mp3

video information

ffprobe -show_streams -select_streams v -i input-video.mp4

just get the bitrate (in kbps):

ffprobe -v error -select_streams v:0 -show_entries stream=bit_rate -of default=noprint_wrappers=1:nokey=1 your-video.mp4

fdupes find