ffmpeg

CLI

Complete, cross-platform solution for recording, converting, and streaming audio/video.

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Installation

Homebrewbrew install ffmpeg

LGPL-2.1 / GPL-2.0

Convert, compress, trim, and process audio and video files

When to use

Any audio/video format conversion or media processing task

Examples

Convert MP4 to GIF🟢 92% success

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf 'fps=10,scale=640:-1' -loop 0 output.gif

⚠ Common failures (2)

GIF is huge file size → Lower fps (fps=10) and scale (scale=480:-1)
GIF looks washed out → Add palettegen: ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf palettegen palette.png && ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -i palette.png -filter_complex paletteuse output.gif

Extract audio from video🟢 97% success

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -vn -acodec mp3 -ab 192k audio.mp3

Trim video to a time range🟢 96% success

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -ss 00:01:00 -to 00:02:30 -c copy output.mp4

⚠ Common failures (1)

Trim not accurate → Put -ss before -i for fast seek: ffmpeg -ss 00:01:00 -i input.mp4 -to 00:01:30 -c copy output.mp4

Convert video to a different format🟢 94% success

ffmpeg -i input.avi -c:v libx264 -crf 23 -c:a aac output.mp4

Compress video for web🟢 93% success

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vcodec libx264 -crf 28 -preset fast output.mp4

⚠ Common failures (1)