+ ffplay Documentation +

+ + + + + +

+ +

1 Synopsis
2 Description
3 Options +
- 3.1 Stream specifiers
- 3.2 Generic options
- 3.3 AVOptions
- 3.4 Main options
- 3.5 Advanced options
- 3.6 While playing
4 See Also
5 Authors

+ + + +

1 Synopsis

+ +

ffplay [options] [input_file] +

+ +

2 Description

+ +

FFplay is a very simple and portable media player using the FFmpeg +libraries and the SDL library. It is mostly used as a testbed for the +various FFmpeg APIs. +

+ +

3 Options

+ +

All the numerical options, if not specified otherwise, accept a string +representing a number as input, which may be followed by one of the SI +unit prefixes, for example: ’K’, ’M’, or ’G’. +

If ’i’ is appended to the SI unit prefix, the complete prefix will be +interpreted as a unit prefix for binary multiples, which are based on +powers of 1024 instead of powers of 1000. Appending ’B’ to the SI unit +prefix multiplies the value by 8. This allows using, for example: +’KB’, ’MiB’, ’G’ and ’B’ as number suffixes. +

Options which do not take arguments are boolean options, and set the +corresponding value to true. They can be set to false by prefixing +the option name with "no". For example using "-nofoo" +will set the boolean option with name "foo" to false. +

+ +

3.1 Stream specifiers

Some options are applied per-stream, e.g. bitrate or codec. Stream specifiers +are used to precisely specify which stream(s) a given option belongs to. +

A stream specifier is a string generally appended to the option name and +separated from it by a colon. E.g. -codec:a:1 ac3 contains the +a:1 stream specifier, which matches the second audio stream. Therefore, it +would select the ac3 codec for the second audio stream. +

A stream specifier can match several streams, so that the option is applied to all +of them. E.g. the stream specifier in -b:a 128k matches all audio +streams. +

An empty stream specifier matches all streams. For example, -codec copy +or -codec: copy would copy all the streams without reencoding. +

Possible forms of stream specifiers are: +

stream_index

Matches the stream with this index. E.g. -threads:1 4 would set the +thread count for the second stream to 4. +

stream_type[:stream_index]

stream_type is one of following: ’v’ or ’V’ for video, ’a’ for audio, ’s’ +for subtitle, ’d’ for data, and ’t’ for attachments. ’v’ matches all video +streams, ’V’ only matches video streams which are not attached pictures, video +thumbnails or cover arts. If stream_index is given, then it matches +stream number stream_index of this type. Otherwise, it matches all +streams of this type. +

p:program_id[:stream_index]

If stream_index is given, then it matches the stream with number stream_index +in the program with the id program_id. Otherwise, it matches all streams in the +program. +

#stream_id or i:stream_id

Match the stream by stream id (e.g. PID in MPEG-TS container). +

m:key[:value]

Matches streams with the metadata tag key having the specified value. If +value is not given, matches streams that contain the given tag with any +value. +

u

Matches streams with usable configuration, the codec must be defined and the +essential information such as video dimension or audio sample rate must be present. +

Note that in ffmpeg, matching by metadata will only work properly for +input files. +

+ + +

3.2 Generic options

+ +

These options are shared amongst the ff* tools. +

-L

Show license. +

-h, -?, -help, --help [arg]

Show help. An optional parameter may be specified to print help about a specific +item. If no argument is specified, only basic (non advanced) tool +options are shown. +

Possible values of arg are: +

long: Print advanced tool options in addition to the basic tool options. +
+
full: Print complete list of options, including shared and private options +for encoders, decoders, demuxers, muxers, filters, etc. +
+
decoder=decoder_name: Print detailed information about the decoder named decoder_name. Use the +-decoders option to get a list of all decoders. +
+
encoder=encoder_name: Print detailed information about the encoder named encoder_name. Use the +-encoders option to get a list of all encoders. +
+
demuxer=demuxer_name: Print detailed information about the demuxer named demuxer_name. Use the +-formats option to get a list of all demuxers and muxers. +
+
muxer=muxer_name: Print detailed information about the muxer named muxer_name. Use the +-formats option to get a list of all muxers and demuxers. +
+
filter=filter_name: Print detailed information about the filter name filter_name. Use the +-filters option to get a list of all filters. +

+ +

-version

Show version. +

-formats

Show available formats (including devices). +

-devices

Show available devices. +

-codecs

Show all codecs known to libavcodec. +

Note that the term ’codec’ is used throughout this documentation as a shortcut +for what is more correctly called a media bitstream format. +

-decoders

Show available decoders. +

-encoders

Show all available encoders. +

-bsfs

Show available bitstream filters. +

-protocols

Show available protocols. +

-filters

Show available libavfilter filters. +

-pix_fmts

Show available pixel formats. +

-sample_fmts

Show available sample formats. +

-layouts

Show channel names and standard channel layouts. +

-colors

Show recognized color names. +

-sources device[,opt1=val1[,opt2=val2]...]

Show autodetected sources of the intput device. +Some devices may provide system-dependent source names that cannot be autodetected. +The returned list cannot be assumed to be always complete. +

ffmpeg -sources pulse,server=192.168.0.4
+

+ +

-sinks device[,opt1=val1[,opt2=val2]...]

Show autodetected sinks of the output device. +Some devices may provide system-dependent sink names that cannot be autodetected. +The returned list cannot be assumed to be always complete. +

ffmpeg -sinks pulse,server=192.168.0.4
+

+ +

-loglevel [repeat+]loglevel | -v [repeat+]loglevel

Set the logging level used by the library. +Adding "repeat+" indicates that repeated log output should not be compressed +to the first line and the "Last message repeated n times" line will be +omitted. "repeat" can also be used alone. +If "repeat" is used alone, and with no prior loglevel set, the default +loglevel will be used. If multiple loglevel parameters are given, using +’repeat’ will not change the loglevel. +loglevel is a string or a number containing one of the following values: +

‘quiet, -8’: Show nothing at all; be silent. +
‘panic, 0’: Only show fatal errors which could lead the process to crash, such as +an assertion failure. This is not currently used for anything. +
‘fatal, 8’: Only show fatal errors. These are errors after which the process absolutely +cannot continue. +
‘error, 16’: Show all errors, including ones which can be recovered from. +
‘warning, 24’: Show all warnings and errors. Any message related to possibly +incorrect or unexpected events will be shown. +
‘info, 32’: Show informative messages during processing. This is in addition to +warnings and errors. This is the default value. +
‘verbose, 40’: Same as info, except more verbose. +
‘debug, 48’: Show everything, including debugging information. +
‘trace, 56’

+ +

By default the program logs to stderr. If coloring is supported by the +terminal, colors are used to mark errors and warnings. Log coloring +can be disabled setting the environment variable +AV_LOG_FORCE_NOCOLOR or NO_COLOR, or can be forced setting +the environment variable AV_LOG_FORCE_COLOR. +The use of the environment variable NO_COLOR is deprecated and +will be dropped in a future FFmpeg version. +

-report

Dump full command line and console output to a file named +program-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS.log in the current +directory. +This file can be useful for bug reports. +It also implies -loglevel verbose. +

Setting the environment variable FFREPORT to any value has the +same effect. If the value is a ’:’-separated key=value sequence, these +options will affect the report; option values must be escaped if they +contain special characters or the options delimiter ’:’ (see the +“Quoting and escaping” section in the ffmpeg-utils manual). +

The following options are recognized: +

file: set the file name to use for the report; %p is expanded to the name +of the program, %t is expanded to a timestamp, %% is expanded +to a plain % +
level: set the log verbosity level using a numerical value (see -loglevel). +

+ +

For example, to output a report to a file named ffreport.log +using a log level of 32 (alias for log level info): +

FFREPORT=file=ffreport.log:level=32 ffmpeg -i input output
+

+ +

Errors in parsing the environment variable are not fatal, and will not +appear in the report. +

-hide_banner

Suppress printing banner. +

All FFmpeg tools will normally show a copyright notice, build options +and library versions. This option can be used to suppress printing +this information. +

-cpuflags flags (global)

Allows setting and clearing cpu flags. This option is intended +for testing. Do not use it unless you know what you’re doing. +

ffmpeg -cpuflags -sse+mmx ...
+ffmpeg -cpuflags mmx ...
+ffmpeg -cpuflags 0 ...
+

Possible flags for this option are: +

‘x86’

‘mmx’
‘mmxext’
‘sse’
‘sse2’
‘sse2slow’
‘sse3’
‘sse3slow’
‘ssse3’
‘atom’
‘sse4.1’
‘sse4.2’
‘avx’
‘avx2’
‘xop’
‘fma3’
‘fma4’
‘3dnow’
‘3dnowext’
‘bmi1’
‘bmi2’
‘cmov’

‘ARM’

‘armv5te’
‘armv6’
‘armv6t2’
‘vfp’
‘vfpv3’
‘neon’
‘setend’

‘AArch64’

‘armv8’
‘vfp’
‘neon’

‘PowerPC’

‘altivec’

‘Specific Processors’

‘pentium2’
‘pentium3’
‘pentium4’
‘k6’
‘k62’
‘athlon’
‘athlonxp’
‘k8’

+ +

-opencl_bench

This option is used to benchmark all available OpenCL devices and print the +results. This option is only available when FFmpeg has been compiled with +--enable-opencl. +

When FFmpeg is configured with --enable-opencl, the options for the +global OpenCL context are set via -opencl_options. See the +"OpenCL Options" section in the ffmpeg-utils manual for the complete list of +supported options. Amongst others, these options include the ability to select +a specific platform and device to run the OpenCL code on. By default, FFmpeg +will run on the first device of the first platform. While the options for the +global OpenCL context provide flexibility to the user in selecting the OpenCL +device of their choice, most users would probably want to select the fastest +OpenCL device for their system. +

This option assists the selection of the most efficient configuration by +identifying the appropriate device for the user’s system. The built-in +benchmark is run on all the OpenCL devices and the performance is measured for +each device. The devices in the results list are sorted based on their +performance with the fastest device listed first. The user can subsequently +invoke ffmpeg using the device deemed most appropriate via +-opencl_options to obtain the best performance for the OpenCL +accelerated code. +

Typical usage to use the fastest OpenCL device involve the following steps. +

Run the command: +

ffmpeg -opencl_bench
+

Note down the platform ID (pidx) and device ID (didx) of the first +i.e. fastest device in the list. +Select the platform and device using the command: +

ffmpeg -opencl_options platform_idx=pidx:device_idx=didx ...
+

+ +

-opencl_options options (global)

Set OpenCL environment options. This option is only available when +FFmpeg has been compiled with --enable-opencl. +

options must be a list of key=value option pairs +separated by ’:’. See the “OpenCL Options” section in the +ffmpeg-utils manual for the list of supported options. +

+ + +

3.3 AVOptions

+ +

These options are provided directly by the libavformat, libavdevice and +libavcodec libraries. To see the list of available AVOptions, use the +-help option. They are separated into two categories: +

generic: These options can be set for any container, codec or device. Generic options +are listed under AVFormatContext options for containers/devices and under +AVCodecContext options for codecs. +
private: These options are specific to the given container, device or codec. Private +options are listed under their corresponding containers/devices/codecs. +

+ +

For example to write an ID3v2.3 header instead of a default ID3v2.4 to +an MP3 file, use the id3v2_version private option of the MP3 +muxer: +

ffmpeg -i input.flac -id3v2_version 3 out.mp3
+

+ +

All codec AVOptions are per-stream, and thus a stream specifier +should be attached to them. +

Note: the -nooption syntax cannot be used for boolean +AVOptions, use -option 0/-option 1. +

Note: the old undocumented way of specifying per-stream AVOptions by +prepending v/a/s to the options name is now obsolete and will be +removed soon. +

+ +

3.4 Main options

+ +

-x width

Force displayed width. +

-y height

Force displayed height. +

-s size

Set frame size (WxH or abbreviation), needed for videos which do +not contain a header with the frame size like raw YUV. This option +has been deprecated in favor of private options, try -video_size. +

-fs

Start in fullscreen mode. +

-an

Disable audio. +

-vn

Disable video. +

-sn

Disable subtitles. +

-ss pos

Seek to pos. Note that in most formats it is not possible to seek +exactly, so ffplay will seek to the nearest seek point to +pos. +

pos must be a time duration specification, +see (ffmpeg-utils)the Time duration section in the ffmpeg-utils(1) manual. +

-t duration

Play duration seconds of audio/video. +

duration must be a time duration specification, +see (ffmpeg-utils)the Time duration section in the ffmpeg-utils(1) manual. +

-bytes

Seek by bytes. +

-nodisp

Disable graphical display. +

-f fmt

Force format. +

-window_title title

Set window title (default is the input filename). +

-loop number

Loops movie playback <number> times. 0 means forever. +

-showmode mode

Set the show mode to use. +Available values for mode are: +

‘0, video’: show video +
‘1, waves’: show audio waves +
‘2, rdft’: show audio frequency band using RDFT ((Inverse) Real Discrete Fourier Transform) +

+ +

Default value is "video", if video is not present or cannot be played +"rdft" is automatically selected. +

You can interactively cycle through the available show modes by +pressing the key w. +

-vf filtergraph

Create the filtergraph specified by filtergraph and use it to +filter the video stream. +

filtergraph is a description of the filtergraph to apply to +the stream, and must have a single video input and a single video +output. In the filtergraph, the input is associated to the label +in, and the output to the label out. See the +ffmpeg-filters manual for more information about the filtergraph +syntax. +

You can specify this parameter multiple times and cycle through the specified +filtergraphs along with the show modes by pressing the key w. +

-af filtergraph

filtergraph is a description of the filtergraph to apply to +the input audio. +Use the option "-filters" to show all the available filters (including +sources and sinks). +

-i input_file

Read input_file. +

+ + +

3.5 Advanced options

-pix_fmt format: Set pixel format. +This option has been deprecated in favor of private options, try -pixel_format. +
+
-stats: Print several playback statistics, in particular show the stream +duration, the codec parameters, the current position in the stream and +the audio/video synchronisation drift. It is on by default, to +explicitly disable it you need to specify -nostats. +
+
-fast: Non-spec-compliant optimizations. +
-genpts: Generate pts. +
-sync type: Set the master clock to audio (type=audio), video +(type=video) or external (type=ext). Default is audio. The +master clock is used to control audio-video synchronization. Most media +players use audio as master clock, but in some cases (streaming or high +quality broadcast) it is necessary to change that. This option is mainly +used for debugging purposes. +
-ast audio_stream_specifier: Select the desired audio stream using the given stream specifier. The stream +specifiers are described in the Stream specifiers chapter. If this option +is not specified, the "best" audio stream is selected in the program of the +already selected video stream. +
-vst video_stream_specifier: Select the desired video stream using the given stream specifier. The stream +specifiers are described in the Stream specifiers chapter. If this option +is not specified, the "best" video stream is selected. +
-sst subtitle_stream_specifier: Select the desired subtitle stream using the given stream specifier. The stream +specifiers are described in the Stream specifiers chapter. If this option +is not specified, the "best" subtitle stream is selected in the program of the +already selected video or audio stream. +
-autoexit: Exit when video is done playing. +
-exitonkeydown: Exit if any key is pressed. +
-exitonmousedown: Exit if any mouse button is pressed. +
+
-codec:media_specifier codec_name: Force a specific decoder implementation for the stream identified by +media_specifier, which can assume the values a (audio), +v (video), and s subtitle. +
+
-acodec codec_name: Force a specific audio decoder. +
+
-vcodec codec_name: Force a specific video decoder. +
+
-scodec codec_name: Force a specific subtitle decoder. +
+
-autorotate: Automatically rotate the video according to file metadata. Enabled by +default, use -noautorotate to disable it. +
+
-framedrop: Drop video frames if video is out of sync. Enabled by default if the master +clock is not set to video. Use this option to enable frame dropping for all +master clock sources, use -noframedrop to disable it. +
+
-infbuf: Do not limit the input buffer size, read as much data as possible from the +input as soon as possible. Enabled by default for realtime streams, where data +may be dropped if not read in time. Use this option to enable infinite buffers +for all inputs, use -noinfbuf to disable it. +
+

+ + +

3.6 While playing

+ +

q, ESC

Quit. +

f

Toggle full screen. +

p, SPC

Pause. +

m

Toggle mute. +

9, 0

Decrease and increase volume respectively. +

/, *

Decrease and increase volume respectively. +

a

Cycle audio channel in the current program. +

v

Cycle video channel. +

t

Cycle subtitle channel in the current program. +

c

Cycle program. +

w

Cycle video filters or show modes. +

s

Step to the next frame. +

Pause if the stream is not already paused, step to the next video +frame, and pause. +

left/right

Seek backward/forward 10 seconds. +

down/up

Seek backward/forward 1 minute. +

page down/page up

Seek to the previous/next chapter. +or if there are no chapters +Seek backward/forward 10 minutes. +

right mouse click

Seek to percentage in file corresponding to fraction of width. +

left mouse double-click

Toggle full screen. +

+ + + + +

4 See Also

+ +

ffmpeg-all, +ffmpeg, ffprobe, ffserver, +ffmpeg-utils, +ffmpeg-scaler, +ffmpeg-resampler, +ffmpeg-codecs, +ffmpeg-bitstream-filters, +ffmpeg-formats, +ffmpeg-devices, +ffmpeg-protocols, +ffmpeg-filters +

+ + +

5 Authors

+ +

The FFmpeg developers. +

For details about the authorship, see the Git history of the project +(git://source.ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg), e.g. by typing the command +git log in the FFmpeg source directory, or browsing the +online repository at http://source.ffmpeg.org. +

Maintainers for the specific components are listed in the file +MAINTAINERS in the source code tree. +

+ + +

+ This document was generated using makeinfo. +

+ ffplay Documentation +

Table of Contents

1 Synopsis# TOC

2 Description# TOC

3 Options# TOC

3.1 Stream specifiers# TOC

3.2 Generic options# TOC

3.3 AVOptions# TOC

3.4 Main options# TOC

3.5 Advanced options# TOC

3.6 While playing# TOC

4 See Also# TOC

5 Authors# TOC

1 Synopsis

2 Description

3 Options

3.1 Stream specifiers

3.2 Generic options

3.3 AVOptions

3.4 Main options

3.5 Advanced options

3.6 While playing

4 See Also

5 Authors