Video/Audio Encoding Cheat Sheet for FFmpeg.

Video/Audio Encoding Cheat Sheet

This is a small personal cheat sheet for encoding audio/video encoding where I put some of my most used stuff with FFmpeg and other tools. I use H.264 and AAC on MP4, M4V or MKV container most of the time.

If you have any question just contact me.

• Video Size and Aspect Ratios
• Frame Rates
• FFmpeg Encoding
  • X264
  • DV Video
  • Audio
• Eac3To
• Other FFmpeg Options
• Download
• FFmpeg Sources
• Special Thanks

Video Size and Aspect Ratios

iPhone:

DV NTSC Video

Youtube and Vimeo Upload

HD, Blu-Ray, AVCHD

Frame Rates

FFmpeg Encoding

X264 Presets

High quality 2 Pass

ffmpeg -y -i INPUT -r 30000/1001 -b 2M -bt 4M -vcodec libx264 -pass 1 -vpre fastfirstpass -an output.mp4
ffmpeg -y -i INPUT -r 30000/1001 -b 2M -bt 4M -vcodec libx264 -pass 2 -vpre hq -acodec libfaac -ac 2 -ar 48000 -ab 192k output.mp4

iPod-iPhone 320 width

ffmpeg -i INPUT -s 320×240 -r 30000/1001 -b 200k -bt 240k -vcodec libx264 -vpre ipod320 -acodec libfaac -ac 2 -ar 48000 -ab 192k output.mp4

iPod-iPhone 640 width

ffmpeg -i INPUT -s 640×480 -r 30000/1001 -b 200k -bt 240k -vcodec libx264 -vpre ipod640 -acodec libfaac -ac 2 -ar 48000 -ab 192k output.mp4

Hight quality, 2 pass without presset

ffmpeg -y -i input -r 24000/1001 -b 6144k -bt 8192k -vcodec libx264 -pass 1 -flags +loop -me_method dia -g 250 -qcomp 0.6 -qmin 10 -qmax 51 -qdiff 4 -bf 16 -b_strategy 1 -i_qfactor 0.71 -cmp +chroma -subq 1 -me_range 16 -coder 1 -sc_threshold 40 -flags2 -bpyramid-wpred-mixed_refs-dct8x8+fastpskip -keyint_min 25 -refs 1 -trellis 0 -directpred 1 -partitions -parti8x8-parti4x4-partp8x8-partp4x4-partb8x8-an output.mp4

ffmpeg -y -i input -r 24000/1001 -b 6144k -bt 8192k -vcodec libx264 -pass 2 -flags +loop -me_method umh -g 250 -qcomp 0.6 -qmin 10 -qmax 51 -qdiff 4 -bf 16 -b_strategy 1 -i_qfactor 0.71 -cmp +chroma -subq 8 -me_range 16 -coder 1 -sc_threshold 40 -flags2 +bpyramid+wpred+mixed_refs+dct8x8+fastpskip -keyint_min 25 -refs 4 -trellis 1 -directpred 3 -partitions +parti8x8+parti4x4+partp8x8+partb8x8-acodec libfaac -ac 2 -ar 44100 -ab 128k output.mp4

iPod-iPhone 320 width, without presset

ffmpeg -i INPUT -s 320×240 -r 30000/1001 -b 200k -bt 240k -vcodec libx264 -coder 0 -bf 0 -flags2 -wpred-dct8x8 -level 13 -maxrate 768k -bufsize 3M-acodec libfaac -ac 2 -ar 48000 -ab 192k output.mp4

iPod-iPhone 640 width, without presset

ffmpeg -i INPUT -s 320×240 -r 30000/1001 -b 200k -bt 240k -vcodec libx264 coder 0 -bf 0 -refs 1 -flags2 -wpred-dct8x8 -level 30 -maxrate 10M -bufsize 10M-acodec libfaac -ac 2 -ar 48000 -ab 192k output.mp4

iPod-iPhone, 2 pass custom

ffmpeg -y -i input -r 30000/1001 -s 480×272 -aspect 480:272 -vcodec libx264 -b 512k -bt 1024k -maxrate 4M -flags +loop -cmp +chroma -me_range 16 -g 300 -keyint_min 25 -sc_threshold 40 -i_qfactor 0.71 -rc_eq “blurCplx^(1-qComp)” -qcomp 0.6 -qmin 10 -qmax 51 -qdiff 4 -coder 0 -refs 1 -bufsize 4M -level 21 -partitions parti4x4+partp8x8+partb8x8 -subq 5 -f mp4 -pass 1 -an -title “Title” output.mp4

ffmpeg -y -i input -r 30000/1001 -s 480×272 -aspect 480:272 -vcodec libx264 -b 512k -bt 1024k -maxrate 4M -flags +loop -cmp +chroma -me_range 16 -g 300 keyint_min 25 -sc_threshold 40 -i_qfactor 0.71 -rc_eq “blurCplx^(1-qComp)” -qcomp 0.6 -qmin 10 -qmax 51 -qdiff 4 -coder 0 -refs 1 -bufsize 4M -level 21 -partitions parti4x4+partp8x8+partb8x8 -subq 5 -f mp4 -pass 2 -acodec libfaac -ac 2 -ar 44100 -ab 128k -title “Title” output.mp4

DV Video

To DV

ffmpeg -i input -target ntsc-dv -aspect 4:3 -y output.dv

From DV To Microsoft AVI DV

ffmpeg -i input.dv -vcodec copy -vtag dvsd -acodec pcm_s16le -f avi -aspect 4:3 -y output.avi

Audio

AAC Stereo HQ

-acodec libfaac -ac 2 -ar 48000 -ab 192k

AAC Stereo SQ

-acodec libfaac -ac 2 -ar 44100 -ab 128k

AAC 5.1 HQ

-acodec libfaac -ac 6 -ar 48000 -ab 448k

AAC 5.1 LQ

-acodec libfaac -ac 6 -ar 44100 -ab 224k

AAC to AC3 (Recomended use AviSynth for channel mapping)

ffmpeg -i intput.aac -vn -acodec ac3 -ac 6 -ar 48000 -ab 448k

AC3 to M4V (Mux to be opened and edited in other appz)

ffmpeg -i input.ac3 -vn -acodec copy output.m4v

AC3 to AAC (not working as expected)

ffmpeg -i input.ac3 -vn -r 30000/1001 -acodec libfaac -ac 6 -ar 48000 -ab 448k output.aac

Eac3To

AC3 5.1 Channel Mapping Fix

eac3to true_hd.ac3 fixed_true_hd.ac3 -blu-ray -448

AAC to AC3

1. Open AAC on Audacity or SoundBooth
2. Export to Wav
3. Remux from Wav to Wav with FFmpeg:

   ffmpeg -i audio.wav —vn -acodec copy audio-out.wav

4. Convert to AC3 with EAC3to

   eac3to.exe audio.wav Main.ac3 -448

Other FFmpeg Options

FFmpeg Sources

IRC

Server: irc.freenode.net
Channel: #ffmpeg

Download

The bests binaries on the web, Easy installation without compiling, just runing an install file:
FFmpeg for Windows
FFmpeg for Macintosh OS X (Intel)
FFmpeg for Linux

You can also use this extremely easy guide to install FFmpeg on your Windows, GNU Linux or Macintosh machine:
http://www.rodrigopolo.com/about/wp-stream-video/ffmpeg-binary-installers-for-win-mac-and-linux

Win32 Binary Builds

http://ffmpeg.arrozcru.com/autobuilds
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=205275&package_id=248632

FFmpeg x264 encoding guide by Robert Swain

http://rob.opendot.cl/index.php/useful-stuff/ffmpeg-x264-encoding-guide

H.264 Profiles and Levels

Special Thanks To:

• Jason Garrett-Glaser, a.k.a., Dark Shikari for all the knowledge and information shared
  Diary Of An x264 Developer
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Dark_Shikari
• Creators of VS4P (Video Scripts for Portables) for sharing one of the most functional building guide for FFmpeg on Ubuntu
  http://code.google.com/p/vs4p/wiki/BackEndApps
• Gianluigi Tiesi a.k.a, Sherpya for making one of the best Win32 FFmpeg binaries
  http://oss.netfarm.it/mplayer-win32.php
• Fabrice Bellard a.k.a, Gérard Lantau for giving the best video/audio encoder to the world of open source
  http://www.ffmpeg.org
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabrice_Bellard
• Howard Pritchett for his FFmpeg Guide (maping channels)
  http://howto-pages.org/ffmpeg
• Olivier Amato for a comprehensive guide about framerates and FFmpeg
  http://www.itbroadcastanddigitalcinema.com/ffmpeg_howto.html#Encoding_H.264_Long_GOP
• The comunity and people who write Wikipedia for all the information you share for free
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Audio_Coding
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVCHD

FFmpeg Cheat Sheet by Rodrigo Polo is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.rodrigopolo.com.