Provided by: ffmpeg_5.1.2-3ubuntu1_amd64 
NAME
ffprobe - ffprobe media prober
SYNOPSIS
ffprobe [options] input_url
DESCRIPTION
ffprobe gathers information from multimedia streams and prints it in human- and machine-
readable fashion.
For example it can be used to check the format of the container used by a multimedia
stream and the format and type of each media stream contained in it.
If a url is specified in input, ffprobe will try to open and probe the url content. If the
url cannot be opened or recognized as a multimedia file, a positive exit code is returned.
If no output is specified as output with o ffprobe will write to stdout.
ffprobe may be employed both as a standalone application or in combination with a textual
filter, which may perform more sophisticated processing, e.g. statistical processing or
plotting.
Options are used to list some of the formats supported by ffprobe or for specifying which
information to display, and for setting how ffprobe will show it.
ffprobe output is designed to be easily parsable by a textual filter, and consists of one
or more sections of a form defined by the selected writer, which is specified by the
print_format option.
Sections may contain other nested sections, and are identified by a name (which may be
shared by other sections), and an unique name. See the output of sections.
Metadata tags stored in the container or in the streams are recognized and printed in the
corresponding "FORMAT", "STREAM" or "PROGRAM_STREAM" section.
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.
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. If stream_index is used as an additional stream specifier (see
below), then it selects stream number stream_index from the matching streams. Stream
numbering is based on the order of the streams as detected by libavformat except when
a program ID is also specified. In this case it is based on the ordering of the
streams in the program.
stream_type[:additional_stream_specifier]
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 additional_stream_specifier is used, then it matches streams which both have
this type and match the additional_stream_specifier. Otherwise, it matches all streams
of the specified type.
p:program_id[:additional_stream_specifier]
Matches streams which are in the program with the id program_id. If
additional_stream_specifier is used, then it matches streams which both are part of
the program and match the additional_stream_specifier.
#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.
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 named filter_name. Use the -filters
option to get a list of all filters.
bsf=bitstream_filter_name
Print detailed information about the bitstream filter named bitstream_filter_name.
Use the -bsfs option to get a list of all bitstream filters.
protocol=protocol_name
Print detailed information about the protocol named protocol_name. Use the
-protocols option to get a list of all protocols.
-version
Show version.
-buildconf
Show the build configuration, one option per line.
-formats
Show available formats (including devices).
-demuxers
Show available demuxers.
-muxers
Show available muxers.
-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.
-dispositions
Show stream dispositions.
-colors
Show recognized color names.
-sources device[,opt1=val1[,opt2=val2]...]
Show autodetected sources of the input 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 [flags+]loglevel | -v [flags+]loglevel
Set logging level and flags used by the library.
The optional flags prefix can consist of the following values:
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.
level
Indicates that log output should add a "[level]" prefix to each message line. This
can be used as an alternative to log coloring, e.g. when dumping the log to file.
Flags can also be used alone by adding a '+'/'-' prefix to set/reset a single flag
without affecting other flags or changing loglevel. When setting both flags and
loglevel, a '+' separator is expected between the last flags value and before
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
For example to enable repeated log output, add the "level" prefix, and set loglevel to
"verbose":
ffmpeg -loglevel repeat+level+verbose -i input output
Another example that enables repeated log output without affecting current state of
"level" prefix flag or loglevel:
ffmpeg [...] -loglevel +repeat
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 can be forced setting the environment
variable AV_LOG_FORCE_COLOR.
-report
Dump full command line and log 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 debug".
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
-cpucount count (global)
Override detection of CPU count. This option is intended for testing. Do not use it
unless you know what you're doing.
ffmpeg -cpucount 2
-max_alloc bytes
Set the maximum size limit for allocating a block on the heap by ffmpeg's family of
malloc functions. Exercise extreme caution when using this option. Don't use if you do
not understand the full consequence of doing so. Default is INT_MAX.
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:
ffmpeg -i multichannel.mxf -map 0:v:0 -map 0:a:0 -map 0:a:0 -c:a:0 ac3 -b:a:0 640k -ac:a:1 2 -c:a:1 aac -b:2 128k out.mp4
In the above example, a multichannel audio stream is mapped twice for output. The first
instance is encoded with codec ac3 and bitrate 640k. The second instance is downmixed to
2 channels and encoded with codec aac. A bitrate of 128k is specified for it using
absolute index of the output stream.
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.
Main options
-f format
Force format to use.
-unit
Show the unit of the displayed values.
-prefix
Use SI prefixes for the displayed values. Unless the "-byte_binary_prefix" option is
used all the prefixes are decimal.
-byte_binary_prefix
Force the use of binary prefixes for byte values.
-sexagesimal
Use sexagesimal format HH:MM:SS.MICROSECONDS for time values.
-pretty
Prettify the format of the displayed values, it corresponds to the options "-unit
-prefix -byte_binary_prefix -sexagesimal".
-of, -print_format writer_name[=writer_options]
Set the output printing format.
writer_name specifies the name of the writer, and writer_options specifies the options
to be passed to the writer.
For example for printing the output in JSON format, specify:
-print_format json
For more details on the available output printing formats, see the Writers section
below.
-sections
Print sections structure and section information, and exit. The output is not meant to
be parsed by a machine.
-select_streams stream_specifier
Select only the streams specified by stream_specifier. This option affects only the
options related to streams (e.g. "show_streams", "show_packets", etc.).
For example to show only audio streams, you can use the command:
ffprobe -show_streams -select_streams a INPUT
To show only video packets belonging to the video stream with index 1:
ffprobe -show_packets -select_streams v:1 INPUT
-show_data
Show payload data, as a hexadecimal and ASCII dump. Coupled with -show_packets, it
will dump the packets' data. Coupled with -show_streams, it will dump the codec
extradata.
The dump is printed as the "data" field. It may contain newlines.
-show_data_hash algorithm
Show a hash of payload data, for packets with -show_packets and for codec extradata
with -show_streams.
-show_error
Show information about the error found when trying to probe the input.
The error information is printed within a section with name "ERROR".
-show_format
Show information about the container format of the input multimedia stream.
All the container format information is printed within a section with name "FORMAT".
-show_format_entry name
Like -show_format, but only prints the specified entry of the container format
information, rather than all. This option may be given more than once, then all
specified entries will be shown.
This option is deprecated, use "show_entries" instead.
-show_entries section_entries
Set list of entries to show.
Entries are specified according to the following syntax. section_entries contains a
list of section entries separated by ":". Each section entry is composed by a section
name (or unique name), optionally followed by a list of entries local to that section,
separated by ",".
If section name is specified but is followed by no "=", all entries are printed to
output, together with all the contained sections. Otherwise only the entries specified
in the local section entries list are printed. In particular, if "=" is specified but
the list of local entries is empty, then no entries will be shown for that section.
Note that the order of specification of the local section entries is not honored in
the output, and the usual display order will be retained.
The formal syntax is given by:
<LOCAL_SECTION_ENTRIES> ::= <SECTION_ENTRY_NAME>[,<LOCAL_SECTION_ENTRIES>]
<SECTION_ENTRY> ::= <SECTION_NAME>[=[<LOCAL_SECTION_ENTRIES>]]
<SECTION_ENTRIES> ::= <SECTION_ENTRY>[:<SECTION_ENTRIES>]
For example, to show only the index and type of each stream, and the PTS time,
duration time, and stream index of the packets, you can specify the argument:
packet=pts_time,duration_time,stream_index : stream=index,codec_type
To show all the entries in the section "format", but only the codec type in the
section "stream", specify the argument:
format : stream=codec_type
To show all the tags in the stream and format sections:
stream_tags : format_tags
To show only the "title" tag (if available) in the stream sections:
stream_tags=title
-show_packets
Show information about each packet contained in the input multimedia stream.
The information for each single packet is printed within a dedicated section with name
"PACKET".
-show_frames
Show information about each frame and subtitle contained in the input multimedia
stream.
The information for each single frame is printed within a dedicated section with name
"FRAME" or "SUBTITLE".
-show_log loglevel
Show logging information from the decoder about each frame according to the value set
in loglevel, (see "-loglevel"). This option requires "-show_frames".
The information for each log message is printed within a dedicated section with name
"LOG".
-show_streams
Show information about each media stream contained in the input multimedia stream.
Each media stream information is printed within a dedicated section with name
"STREAM".
-show_programs
Show information about programs and their streams contained in the input multimedia
stream.
Each media stream information is printed within a dedicated section with name
"PROGRAM_STREAM".
-show_chapters
Show information about chapters stored in the format.
Each chapter is printed within a dedicated section with name "CHAPTER".
-count_frames
Count the number of frames per stream and report it in the corresponding stream
section.
-count_packets
Count the number of packets per stream and report it in the corresponding stream
section.
-read_intervals read_intervals
Read only the specified intervals. read_intervals must be a sequence of interval
specifications separated by ",". ffprobe will seek to the interval starting point,
and will continue reading from that.
Each interval is specified by two optional parts, separated by "%".
The first part specifies the interval start position. It is interpreted as an absolute
position, or as a relative offset from the current position if it is preceded by the
"+" character. If this first part is not specified, no seeking will be performed when
reading this interval.
The second part specifies the interval end position. It is interpreted as an absolute
position, or as a relative offset from the current position if it is preceded by the
"+" character. If the offset specification starts with "#", it is interpreted as the
number of packets to read (not including the flushing packets) from the interval
start. If no second part is specified, the program will read until the end of the
input.
Note that seeking is not accurate, thus the actual interval start point may be
different from the specified position. Also, when an interval duration is specified,
the absolute end time will be computed by adding the duration to the interval start
point found by seeking the file, rather than to the specified start value.
The formal syntax is given by:
<INTERVAL> ::= [<START>|+<START_OFFSET>][%[<END>|+<END_OFFSET>]]
<INTERVALS> ::= <INTERVAL>[,<INTERVALS>]
A few examples follow.
• Seek to time 10, read packets until 20 seconds after the found seek point, then
seek to position "01:30" (1 minute and thirty seconds) and read packets until
position "01:45".
10%+20,01:30%01:45
• Read only 42 packets after seeking to position "01:23":
01:23%+#42
• Read only the first 20 seconds from the start:
%+20
• Read from the start until position "02:30":
%02:30
-show_private_data, -private
Show private data, that is data depending on the format of the particular shown
element. This option is enabled by default, but you may need to disable it for
specific uses, for example when creating XSD-compliant XML output.
-show_program_version
Show information related to program version.
Version information is printed within a section with name "PROGRAM_VERSION".
-show_library_versions
Show information related to library versions.
Version information for each library is printed within a section with name
"LIBRARY_VERSION".
-show_versions
Show information related to program and library versions. This is the equivalent of
setting both -show_program_version and -show_library_versions options.
-show_pixel_formats
Show information about all pixel formats supported by FFmpeg.
Pixel format information for each format is printed within a section with name
"PIXEL_FORMAT".
-show_optional_fields value
Some writers viz. JSON and XML, omit the printing of fields with invalid or non-
applicable values, while other writers always print them. This option enables one to
control this behaviour. Valid values are "always"/1, "never"/0 and "auto"/"-1".
Default is auto.
-bitexact
Force bitexact output, useful to produce output which is not dependent on the specific
build.
-i input_url
Read input_url.
-o output_url
Write output to output_url. If not specified, the output is sent to stdout.
WRITERS
A writer defines the output format adopted by ffprobe, and will be used for printing all
the parts of the output.
A writer may accept one or more arguments, which specify the options to adopt. The options
are specified as a list of key=value pairs, separated by ":".
All writers support the following options:
string_validation, sv
Set string validation mode.
The following values are accepted.
fail
The writer will fail immediately in case an invalid string (UTF-8) sequence or
code point is found in the input. This is especially useful to validate input
metadata.
ignore
Any validation error will be ignored. This will result in possibly broken output,
especially with the json or xml writer.
replace
The writer will substitute invalid UTF-8 sequences or code points with the string
specified with the string_validation_replacement.
Default value is replace.
string_validation_replacement, svr
Set replacement string to use in case string_validation is set to replace.
In case the option is not specified, the writer will assume the empty string, that is
it will remove the invalid sequences from the input strings.
A description of the currently available writers follows.
default
Default format.
Print each section in the form:
[SECTION]
key1=val1
...
keyN=valN
[/SECTION]
Metadata tags are printed as a line in the corresponding FORMAT, STREAM or PROGRAM_STREAM
section, and are prefixed by the string "TAG:".
A description of the accepted options follows.
nokey, nk
If set to 1 specify not to print the key of each field. Default value is 0.
noprint_wrappers, nw
If set to 1 specify not to print the section header and footer. Default value is 0.
compact, csv
Compact and CSV format.
The "csv" writer is equivalent to "compact", but supports different defaults.
Each section is printed on a single line. If no option is specified, the output has the
form:
section|key1=val1| ... |keyN=valN
Metadata tags are printed in the corresponding "format" or "stream" section. A metadata
tag key, if printed, is prefixed by the string "tag:".
The description of the accepted options follows.
item_sep, s
Specify the character to use for separating fields in the output line. It must be a
single printable character, it is "|" by default ("," for the "csv" writer).
nokey, nk
If set to 1 specify not to print the key of each field. Its default value is 0 (1 for
the "csv" writer).
escape, e
Set the escape mode to use, default to "c" ("csv" for the "csv" writer).
It can assume one of the following values:
c Perform C-like escaping. Strings containing a newline (\n), carriage return (\r),
a tab (\t), a form feed (\f), the escaping character (\) or the item separator
character SEP are escaped using C-like fashioned escaping, so that a newline is
converted to the sequence \n, a carriage return to \r, \ to \\ and the separator
SEP is converted to \SEP.
csv Perform CSV-like escaping, as described in RFC4180. Strings containing a newline
(\n), a carriage return (\r), a double quote ("), or SEP are enclosed in double-
quotes.
none
Perform no escaping.
print_section, p
Print the section name at the beginning of each line if the value is 1, disable it
with value set to 0. Default value is 1.
flat
Flat format.
A free-form output where each line contains an explicit key=value, such as
"streams.stream.3.tags.foo=bar". The output is shell escaped, so it can be directly
embedded in sh scripts as long as the separator character is an alphanumeric character or
an underscore (see sep_char option).
The description of the accepted options follows.
sep_char, s
Separator character used to separate the chapter, the section name, IDs and potential
tags in the printed field key.
Default value is ..
hierarchical, h
Specify if the section name specification should be hierarchical. If set to 1, and if
there is more than one section in the current chapter, the section name will be
prefixed by the name of the chapter. A value of 0 will disable this behavior.
Default value is 1.
ini
INI format output.
Print output in an INI based format.
The following conventions are adopted:
• all key and values are UTF-8
• . is the subgroup separator
• newline, \t, \f, \b and the following characters are escaped
• \ is the escape character
• # is the comment indicator
• = is the key/value separator
• : is not used but usually parsed as key/value separator
This writer accepts options as a list of key=value pairs, separated by :.
The description of the accepted options follows.
hierarchical, h
Specify if the section name specification should be hierarchical. If set to 1, and if
there is more than one section in the current chapter, the section name will be
prefixed by the name of the chapter. A value of 0 will disable this behavior.
Default value is 1.
json
JSON based format.
Each section is printed using JSON notation.
The description of the accepted options follows.
compact, c
If set to 1 enable compact output, that is each section will be printed on a single
line. Default value is 0.
For more information about JSON, see <http://www.json.org/>.
xml
XML based format.
The XML output is described in the XML schema description file ffprobe.xsd installed in
the FFmpeg datadir.
An updated version of the schema can be retrieved at the url
<http://www.ffmpeg.org/schema/ffprobe.xsd>, which redirects to the latest schema committed
into the FFmpeg development source code tree.
Note that the output issued will be compliant to the ffprobe.xsd schema only when no
special global output options (unit, prefix, byte_binary_prefix, sexagesimal etc.) are
specified.
The description of the accepted options follows.
fully_qualified, q
If set to 1 specify if the output should be fully qualified. Default value is 0. This
is required for generating an XML file which can be validated through an XSD file.
xsd_strict, x
If set to 1 perform more checks for ensuring that the output is XSD compliant. Default
value is 0. This option automatically sets fully_qualified to 1.
For more information about the XML format, see <https://www.w3.org/XML/>.
TIMECODE
ffprobe supports Timecode extraction:
• MPEG1/2 timecode is extracted from the GOP, and is available in the video stream
details (-show_streams, see timecode).
• MOV timecode is extracted from tmcd track, so is available in the tmcd stream metadata
(-show_streams, see TAG:timecode).
• DV, GXF and AVI timecodes are available in format metadata (-show_format, see
TAG:timecode).
SEE ALSO
ffprobe-all(1), ffmpeg(1), ffplay(1), ffmpeg-utils(1), ffmpeg-scaler(1),
ffmpeg-resampler(1), ffmpeg-codecs(1), ffmpeg-bitstream-filters(1), ffmpeg-formats(1),
ffmpeg-devices(1), ffmpeg-protocols(1), ffmpeg-filters(1)
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.
FFPROBE(1)