
  ffplay Documentation


    Table of Contents

  *
    1 Synopsis

    <#Synopsis>
  *
    2 Description

    <#Description>
  *
    3 Options

    <#Options>
      o
        3.1 Stream specifiers

        <#Stream-specifiers-1>
      o
        3.2 Generic options

        <#Generic-options>
      o
        3.3 AVOptions

        <#AVOptions>
      o
        3.4 Main options

        <#Main-options>
      o
        3.5 Advanced options

        <#Advanced-options>
      o
        3.6 While playing

        <#While-playing>
  *
    4 See Also

    <#See-Also>
  *
    5 Authors

    <#Authors>

  *
    Synopsis

    <#Synopsis>
  *
    Description

    <#Description>
  *
    Options

    <#Options>
  *
    See Also

    <#See-Also>
  *
    Authors

    <#Authors>


    1 Synopsis

ffplay [options] [input_url]


    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.

  *
    Stream specifiers

    <#Stream-specifiers-1>
  *
    Generic options

    <#Generic-options>
  *
    AVOptions

    <#AVOptions>
  *
    Main options

    <#Main-options>
  *
    Advanced options

    <#Advanced-options>
  *
    While playing

    <#While-playing>


      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. 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.


      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 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.


      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:

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.


      3.4 Main options

-x width

    Force displayed width.

-y height

    Force displayed height.

-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

    <file:///C:/Utils/ffmpeg-6.1.1-essentials_build/doc/ffmpeg-utils.html#time-duration-syntax>.


-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

    <file:///C:/Utils/ffmpeg-6.1.1-essentials_build/doc/ffmpeg-utils.html#time-duration-syntax>.


-bytes

    Seek by bytes.

-seek_interval

    Set custom interval, in seconds, for seeking using left/right keys.
    Default is 10 seconds.

-nodisp

    Disable graphical display.

-noborder

    Borderless window.

-alwaysontop

    Window always on top. Available on: X11 with SDL >= 2.0.5, Windows
    SDL >= 2.0.6.

-volume

    Set the startup volume. 0 means silence, 100 means no volume
    reduction or amplification. Negative values are treated as 0, values
    above 100 are treated as 100.

-f fmt

    Force format.

-window_title title

    Set window title (default is the input filename).

-left title

    Set the x position for the left of the window (default is a centered
    window).

-top title

    Set the y position for the top of the window (default is a centered
    window).

-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_url

    Read input_url.


      3.5 Advanced options

-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 shown by default,
    unless the log level is lower than |info|. Its display can be forced
    by manually specifying this option. To 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

    <#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

    <#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

    <#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.

-filter_threads nb_threads

    Defines how many threads are used to process a filter pipeline. Each
    pipeline will produce a thread pool with this many threads available
    for parallel processing. The default is 0 which means that the
    thread count will be determined by the number of available CPUs.


      3.6 While playing

q, ESC

    Quit.

f

    Toggle full screen.

p, SPC

    Pause.

m

    Toggle mute.

9, 0
/, *

    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

<file:///C:/Utils/ffmpeg-6.1.1-essentials_build/doc/ffplay-all.html>,
ffmpeg

<file:///C:/Utils/ffmpeg-6.1.1-essentials_build/doc/ffmpeg.html>,
ffprobe

<file:///C:/Utils/ffmpeg-6.1.1-essentials_build/doc/ffprobe.html>,
ffmpeg-utils

<file:///C:/Utils/ffmpeg-6.1.1-essentials_build/doc/ffmpeg-utils.html>,
ffmpeg-scaler

<file:///C:/Utils/ffmpeg-6.1.1-essentials_build/doc/ffmpeg-scaler.html>,
ffmpeg-resampler

<file:///C:/Utils/ffmpeg-6.1.1-essentials_build/doc/ffmpeg-resampler.html>,
ffmpeg-codecs

<file:///C:/Utils/ffmpeg-6.1.1-essentials_build/doc/ffmpeg-codecs.html>,
ffmpeg-bitstream-filters

<file:///C:/Utils/ffmpeg-6.1.1-essentials_build/doc/ffmpeg-bitstream-filters.html>,

ffmpeg-formats

<file:///C:/Utils/ffmpeg-6.1.1-essentials_build/doc/ffmpeg-formats.html>,
ffmpeg-devices

<file:///C:/Utils/ffmpeg-6.1.1-essentials_build/doc/ffmpeg-devices.html>,
ffmpeg-protocols

<file:///C:/Utils/ffmpeg-6.1.1-essentials_build/doc/ffmpeg-protocols.html>,
ffmpeg-filters

<file:///C:/Utils/ffmpeg-6.1.1-essentials_build/doc/ffmpeg-filters.html>


    5 Authors

The FFmpeg developers.

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

.

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

This document was generated using
/makeinfo/

<https://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/>.

