FFmpeg Command-Line Reference Cheat Sheet
This quick reference guide summarizes the most commonly used FFmpeg operations.
1. Core Input / Output Flags
| Flag | Purpose |
-i input.mp4 | Specify input file |
-c:v codec | Set video encoder (e.g. libx264, libvpx-vp9) |
-c:a codec | Set audio encoder (e.g. aac, libmp3lame) |
-c copy | Copy all streams without re-encoding |
-vn | Disable video output |
-an | Disable audio output |
-ss 00:01:30 | Seek to position before processing |
-t 00:00:30 | Limit output duration to 30 seconds |
-vframes 1 | Output only one video frame |
2. Common Recipes
# Compress MP4 with H.264
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:v libx264 -crf 23 -c:a aac output.mp4
# Convert MP4 to WebM
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:v libvpx-vp9 -crf 30 -b:v 0 -c:a libopus output.webm
# Extract audio as MP3
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vn -acodec libmp3lame -ab 192k output.mp3
# Extract a frame at 5 seconds
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -ss 00:00:05 -vframes 1 thumb.jpg
# Scale to 1280px width
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "scale=1280:-1" output_scaled.mp4
# Remove audio from video
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -an -c:v copy output_silent.mp4
# Trim from 1:00 to 1:30
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -ss 00:01:00 -t 00:00:30 -c copy output_trim.mp4Published on Last updated: