FFmpeg

Convert Commands

Convert between media formats with FFmpeg — the Swiss Army knife of audio and video processing. From MP4 to WebM, MKV to GIF, FFmpeg handles virtually every format and codec combination.

8 commands

Pro Tips

Use 'ffmpeg -i input.mov -c:v libx264 -crf 23 output.mp4' for high-quality H.264 encoding. Lower CRF = better quality.

Add '-c copy' to remux without re-encoding — instant conversion when only changing the container format.

Use '-preset ultrafast' for quick test encodes, then '-preset slow' for final production quality.

Common Mistakes

FFmpeg overwrites output files without warning by default. Use '-n' to never overwrite or '-y' to always overwrite.

Re-encoding always loses some quality. Use '-c copy' when you only need to change the container format.

Commands

Convert audio format

$ ffmpeg -i input.mp3 output.wav

Convert audio from one format to another

Convert video format

$ ffmpeg -i input.mp4 output.avi

Convert video from one format to another

Extract audio from video

$ ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vn -acodec copy output.aac

Extract audio track from video file

GIF to video

$ ffmpeg -i input.gif -movflags faststart -pix_fmt yuv420p output.mp4

Convert GIF to video

Images to video

$ ffmpeg -framerate 24 -i img%03d.png -c:v libx264 output.mp4

Create video from image sequence

Remove audio from video

$ ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -an -c:v copy output.mp4

Remove audio track from video

Video to GIF

$ ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "fps=10,scale=320:-1" output.gif

Convert video to animated GIF

Video to images

$ ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf fps=1 frame%04d.png

Extract frames from video (1 per second)