[FFmpeg-user] What video formats to support?

Andy Sheen sheen.andy at googlemail.com
Wed Jun 1 12:43:42 CEST 2011



Dotan Cohen wrote on Wed 01 Jun at 10:51 UK time
> On Wed, Jun 1, 2011 at 12:37, Andrew Berg<bahamutzero8825 at gmail.com>  wrote:
>> MediaInfo does this wonderfully.
>>
>> http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net
>>
>
> Thanks.
>
> However, that GUI app does not seem to be scriptable. I'd like to
> script it as there are a few tens of files. It's not my computer, I
> don't want to be there all day!
>

MediaInfo has a CLI version and is scriptable, as is ffprobe (supplied 
with ffmpeg). You do need to do some manipulation of the output though.


> I noticed just now that simply passing a file to ffmpeg with no other
> parameters gives some information:
>
> $ ffmpeg -i file.avi
> Stream #0.0: Video: mpeg4, yuv420p, 684x282 [PAR 1:1 DAR 114:47], 25
> tbr, 25 tbn, 25 tbc
> Stream #0.1: Audio: mp3, 48000 Hz, 2 channels, s16, 112 kb/s
>
> So am I to understand that "avi" is the container and "mpeg4" is the
> codec? Is the yuv420p information important? I see that it is a colour
 > space, would that possibly affect player compatibility in general?
 >

It tells you that the encoded info, when decoded will give you a yuv 
4:2:0 progressive format of data (most things play this).

As to compatibility with media players, there is more to it than what 
format it is in. In general, it will include the resolution and what 
"profile" the video has been encoded in. In general, the newer the 
machine, the better the support.




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