Introduction to FFmpeg: Libraries, Tools, and Basic Command Usage

FFmpeg is a powerful cross‑platform multimedia framework that can capture video, inspect parameters, convert formats, extract frames, add watermarks, and more, making it both easy to start with and highly versatile for audio‑video development.

The framework consists of eight libraries:

libavcodec : codecs for audio and video (the most important library);

libavformat : container format handling;

libavfilter : filter and effect processing;

libavdevice : input/output for various devices;

libavutil : common utility functions used by most libraries;

libpostproc : post‑processing effects;

libswresample : audio resampling;

libswscale : video pixel format conversion.

The three most commonly used command‑line programs are:

ffmpeg : performs the majority of audio‑video processing tasks;

ffplay : a simple player built on FFmpeg libraries;

ffprobe : inspects and reports detailed information about media files.

Basic usage parameters are shown in the table below (image omitted for brevity).

After installing FFmpeg on a Windows machine, the following command converts a file C:\Users\xxxx\Desktop\1min-1080.mp4 to HEVC video with MP3 audio, saving the result as C:\Users\xxxx\Desktop\output.mov:

ffmpeg -i C:\Users\xxxx\Desktop\1min-1080.mp4 -c:v hevc -c:a libmp3lame -ar 44100 -b:v 1000k -b:a 80k -f mov C:\Users\xxxx\Desktop\output.mov

Images of the input file information and the resulting output file information are displayed below:

Using ffplay you can directly play media files and view their parameters, which is very convenient in practice.

FFmpeg also provides helpful commands to list supported features, such as: ffmpeg -bsfs: available bitstream filters; ffmpeg -codecs: available codecs; ffmpeg -decoders: available decoders; ffmpeg -protocols: supported protocols; ffmpeg -encoders: available encoders; ffmpeg -filters: available filters; ffmpeg -formats: supported formats; ffmpeg -layouts: channel layouts; ffmpeg -L: license information; ffmpeg -pix_fmts: pixel formats.

Beyond basic conversion, FFmpeg can perform video concatenation, picture‑in‑picture playback, segment extraction, and many other advanced operations. Users are encouraged to explore these capabilities hands‑on.

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