The FFmpeg tool and associated libraries (as of Natty, Ubuntu has switched from FFmpeg to the libav fork) is the premier video decoding and encoding system on Linux (and in computing in general).

The ffmpeg tool is a command line program that can be used to encode from one of many dozen codecs/formats into a similar number of other formats. The libraries from the project are available for developers to use in their own programs to provide video codecs, formats, devices, filters, scaling, and post-processing.

Due to patent restrictions for some countries, there are several levels of support for various codecs and formats within Ubuntu's FFmpeg/libav packages.

Usage

The first two things you can do with FFmpeg are to list out the formats and codecs that this copy supports. This may change based on what is installed on your computer, so it is best to check these before running a command, to make sure you have the correct support available. List all container formats: ffmpeg -formats List all codecs: ffmpeg -codecs

To convert a video, simply run the command "ffmpeg" with four additional parts:

ffmpeg [input] [video options] [audio options] [output]

The input part is composed of a "-i" and the name of the video you have that you want to convert to something else. You could have more than one of these input files (each one gets its own "-i") if for example you have a video with an audio track in a seperate file.

ffmpeg -i InputVideo.mpg ...[video options] [audio options] [output]
ffmpeg -i InputVideoTrack.mpg -i InputAudioTrack.wav ...[video options] [audio options] [output]

The video options are where you specify the codec (with the "-vcodec" option) and bit-rate (with the "-b" option). In addition you can specify a video preset ("-vpre") which is essential for x264 encoding, and you can specify a size ("-s") with either a standard size reference or the format WIDTHxHEIGTH.

ffmpeg [input] -vcodec mpeg4 -b 3000k ...[audio options] [output]
ffmpeg [input] -vcodec libtheora -b 3000k ...[audio options] [output]
ffmpeg [input] -vcodec libx264 -vpre medium -b 3000k ...[audio options] [output]
ffmpeg [input] -vcodec mpeg4 -b 3000k -s hd480 ...[audio options] [output]
ffmpeg [input] -vcodec mpeg4 -b 3000k -s vga ...[audio options] [output]
ffmpeg [input] -vcodec mpeg4 -b 3000k -s 1280x720 ...[audio options] [output]

The audio options are where you specify the audio codec ("-acodec") and bit-rate ("-ab").

ffmpeg [input] [video options] -acodec flac ...[output]
ffmpeg [input] [video options] -acodec libmp3lame -ab 256k ...[output]
ffmpeg [input] [video options] -acodec libvorbis -ab 192k ...[output]
ffmpeg [input] [video options] -acodec -libfaac -ab 192k ...[output]

The output is where you specify the filename that the converted video will go into. Usually the extension of the filename (.mkv, .mp4, .avi, etc) will allow the program to determine what format the file will be written as, however if it is ambiguious or you want to use format that isn't tied to that file extension, you can use "-f" and the format name.

ffmpeg [input] [video options] [audio options] OutputVideo.mkv
ffmpeg [input] [video options] [audio options] OutputVideo.mp4
ffmpeg [input] [video options] [audio options] -f dvd OutputVideo.mpg
ffmpeg [input] [video options] [audio options] -f matroska OutputVideo.vid
ffmpeg [input] [video options] [audio options] -f mp4 OutputVideo.vid
ffmpeg [input] [video options] [audio options] -f avi OutputVideo.vid

The result could look like:

ffmpeg -i InputVideo.mpg -vcodec mpeg4 -b 3000k -s hd480 -acodec flac OutputVideo.mkv

Two Pass Encoding It is possible to use ffmpeg for two-pass encoding. The important part is to call it twice, once with the "-pass 1" paramater and once it finishes run it a second time with the "-pass 2" paramater. On Ubuntu, you can do a couple additional things on the first pass to speed it up: "-an" specifies that there is no audio codec to be run. "-f" rawvideo keeps it from trying to pack it into a special format, just to throw away. The "-y" /dev/null specifies that the output will go into the special null file, which means that it just disappears instead of having to send data to the hard disk.

ffmpeg -i InputVideo.mpg -pass 1 -vcodec mpeg4 -b 3000k -bt 3000k -an -f rawvideo -y /dev/null
ffmpeg -i InputVideo.mpg -pass 2 -vcodec mpeg4 -b 3000k -bt 3000k -acodec flac OutputVideo.mkv

That's the basics to using FFmpeg, not too complicated.

If you want help or more info on using ffmpeg from the command line see the official documentation site.

Lucid Configurations

Main

On Lucid (10.04.2) as of April 13, 2011 running

sudo apt-get install ffmpeg

Gets you the ffmpeg command line application (version 0.5.1) and the following libraries: libavcodec52 libavdevice52 libavfilter0 libavformat52 libavutil49 libpostproc51 libswscale0

In addition the following libraries will be installed (if they aren't already) to support some of the functionality/codecs. libdc1394-22 libgsm1 libschroedinger-1.0-0 libtheora0 libspeex1 libvorbis0a libvorbisenc2

The complete list of formats and codecs supported by this version is listed at the bottom of this section.

Multiverse

If you then add the multiverse repositorities to your system, you will have available (for manually installing) the "-extra" packages for ffmpeg/libav. These extra packages contain codecs, formats and the like that have restricted distribution under patent law. This includes MP3 encoding with LAME, XviD, AND x264. running

sudo apt-get install libavcodec-extra-52 libavdevice-extra-52 libavfilter-extra-0 libavformat-extra-52 libavutil-extra-49 libpostproc-extra-51 libswscale-extra-0

Will get you the additional functionality. It also installs the following external codec libraries: libdirac-encoder0 libfaad2 libmp3lame0 libopenjpeg2 libx264-85 libxvidcore4

The additions to the codecs/formats list are shown at the bottom of this page.

Medibuntu

To get even more codec support you can enable the Medibuntu repository. (See its wiki page for details on how to add this). Current codecs supported is the very popular AAC as well as the OpenCore Adaptive Multi-Rate codecs.

With this repository added, running an

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Will enable further codecs by supplying different versions of the "-extra" packages.

The following codec libraries will be downloaded: libfaac0, libopencore-amrnb0, libopencore-amrwb0

The additions to the codecs/formats list are shown at the bottom of this page.

Source Build

You may add additional codecs (such as libvpx/VP8) by following these instructions from the forum.

In addition to the listed x264, LAME, and vpx codecs, you can add additional ones by running:

sudo apt-get install libdc1394-22 libdc1394-22-dev libgsm1 libgsm1-dev libopenjpeg-dev libschroedinger-1.0-0 libschroedinger-dev libschroedinger-doc libspeex-dev libfaac-dev libmp3lame-dev libopencore-amrnb-dev libopencore-amrwb-dev libsdl1.2-dev libtheora-dev libvorbis-dev libx11-dev libxfixes-dev libxvidcore-dev

then changing your ./configure paramaters to:

./configure --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --enable-nonfree --enable-postproc --enable-x11grab --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libdc1394 --enable-libfaac --enable-libgsm --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libx264 --enable-libxvid

Lucid-Bleed PPA

If you don't feel like doing the source build, but still want to get the newer version of ffmpeg (including VP8 support) you can upgrade to the Lucid-Bleed PPA. This is equivalent to running the Maverick version with Multiverse enabled. (No medibuntu support for AAC/OpenCore AMR)

Formats

Here is a listing showing the formats and codecs supported by the main version:

$ ffmpeg -formats
FFmpeg version SVN-r0.5.1-4:0.5.1-1ubuntu1.1, Copyright (c) 2000-2009 Fabrice Bellard, et al.
  configuration: --extra-version=4:0.5.1-1ubuntu1.1 --prefix=/usr --enable-avfilter --enable-avfilter-lavf --enable-vdpau --enable-bzlib --enable-libgsm --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-pthreads --enable-zlib --disable-stripping --disable-vhook --enable-runtime-cpudetect --enable-gpl --enable-postproc --enable-swscale --enable-x11grab --enable-libdc1394 --enable-shared --disable-static
  libavutil     49.15. 0 / 49.15. 0
  libavcodec    52.20. 1 / 52.20. 1
  libavformat   52.31. 0 / 52.31. 0
  libavdevice   52. 1. 0 / 52. 1. 0
  libavfilter    0. 4. 0 /  0. 4. 0
  libswscale     0. 7. 1 /  0. 7. 1
  libpostproc   51. 2. 0 / 51. 2. 0
  built on Mar 31 2011 18:53:20, gcc: 4.4.3

File formats:
  E 3g2             3GP2 format
  E 3gp             3GP format
 D  4xm             4X Technologies format
 D  IFF             IFF format
 D  ISS             Funcom ISS format
 D  MTV             MTV format
 DE RoQ             raw id RoQ format
 D  aac             raw ADTS AAC
 DE ac3             raw AC-3
  E adts            ADTS AAC
 DE aiff            Audio IFF
 DE alaw            PCM A-law format
 DE alsa            ALSA audio output
 DE amr             3GPP AMR file format
 D  apc             CRYO APC format
 D  ape             Monkey's Audio
 DE asf             ASF format
  E asf_stream      ASF format
 DE ass             SSA/ASS format
 DE au              SUN AU format
 DE avi             AVI format
  E avm2            Flash 9 (AVM2) format
 D  avs             AVS format
 D  bethsoftvid     Bethesda Softworks VID format
 D  bfi             Brute Force & Ignorance
 D  c93             Interplay C93
 D  cavsvideo       raw Chinese AVS video
  E crc             CRC testing format
 DE daud            D-Cinema audio format
 DE dirac           raw Dirac
 DE dnxhd           raw DNxHD (SMPTE VC-3)
 D  dsicin          Delphine Software International CIN format
 DE dts             raw DTS
 DE dv              DV video format
 D  dv1394          DV1394 A/V grab
  E dvd             MPEG-2 PS format (DVD VOB)
 D  dxa             DXA
 D  ea              Electronic Arts Multimedia Format
 D  ea_cdata        Electronic Arts cdata
 DE eac3            raw E-AC-3
 DE f32be           PCM 32 bit floating-point big-endian format
 DE f32le           PCM 32 bit floating-point little-endian format
 DE f64be           PCM 64 bit floating-point big-endian format
 DE f64le           PCM 64 bit floating-point little-endian format
 DE ffm             FFM (FFserver live feed) format
 D  film_cpk        Sega FILM/CPK format
 DE flac            raw FLAC
 D  flic            FLI/FLC/FLX animation format
 DE flv             FLV format
  E framecrc        framecrc testing format
  E gif             GIF Animation
 D  gsm             raw GSM
 DE gxf             GXF format
 DE h261            raw H.261
 DE h263            raw H.263
 DE h264            raw H.264 video format
 D  idcin           id Cinematic format
 DE image2          image2 sequence
 DE image2pipe      piped image2 sequence
 D  ingenient       raw Ingenient MJPEG
 D  ipmovie         Interplay MVE format
  E ipod            iPod H.264 MP4 format
 D  libdc1394       dc1394 v.2 A/V grab
 D  lmlm4           lmlm4 raw format
 DE m4v             raw MPEG-4 video format
 DE matroska        Matroska file format
 DE mjpeg           raw MJPEG video
 D  mlp             raw MLP
 D  mm              American Laser Games MM format
 DE mmf             Yamaha SMAF
  E mov             MOV format
 D  mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 QuickTime/MPEG-4/Motion JPEG 2000 format
  E mp2             MPEG audio layer 2
 DE mp3             MPEG audio layer 3
  E mp4             MP4 format
 D  mpc             Musepack
 D  mpc8            Musepack SV8
 DE mpeg            MPEG-1 System format
  E mpeg1video      raw MPEG-1 video
  E mpeg2video      raw MPEG-2 video
 DE mpegts          MPEG-2 transport stream format
 D  mpegtsraw       MPEG-2 raw transport stream format
 D  mpegvideo       raw MPEG video
  E mpjpeg          MIME multipart JPEG format
 D  msnwctcp        MSN TCP Webcam stream
 DE mulaw           PCM mu-law format
 D  mvi             Motion Pixels MVI format
 DE mxf             Material eXchange Format
  E mxf_d10         Material eXchange Format, D-10 Mapping
 D  nc              NC camera feed format
 D  nsv             Nullsoft Streaming Video
  E null            raw null video format
 DE nut             NUT format
 D  nuv             NuppelVideo format
 DE ogg             Ogg
 D  oma             Sony OpenMG audio
 DE oss             Open Sound System playback
  E psp             PSP MP4 format
 D  psxstr          Sony Playstation STR format
 D  pva             TechnoTrend PVA file and stream format
 D  r3d             REDCODE R3D format
 DE rawvideo        raw video format
  E rcv             VC-1 test bitstream
 D  redir           Redirector format
 D  rl2             RL2 format
 DE rm              RealMedia format
 D  rpl             RPL/ARMovie format
  E rtp             RTP output format
 D  rtsp            RTSP input format
 DE s16be           PCM signed 16 bit big-endian format
 DE s16le           PCM signed 16 bit little-endian format
 DE s24be           PCM signed 24 bit big-endian format
 DE s24le           PCM signed 24 bit little-endian format
 DE s32be           PCM signed 32 bit big-endian format
 DE s32le           PCM signed 32 bit little-endian format
 DE s8              PCM signed 8 bit format
 D  sdp             SDP
 D  shn             raw Shorten
 D  siff            Beam Software SIFF
 D  smk             Smacker video
 D  sol             Sierra SOL format
  E svcd            MPEG-2 PS format (VOB)
 DE swf             Flash format
 D  thp             THP
 D  tiertexseq      Tiertex Limited SEQ format
 D  tta             True Audio
 D  txd             Renderware TeXture Dictionary
 DE u16be           PCM unsigned 16 bit big-endian format
 DE u16le           PCM unsigned 16 bit little-endian format
 DE u24be           PCM unsigned 24 bit big-endian format
 DE u24le           PCM unsigned 24 bit little-endian format
 DE u32be           PCM unsigned 32 bit big-endian format
 DE u32le           PCM unsigned 32 bit little-endian format
 DE u8              PCM unsigned 8 bit format
 D  vc1             raw VC-1
 D  vc1test         VC-1 test bitstream format
  E vcd             MPEG-1 System format (VCD)
 D  video4linux     Video4Linux device grab
 D  video4linux2    Video4Linux2 device grab
 D  vmd             Sierra VMD format
  E vob             MPEG-2 PS format (VOB)
 DE voc             Creative Voice file format
 DE wav             WAV format
 D  wc3movie        Wing Commander III movie format
 D  wsaud           Westwood Studios audio format
 D  wsvqa           Westwood Studios VQA format
 D  wv              WavPack
 D  x11grab         X11grab
 D  xa              Maxis XA File Format
 DE yuv4mpegpipe    YUV4MPEG pipe format

Codecs:
 D V    4xm             4X Movie
 D V D  8bps            QuickTime 8BPS video
 D A    8svx_exp        8SVX exponential
 D A    8svx_fib        8SVX fibonacci
 D A    aac             Advanced Audio Coding
 D V D  aasc            Autodesk RLE
 DEA    ac3             ATSC A/52A (AC-3)
 D A    adpcm_4xm       ADPCM 4X Movie
 DEA    adpcm_adx       SEGA CRI ADX ADPCM
 D A    adpcm_ct        ADPCM Creative Technology
 D A    adpcm_ea        ADPCM Electronic Arts
 D A    adpcm_ea_maxis_xa ADPCM Electronic Arts Maxis CDROM XA
 D A    adpcm_ea_r1     ADPCM Electronic Arts R1
 D A    adpcm_ea_r2     ADPCM Electronic Arts R2
 D A    adpcm_ea_r3     ADPCM Electronic Arts R3
 D A    adpcm_ea_xas    ADPCM Electronic Arts XAS
 D A    adpcm_ima_amv   ADPCM IMA AMV
 D A    adpcm_ima_dk3   ADPCM IMA Duck DK3
 D A    adpcm_ima_dk4   ADPCM IMA Duck DK4
 D A    adpcm_ima_ea_eacs ADPCM IMA Electronic Arts EACS
 D A    adpcm_ima_ea_sead ADPCM IMA Electronic Arts SEAD
 D A    adpcm_ima_iss   ADPCM IMA Funcom ISS
 DEA    adpcm_ima_qt    ADPCM IMA QuickTime
 D A    adpcm_ima_smjpeg ADPCM IMA Loki SDL MJPEG
 DEA    adpcm_ima_wav   ADPCM IMA WAV
 D A    adpcm_ima_ws    ADPCM IMA Westwood
 DEA    adpcm_ms        ADPCM Microsoft
 D A    adpcm_sbpro_2   ADPCM Sound Blaster Pro 2-bit
 D A    adpcm_sbpro_3   ADPCM Sound Blaster Pro 2.6-bit
 D A    adpcm_sbpro_4   ADPCM Sound Blaster Pro 4-bit
 DEA    adpcm_swf       ADPCM Shockwave Flash
 D A    adpcm_thp       ADPCM Nintendo Gamecube THP
 D A    adpcm_xa        ADPCM CDROM XA
 DEA    adpcm_yamaha    ADPCM Yamaha
 DEA    alac            ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec)
 D V    amv             AMV Video
 D A    ape             Monkey's Audio
 DEV D  asv1            ASUS V1
 DEV D  asv2            ASUS V2
 D A    atrac3          Atrac 3 (Adaptive TRansform Acoustic Coding 3)
 D V D  avs             AVS (Audio Video Standard) video
 D V    bethsoftvid     Bethesda VID video
 D V    bfi             Brute Force & Ignorance
 DEV    bmp             BMP image
 D V D  c93             Interplay C93
 D V D  camstudio       CamStudio
 D V D  camtasia        TechSmith Screen Capture Codec
 D V D  cavs            Chinese AVS video (AVS1-P2, JiZhun profile)
 D V D  cinepak         Cinepak
 D V D  cljr            Cirrus Logic AccuPak
 D A    cook            COOK
 D V D  cyuv            Creative YUV (CYUV)
 D A    dca             DCA (DTS Coherent Acoustics)
 DEV D  dnxhd           VC3/DNxHD
 D A    dsicinaudio     Delphine Software International CIN audio
 D V D  dsicinvideo     Delphine Software International CIN video
 DES    dvbsub          DVB subtitles
 DES    dvdsub          DVD subtitles
 DEV D  dvvideo         DV (Digital Video)
 D V    dxa             Feeble Files/ScummVM DXA
 D A    eac3            ATSC A/52B (AC-3, E-AC-3)
 D V D  eacmv           Electronic Arts CMV video
 D V D  eatgq           Electronic Arts TGQ video
 D V    eatgv           Electronic Arts TGV video
 D V D  eatqi           Electronic Arts TQI Video
 D V D  escape124       Escape 124
 DEV D  ffv1            FFmpeg codec #1
 DEVSD  ffvhuff         Huffyuv FFmpeg variant
 DEA    flac            FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec)
 DEV D  flashsv         Flash Screen Video
 D V D  flic            Autodesk Animator Flic video
 DEVSD  flv             Flash Video (FLV)
 D V D  fraps           Fraps
 DEA    g726            G.726 ADPCM
 DEV    gif             GIF (Graphics Interchange Format)
 DEV D  h261            H.261
 DEVSDT h263            H.263 / H.263-1996
 D VSD  h263i           Intel H.263
  EV    h263p           H.263+ / H.263-1998 / H.263 version 2
 D V D  h264            H.264 / AVC / MPEG-4 AVC / MPEG-4 part 10
 D V D  h264_vdpau      H.264 / AVC / MPEG-4 AVC / MPEG-4 part 10 (VDPAU acceleration)
 DEVSD  huffyuv         Huffyuv / HuffYUV
 D V D  idcinvideo      id Quake II CIN video
 D A    imc             IMC (Intel Music Coder)
 D V D  indeo2          Intel Indeo 2
 D V    indeo3          Intel Indeo 3
 D A    interplay_dpcm  DPCM Interplay
 D V D  interplayvideo  Interplay MVE video
 DEV D  jpegls          JPEG-LS
 D V    kmvc            Karl Morton's video codec
 DEA    libgsm          libgsm GSM
 DEA    libgsm_ms       libgsm GSM Microsoft variant
 DEV    libschroedinger libschroedinger Dirac 2.2
 D A    libspeex        libspeex Speex
  EV    libtheora       libtheora Theora
  EA    libvorbis       libvorbis Vorbis
  EV    ljpeg           Lossless JPEG
 D V D  loco            LOCO
 D A    mace3           MACE (Macintosh Audio Compression/Expansion) 3:1
 D A    mace6           MACE (Macintosh Audio Compression/Expansion) 6:1
 D V D  mdec            Sony PlayStation MDEC (Motion DECoder)
 D V D  mimic           Mimic
 DEV D  mjpeg           MJPEG (Motion JPEG)
 D V D  mjpegb          Apple MJPEG-B
 D A    mlp             MLP (Meridian Lossless Packing)/TrueHD
 D V D  mmvideo         American Laser Games MM Video
 D V D  motionpixels    Motion Pixels video
 D A    mp1             MP1 (MPEG audio layer 1)
 DEA    mp2             MP2 (MPEG audio layer 2)
 D A    mp3             MP3 (MPEG audio layer 3)
 D A    mp3adu          ADU (Application Data Unit) MP3 (MPEG audio layer 3)
 D A    mp3on4          MP3onMP4
 D A    mpc7            Musepack SV7
 D A    mpc8            Musepack SV8
 DEVSDT mpeg1video      MPEG-1 video
 D V DT mpeg1video_vdpau MPEG-1 video (VDPAU acceleration)
 DEVSDT mpeg2video      MPEG-2 video
 DEVSDT mpeg4           MPEG-4 part 2
 D VSDT mpegvideo       MPEG-1 video
 D V DT mpegvideo_vdpau MPEG-1/2 video (VDPAU acceleration)
 D VSDT mpegvideo_xvmc  MPEG-1/2 video XvMC (X-Video Motion Compensation)
 DEVSD  msmpeg4         MPEG-4 part 2 Microsoft variant version 3
 DEVSD  msmpeg4v1       MPEG-4 part 2 Microsoft variant version 1
 DEVSD  msmpeg4v2       MPEG-4 part 2 Microsoft variant version 2
 D V D  msrle           Microsoft RLE
 D V D  msvideo1        Microsoft Video 1
 D V D  mszh            LCL (LossLess Codec Library) MSZH
 DEA    nellymoser      Nellymoser Asao
 D V D  nuv             NuppelVideo/RTJPEG
 DEV    pam             PAM (Portable AnyMap) image
 DEV    pbm             PBM (Portable BitMap) image
 DEA    pcm_alaw        PCM A-law
 D A    pcm_dvd         PCM signed 20|24-bit big-endian
 DEA    pcm_f32be       PCM 32-bit floating point big-endian
 DEA    pcm_f32le       PCM 32-bit floating point little-endian
 DEA    pcm_f64be       PCM 64-bit floating point big-endian
 DEA    pcm_f64le       PCM 64-bit floating point little-endian
 DEA    pcm_mulaw       PCM mu-law
 DEA    pcm_s16be       PCM signed 16-bit big-endian
 DEA    pcm_s16le       PCM signed 16-bit little-endian
 D A    pcm_s16le_planar PCM 16-bit little-endian planar
 DEA    pcm_s24be       PCM signed 24-bit big-endian
 DEA    pcm_s24daud     PCM D-Cinema audio signed 24-bit
 DEA    pcm_s24le       PCM signed 24-bit little-endian
 DEA    pcm_s32be       PCM signed 32-bit big-endian
 DEA    pcm_s32le       PCM signed 32-bit little-endian
 DEA    pcm_s8          PCM signed 8-bit
 DEA    pcm_u16be       PCM unsigned 16-bit big-endian
 DEA    pcm_u16le       PCM unsigned 16-bit little-endian
 DEA    pcm_u24be       PCM unsigned 24-bit big-endian
 DEA    pcm_u24le       PCM unsigned 24-bit little-endian
 DEA    pcm_u32be       PCM unsigned 32-bit big-endian
 DEA    pcm_u32le       PCM unsigned 32-bit little-endian
 DEA    pcm_u8          PCM unsigned 8-bit
 DEA    pcm_zork        PCM Zork
 D V    pcx             PC Paintbrush PCX image
 DEV    pgm             PGM (Portable GrayMap) image
 DEV    pgmyuv          PGMYUV (Portable GrayMap YUV) image
 DEV    png             PNG image
 DEV    ppm             PPM (Portable PixelMap) image
 D V    ptx             V.Flash PTX image
 D A    qcelp           QCELP / PureVoice
 D A    qdm2            QDesign Music Codec 2
 D V D  qdraw           Apple QuickDraw
 D V D  qpeg            Q-team QPEG
 DEV D  qtrle           QuickTime Animation (RLE) video
 DEV    rawvideo        raw video
 D A    real_144        RealAudio 1.0 (14.4K)
 D A    real_288        RealAudio 2.0 (28.8K)
 D V D  rl2             RL2 video
 DEA    roq_dpcm        id RoQ DPCM
 DEV D  roqvideo        id RoQ video
 D V D  rpza            QuickTime video (RPZA)
 DEV D  rv10            RealVideo 1.0
 DEV D  rv20            RealVideo 2.0
 D V D  rv30            RealVideo 3.0
 D V D  rv40            RealVideo 4.0
 DEV    sgi             SGI image
 D A    shorten         Shorten
 D A    smackaud        Smacker audio
 D V    smackvid        Smacker video
 D V D  smc             QuickTime Graphics (SMC)
 DEV    snow            Snow
 D A    sol_dpcm        DPCM Sol
 DEA    sonic           Sonic
  EA    sonicls         Sonic lossless
 D V D  sp5x            Sunplus JPEG (SP5X)
 D V    sunrast         Sun Rasterfile image
 DEV D  svq1            Sorenson Vector Quantizer 1
 D VSD  svq3            Sorenson Vector Quantizer 3
 DEV    targa           Truevision Targa image
 D V    theora          Theora
 D V D  thp             Nintendo Gamecube THP video
 D V D  tiertexseqvideo Tiertex Limited SEQ video
 DEV    tiff            TIFF image
 D V D  truemotion1     Duck TrueMotion 1.0
 D V D  truemotion2     Duck TrueMotion 2.0
 D A    truespeech      DSP Group TrueSpeech
 D A    tta             True Audio (TTA)
 D V    txd             Renderware TXD (TeXture Dictionary) image
 D V D  ultimotion      IBM UltiMotion
 D V    vb              Beam Software VB
 D V    vc1             SMPTE VC-1
 D V D  vc1_vdpau       SMPTE VC-1 VDPAU
 D V D  vcr1            ATI VCR1
 D A    vmdaudio        Sierra VMD audio
 D V D  vmdvideo        Sierra VMD video
 D V    vmnc            VMware Screen Codec / VMware Video
 DEA    vorbis          Vorbis
 D V    vp3             On2 VP3
 D V D  vp5             On2 VP5
 D V D  vp6             On2 VP6
 D V D  vp6a            On2 VP6 (Flash version, with alpha channel)
 D V D  vp6f            On2 VP6 (Flash version)
 D V D  vqavideo        Westwood Studios VQA (Vector Quantized Animation) video
 D A    wavpack         WavPack
 DEA    wmav1           Windows Media Audio 1
 DEA    wmav2           Windows Media Audio 2
 DEVSD  wmv1            Windows Media Video 7
 DEVSD  wmv2            Windows Media Video 8
 D V    wmv3            Windows Media Video 9
 D V D  wmv3_vdpau      Windows Media Video 9 VDPAU
 D V D  wnv1            Winnov WNV1
 D A    ws_snd1         Westwood Audio (SND1)
 D A    xan_dpcm        DPCM Xan
 D V D  xan_wc3         Wing Commander III / Xan
 D V D  xl              Miro VideoXL
 D S    xsub            XSUB
 DEV D  zlib            LCL (LossLess Codec Library) ZLIB
 DEV    zmbv            Zip Motion Blocks Video

Bitstream filters:
 text2movsub remove_extra noise mov2textsub mp3decomp mp3comp mjpegadump imxdump h264_mp4toannexb dump_extra
Supported file protocols:
 file: gopher: http: pipe: rtp: tcp: udp:
Frame size, frame rate abbreviations:
 ntsc pal qntsc qpal sntsc spal film ntsc-film sqcif qcif cif 4cif

Note, the names of encoders and decoders do not always match, so there are
several cases where the above table shows encoder only or decoder only entries
even though both encoding and decoding are supported. For example, the h263
decoder corresponds to the h263 and h263p encoders, for file formats it is even
worse.

The multiverse version adds the following to the codecs section:

  EV    libdirac        libdirac Dirac 2.2
 D A    libfaad         libfaad AAC (Advanced Audio Codec)
  EA    libmp3lame      libmp3lame MP3 (MPEG audio layer 3)
 D V    libopenjpeg     OpenJPEG based JPEG 2000 decoder
  EV    libx264         libx264 H.264 / AVC / MPEG-4 AVC / MPEG-4 part 10
  EV    libxvid         libxvidcore MPEG-4 part 2

The medibuntu version adds the following to the codecs section:

  EA    libfaac         libfaac AAC (Advanced Audio Codec)
 DEA    libopencore_amrnb OpenCORE Adaptive Multi-Rate (AMR) Narrow-Band
 D A    libopencore_amrwb OpenCORE Adaptive Multi-Rate (AMR) Wide-Band

The source version adds:

 DEV    libvpx          libvpx VP8

Precise Configurations

Main

On Precise (12.04) as of Sept, 17 running

sudo apt-get install ffmpeg

Gets you the ffmpeg command line application (part of the libav tools now). Additionally, when running the ffmpeg command, you will see an error from the libav developers that this program is deprecated. That is actually a very politicized question which is open for debate.

The complete list of formats and codecs supported by this version is listed at the bottom of this section.

Universe

If you then add the universe repositorities to your system, you will have available (for manually installing) the "-extra" packages for ffmpeg/libav. These extra packages contain codecs, formats and the like that have restricted distribution under patent law. This includes MP3 encoding with LAME, XviD, AND x264. running

sudo apt-get install libavcodec-extra-53 libavdevice-extra-53 libavfilter-extra-2 libavformat-extra-53 libavutil-extra-51 libpostproc-extra-52 libswscale-extra-2

Will get you the additional functionality. It also installs the following external codec libraries: libdirac-encoder0 libfaad2 libmp3lame0 libopenjpeg2 librtmp0 libx264-98 libxvidcore4

The additions to the codecs/formats list are shown at the bottom of this page.

Medibuntu

To get even more codec support you can enable the Medibuntu repository. (See its wiki page for details on how to add this). Current codecs supported is the very popular AAC as well as the OpenCore Adaptive Multi-Rate codecs.

With this repository added, running an

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Will enable further codecs by supplying different versions of the "-extra" packages.

The following additional libraries will be downloaded: apport-hooks-medibuntu, libfaac0, libopencore-amrnb0, libopencore-amrwb0

The additions to the codecs/formats list are shown at the bottom of this page.

Source Code

You may get the newest version of everything by following these instructions from the ffmpeg wiki.

In addition to the listed x264, you can add additional ones by running:

sudo apt-get install checkinstall yasm texi2html libfaac-dev libmp3lame-dev libopencore-amrnb-dev libopencore-amrwb-dev libsdl1.2-dev libtheora-dev libvorbis-dev libx11-dev libxfixes-dev libxvidcore-dev zlib1g-dev frei0r-plugins-dev libdc1394-22 libdc1394-22-dev libgsm1 libgsm1-dev libopenjpeg-dev libschroedinger-1.0-0 libschroedinger-dev libschroedinger-doc libspeex-dev libvdpau-dev vflib3-dev librtmp-dev libva-dev libjack-jackd2-dev libass4 libass-dev  libmodplug1 libmodplug-dev libvo-aacenc0 libvo-aacenc-dev libvo-amrwbenc0 libvo-amrwbenc-dev libopenal1 libopenal-dev

then changing your ./configure paramaters to:

./configure  --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --enable-nonfree --enable-x11grab --enable-vdpau --enable-runtime-cpudetect --enable-vaapi --enable-vda --enable-gnutls --enable-libass --enable-libmodplug --enable-libpulse --enable-librtmp --enable-libvo-aacenc --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-openal

Formats

Here is a list of formats available in the main version

$ ffmpeg -formats
File formats:
 D. = Demuxing supported
 .E = Muxing supported
 --
  E 3g2             3GP2 format
  E 3gp             3GP format
 D  4xm             4X Technologies format
 D  IFF             IFF format
 D  ISS             Funcom ISS format
 D  MTV             MTV format
 DE RoQ             raw id RoQ format
  E a64             a64 - video for Commodore 64
 D  aac             raw ADTS AAC
 DE ac3             raw AC-3
  E adts            ADTS AAC
 DE adx             CRI ADX
 D  aea             MD STUDIO audio
 DE aiff            Audio IFF
 DE alaw            PCM A-law format
 DE alsa            ALSA audio output
 DE amr             3GPP AMR file format
 D  anm             Deluxe Paint Animation
 D  apc             CRYO APC format
 D  ape             Monkey's Audio
 D  applehttp       Apple HTTP Live Streaming format
 DE asf             ASF format
  E asf_stream      ASF format
 DE ass             Advanced SubStation Alpha subtitle format
 DE au              SUN AU format
 DE avi             AVI format
  E avm2            Flash 9 (AVM2) format
 D  avs             AVS format
 D  bethsoftvid     Bethesda Softworks VID format
 D  bfi             Brute Force & Ignorance
 D  bink            Bink
 D  bmv             Discworld II BMV
 D  c93             Interplay C93
 D  caf             Apple Core Audio Format
 DE cavsvideo       raw Chinese AVS video
 D  cdg             CD Graphics Format
  E crc             CRC testing format
 DE daud            D-Cinema audio format
 D  dfa             Chronomaster DFA
 DE dirac           raw Dirac
 DE dnxhd           raw DNxHD (SMPTE VC-3)
 D  dsicin          Delphine Software International CIN format
 DE dts             raw DTS
 DE dv              DV video format
 D  dv1394          DV1394 A/V grab
  E dvd             MPEG-2 PS format (DVD VOB)
 D  dxa             DXA
 D  ea              Electronic Arts Multimedia Format
 D  ea_cdata        Electronic Arts cdata
 DE eac3            raw E-AC-3
 DE f32be           PCM 32 bit floating-point big-endian format
 DE f32le           PCM 32 bit floating-point little-endian format
 DE f64be           PCM 64 bit floating-point big-endian format
 DE f64le           PCM 64 bit floating-point little-endian format
 D  fbdev           Linux framebuffer
 DE ffm             FFM (AVserver live feed) format
 DE ffmetadata      FFmpeg metadata in text format
 D  film_cpk        Sega FILM/CPK format
 DE filmstrip       Adobe Filmstrip
 DE flac            raw FLAC
 D  flic            FLI/FLC/FLX animation format
 DE flv             FLV format
  E framecrc        framecrc testing format
  E framemd5        Per-frame MD5 testing format
 DE g722            raw G.722
  E gif             GIF Animation
 D  gsm             raw GSM
 DE gxf             GXF format
 DE h261            raw H.261
 DE h263            raw H.263
 DE h264            raw H.264 video format
 D  idcin           id Cinematic format
 DE image2          image2 sequence
 DE image2pipe      piped image2 sequence
 D  ingenient       raw Ingenient MJPEG
 D  ipmovie         Interplay MVE format
  E ipod            iPod H.264 MP4 format
 D  iv8             A format generated by IndigoVision 8000 video server
 DE ivf             On2 IVF
 D  jack            JACK Audio Connection Kit
 D  jv              Bitmap Brothers JV
 DE latm            LOAS/LATM
 D  libdc1394       dc1394 v.2 A/V grab
 D  lmlm4           lmlm4 raw format
 D  lxf             VR native stream format (LXF)
 DE m4v             raw MPEG-4 video format
  E matroska        Matroska file format
 D  matroska,webm   Matroska/WebM file format
  E md5             MD5 testing format
 DE mjpeg           raw MJPEG video
 DE mlp             raw MLP
 D  mm              American Laser Games MM format
 DE mmf             Yamaha SMAF
  E mov             MOV format
 D  mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 QuickTime/MPEG-4/Motion JPEG 2000 format
  E mp2             MPEG audio layer 2
 DE mp3             MPEG audio layer 3
  E mp4             MP4 format
 D  mpc             Musepack
 D  mpc8            Musepack SV8
 DE mpeg            MPEG-1 System format
  E mpeg1video      raw MPEG-1 video
  E mpeg2video      raw MPEG-2 video
 DE mpegts          MPEG-2 transport stream format
 D  mpegtsraw       MPEG-2 raw transport stream format
 D  mpegvideo       raw MPEG video
  E mpjpeg          MIME multipart JPEG format
 D  msnwctcp        MSN TCP Webcam stream
 DE mulaw           PCM mu-law format
 D  mvi             Motion Pixels MVI format
 DE mxf             Material eXchange Format
  E mxf_d10         Material eXchange Format, D-10 Mapping
 D  mxg             MxPEG clip file format
 D  nc              NC camera feed format
 D  nsv             Nullsoft Streaming Video
  E null            raw null video format
 DE nut             NUT format
 D  nuv             NuppelVideo format
 DE ogg             Ogg
 DE oma             Sony OpenMG audio
 DE oss             Open Sound System playback
 D  pmp             Playstation Portable PMP format
  E psp             PSP MP4 format
 D  psxstr          Sony Playstation STR format
 D  pva             TechnoTrend PVA file and stream format
 D  qcp             QCP format
 D  r3d             REDCODE R3D format
 DE rawvideo        raw video format
  E rcv             VC-1 test bitstream
 D  rl2             RL2 format
 DE rm              RealMedia format
 D  rpl             RPL/ARMovie format
 DE rso             Lego Mindstorms RSO format
 DE rtp             RTP output format
 DE rtsp            RTSP output format
 DE s16be           PCM signed 16 bit big-endian format
 DE s16le           PCM signed 16 bit little-endian format
 DE s24be           PCM signed 24 bit big-endian format
 DE s24le           PCM signed 24 bit little-endian format
 DE s32be           PCM signed 32 bit big-endian format
 DE s32le           PCM signed 32 bit little-endian format
 DE s8              PCM signed 8 bit format
 DE sap             SAP output format
 D  sdp             SDP
  E segment         segment muxer
 D  shn             raw Shorten
 D  siff            Beam Software SIFF
 DE smjpeg          Loki SDL MJPEG
 D  smk             Smacker video
 D  sol             Sierra SOL format
 DE sox             SoX native format
 DE spdif           IEC 61937 (used on S/PDIF - IEC958)
 DE srt             SubRip subtitle format
  E svcd            MPEG-2 PS format (VOB)
 DE swf             Flash format
 D  thp             THP
 D  tiertexseq      Tiertex Limited SEQ format
 D  tmv             8088flex TMV
 DE truehd          raw TrueHD
 D  tta             True Audio
 D  tty             Tele-typewriter
 D  txd             Renderware TeXture Dictionary
 DE u16be           PCM unsigned 16 bit big-endian format
 DE u16le           PCM unsigned 16 bit little-endian format
 DE u24be           PCM unsigned 24 bit big-endian format
 DE u24le           PCM unsigned 24 bit little-endian format
 DE u32be           PCM unsigned 32 bit big-endian format
 DE u32le           PCM unsigned 32 bit little-endian format
 DE u8              PCM unsigned 8 bit format
 D  vc1             raw VC-1
 D  vc1test         VC-1 test bitstream format
  E vcd             MPEG-1 System format (VCD)
 D  video4linux2    Video4Linux2 device grab
 D  vmd             Sierra VMD format
  E vob             MPEG-2 PS format (VOB)
 DE voc             Creative Voice file format
 D  vqf             Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) TwinVQ
 D  w64             Sony Wave64 format
 DE wav             WAV format
 D  wc3movie        Wing Commander III movie format
  E webm            WebM file format
 D  wsaud           Westwood Studios audio format
 D  wsvqa           Westwood Studios VQA format
 D  wtv             Windows Television (WTV)
 D  wv              WavPack
 D  x11grab         X11grab
 D  xa              Maxis XA File Format
 D  xmv             Microsoft XMV
 D  xwma            Microsoft xWMA
 D  yop             Psygnosis YOP Format
 DE yuv4mpegpipe    YUV4MPEG pipe format

The formats available in universe and medibuntu are the same. The following additional are available from the source build.

 D  act             ACT Voice file format
 D  adf             Artworx Data Format
 D  bin             Binary text
 DE bit             G.729 BIT file format
 DE caf             Apple Core Audio Format
 DE g723_1          raw G.723.1
 D  g729            G.729 raw format demuxer
 D  ico             Microsoft Windows ICO
 D  idf             iCE Draw File
  E ismv            ISMV/ISMA (Smooth Streaming) format
 D  lavfi           Libavfilter virtual input device
 D  libmodplug      ModPlug demuxer
 D  loas            LOAS AudioSyncStream
 DE microdvd        MicroDVD subtitle format
  E mkvtimestamp_v2 extract pts as timecode v2 format, as defined by mkvtoolnix
 D  openal          OpenAL audio capture device
 D  pulse           Pulse audio input
 D  sbg             SBaGen binaural beats script
  E sdl             SDL output device
 DE wtv             Windows Television (WTV)
 D  xbin            eXtended BINary text (XBIN)

Codecs

The following codecs are available in main:

$ ffmpeg -codecs
Codecs:
 D..... = Decoding supported
 .E.... = Encoding supported
 ..V... = Video codec
 ..A... = Audio codec
 ..S... = Subtitle codec
 ...S.. = Supports draw_horiz_band
 ....D. = Supports direct rendering method 1
 .....T = Supports weird frame truncation
 ------
 D V D  4xm             4X Movie
 D V D  8bps            QuickTime 8BPS video
 D A D  8svx_exp        8SVX exponential
 D A D  8svx_fib        8SVX fibonacci
 D V D  FRWU            Forward Uncompressed
  EV    a64multi        Multicolor charset for Commodore 64
  EV    a64multi5       Multicolor charset for Commodore 64, extended with 5th color (colram)
 DEA D  aac             Advanced Audio Coding
 D A D  aac_latm        AAC LATM (Advanced Audio Codec LATM syntax)
 D V D  aasc            Autodesk RLE
 DEA D  ac3             ATSC A/52A (AC-3)
  EA    ac3_fixed       ATSC A/52A (AC-3)
 D A D  adpcm_4xm       ADPCM 4X Movie
 DEA D  adpcm_adx       SEGA CRI ADX ADPCM
 D A D  adpcm_ct        ADPCM Creative Technology
 D A D  adpcm_ea        ADPCM Electronic Arts
 D A D  adpcm_ea_maxis_xa ADPCM Electronic Arts Maxis CDROM XA
 D A D  adpcm_ea_r1     ADPCM Electronic Arts R1
 D A D  adpcm_ea_r2     ADPCM Electronic Arts R2
 D A D  adpcm_ea_r3     ADPCM Electronic Arts R3
 D A D  adpcm_ea_xas    ADPCM Electronic Arts XAS
 D A D  adpcm_ima_amv   ADPCM IMA AMV
 D A D  adpcm_ima_dk3   ADPCM IMA Duck DK3
 D A D  adpcm_ima_dk4   ADPCM IMA Duck DK4
 D A D  adpcm_ima_ea_eacs ADPCM IMA Electronic Arts EACS
 D A D  adpcm_ima_ea_sead ADPCM IMA Electronic Arts SEAD
 D A D  adpcm_ima_iss   ADPCM IMA Funcom ISS
 DEA D  adpcm_ima_qt    ADPCM IMA QuickTime
 D A D  adpcm_ima_smjpeg ADPCM IMA Loki SDL MJPEG
 DEA D  adpcm_ima_wav   ADPCM IMA WAV
 D A D  adpcm_ima_ws    ADPCM IMA Westwood
 DEA D  adpcm_ms        ADPCM Microsoft
 D A D  adpcm_sbpro_2   ADPCM Sound Blaster Pro 2-bit
 D A D  adpcm_sbpro_3   ADPCM Sound Blaster Pro 2.6-bit
 D A D  adpcm_sbpro_4   ADPCM Sound Blaster Pro 4-bit
 DEA D  adpcm_swf       ADPCM Shockwave Flash
 D A D  adpcm_thp       ADPCM Nintendo Gamecube THP
 D A D  adpcm_xa        ADPCM CDROM XA
 DEA D  adpcm_yamaha    ADPCM Yamaha
 DEA D  alac            ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec)
 D A D  als             MPEG-4 Audio Lossless Coding (ALS)
 D A D  amrnb           Adaptive Multi-Rate NarrowBand
 D A D  amrwb           Adaptive Multi-Rate WideBand
 D V    amv             AMV Video
 D V D  anm             Deluxe Paint Animation
 D V D  ansi            ASCII/ANSI art
 D A D  ape             Monkey's Audio
 DES    ass             Advanced SubStation Alpha subtitle
 DEV D  asv1            ASUS V1
 DEV D  asv2            ASUS V2
 D A D  atrac1          Atrac 1 (Adaptive TRansform Acoustic Coding)
 D A D  atrac3          Atrac 3 (Adaptive TRansform Acoustic Coding 3)
 D V D  aura            Auravision AURA
 D V D  aura2           Auravision Aura 2
 D V D  avs             AVS (Audio Video Standard) video
 D V D  bethsoftvid     Bethesda VID video
 D V D  bfi             Brute Force & Ignorance
 D A D  binkaudio_dct   Bink Audio (DCT)
 D A D  binkaudio_rdft  Bink Audio (RDFT)
 D V    binkvideo       Bink video
 DEV D  bmp             BMP image
 D A D  bmv_audio       Discworld II BMV audio
 D V    bmv_video       Discworld II BMV video
 D V D  c93             Interplay C93
 D V D  camstudio       CamStudio
 D V D  camtasia        TechSmith Screen Capture Codec
 D V D  cavs            Chinese AVS video (AVS1-P2, JiZhun profile)
 D V D  cdgraphics      CD Graphics video
 D V D  cinepak         Cinepak
 DEV D  cljr            Cirrus Logic AccuPak
 D A D  cook            COOK
 D V D  cyuv            Creative YUV (CYUV)
 D A D  dca             DCA (DTS Coherent Acoustics)
 D V D  dfa             Chronomaster DFA
 DEV D  dnxhd           VC3/DNxHD
 DEV    dpx             DPX image
 D A D  dsicinaudio     Delphine Software International CIN audio
 D V D  dsicinvideo     Delphine Software International CIN video
 DES    dvbsub          DVB subtitles
 DES    dvdsub          DVD subtitles
 DEV D  dvvideo         DV (Digital Video)
 D V D  dxa             Feeble Files/ScummVM DXA
 D V D  dxtory          Dxtory
 DEA D  eac3            ATSC A/52 E-AC-3
 D V D  eacmv           Electronic Arts CMV video
 D V D  eamad           Electronic Arts Madcow Video
 D V D  eatgq           Electronic Arts TGQ video
 D V    eatgv           Electronic Arts TGV video
 D V D  eatqi           Electronic Arts TQI Video
 D V D  escape124       Escape 124
 DEV D  ffv1            FFmpeg video codec #1
 DEVSD  ffvhuff         Huffyuv FFmpeg variant
 DEA D  flac            FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec)
 DEV D  flashsv         Flash Screen Video
 D V D  flashsv2        Flash Screen Video v2
 D V D  flic            Autodesk Animator Flic video
 DEVSD  flv             Flash Video (FLV) / Sorenson Spark / Sorenson H.263
 D V D  fraps           Fraps
 DEA D  g722            G.722 ADPCM
 DEA D  g726            G.726 ADPCM
 DEV D  gif             GIF (Graphics Interchange Format)
 D A D  gsm             GSM
 D A D  gsm_ms          GSM Microsoft variant
 DEV D  h261            H.261
 DEVSDT h263            H.263 / H.263-1996
 D VSD  h263i           Intel H.263
  EV    h263p           H.263+ / H.263-1998 / H.263 version 2
 D V D  h264            H.264 / AVC / MPEG-4 AVC / MPEG-4 part 10
 D V D  h264_vdpau      H.264 / AVC / MPEG-4 AVC / MPEG-4 part 10 (VDPAU acceleration)
 DEVSD  huffyuv         Huffyuv / HuffYUV
 D V D  idcinvideo      id Quake II CIN video
 D V D  iff_byterun1    IFF ByteRun1
 D V D  iff_ilbm        IFF ILBM
 D A D  imc             IMC (Intel Music Coder)
 D V D  indeo2          Intel Indeo 2
 D V    indeo3          Intel Indeo 3
 D V    indeo4          Intel Indeo Video Interactive 4
 D V    indeo5          Intel Indeo Video Interactive 5
 D A D  interplay_dpcm  DPCM Interplay
 D V D  interplayvideo  Interplay MVE video
 DEV D  jpegls          JPEG-LS
 D V D  jv              Bitmap Brothers JV video
 D V    kgv1            Kega Game Video
 D V D  kmvc            Karl Morton's video codec
 D V D  lagarith        Lagarith lossless
 DEA D  libgsm          libgsm GSM
 DEA D  libgsm_ms       libgsm GSM Microsoft variant
 DEV    libschroedinger libschroedinger Dirac 2.2
 DEA D  libspeex        libspeex Speex
  EV    libtheora       libtheora Theora
  EA    libvorbis       libvorbis Vorbis
 DEV    libvpx          libvpx VP8
  EV    ljpeg           Lossless JPEG
 D V D  loco            LOCO
 D A D  mace3           MACE (Macintosh Audio Compression/Expansion) 3:1
 D A D  mace6           MACE (Macintosh Audio Compression/Expansion) 6:1
 D V D  mdec            Sony PlayStation MDEC (Motion DECoder)
 D V D  mimic           Mimic
 DEV D  mjpeg           MJPEG (Motion JPEG)
 D V D  mjpegb          Apple MJPEG-B
 D A D  mlp             MLP (Meridian Lossless Packing)
 D V D  mmvideo         American Laser Games MM Video
 D V D  motionpixels    Motion Pixels video
 D A D  mp1             MP1 (MPEG audio layer 1)
 D A D  mp1float        MP1 (MPEG audio layer 1)
 DEA D  mp2             MP2 (MPEG audio layer 2)
 D A D  mp2float        MP2 (MPEG audio layer 2)
 D A D  mp3             MP3 (MPEG audio layer 3)
 D A D  mp3adu          ADU (Application Data Unit) MP3 (MPEG audio layer 3)
 D A D  mp3adufloat     ADU (Application Data Unit) MP3 (MPEG audio layer 3)
 D A D  mp3float        MP3 (MPEG audio layer 3)
 D A D  mp3on4          MP3onMP4
 D A D  mp3on4float     MP3onMP4
 D A D  mpc7            Musepack SV7
 D A D  mpc8            Musepack SV8
 DEVSDT mpeg1video      MPEG-1 video
 D V DT mpeg1video_vdpau MPEG-1 video (VDPAU acceleration)
 DEVSDT mpeg2video      MPEG-2 video
 DEVSDT mpeg4           MPEG-4 part 2
 D V DT mpeg4_vdpau     MPEG-4 part 2 (VDPAU)
 D V DT mpegvideo_vdpau MPEG-1/2 video (VDPAU acceleration)
 D VSDT mpegvideo_xvmc  MPEG-1/2 video XvMC (X-Video Motion Compensation)
 DEVSD  msmpeg4         MPEG-4 part 2 Microsoft variant version 3
 D VSD  msmpeg4v1       MPEG-4 part 2 Microsoft variant version 1
 DEVSD  msmpeg4v2       MPEG-4 part 2 Microsoft variant version 2
 D V D  msrle           Microsoft RLE
 D V D  msvideo1        Microsoft Video 1
 D V D  mszh            LCL (LossLess Codec Library) MSZH
 D V D  mxpeg           Mobotix MxPEG video
 DEA D  nellymoser      Nellymoser Asao
 D V D  nuv             NuppelVideo/RTJPEG
 DEV D  pam             PAM (Portable AnyMap) image
 DEV D  pbm             PBM (Portable BitMap) image
 D A D  pcm_alaw        PCM A-law
 D A D  pcm_bluray      PCM signed 16|20|24-bit big-endian for Blu-ray media
 D A D  pcm_dvd         PCM signed 20|24-bit big-endian
 D A D  pcm_f32be       PCM 32-bit floating point big-endian
 D A D  pcm_f32le       PCM 32-bit floating point little-endian
 D A D  pcm_f64be       PCM 64-bit floating point big-endian
 D A D  pcm_f64le       PCM 64-bit floating point little-endian
 D A D  pcm_lxf         PCM signed 20-bit little-endian planar
 D A D  pcm_mulaw       PCM mu-law
 D A D  pcm_s16be       PCM signed 16-bit big-endian
 D A D  pcm_s16le       PCM signed 16-bit little-endian
 D A D  pcm_s16le_planar PCM 16-bit little-endian planar
 D A D  pcm_s24be       PCM signed 24-bit big-endian
 D A D  pcm_s24daud     PCM D-Cinema audio signed 24-bit
 D A D  pcm_s24le       PCM signed 24-bit little-endian
 D A D  pcm_s32be       PCM signed 32-bit big-endian
 D A D  pcm_s32le       PCM signed 32-bit little-endian
 D A D  pcm_s8          PCM signed 8-bit
 D A D  pcm_s8_planar   PCM signed 8-bit planar
 D A D  pcm_u16be       PCM unsigned 16-bit big-endian
 D A D  pcm_u16le       PCM unsigned 16-bit little-endian
 D A D  pcm_u24be       PCM unsigned 24-bit big-endian
 D A D  pcm_u24le       PCM unsigned 24-bit little-endian
 D A D  pcm_u32be       PCM unsigned 32-bit big-endian
 D A D  pcm_u32le       PCM unsigned 32-bit little-endian
 D A D  pcm_u8          PCM unsigned 8-bit
 D A D  pcm_zork        PCM Zork
 DEV D  pcx             PC Paintbrush PCX image
 DEV D  pgm             PGM (Portable GrayMap) image
 DEV D  pgmyuv          PGMYUV (Portable GrayMap YUV) image
 D S    pgssub          HDMV Presentation Graphic Stream subtitles
 D V D  pictor          Pictor/PC Paint
 DEV D  png             PNG image
 DEV D  ppm             PPM (Portable PixelMap) image
 D V D  prores          Apple ProRes (iCodec Pro)
 D V D  ptx             V.Flash PTX image
 D A D  qcelp           QCELP / PureVoice
 D A D  qdm2            QDesign Music Codec 2
 D V D  qdraw           Apple QuickDraw
 D V D  qpeg            Q-team QPEG
 DEV D  qtrle           QuickTime Animation (RLE) video
 D V D  r10k            AJA Kona 10-bit RGB Codec
 D V D  r210            Uncompressed RGB 10-bit
 DEV    rawvideo        raw video
 DEA D  real_144        RealAudio 1.0 (14.4K) encoder
 D A D  real_288        RealAudio 2.0 (28.8K)
 D V D  rl2             RL2 video
 DEA D  roq_dpcm        id RoQ DPCM
 DEV D  roqvideo        id RoQ video
 D V D  rpza            QuickTime video (RPZA)
 DEV D  rv10            RealVideo 1.0
 DEV D  rv20            RealVideo 2.0
 D V D  rv30            RealVideo 3.0
 D V D  rv40            RealVideo 4.0
 D A D  s302m           SMPTE 302M
 DEV    sgi             SGI image
 D A D  shorten         Shorten
 D A D  sipr            RealAudio SIPR / ACELP.NET
 D A D  smackaud        Smacker audio
 D V D  smackvid        Smacker video
 D V D  smc             QuickTime Graphics (SMC)
 DEV D  snow            Snow
 D A D  sol_dpcm        DPCM Sol
 D V D  sp5x            Sunplus JPEG (SP5X)
 D S    srt             SubRip subtitle
 D V D  sunrast         Sun Rasterfile image
 DEV D  svq1            Sorenson Vector Quantizer 1 / Sorenson Video 1 / SVQ1
 D VSD  svq3            Sorenson Vector Quantizer 3 / Sorenson Video 3 / SVQ3
 DEV D  targa           Truevision Targa image
 D VSD  theora          Theora
 D V D  thp             Nintendo Gamecube THP video
 D V D  tiertexseqvideo Tiertex Limited SEQ video
 DEV D  tiff            TIFF image
 D V D  tmv             8088flex TMV
 D A D  truehd          TrueHD
 D V D  truemotion1     Duck TrueMotion 1.0
 D V D  truemotion2     Duck TrueMotion 2.0
 D A D  truespeech      DSP Group TrueSpeech
 D A D  tta             True Audio (TTA)
 D A D  twinvq          VQF TwinVQ
 D V D  txd             Renderware TXD (TeXture Dictionary) image
 D V D  ultimotion      IBM UltiMotion
 D V D  utvideo         Ut Video
 DEV D  v210            Uncompressed 4:2:2 10-bit
 D V D  v210x           Uncompressed 4:2:2 10-bit
 DEV D  v410            Uncompressed 4:4:4 10-bit
 D V    vb              Beam Software VB
 D V D  vble            VBLE Lossless Codec
 D V D  vc1             SMPTE VC-1
 D V D  vc1_vdpau       SMPTE VC-1 VDPAU
 D V D  vc1image        Windows Media Video 9 Image v2
 D V D  vcr1            ATI VCR1
 D A D  vmdaudio        Sierra VMD audio
 D V D  vmdvideo        Sierra VMD video
 D V D  vmnc            VMware Screen Codec / VMware Video
 DEA D  vorbis          Vorbis
 D VSD  vp3             On2 VP3
 D V D  vp5             On2 VP5
 D V D  vp6             On2 VP6
 D V D  vp6a            On2 VP6 (Flash version, with alpha channel)
 D V D  vp6f            On2 VP6 (Flash version)
 D V D  vp8             On2 VP8
 D V D  vqavideo        Westwood Studios VQA (Vector Quantized Animation) video
 D A D  wavpack         WavPack
 D A D  wmapro          Windows Media Audio 9 Professional
 DEA D  wmav1           Windows Media Audio 1
 DEA D  wmav2           Windows Media Audio 2
 D A D  wmavoice        Windows Media Audio Voice
 DEVSD  wmv1            Windows Media Video 7
 DEVSD  wmv2            Windows Media Video 8
 D V D  wmv3            Windows Media Video 9
 D V D  wmv3_vdpau      Windows Media Video 9 VDPAU
 D V D  wmv3image       Windows Media Video 9 Image
 D V D  wnv1            Winnov WNV1
 D A D  ws_snd1         Westwood Audio (SND1)
 D A D  xan_dpcm        DPCM Xan
 D V D  xan_wc3         Wing Commander III / Xan
 D V D  xan_wc4         Wing Commander IV / Xxan
 D V D  xl              Miro VideoXL
 DES    xsub            DivX subtitles (XSUB)
 D V    yop             Psygnosis YOP Video
 DEV D  zlib            LCL (LossLess Codec Library) ZLIB
 DEV D  zmbv            Zip Motion Blocks Video

The following codec lines have been added in the universe version

  EV    libdirac        libdirac Dirac 2.2
  EA    libmp3lame      libmp3lame MP3 (MPEG audio layer 3)
 D V D  libopenjpeg     OpenJPEG based JPEG 2000 decoder
  EA    libvo_aacenc    Android VisualOn AAC
  EA    libvo_amrwbenc  Android VisualOn Adaptive Multi-Rate (AMR) Wide-Band
  EV    libx264         libx264 H.264 / AVC / MPEG-4 AVC / MPEG-4 part 10
  EV    libxvid         libxvidcore MPEG-4 part 2

The following codec lines have been added in the medibuntu version

  EA    libfaac         libfaac AAC (Advanced Audio Codec)
 DEA D  libopencore_amrnb OpenCORE Adaptive Multi-Rate (AMR) Narrow-Band
 D A D  libopencore_amrwb OpenCORE Adaptive Multi-Rate (AMR) Wide-Band

The following codec lines are available when building from source

 D A D  adpcm_ima_apc   ADPCM IMA CRYO APC
 DEV    amv             AMV Video
 DEV D  avrp            Avid 1:1 10-bit RGB Packer
 D V D  bintext         Binary text
 DEA D  dca             DCA (DTS Coherent Acoustics)
 D V    dirac           BBC Dirac VC-2
 D V D  escape130       Escape 130
 DEV D  flashsv2        Flash Screen Video Version 2
 D V D  frwu            Forward Uncompressed
 DEA    g723_1          G.723.1
 D A D  g729            G.729
 D V D  idf             iCEDraw text
 DEV    j2k             JPEG 2000
 DEV D  libopenjpeg     OpenJPEG based JPEG 2000 encoder
  EV    libx264rgb      libx264 H.264 / AVC / MPEG-4 AVC / MPEG-4 part 10 RGB
 DEV D  msvideo1        Microsoft Video-1
 DEA D  pcm_alaw        PCM A-law
 DEA D  pcm_f32be       PCM 32-bit floating point big-endian
 DEA D  pcm_f32le       PCM 32-bit floating point little-endian
 DEA D  pcm_f64be       PCM 64-bit floating point big-endian
 DEA D  pcm_f64le       PCM 64-bit floating point little-endian
 DEA D  pcm_mulaw       PCM mu-law
 DEA D  pcm_s16be       PCM signed 16-bit big-endian
 DEA D  pcm_s16le       PCM signed 16-bit little-endian
 DEA D  pcm_s24be       PCM signed 24-bit big-endian
 DEA D  pcm_s24daud     PCM D-Cinema audio signed 24-bit
 DEA D  pcm_s24le       PCM signed 24-bit little-endian
 DEA D  pcm_s32be       PCM signed 32-bit big-endian
 DEA D  pcm_s32le       PCM signed 32-bit little-endian
 DEA D  pcm_s8          PCM signed 8-bit
 DEA D  pcm_u16be       PCM unsigned 16-bit big-endian
 DEA D  pcm_u16le       PCM unsigned 16-bit little-endian
 DEA D  pcm_u24be       PCM unsigned 24-bit big-endian
 DEA D  pcm_u24le       PCM unsigned 24-bit little-endian
 DEA D  pcm_u32be       PCM unsigned 32-bit big-endian
 DEA D  pcm_u32le       PCM unsigned 32-bit little-endian
 DEA D  pcm_u8          PCM unsigned 8-bit
 DEV D  prores          Apple ProRes
 D V D  prores_lgpl     Apple ProRes (iCodec Pro)
 DEV D  r10k            AJA Kona 10-bit RGB Codec
 DEV D  r210            Uncompressed RGB 10-bit
 DEA D  sonic           Sonic
  EA    sonicls         Sonic lossless
 DES    srt             SubRip subtitle
 DEV D  v308            Uncompressed packed 4:4:4
 D A D  wavesynth       Wave synthesis pseudo-codec
 D A    wmalossless     Windows Media Audio 9 Lossless
 D V D  xbin            eXtended BINary text
 DEV D  xwd             XWD (X Window Dump) image
 DEV D  y41p            Uncompressed YUV 4:1:1 12-bit
 DEV D  yuv4            Uncompressed packed 4:2:0

Protocols

The following protocols are available in main:

ffmpeg -protocols
Supported file protocols:
Input:
applehttp
concat
crypto
file
gopher
http
httpproxy
mmsh
mmst
pipe
rtmp
rtp
tcp
udp
Output:
file
gopher
http
httpproxy
md5
pipe
rtmp
rtp
tcp
udp

The following additional protocols are supported by the universe packages

Input:
rtmpt
rtmpe
rtmpte
rtmps
Output:
rtmpt
rtmpe
rtmpte
rtmps

References

• See this forum thread for discussion on this topic.

• RestrictedFormats

• Medibuntu