From: Greg Ercolano <erco@(email surpressed)>
Subject: [Q+A] Are there some good links for using ffmpeg?
   Date: Wed, 07 Nov 2012 13:05:42 -0500

> Are there any good links for using ffmpeg? The ffmpeg docs and syntax
> are pretty "challenging", and seem foreign compared to what I'm used to
> with visual fx tools.

	Yes, today Jakub Krajcovic posted a neat ffmpeg write up tailored to the
	film/video industry:
	https://ffmpeg.org/trac/ffmpeg/wiki/vfxEncodingGuide

	And, here's an older "how to" that shows numerous examples of how to
	do encoding, mux/demux, timecode, audio manipulation, single frame -> mov, etc:
	http://www.itbroadcastanddigitalcinema.com/ffmpeg_howto.html

	Also, there's a separate project called 'ffmbc' that extends ffmpeg
	adding features useful to film/video:
	http://code.google.com/p/ffmbc/

	Here's some of my notes from 2011 when I was working with ffmpeg
	to generate movies from ranges of images. To convert a range of
	images into an .avi file:

               ffmpeg -f image2 -i foo-%04d.jpeg -r 12 -s WxH foo.avi

	Not sure if this is still the case, but the frame range had to
	start at 1 (ie. the start frame is implied). Example:

                          fps for input files
                             ______|_______
                            |              |
                           _|_   __________|________
                          /   \ /                   \
                ffmpeg -y -r 30 -i countdown.%04d.png -r 30 foo.mov
                                                      \___/ \_____/
                                                        |      |
                                                        |______|
                                                           |
                                                   fps for output files

       Use e.g. "-vcodec mpeg4" to set output codec for movie

       The syntax "foo-%03d.jpeg" specifies to use a decimal number composed
       of three digits padded with zeroes to express the sequence number. It
       is the same syntax supported by the C printf function, but only formats
       accepting a normal integer are suitable.

       To see the (huge) list of supported video formats (for -f), use:

                ffmpeg -formats


PS. FFMPEG is an open source command line tool and library for manipulating
    movie files, including QuickTime (mov/qt).

    Many commercial and open source tools use ffmpeg's libraries to manage
    reading/writing QT files, as well as other movie formats.

    ffmpeg *binaries* are available for Mac, Windows and Linux.
    Static binaries are best, since they won't have dependencies on external dlls.
    Go to the ffmpeg.org 'downloads' page and look under the 'builds' sections.
    As of this writing, prepared binaries from ffmpeg's downloads page show these links:

        MAC: http://www.evermeet.cx/ffmpeg/
    WINDOWS: http://ffmpeg.zeranoe.com/builds/
      LINUX: http://ffmpeg.gusari.org/static/
             http://dl.dropbox.com/u/24633983/ffmpeg/index.html