Reading the FFmpeg Docs Without Drowning

~8 min · docs, help, filters

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The docs are a library, not a tutorial

FFmpeg's documentation is exhaustive and intimidating. The first time you open ffmpeg.html it looks like a thousand-page manual. It's not meant to be read end-to-end; it's a reference. The trick is knowing the four entry points and which question each one answers.

The four entry points

Built-in -h — fastest. ffmpeg -h encoder=libx264 dumps every option for that encoder. ffmpeg -h filter=scale dumps every option for that filter. Always faster than searching the web.
ffmpeg-filters.html — the filter bible. Open it when you're building a filtergraph. Use Cmd-F.
ffmpeg-codecs.html — every encoder's options, including the exotic ones. Look here when -h encoder=... is too terse.
trac.ffmpeg.org wiki — community recipes, war stories, Encode/H.264 and Encode/HEVC pages are gold for first-time encoder choices.

Code

<code>-h</code> is your friend·bash

# Every option of a specific encoder
ffmpeg -h encoder=libx264

# Every option of a specific filter
ffmpeg -h filter=loudnorm

# Every demuxer option
ffmpeg -h demuxer=mov

# General help, then drill
ffmpeg -h
ffmpeg -h long       # adds advanced options
ffmpeg -h full       # adds every option for every component (huge)

Find filters by keyword·bash

# Every filter whose name contains 'scale'
ffmpeg -filters 2>/dev/null | grep -i scale

# Then drill
ffmpeg -h filter=scale_npp     # NVIDIA hardware scale
ffmpeg -h filter=scale_vt      # Apple Silicon hardware scale

External links

Exercise

Run ffmpeg -h encoder=libx264 | wc -l and note the number of options. Pick three you've never seen before and read what they do. Then run ffmpeg -h filter=drawtext — Track 5 lesson 6 will use this filter, and reading its options now will make that lesson much faster.