---
title: 'How to use FFMPEG'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=MPV7JXTWPWI'
video_id: 'MPV7JXTWPWI'
date: 2026-07-28
duration_sec: 769
---

# How to use FFMPEG

> Source: [How to use FFMPEG](https://youtube.com/watch?v=MPV7JXTWPWI)

## Summary

FFMPEG is a powerful command-line utility for file format conversion, often used behind the scenes in other software. This guide covers installation, basic conversion, quality control, and useful filters for both audio and video.

### Key Points

- **FFMPEG Overview** [00:00] — FFMPEG is a command-line utility for file format conversion, often embedded in other software.
- **Installation** [01:39] — Download the static version from the official site; extract the ffmpeg.exe from the bin folder.
- **Basic Conversion** [03:48] — Use 'ffmpeg -i input.avi output.mp4' to convert files; FFMPEG detects format by extension.
- **Quality Control for AVI** [05:33] — Use '-q' flag with a number (lower = higher quality, typical range 20-30).
- **Quality Control for MP4** [06:41] — Use '-crf' flag instead of '-q' for MP4 files.
- **Bitrate Control** [07:10] — Specify video bitrate with '-b:v' and audio bitrate with '-b:a' for finer control.
- **Audio Filters** [08:39] — Volume adjustment: '-af volume=2' doubles volume. Channel remapping fixes mono-to-stereo issues.
- **Video Filters** [09:47] — Crop: '-vf crop=width:height:x:y'. Scale: '-vf scale=w:h'. Rotate: '-vf rotate=angle_in_radians'.

### Conclusion

FFMPEG is a versatile tool for multimedia conversion and processing. This guide covers the basics and some advanced filters, but many more features are available.

## Transcript

Sometimes in our computing life, we actually
make use of software without realizing that
we're using a particular piece of software
- And one very good example of this is FFMPEG!
FFMPEG is actually a command line utility
and its job is to do file format conversion.
And, in that process, it can also do a number
of cool things.
Now, because of the license of FFMPEG, it
is actually included in certain other pieces
of software, you know, to do its job in the
background and as a result you may or may
not realize that it's actually there, but
in fact it is!
So what we're gonna do today is we're not
only gonna give FFMPEG the recognition it
deserves, we're gonna learn how to actually
use it from the command line, that is the
plain, vanilla FFMPEG running on your computer
from scratch!
So yeah, I hope this interests you!
After learning how to use FFMPEG I've actually
found it quite useful and indispensable in
many situations, so yeah, I hope you think
the same!
You're watching another random Wednesday episode
on 0612 TV!
Hello and welcome back to another random Wednesday
episode!
So FFMPEG!
A very interesting tool - Let's begin by learning
how to install it, we'll then move on to the
basics, and then to some more interesting
things you can do with this piece of software.
Of course, as it turns out, it is much more
than a file format converter, but yeah, like
I said, we'll see it when the time comes.
First of course is how do we install this
program?
Well, you can find a download link in the
video description, it will send you to the
download page on the official FFMPEG site.
You'll realize right off the bat that things
are a little bit complicated because there
are three different versions of FFMPEG you
can choose from.
But, they do tell you that if you've no idea
what you're supposed to do here just pick
the static version, so that's what we're gonna
do!
Basically the idea is the static version contains
all of FFMPEG in one .exe file, which, for
our purposes is the most convenient!
So I would recommend that as well.
Go ahead and download the latest version for
whatever bitness your computer is, and you'll
realize that what you end up with is an archive.
Open the archive in an archive manager of
some sort.
If you don't have one you can check out PeaZip,
which I will also link to in the video description.
Within the archive, enter the "bin" folder,
and look for FFMPEG.
That's really the only file you need, so extract
that to some location that you can remember,
and we can begin converting!
Now, if you intend to use FFMPEG from anywhere
on your computer, you might want to, you know,
save it somewhere important, like in a Program
Files folder, and then link to it using the
PATH variable.
So what you're seeing onscreen right now are
the steps I've used to do that.
I do actually have things set up this way
because well, it's just easier for me.
Of course, this step is optional so if you
don't want to do that, then make sure FFMPEG
is in the same folder as the video files you
want to work with.
With that out of the way, let's move on to
the fun part, and that is to actually convert
files with FFMPEG!
Now, previously to this I know I mentioned
videos repeatedly, but as it turns out FFMPEG
can also work with images and audio!
Basically, well, it's a command line utility
you just tell it what file to process and
what kind of output you want, and it just
does it!
That's how amazing it is!
So, let's actually try a very simple example
first of taking a video file and converting
it from .avi to .mp4.
Now, what you're seeing here is a folder in
which I have staged the files I want to work
with throughout this video.
You can open a command line very quickly on
a windows computer by first making sure no
files are selected, then hold down shift,
right click empty space, and then click on
"Open Command Window Here".
That's convenient because the command window
opens in that particular folder, so you can
get started right away.
Here's what FFMPEG syntax looks like - You
start off by saying FFMPEG, then you say -i,
which means "I'm about to specify an input
file", and then, you go ahead and specify
the input file!
So what we wanna do here is we wanna convert
an AVI file to MP4.
So simply all you have to do is to actually
press space, and type out the new name of
the file, making sure that the extension is
MP4.
Hit enter, and, well, off it goes!
FFMPEG is now converting an AVI file to MP4,
by just looking at the file extension of the
filename you gave it.
That is how simple FFMPEG actually is, and
a lot of the time when we want to convert
between different file formats, that's really
all you need to do.
But well, the time will come when you wanna
do something more complex, and that is where
the command switches start to come in.
Probably the first thing that concerns you
would be the quality of the file.
You would probably want to be able to tweak
up the quality and what I'm gonna show you
here works for MP4 and AVI respectively.
Let's start with AVI.
Now, there is a factor in image compression
called the quantizer that actually affects
file quality, and it is linked to how it should
choose a bitrate, when it comes to variable
bitrate encoding, but we won't go into too
much detail about that.
Basically, all you need to know is that the
quantizer is a number.
The smaller the number, the higher the quality.
Of course, the higher the quality, the higher
the file size, so there's a trade-off you
need to work with.
To set the quantizer for an output AVI file,
all you have to do is well, you call FFMPEG,
you specify the input, and then you type -q,
followed by a number.
This number is of course the quality setting
you want.
Numbers between 20 and 30 is common, but if
you want a very high quality video, you can
go as low as a single digit.
If you want it to be lower quality you can
go as high as 50.
Experiment!
You'll be able to see the difference in the
different settings you choose.
Do note that this only works when you're writing
a file with a .avi extension.
If you're doing this for MP4 files, then you'll
want to specify the -crf value instead!
So instead of -q you'll need to type -crf,
and then enter your number.
I think this exists on a slightly different
scale from the -q flag, so yeah, be careful
of that.
The values are not necessarily the same!
Once again, experiment!
You know, look at the file size, look at the
quality and decide whether you want to bump
it up or down.
If you prefer finer control, you can also
specify the exact bitrate of the output file.
Now, bitrates work for both audio and video
in a file, so you'll probably want to tell
it whether you want to tell it whether you
want this to work on the video channel, or
the audio channel.
And to specify this, you'll want to enter
a colon, and then type v or a, depending on
which stream you want to target.
Then, give it a number.
For example, if I want the video quality to
be 1000k, which is actually quite low, well,
you can do that.
I can even specify both audio and video bitrates
at the same time, and that will fix the two
bitrates of the two different streams.
This is of course only if you want finer control.
So yeah, for the vast majority of use cases
I'd say you know, what you've learnt so far
covers your bases, but let's say we want to
go a step further - Let's take a look at FFMPEG
filters just for fun!
Now, here's the deal - FFMPEG actually comes
bundled with a whole bunch of different filters!
And they all have various effects on the video
itself.
What I've done is, through the whole list
of video and audio filters, I've picked a
total of five to go through with you.
Two of them are for audio, and the remaining
three are for video, and these are the things
you'd probably do the most often.
So yeah, let's take it from the top.
We're going slideshow mode again because we've
overrun!
Let's quickly jump through the five filters.
First, let's tweak the volume.
To do this, simply add the following flag
to the FFMPEG call.
The flag itself says we want to use a filter
on the audio channel, and its parameter says
that we want to call the volume filter, with
a setting of two.
The number we provide is actually a multiplier.
So when we say volume=2, we are actually doubling
the volume.
You can of course use decimal volumes, including
values smaller than 1 to reduce the volume.
Next, channel remapping.
Sometimes we accidentally record with a mono
mic into a stereo track, causing the sound
to only go to the left channel.
We can easily fix this by mapping the audio
from the left input channel to both the output
channels.
That's what this command call means!
The left channel is 0 and the right channel
is 1.
So what we're doing here is mapping the input
left channel to the output left channel, and
then the input left channel to the output
right channel, thus creating an audio track
that has sound on both sides.
Let's move on to the video filters.
First cropping.
The syntax looks like this.
Notice how we say -filter:v because we now
want to target video.
We then say crop, and specify up to four parameters.
The first two are width and height, which
specify the width and height of the output.
The two remaining parameters are optional,
and they specify the upper left corner of
the cropping.
If unspecified, the cropping is centered.
You can use arithmetic for this as well.
For example, this statement means that we
want to crop the video to 2/3 of its original
size.
The variables in_w and in_h are available,
referring to the input width and height respectively.
Next, video scaling.
This looks very similar to the first two parameters
of the crop filter.
Use w and h to set the width and height of
the output.
You can also arithmetic like with cropping.
The variables in_w and in_h are also available
here.
In addition, if you'd like proportional scaling,
you can specify -1 for one of the input parameters.
Its value will be determined from the length
you do provide.
Finally rotation.
Simply say rotate= and specify your angle.
Unfortunately your angle needs to be specified
in radians.
Luckily it's not that hard, since you can
just multiply by the constant PI/180.
So the following statement refers to a clockwise
rotation of 45 degrees.
The result of this operation looks something
like this.
And there you have it!
We've actually gone through a pretty comprehensive
beginners guide to installing and using FFMPEG.
And we've even taken a look at some complex
features, in the form of some filters, but
I've barely scratched the surface!
Like I said, FFMPEG has a whole host of filters
and if you want to look at the full list,
I will include the link in the video description
so you can find out more.
That's all there is for this particular episode,
it does look like I've overrun a bit so sorry
about that, but hopefully you've found this
video insightful anyway!
Thank you very much for watching, and until
next time, you're watching 0612 TV with NERDfirst.net.