ffmpeg-helper-tools

simple python scripts for ffmpeg batch tasks

FFMPEG Cheatsheet

convert videos

ffmpeg -i input.MTS output.mp4

compress videos

crf is 0-52 (23-28 is a good choice)
compress the videos with ffmpeg to h.265 (better)
ffmpeg -i videoin.mp4 -vcodec libx265 -crf 28 -c:a copy videoout.mp4 -y
compress the videos with ffmpeg to h.264 (for legacy systems)
ffmpeg -i input.MTS -crf 23 output.mp4

concat videos

ffmpeg -i "concat:00008.MTS|00009.MTS|00021.MTS|00010.MTS" -crf 23 output.mp4

cut out part of video

https://video.stackexchange.com/questions/4563/how-can-i-crop-a-video-with-ffmpeg

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -filter:v crop=iw/2:ih/2:0:0 -c:a copy output.mp4

trim a video

• The -ss parameter is the starting point.
• The -t provides the length of the clip
  ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -ss 00:00:10 -t 00:20:00 -async 1 output.mp4

make animated gif from mp4

ffmpeg -i input.pm4 rainbowunicorn.gif

dvgrab

extract from old video camcorder over firewire

dvgrab -size=0 -rewind -t mpeg2  -showstatus  -timesys -autosplit=10000

and to properly convert it to a mp4 use yadif filter

ffmpeg -i dv-grabbed-video.dv  out.mp4