FFMPEG-BITSTREAM-FILTERS(1)

📦
version 8.1.3 · 19 versions
, in alpine 3.24, nixos 26.05

💅 NAME 💅

ffmpeg-bitstream-filters — FFmpeg bitstream filters

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

Okay bestie, this page is the whole lore for the bitstream filters that ship with the libavcodec library.

A bitstream filter works on already-encoded stream data and does bitstream-level modifications — no decoding, no full re-encode, just surgery on the bits. 💅

🎀 BITSTREAM FILTERS 🎀

When you configure your FFmpeg build, all the supported bitstream filters are enabled by default. You can list all available ones using the configure option --list-bsfs.

You can disable all the bitstream filters using the configure option --disable-bsfs, and selectively enable any bitstream filter using the option --enable-bsf=BSF, or you can disable a particular bitstream filter using the option --disable-bsf=BSF.

The option -bsfs of the ff* tools will display the list of all the supported bitstream filters included in your build.

The ff* tools have a -bsf option applied per stream, taking a comma-separated list of filters, whose parameters follow the filter name after a '='.

ffmpeg -i INPUT -c:v copy -bsf:v filter1[=opt1=str1:opt2=str2][,filter2] OUTPUT

Below is a description of the currently available bitstream filters, with their parameters, if any. 🫶

🦋 aac_adtstoasc 🦋

Convert MPEG-2/4 AAC ADTS to an MPEG-4 Audio Specific Configuration bitstream.

This filter creates an MPEG-4 AudioSpecificConfig from an MPEG-2/4 ADTS header and removes the ADTS header.

This filter is required for example when copying an AAC stream from a raw ADTS AAC or an MPEG-TS container to MP4A-LATM, to an FLV file, or to MOV/MP4 files and related formats such as 3GP or M4A. And pls note: it is auto-inserted for MP4A-LATM and MOV/MP4 and related formats.

🦋 av1_metadata 🦋

Modify metadata embedded in an AV1 stream. ✨

  • td — Insert or remove temporal delimiter OBUs in all temporal units of the stream.
    • insert — Insert a TD at the beginning of every TU which does not already have one.
    • remove — Remove the TD from the beginning of every TU which has one.
  • color_primaries, transfer_characteristics, matrix_coefficients — Set the color description fields in the stream (see AV1 section 6.4.2).
  • color_range — Set the color range in the stream (see AV1 section 6.4.2; note that this cannot be set for streams using BT.709 primaries, sRGB transfer characteristic and identity (RGB) matrix coefficients).
    • tv — Limited range.
    • pc — Full range.
  • chroma_sample_position — Set the chroma sample location in the stream (see AV1 section 6.4.2). This can only be set for 4:2:0 streams.
    • vertical — Left position (matching the default in MPEG-2 and H.264).
    • colocated — Top-left position.
  • tick_rate — Set the tick rate (time_scale / num_units_in_display_tick) in the timing info in the sequence header.
  • num_ticks_per_picture — Set the number of ticks in each picture, to indicate that the stream has a fixed framerate. Ignored if tick_rate is not also set.
  • delete_padding — Deletes Padding OBUs.

🦋 chomp 🦋

Remove zero padding at the end of a packet. Bye-bye, extra zeros.

🦋 dca_core 🦋

Extract the core from a DCA/DTS stream, dropping extensions such as DTS-HD.

🦋 dovi_rpu 🦋

Manipulate Dolby Vision metadata in a HEVC/AV1 bitstream, optionally enabling metadata compression.

  • strip — If enabled, strip all Dolby Vision metadata (configuration record + RPU data blocks) from the stream.
  • compression — Which compression level to enable.
    • none — No metadata compression.
    • limited — Limited metadata compression scheme. Should be compatible with most devices. This is the default.
    • extended — Extended metadata compression. Devices are not required to support this. Note that this level currently behaves the same as limited in libavcodec.

🦋 dump_extra 🦋

Add extradata to the beginning of the filtered packets except when said packets already exactly begin with the extradata that is intended to be added.

  • freq — The additional argument specifies which packets should be filtered. It accepts the values:
    • k, keyframe — add extradata to all key packets
    • e, all — add extradata to all packets

If not specified it is assumed k.

For example the following ffmpeg command forces a global header (thus disabling individual packet headers) in the H.264 packets generated by the libx264 encoder, but corrects them by adding the header stored in extradata to the key packets:

ffmpeg -i INPUT -map 0 -flags:v +global_header -c:v libx264 -bsf:v dump_extra out.ts

🦋 dv_error_marker 🦋

Blocks in DV which are marked as damaged are replaced by blocks of the specified color.

  • color — The color to replace damaged blocks by
  • sta — A 16 bit mask which specifies which of the 16 possible error status values are to be replaced by colored blocks. 0xFFFE is the default which replaces all non 0 error status values.

🦋 eac3_core 🦋

Extract the core from a E-AC-3 stream, dropping extra channels.

🦋 eia608_to_smpte436m 🦋

Convert from a EIA_608 stream to a SMPTE_436M_ANC data stream, wrapping the closed captions in CTA-708 CDP VANC packets.

  • line_number — Choose which line number the generated VANC packets should go on. You generally want either line 9 (the default) or 11.
  • wrapping_type — Choose the SMPTE 436M wrapping type, defaults to vanc_frame. It accepts the values:
    • vanc_frame — VANC frame (interlaced or segmented progressive frame)
    • vanc_field_1
    • vanc_field_2
    • vanc_progressive_frame
  • sample_coding — Choose the SMPTE 436M sample coding, defaults to 8bit_luma. It accepts the values:
    • 8bit_luma — 8-bit component luma samples
    • 8bit_color_diff — 8-bit component color difference samples
    • 8bit_luma_and_color_diff — 8-bit component luma and color difference samples
    • 10bit_luma — 10-bit component luma samples
    • 10bit_color_diff — 10-bit component color difference samples
    • 10bit_luma_and_color_diff — 10-bit component luma and color difference samples
    • 8bit_luma_parity_error — 8-bit component luma samples with parity error
    • 8bit_color_diff_parity_error — 8-bit component color difference samples with parity error
    • 8bit_luma_and_color_diff_parity_error — 8-bit component luma and color difference samples with parity error
  • initial_cdp_sequence_cntr — The initial value of the CDP's 16-bit unsigned integer cdp_hdr_sequence_cntr and cdp_ftr_sequence_cntr fields. Defaults to 0.
  • cdp_frame_rate — Set the CDP's cdp_frame_rate field. This doesn't actually change the timing of the data stream, it just changes the values inserted in that field in the generated CDP packets. Defaults to 30000/1001.

🦋 extract_extradata 🦋

Extract the in-band extradata.

Certain codecs allow the long-term headers (e.g. MPEG-2 sequence headers, or H.264/HEVC (VPS/)SPS/PPS) to be transmitted either "in-band" (i.e. as a part of the bitstream containing the coded frames) or "out of band" (e.g. on the container level). This latter form is called "extradata" in FFmpeg terminology.

This bitstream filter detects the in-band headers and makes them available as extradata. ✨

  • remove — When this option is enabled, the long-term headers are removed from the bitstream after extraction.

🦋 filter_units 🦋

Remove units with types in or not in a given set from the stream.

  • pass_types — List of unit types or ranges of unit types to pass through while removing all others. This is specified as a '|'-separated list of unit type values or ranges of values with '-'.
  • remove_types — Identical to pass_types, except the units in the given set are removed and all others are passed through.

The types used by pass_types and remove_types correspond to NAL unit types (nal_unit_type) in H.264, HEVC and H.266 (see Table 7-1 in the H.264 and HEVC specifications or Table 5 in the H.266 specification), to marker values for JPEG (without 0xFF prefix) and to start codes without start code prefix (i.e. the byte following the 0x000001) for MPEG-2. For VP8 and VP9, every unit has type zero.

Extradata is unchanged by this transformation, but note that if the stream contains inline parameter sets then the output may be unusable if they are removed. Important vibe check.

For example, to remove all non-VCL NAL units from an H.264 stream:

ffmpeg -i INPUT -c:v copy -bsf:v 'filter_units=pass_types=1-5' OUTPUT

To remove all AUDs, SEI and filler from an H.265 stream:

ffmpeg -i INPUT -c:v copy -bsf:v 'filter_units=remove_types=35|38-40' OUTPUT

To remove all user data from a MPEG-2 stream, including Closed Captions:

ffmpeg -i INPUT -c:v copy -bsf:v 'filter_units=remove_types=178' OUTPUT

To remove all SEI from a H264 stream, including Closed Captions:

ffmpeg -i INPUT -c:v copy -bsf:v 'filter_units=remove_types=6' OUTPUT

To remove all prefix and suffix SEI from a HEVC stream, including Closed Captions and dynamic HDR:

ffmpeg -i INPUT -c:v copy -bsf:v 'filter_units=remove_types=39|40' OUTPUT

🦋 hapqa_extract 🦋

Extract Rgb or Alpha part of an HAPQA file, without recompression, in order to create an HAPQ or an HAPAlphaOnly file.

  • texture — Specifies the texture to keep.
    • color
    • alpha

Convert HAPQA to HAPQ

ffmpeg -i hapqa_inputfile.mov -c copy -bsf:v hapqa_extract=texture=color -tag:v HapY -metadata:s:v:0 encoder="HAPQ" hapq_file.mov

Convert HAPQA to HAPAlphaOnly

ffmpeg -i hapqa_inputfile.mov -c copy -bsf:v hapqa_extract=texture=alpha -tag:v HapA -metadata:s:v:0 encoder="HAPAlpha Only" hapalphaonly_file.mov

🦋 h264_metadata 🦋

Modify metadata embedded in an H.264 stream.

  • aud — Insert or remove AUD NAL units in all access units of the stream.
    • pass
    • insert
    • remove

Default is pass.

  • sample_aspect_ratio — Set the sample aspect ratio of the stream in the VUI parameters. See H.264 table E-1.
  • overscan_appropriate_flag — sets whether the stream is suitable for display using overscan or not (see H.264 section E.2.1). vibe check for your display mode 💅
  • video_format, video_full_range_flag — set the video format in the stream (see H.264 section E.2.1 and table E-2).
  • colour_primaries, transfer_characteristics, matrix_coefficients — set the colour description in the stream (see H.264 section E.2.1 and tables E-3, E-4 and E-5). colour lore ✨
  • chroma_sample_loc_type — set the chroma sample location in the stream (see H.264 section E.2.1 and figure E-1).
  • tick_rate — sets the tick rate (time_scale / num_units_in_tick) in the VUI parameters. This is the smallest time unit representable in the stream, and in many cases represents the field rate of the stream (double the frame rate). time math bestie 🕰️
  • fixed_frame_rate_flag — sets whether the stream has fixed framerate. Typically this indicates that the framerate is exactly half the tick rate, but the exact meaning is dependent on interlacing and the picture structure (see H.264 section E.2.1 and table E-6).
  • zero_new_constraint_set_flags — zeroes constraint_set4_flag and constraint_set5_flag in the SPS. These bits were reserved in a previous version of the H.264 spec, and thus some hardware decoders require these to be zero. The result of zeroing this is still a valid bitstream. don't panic, it's still valid 🔥
  • crop_left, crop_right, crop_top, crop_bottom — set the frame cropping offsets in the SPS. These values will replace the current ones if the stream is already cropped.

These fields are set in pixels. Note that some sizes may not be representable if the chroma is subsampled or the stream is interlaced (see H.264 section 7.4.2.1.1). pixel boundaries are a whole thing 🎀

  • sei_user_data — inserts a string as SEI unregistered user data. The argument must be of the form UUID+string, where the UUID is as hex digits possibly separated by hyphens, and the string can be anything.

For example, 086f3693-b7b3-4f2c-9653-21492feee5b8+hello will insert the string hello associated with the given UUID. custom little message era 💜

  • delete_filler — deletes both filler NAL units and filler SEI messages.
  • display_orientation — inserts, extracts or removes Display orientation SEI messages. See H.264 section D.1.27 and D.2.27 for syntax and semantics.
    • pass
    • insert
    • remove
    • extract

Default is pass.

Insert mode works in conjunction with rotate and flip options. Any pre-existing Display orientation messages will be removed in insert or remove mode. Extract mode attaches the display matrix to the packet as side data. orientation glow-up 🌈

  • rotate — sets rotation in display orientation SEI (anticlockwise angle in degrees). Range is -360 to +360. Default is NaN. spin it, but make it legal 💅
  • flip — sets flip in display orientation SEI.
    • horizontal
    • vertical

Default is unset.

  • level — sets the level in the SPS. Refer to H.264 section A.3 and tables A-1 to A-5.

The argument must be the name of a level (for example, 4.2), a level_idc value (for example, 42), or the special name auto indicating that the filter should attempt to guess the level from the input stream properties. auto is giving main character energy 👑

🎀 h264_mp4toannexb 🎀

Converts an H.264 bitstream from length prefixed mode to start code prefixed mode (as defined in the Annex B of the ITU-T H.264 specification).

This is required by some streaming formats, typically the MPEG-2 transport stream format (muxer mpegts). streaming formats are picky, ngl

For example, to remux an MP4 file containing an H.264 stream to mpegts format with ffmpeg, you can use the command:

ffmpeg -i INPUT.mp4 -codec copy -bsf:v h264_mp4toannexb OUTPUT.ts

Heads up: this filter is auto-inserted for MPEG-TS (muxer mpegts) and raw H.264 (muxer h264) output formats. auto-magic, slay ✨

🦋 h264_redundant_pps 🦋

This applies a specific fixup to some Blu-ray BDMV H264 streams which contain redundant PPSs. The PPSs modify irrelevant parameters of the stream, confusing other transformations which require the correct extradata.

The encoder used on these impacted streams adds extra PPSs throughout the stream, varying the initial QP and whether weighted prediction was enabled. This causes issues after copying the stream into a global header container, as the starting PPS is not suitable for the rest of the stream. One side effect, for example, is seeking will return garbled output until a new PPS appears. garbled seeking is not the vibe 😭

This BSF removes the extra PPSs and rewrites the slice headers such that the stream uses a single leading PPS in the global header, which resolves the issue. fix it era 🫶

🧚 hevc_metadata 🧚

Modify metadata embedded in an HEVC stream.

  • aud — insert or remove AUD NAL units in all access units of the stream.
    • insert
    • remove
  • sample_aspect_ratio — set the sample aspect ratio in the stream in the VUI parameters.
  • video_format, video_full_range_flag — set the video format in the stream (see H.265 section E.3.1 and table E.2).
  • colour_primaries, transfer_characteristics, matrix_coefficients — set the colour description in the stream (see H.265 section E.3.1 and tables E.3, E.4 and E.5). colour description glow-up 🌈
  • chroma_sample_loc_type — set the chroma sample location in the stream (see H.265 section E.3.1 and figure E.1).
  • tick_rate — set the tick rate in the VPS and VUI parameters (time_scale / num_units_in_tick). Combined with num_ticks_poc_diff_one, this can set a constant framerate in the stream. Note that it is likely to be overridden by container parameters when the stream is in a container. container says “I'm the captain now” 🚢
  • num_ticks_poc_diff_one — set poc_proportional_to_timing_flag in VPS and VUI and use this value to set num_ticks_poc_diff_one_minus1 (see H.265 sections 7.4.3.1 and E.3.1). Ignored if tick_rate is not also set.
  • crop_left, crop_right, crop_top, crop_bottom — set the conformance window cropping offsets in the SPS. These values will replace the current ones if the stream is already cropped.

These fields are set in pixels. Note that some sizes may not be representable if the chroma is subsampled (H.265 section 7.4.3.2.1). crop it, but respectfully 🎀

  • width, height — set width and height after crop.
  • level — set the level in the VPS and SPS. See H.265 section A.4 and tables A.6 and A.7.

The argument must be the name of a level (for example, 5.1), a general_level_idc value (for example, 153 for level 5.1), or the special name auto indicating that the filter should attempt to guess the level from the input stream properties. guess the level? auto said bet 👑

⭐ hevc_mp4toannexb ⭐

Convert an HEVC/H.265 bitstream from length prefixed mode to start code prefixed mode (as defined in the Annex B of the ITU-T H.265 specification).

This is required by some streaming formats, typically the MPEG-2 transport stream format (muxer mpegts).

For example, to remux an MP4 file containing an HEVC stream to mpegts format with ffmpeg, you can use the command:

ffmpeg -i INPUT.mp4 -codec copy -bsf:v hevc_mp4toannexb OUTPUT.ts

Please note that this filter is auto-inserted for MPEG-TS (muxer mpegts) and raw HEVC/H.265 (muxer h265 or hevc) output formats. auto-inserted again, iconic ✨

💅 imxdump 💅

Modifies the bitstream to fit in MOV and to be usable by the Final Cut Pro decoder. This filter only applies to the mpeg2video codec, and is likely not needed for Final Cut Pro 7 and newer with the appropriate -tag:v.

For example, to remux 30 MB/sec NTSC IMX to MOV:

ffmpeg -i input.mxf -c copy -bsf:v imxdump -tag:v mx3n output.mov

Final Cut Pro said make it compatible, so we did 💖

🍓 mjpeg2jpeg 🍓

Convert MJPEG/AVI1 packets to full JPEG/JFIF packets.

MJPEG is a video codec wherein each video frame is essentially a JPEG image. The individual frames can be extracted without loss, e.g. by

ffmpeg -i ../some_mjpeg.avi -c:v copy frames_%d.jpg

Unfortunately, these chunks are incomplete JPEG images, because they lack the DHT segment required for decoding. Quoting from http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/formats/fdd/fdd000063.shtml:

Avery Lee, writing in the rec.video.desktop newsgroup in 2001, commented that “MJPEG, or at least the MJPEG in AVIs having the MJPG fourcc, is restricted JPEG with a fixed -- and omitted -- Huffman table. The JPEG must be YCbCr colorspace, it must be 4:2:2, and it must use basic Huffman encoding, not arithmetic or progressive. . . . You can indeed extract the MJPEG frames and decode them with a regular JPEG decoder, but you have to prepend the DHT segment to them, or else the decoder won't have any idea how to decompress the data. The exact table necessary is given in the OpenDML spec.”

This bitstream filter patches the header of frames extracted from an MJPEG stream (carrying the AVI1 header ID and lacking a DHT segment) to produce fully qualified JPEG images. patch the header, save the frame 😭

ffmpeg -i mjpeg-movie.avi -c:v copy -bsf:v mjpeg2jpeg frame_%d.jpg
exiftran -i -9 frame*.jpg
ffmpeg -i frame_%d.jpg -c:v copy rotated.avi

🌸 mjpegadump 🌸

Add an MJPEG A header to the bitstream, to enable decoding by Quicktime. Quicktime compatibility era 💅

🦋 mov2textsub 🦋

Extract a representable text file from MOV subtitles, stripping the metadata header from each subtitle packet.

See also the text2movsub filter. subtitle bestie crossover 🫶

🔥 mpeg2_metadata 🔥

Modify metadata embedded in an MPEG-2 stream.

  • display_aspect_ratio — set the display aspect ratio in the stream.

The following fixed values are supported:

  • 4/3
  • 16/9
  • 221/100

Any other value will result in square pixels being signalled instead (see H.262 section 6.3.3 and table 6-3). square pixels said fallback, bestie 📐

  • frame_rate — set the frame rate in the stream. This is constructed from a table of known values combined with a small multiplier and divisor. If the supplied value is not exactly representable, the nearest representable value will be used instead (see H.262 section 6.3.3 and table 6-4).
  • video_format — set the video format in the stream (see H.262 section 6.3.6 and table 6-6).
  • colour_primaries, transfer_characteristics, matrix_coefficients — set the colour description in the stream (see H.262 section 6.3.6 and tables 6-7, 6-8 and 6-9). MPEG-2 colour lore 🌈

💜 mpeg4_unpack_bframes 💜

Unpack DivX-style packed B-frames.

DivX-style packed B-frames are not valid MPEG-4 and were only a workaround for the broken Video for Windows subsystem. They use more space, can cause minor AV sync issues, require more CPU power to decode (unless the player has some decoded picture queue to compensate the 2,0,2,0 frame per packet style) and cause trouble if copied into a standard container like mp4 or mpeg-ps/ts, because MPEG-4 decoders may not be able to decode them, since they are not valid MPEG-4. not valid MPEG-4 is not a slay, it's a warning 😭

So like, real talk — that packed-B-frames situation in AVI files? Yeah, if you've got an MPEG-4 stream with DivX-style packed B-frames sitting in an AVI and you wanna fix it with ffmpeg, this is the command, bestie:

ffmpeg -i INPUT.avi -codec copy -bsf:v mpeg4_unpack_bframes OUTPUT.avi

🎀 noise

This one is chaotic on purpose and honestly kind of iconic for it. It damages the contents of packets, or just straight up drops them — and the whole time, the container stays untouched. So it's perfect for fuzzing, or for testing how good your error resilience/concealment is. Not me breaking things on purpose to test things 💀

Parameters, here we go:

  • amount — takes an expression, evaluated per packet, that decides how often bytes in that packet get modified. A value below 0 gives you a variable frequency. Default is 0, which means no modification at all. But heads up: if you specify neither amount nor drop, then amount gets set to -1. See the variable list below for what you can use.
  • drop — takes an expression evaluated per packet, whose value decides whether that packet gets dropped. Positive value → packet gets dropped, periodt. Negative value → variable chance of it being dropped, roughly inverse in proportion to the magnitude of the value. Default is 0 which means no drops. Variables list is below too.
  • dropamount — takes a non-negative integer and assigns a variable chance of the packet being dropped, roughly inverse in proportion to the value. Default is 0 → no drops. This one's kept around for backwards compatibility, and it's equivalent to setting drop to a negative value with the same magnitude — so dropamount=4 is literally the same thing as drop=-4. It gets ignored if you also specify drop.

Both amount and drop accept expressions containing these variables:

  • n — the index of the packet, starting from zero.
  • tb — the timebase for packet timestamps.
  • pts — packet presentation timestamp.
  • dts — packet decoding timestamp.
  • nopts — a constant representing AV_NOPTS_VALUE.
  • startpts — the first non-AV_NOPTS_VALUE PTS seen in the stream.
  • startdts — the first non-AV_NOPTS_VALUE DTS seen in the stream.
  • duration, d — packet duration, in timebase units.
  • pos — packet position in input; may be -1 when it's unknown or not set.
  • size — packet size, in bytes.
  • key — whether the packet is marked as a keyframe.
  • state — a pseudo random integer, primarily derived from the content of the packet payload.

✨ Examples ✨

Apply modification to every byte, but don't drop any packets:

ffmpeg -i INPUT -c copy -bsf noise=1 output.mkv

Drop every video packet that's not marked as a keyframe after timestamp 30s, but do not modify any of the remaining packets:

ffmpeg -i INPUT -c copy -bsf:v noise=drop='gt(pts*tb\,30)*not(key)' output.mkv

Drop one second of audio every 10 seconds and add some random noise to the rest:

ffmpeg -i INPUT -c copy -bsf:a noise=amount=-1:drop='between(mod(pts*tb\,10)\,9\,10)' output.mkv

🦋 null

The chillest filter in the whole building. It passes the packets through unchanged. That's it. That's the whole job. Main character energy of just being 🌈

🧚 pcm_rechunk

Repacketizes PCM audio to a fixed number of samples per packet — or to a fixed packet rate per second. It's giving the asetnsamples audio filter, except it works on audio packets instead of audio frames. Little sibling energy, iykyk.

  • nb_out_samples, n — sets the number of samples per each output audio packet. The number is intended as the number of samples per each channel. Default value is 1024.
  • pad, p — if set to 1, the filter pads the last audio packet with silence so it contains the same number of samples (or roughly the same number of samples — check frame_rate) as the previous ones. Default value is 1.
  • frame_rate, r — makes the filter output a fixed number of packets per second instead of a fixed number of samples per packet. If the audio sample rate isn't divisible by the frame rate, then the number of samples won't be constant — it'll vary slightly so each packet starts as close to the frame boundary as possible. Using this option takes precedence over nb_out_samples.

You can generate the well known 1602-1601-1602-1601-1602 pattern of 48kHz audio for NTSC frame rate using the frame_rate option:

ffmpeg -f lavfi -i sine=r=48000:d=1 -c pcm_s16le -bsf pcm_rechunk=r=30000/1001 -f framecrc -

💅 pgs_frame_merge

Merges a sequence of PGS Subtitle segments that end with an "end of display set" segment into a single packet.

Some containers that support PGS subtitles actually require this (looking at you, muxer matroska). So if matroska's being picky, this is your girl 🫶

👑 prores_metadata

Modifies the color property metadata embedded in a prores stream. Glow-up for your metadata, no cap.

  • color_primaries — sets the color primaries. Available values are:
    • auto — keep the same color primaries property (default).
    • unknown
    • bt709
    • bt470bg — BT601 625
    • smpte170m — BT601 525
    • bt2020
    • smpte431 — DCI P3
    • smpte432 — P3 D65
  • transfer_characteristics — sets the color transfer. Available values are:
    • auto — keep the same transfer characteristics property (default).
    • unknown
    • bt709 — BT 601, BT 709, BT 2020
    • smpte2084 — SMPTE ST 2084
    • arib-std-b67 — ARIB STD-B67
  • matrix_coefficients — sets the matrix coefficient. Available values are:
    • auto — keep the same colorspace property (default).
    • unknown
    • bt709
    • smpte170m — BT 601
    • bt2020nc

Set Rec709 colorspace for each frame of the file:

ffmpeg -i INPUT -c copy -bsf:v prores_metadata=color_primaries=bt709:color_trc=bt709:colorspace=bt709 output.mov

Set Hybrid Log-Gamma parameters for each frame of the file:

ffmpeg -i INPUT -c copy -bsf:v prores_metadata=color_primaries=bt2020:color_trc=arib-std-b67:colorspace=bt2020nc output.mov

⭐ remove_extra

Removes extradata from packets. Bye bestie 💨

It accepts this parameter:

  • freq — sets which frame types to remove extradata from:
    • k — remove extradata from non-keyframes only.
    • keyframe — remove extradata from keyframes only.
    • e, all — remove extradata from all frames.

🌸 setts

Sets PTS and DTS in packets. Timestamp surgery, basically ✨

It accepts these parameters:

  • ts, pts, dts — set expressions for PTS, DTS, or both.
  • duration — set expression for duration.
  • time_base — set output time base.
  • prescale — set whether to convert time fields to the user-set output time base before evaluation of the expressions. Defaults to 0.

The expressions are evaluated through the eval API and can contain these constants:

  • N — the count of the input packet. Starting from 0.
  • TS — the demux timestamp in input in the case of the ts or dts option, or the presentation timestamp in the case of the pts option.
  • POS — the original position in the file of the packet, or undefined if undefined for the current packet.
  • DTS — the demux timestamp in input.
  • PTS — the presentation timestamp in input.
  • DURATION — the duration in input.
  • STARTDTS — the DTS of the first packet.
  • STARTPTS — the PTS of the first packet.
  • PREV_INDTS — the previous input DTS.
  • PREV_INPTS — the previous input PTS.
  • PREV_INDURATION — the previous input duration.
  • PREV_OUTDTS — the previous output DTS.
  • PREV_OUTPTS — the previous output PTS.
  • PREV_OUTDURATION — the previous output duration.
  • NEXT_DTS — the next input DTS.
  • NEXT_PTS — the next input PTS.
  • NEXT_DURATION — the next input duration.
  • TB — the timebase in which time fields are denominated. It's the user-set output timebase if prescale is enabled, else the input timebase.
  • TB_OUT — the output timebase.
  • SR — the sample rate of the stream the packet belongs to.
  • NOPTS — the AV_NOPTS_VALUE constant.

For example, to set PTS equal to DTS (and listen, this is not recommended if B-frames are involved):

ffmpeg -i INPUT -c:a copy -bsf:a setts=pts=DTS out.mkv

🔥 showinfo

Logs basic packet information. Mainly useful for testing, debugging, and development. Your lil diagnostic bestie 🫶

🍓 smpte436m_to_eia608

Converts from a SMPTE_436M_ANC data stream to an EIA_608 stream — it extracts the closed captions from CTA-708 CDP VANC packets and ignores all the other data. Selective queen 💅

🎀 text2movsub

Converts text subtitles to MOV subtitles (as used by the mov_text codec) with metadata headers.

See also the mov2textsub filter — they're a matching set, fr fr.

💜 trace_headers

Logs trace output containing all syntax elements in the coded stream headers (everything above the level of individual coded blocks). Genuinely so useful for debugging low-level stream issues, ngl.

Supports AV1, H.264, H.265, (M)JPEG, MPEG-2 and VP9 — but depending on the build, only a subset of these may actually be available. So vibe check your build first 🙈

🌈 truehd_core

Extracts the core from a TrueHD stream, dropping ATMOS data. Sorry to the ATMOS girlies, the core is all we're keeping 😭

🦋 vp9_metadata

Modifies metadata embedded in a VP9 stream.

  • color_space — sets the color space value in the frame header. Note that any frame set to RGB will be implicitly set to PC range, and that RGB is incompatible with profiles 0 and 2.
    • unknown
    • bt601
    • bt709
    • smpte170
    • smpte240
    • bt2020
    • rgb
  • color_range — sets the color range value in the frame header. Note that any value imposed by the color space will take precedence over this value.
    • tv
    • pc

🧚 vp9_superframe

Merges VP9 invisible (alt-ref) frames back into VP9 superframes. This fixes the merging of split/segmented VP9 streams where the alt-ref frame got split from its visible counterpart. Reuniting the siblings, honestly 💖

⭐ vp9_superframe_split

Splits VP9 superframes into single frames. The exact opposite vibe of the one above, and yes they're both invited to the party.

👑 vp9_raw_reorder

Given a VP9 stream with correct timestamps but possibly out of order, this inserts additional show-existing-frame packets to correct the ordering. It's giving organizational queen energy ✨

💖 SEE ALSO 💖

ffmpeg(1), ffplay(1), ffprobe(1), libavcodec(3)

🌟 AUTHORS 🌟

The FFmpeg developers.

For details about the authorship, see the Git history of the project (https://git.ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg), e.g. by typing the command git log in the FFmpeg source directory, or browsing the online repository at https://git.ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg.

Maintainers for the specific components are listed in the file MAINTAINERS in the source code tree.

Okay bestie, that's the whole thing — that was FFMPEG-BITSTREAM-FILTERS(1), section 1 of the manual, and you made it all the way to the end?? Obsessed with you fr fr 🫶✨ Go fix some streams, you absolute icon 💅👑

📦 where this page comes from