FFMPEG-UTILS(1)

FFMPEG-UTILS(1) πŸ’–

okay bestie, welcome to ffmpeg-utils aka FFmpeg utilities β€” this is the manual page for the generic features and utilities that come from the libavutil library, and we’re gonna make it make sense πŸ’…βœ¨

🌟 NAME 🌟

ffmpeg-utils β€” FFmpeg utilities

πŸ¦‹ DESCRIPTION πŸ¦‹

This document describes some generic features and utilities provided by the libavutil library.

πŸŽ€ SYNTAX πŸŽ€

This section documents the syntax and formats employed by the FFmpeg libraries and tools.

πŸ’– Quoting and escaping πŸ’–

FFmpeg adopts the following quoting and escaping mechanism, unless explicitly specified. The following rules are applied:

  • ' and \ are special characters (respectively used for quoting and escaping). In addition to them, there might be other special characters depending on the specific syntax where the escaping and quoting are employed.
  • A special character is escaped by prefixing it with a \.
  • All characters enclosed between '' are included literally in the parsed string. The quote character ' itself cannot be quoted, so you may need to close the quote and escape it.
  • Leading and trailing whitespaces, unless escaped or quoted, are removed from the parsed string.

Note that you may need to add a second level of escaping when using the command line or a script, which depends on the syntax of the adopted shell language.

The function av_get_token defined in libavutil/avstring.h can be used to parse a token quoted or escaped according to the rules defined above.

The tool tools/ffescape in the FFmpeg source tree can be used to automatically quote or escape a string in a script.

🌸 Examples 🌸

  • Escape the string "Crime d'Amour" containing the ' special character:
Crime d\'Amour
  • The string above contains a quote, so the ' needs to be escaped when quoting it:
'Crime d'\''Amour'
  • Include leading or trailing whitespaces using quoting:
'  this string starts and ends with whitespaces  '
  • Escaping and quoting can be mixed together:
' The string '\'string\'' is a string '
  • To include a literal \ you can use either escaping or quoting:
'c:\foo' can be written as c:\\foo

πŸŒ™ Date πŸŒ™

The accepted syntax is:

[(YYYY-MM-DD|YYYYMMDD)[T|t| ]]((HH:MM:SS[.m...]]])|(HHMMSS[.m...]]]))[Z]
now

If the value is now it takes the current time.

Time is local time unless Z is appended, in which case it is interpreted as UTC. If the year-month-day part is not specified it takes the current year-month-day.

⏳ Time duration ⏳

There are two accepted syntaxes for expressing time duration.

[-][<HH>:]<MM>:<SS>[.<m>...]

HH expresses the number of hours, MM the number of minutes for a maximum of 2 digits, and SS the number of seconds for a maximum of 2 digits. The m at the end expresses decimal value for SS.

or

[-]<S>+[.<m>...][s|ms|us]

S expresses the number of seconds, with the optional decimal part m. The optional literal suffixes s, ms or us indicate to interpret the value as seconds, milliseconds or microseconds, respectively.

In both expressions, the optional - indicates negative duration.

πŸ“ Examples πŸ“

The following examples are all valid time duration:

  • 55 β€” 55 seconds
  • 0.2 β€” 0.2 seconds
  • 200ms β€” 200 milliseconds, that's 0.2s
  • 200000us β€” 200000 microseconds, that's 0.2s
  • 12:03:45 β€” 12 hours, 03 minutes and 45 seconds
  • 23.189 β€” 23.189 seconds

πŸ–ΌοΈ Video size πŸ–ΌοΈ

Specify the size of the sourced video, it may be a string of the form widthxheight, or the name of a size abbreviation.

The following abbreviations are recognized:

  • ntsc β€” 720x480
  • pal β€” 720x576
  • qntsc β€” 352x240
  • qpal β€” 352x288
  • sntsc β€” 640x480
  • spal β€” 768x576
  • film β€” 352x240
  • ntsc-film β€” 352x240
  • sqcif β€” 128x96
  • qcif β€” 176x144
  • cif β€” 352x288
  • 4cif β€” 704x576
  • 16cif β€” 1408x1152
  • qqvga β€” 160x120
  • qvga β€” 320x240
  • vga β€” 640x480
  • svga β€” 800x600
  • xga β€” 1024x768
  • uxga β€” 1600x1200
  • qxga β€” 2048x1536
  • sxga β€” 1280x1024
  • qsxga β€” 2560x2048
  • hsxga β€” 5120x4096
  • wvga β€” 852x480
  • wxga β€” 1366x768
  • wsxga β€” 1600x1024
  • wuxga β€” 1920x1200
  • woxga β€” 2560x1600
  • wqsxga β€” 3200x2048
  • wquxga β€” 3840x2400
  • whsxga β€” 6400x4096
  • whuxga β€” 7680x4800
  • cga β€” 320x200
  • ega β€” 640x350
  • hd480 β€” 852x480
  • hd720 β€” 1280x720
  • hd1080 β€” 1920x1080
  • 2k β€” 2048x1080
  • 2kflat β€” 1998x1080
  • 2kscope β€” 2048x858
  • 4k β€” 4096x2160
  • 4kflat β€” 3996x2160
  • 4kscope β€” 4096x1716
  • nhd β€” 640x360
  • hqvga β€” 240x160
  • wqvga β€” 400x240
  • fwqvga β€” 432x240
  • hvga β€” 480x320
  • qhd β€” 960x540
  • 2kdci β€” 2048x1080
  • 4kdci β€” 4096x2160
  • uhd2160 β€” 3840x2160
  • uhd4320 β€” 7680x4320

🎞️ Video rate 🎞️

Specify the frame rate of a video, expressed as the number of frames generated per second. It has to be a string in the format frame_rate_num/frame_rate_den, an integer number, a float number or a valid video frame rate abbreviation.

The following abbreviations are recognized:

  • ntsc β€” 30000/1001
  • pal β€” 25/1
  • qntsc β€” 30000/1001
  • qpal β€” 25/1
  • sntsc β€” 30000/1001
  • spal β€” 25/1
  • film β€” 24/1
  • ntsc-film β€” 24000/1001

🧚 Ratio 🧚

A ratio can be expressed as an expression, or in the form numerator:denominator.

Note that a ratio with infinite (1/0) or negative value is considered valid, so you should check on the returned value if you want to exclude those values.

The undefined value can be expressed using the "0:0" string.

🎨 Color 🎨

It can be the name of a color as defined below (case insensitive match) or a [0x|#]RRGGBB[AA] sequence, possibly followed by @ and a string representing the alpha component.

The alpha component may be a string composed by 0x followed by an hexadecimal number or a decimal number between 0.0 and 1.0, which represents the opacity value (0x00 or 0.0 means completely transparent, 0xff or 1.0 completely opaque). If the alpha component is not specified then 0xff is assumed.

The string random will result in a random color.

The following names of colors are recognized:

  • AliceBlue β€” 0xF0F8FF
  • AntiqueWhite β€” 0xFAEBD7
  • Aqua β€” 0x00FFFF
  • Aquamarine β€” 0x7FFFD4
  • Azure β€” 0xF0FFFF
  • Beige β€” 0xF5F5DC
  • Bisque β€” 0xFFE4C4
  • Black β€” 0x000000
  • BlanchedAlmond β€” 0xFFEBCD
  • Blue β€” 0x0000FF
  • BlueViolet β€” 0x8A2BE2
  • Brown β€” 0xA52A2A
  • BurlyWood β€” 0xDEB887
  • CadetBlue β€” 0x5F9EA0
  • Chartreuse β€” 0x7FFF00
  • Chocolate β€” 0xD2691E
  • Coral β€” 0xFF7F50
  • CornflowerBlue β€” 0x6495ED
  • Cornsilk β€” 0xFFF8DC
  • Crimson β€” 0xDC143C
  • Cyan β€” 0x00FFFF
  • DarkBlue β€” 0x00008B
  • DarkCyan β€” 0x008B8B
  • DarkGoldenRod β€” 0xB8860B
  • DarkGray β€” 0xA9A9A9
  • DarkGreen β€” 0x006400
  • DarkKhaki β€” 0xBDB76B
  • DarkMagenta β€” 0x8B008B
  • DarkOliveGreen β€” 0x556B2F
  • Darkorange β€” 0xFF8C00
  • DarkOrchid β€” 0x9932CC
  • DarkRed β€” 0x8B0000
  • DarkSalmon β€” 0xE9967A
  • DarkSeaGreen β€” 0x8FBC8F
  • DarkSlateBlue β€” 0x483D8B
  • DarkSlateGray β€” 0x2F4F4F
  • DarkTurquoise β€” 0x00CED1
  • DarkViolet β€” 0x9400D3
  • DeepPink β€” 0xFF1493
  • DeepSkyBlue β€” 0x00BFFF
  • DimGray β€” 0x696969
  • DodgerBlue β€” 0x1E90FF
  • FireBrick β€” 0xB22222
  • FloralWhite β€” 0xFFFAF0
  • ForestGreen β€” 0x228B22
  • Fuchsia β€” 0xFF00FF
  • Gainsboro β€” 0xDCDCDC
  • GhostWhite β€” 0xF8F8FF
  • Gold β€” 0xFFD700
  • GoldenRod β€” 0xDAA520
  • Gray β€” 0x808080
  • Green β€” 0x008000
  • GreenYellow β€” 0xADFF2F
  • HoneyDew β€” 0xF0FFF0
  • HotPink β€” 0xFF69B4
  • IndianRed β€” 0xCD5C5C
  • Indigo β€” 0x4B0082
  • Ivory β€” 0xFFFFF0
  • Khaki β€” 0xF0E68C
  • Lavender β€” 0xE6E6FA
  • LavenderBlush β€” 0xFFF0F5
  • LawnGreen β€” 0x7CFC00
  • LemonChiffon β€” 0xFFFACD
  • LightBlue β€” 0xADD8E6
  • LightCoral β€” 0xF08080
  • LightCyan β€” 0xE0FFFF
  • LightGoldenRodYellow β€” 0xFAFAD2
  • LightGreen β€” 0x90EE90
  • LightGrey β€” 0xD3D3D3
  • LightPink β€” 0xFFB6C1
  • LightSalmon β€” 0xFFA07A
  • LightSeaGreen β€” 0x20B2AA
  • LightSkyBlue β€” 0x87CEFA
  • LightSlateGray β€” 0x778899
  • LightSteelBlue β€” 0xB0C4DE
  • LightYellow β€” 0xFFFFE0
  • Lime β€” 0x00FF00
  • LimeGreen β€” 0x32CD32
  • Linen β€” 0xFAF0E6
  • Magenta β€” 0xFF00FF
  • Maroon β€” 0x800000
  • MediumAquaMarine β€” 0x66CDAA
  • MediumBlue β€” 0x0000CD
  • MediumOrchid β€” 0xBA55D3
  • MediumPurple β€” 0x9370D8
  • MediumSeaGreen β€” 0x3CB371
  • MediumSlateBlue β€” 0x7B68EE
  • MediumSpringGreen β€” 0x00FA9A
  • MediumTurquoise β€” 0x48D1CC
  • MediumVioletRed β€” 0xC71585
  • MidnightBlue β€” 0x191970
  • MintCream β€” 0xF5FFFA
  • MistyRose β€” 0xFFE4E1
  • Moccasin β€” 0xFFE4B5
  • NavajoWhite β€” 0xFFDEAD
  • Navy β€” 0x000080
  • OldLace β€” 0xFDF5E6
  • Olive β€” 0x808000
  • OliveDrab β€” 0x6B8E23
  • Orange β€” 0xFFA500
  • OrangeRed β€” 0xFF4500
  • Orchid β€” 0xDA70D6
  • PaleGoldenRod β€” 0xEEE8AA
  • PaleGreen β€” 0x98FB98
  • PaleTurquoise β€” 0xAFEEEE
  • PaleVioletRed β€” 0xD87093
  • PapayaWhip β€” 0xFFEFD5
  • PeachPuff β€” 0xFFDAB9
  • Peru β€” 0xCD853F
  • Pink β€” 0xFFC0CB
  • Plum β€” 0xDDA0DD
  • PowderBlue β€” 0xB0E0E6
  • Purple β€” 0x800080
  • Red β€” 0xFF0000
  • RosyBrown β€” 0xBC8F8F
  • RoyalBlue β€” 0x4169E1
  • SaddleBrown β€” 0x8B4513
  • Salmon β€” 0xFA8072
  • SandyBrown β€” 0xF4A460
  • SeaGreen β€” 0x2E8B57
  • SeaShell β€” 0xFFF5EE
  • Sienna β€” 0xA0522D
  • Silver β€” 0xC0C0C0
  • SkyBlue β€” 0x87CEEB
  • SlateBlue β€” 0x6A5ACD
  • SlateGray β€” 0x708090
  • Snow β€” 0xFFFAFA
  • SpringGreen β€” 0x00FF7F
  • SteelBlue β€” 0x4682B4
  • Tan β€” 0xD2B48C
  • Teal β€” 0x008080
  • Thistle β€” 0xD8BFD8
  • Tomato β€” 0xFF6347
  • Turquoise β€” 0x40E0D0
  • Violet β€” 0xEE82EE
  • Wheat β€” 0xF5DEB3
  • White β€” 0xFFFFFF
  • WhiteSmoke β€” 0xF5F5F5
  • Yellow β€” 0xFFFF00
  • YellowGreen β€” 0x9ACD32

🎧 CHANNEL LAYOUT 🎧

Okay bestie, this is the part where audio gets spatial. A channel layout is literally just the description of where each channel sits in a multi-channel audio stream β€” like, which speaker goes where in the room. And FFmpeg has its own special little syntax for saying it. ✨

Individual channels

Every single channel has an id, and here's the whole table, no skips:

  • FL β€” front left
  • FR β€” front right
  • FC β€” front center
  • LFE β€” low frequency
  • BL β€” back left
  • BR β€” back right
  • FLC β€” front left-of-center
  • FRC β€” front right-of-center
  • BC β€” back center
  • SL β€” side left
  • SR β€” side right
  • TC β€” top center
  • TFL β€” top front left
  • TFC β€” top front center
  • TFR β€” top front right
  • TBL β€” top back left
  • TBC β€” top back center
  • TBR β€” top back right
  • DL β€” downmix left
  • DR β€” downmix right
  • WL β€” wide left
  • WR β€” wide right
  • SDL β€” surround direct left
  • SDR β€” surround direct right
  • LFE2 β€” low frequency 2

Standard channel layout compositions

And if you don't wanna spell out every channel yourself, you can just use one of these iconic preset identifiers. They map to the compositions below, exactly:

  • mono β€” FC
  • stereo β€” FL+FR
  • 2.1 β€” FL+FR+LFE
  • 3.0 β€” FL+FR+FC
  • 3.0(back) β€” FL+FR+BC
  • 4.0 β€” FL+FR+FC+BC
  • quad β€” FL+FR+BL+BR
  • quad(side) β€” FL+FR+SL+SR
  • 3.1 β€” FL+FR+FC+LFE
  • 5.0 β€” FL+FR+FC+BL+BR
  • 5.0(side) β€” FL+FR+FC+SL+SR
  • 4.1 β€” FL+FR+FC+LFE+BC
  • 5.1 β€” FL+FR+FC+LFE+BL+BR
  • 5.1(side) β€” FL+FR+FC+LFE+SL+SR
  • 6.0 β€” FL+FR+FC+BC+SL+SR
  • 6.0(front) β€” FL+FR+FLC+FRC+SL+SR
  • 3.1.2 β€” FL+FR+FC+LFE+TFL+TFR
  • hexagonal β€” FL+FR+FC+BL+BR+BC
  • 6.1 β€” FL+FR+FC+LFE+BC+SL+SR
  • 6.1 β€” FL+FR+FC+LFE+BL+BR+BC
  • 6.1(front) β€” FL+FR+LFE+FLC+FRC+SL+SR
  • 7.0 β€” FL+FR+FC+BL+BR+SL+SR
  • 7.0(front) β€” FL+FR+FC+FLC+FRC+SL+SR
  • 7.1 β€” FL+FR+FC+LFE+BL+BR+SL+SR
  • 7.1(wide) β€” FL+FR+FC+LFE+BL+BR+FLC+FRC
  • 7.1(wide-side) β€” FL+FR+FC+LFE+FLC+FRC+SL+SR
  • 5.1.2 β€” FL+FR+FC+LFE+BL+BR+TFL+TFR
  • octagonal β€” FL+FR+FC+BL+BR+BC+SL+SR
  • cube β€” FL+FR+BL+BR+TFL+TFR+TBL+TBR
  • 5.1.4 β€” FL+FR+FC+LFE+BL+BR+TFL+TFR+TBL+TBR
  • 7.1.2 β€” FL+FR+FC+LFE+BL+BR+SL+SR+TFL+TFR
  • 7.1.4 β€” FL+FR+FC+LFE+BL+BR+SL+SR+TFL+TFR+TBL+TBR
  • 7.2.3 β€” FL+FR+FC+LFE+BL+BR+SL+SR+TFL+TFR+TBC+LFE2
  • 9.1.4 β€” FL+FR+FC+LFE+BL+BR+FLC+FRC+SL+SR+TFL+TFR+TBL+TBR
  • 9.1.6 β€” FL+FR+FC+LFE+BL+BR+FLC+FRC+SL+SR+TFL+TFR+TBL+TBR+TSL+TSR
  • hexadecagonal β€” FL+FR+FC+BL+BR+BC+SL+SR+WL+WR+TBL+TBR+TBC+TFC+TFL+TFR
  • binaural β€” BIL+BIR
  • downmix β€” DL+DR
  • 22.2 β€” FL+FR+FC+LFE+BL+BR+FLC+FRC+BC+SL+SR+TC+TFL+TFC+TFR+TBL+TBC+TBR+LFE2+TSL+TSR+BFC+BFL+BFR
Not me noticing 6.1 shows up twice in that list with two different compositions πŸ‘€ β€” that's literally what the page gives you, so don't come for me, bestie.

Custom channel layouts

You can also hand-build a custom channel layout: it's a sequence of terms, separated by '+'. Each term can be:

  • the name of a single channel (e.g. FL, FR, FC, LFE, etc.), each one optionally carrying a custom name after a '@' β€” like FL@Left, FR@Right, FC@Center, LFE@Low_Frequency, etc.

And a standard channel layout can be specified with any of these:

  • the name of a single channel (e.g. FL, FR, FC, LFE, etc.)
  • the name of a standard channel layout (e.g. mono, stereo, 4.0, quad, 5.0, etc.)
  • a number of channels, in decimal, followed by 'c' β€” this gives you the default channel layout for that number of channels (peep the function av_channel_layout_default). Heads up though: not every channel count actually has a default layout πŸ’€
  • a number of channels, in decimal, followed by 'C' β€” this gives you an unknown channel layout with however many channels you said. Also heads up: not all channel layout specification strings support unknown channel layouts.
  • a channel layout mask, in hexadecimal starting with "0x" (see the AV_CH_* macros in libavutil/channel_layout.h)
Real talk: before libavutil version 53, that trailing "c" for specifying a number of channels was optional β€” but now it's required. Meanwhile a channel layout mask can also be given as a decimal number, but if and only if it's not followed by "c" or "C". Slay, but read it twice. 🫢

Also go look at the function av_channel_layout_from_string, which is defined in libavutil/channel_layout.h. ✨

🌸 EXPRESSION EVALUATION 🌸

Okay bestie, so when FFmpeg is evaluating an arithmetic expression, it uses an internal formula evaluator β€” implemented through the libavutil/eval.h interface. It's giving calculator but make it ✨fashion✨.

An expression may contain unary operators, binary operators, constants, and functions. Yes, all four. She's versatile πŸ’….

Two expressions expr1 and expr2 can be combined to form another expression "expr1;expr2". expr1 and expr2 are evaluated in turn, and the new expression evaluates to the value of expr2. So like, the first one is just the opening act, and expr2 is the main character πŸ‘‘.

The following binary operators are available: "+", "-", "*", "/", "^".

The following unary operators are available: "+", "-".

Some internal variables can be used to store and load intermediary results. They can be accessed using the ld and st functions with an index argument varying from 0 to 9 to specify which internal variable to access. Slots 0 through 9, no cap 🫢.

The following functions are available:

  • abs(x) β€” computes the absolute value of x. Negative? Not anymore πŸ’–.
  • acos(x) β€” computes the arccosine of x.
  • asin(x) β€” computes the arcsine of x.
  • atan(x) β€” computes the arctangent of x.
  • atan2(y, x) β€” computes the principal value of the arc tangent of y/x.
  • between(x, min, max) β€” returns 1 if x is greater than or equal to min and lesser than or equal to max, 0 otherwise. Basically the "are you in the range or not" vibe check πŸ¦‹.
  • bitand(x, y) and bitor(x, y) β€” compute the bitwise and/or operation on x and y.

The results of the evaluation of x and y are converted to integers before executing the bitwise operation.

Note that both the conversion to integer and the conversion back to floating point can lose precision. Beware of unexpected results for large numbers (usually 2^53 and larger). Like, she's cute but she's not exact for the big numbers, bestie 😭.
  • ceil(expr) β€” rounds the value of expression expr upwards to the nearest integer. For example, "ceil(1.5)" is "2.0". Always reaching for the stars ⭐.
  • clip(x, min, max) β€” returns the value of x clipped between min and max. Stay in your lane, x.
  • cos(x) β€” computes the cosine of x.
  • cosh(x) β€” computes the hyperbolic cosine of x.
  • eq(x, y) β€” returns 1 if x and y are equivalent, 0 otherwise.
  • exp(x) β€” computes the exponential of x (with base e, Euler's number). Euler ate, no crumbs πŸ“.
  • floor(expr) β€” rounds the value of expression expr downwards to the nearest integer. For example, "floor(-1.5)" is "-2.0". Grounding energy 🌈.
  • gauss(x) β€” computes the Gauss function of x, corresponding to "exp(-x*x/2) / sqrt(2*PI)".
  • gcd(x, y) β€” returns the greatest common divisor of x and y. If both x and y are 0 or either or both are less than zero then the behavior is undefined. So like, don't do that πŸ™ˆ.
  • gt(x, y) β€” returns 1 if x is greater than y, 0 otherwise.
  • gte(x, y) β€” returns 1 if x is greater than or equal to y, 0 otherwise.
  • hypot(x, y) β€” this function is similar to the C function with the same name; it returns "sqrt(x*x + y*y)", the length of the hypotenuse of a right triangle with sides of length x and y, or the distance of the point (x, y) from the origin. Geometry class but make it iconic πŸ“πŸ’….
  • if(x, y) β€” evaluates x, and if the result is non-zero returns the result of the evaluation of y, returns 0 otherwise.
  • if(x, y, z) β€” evaluates x, and if the result is non-zero returns the evaluation result of y, otherwise the evaluation result of z. The full "if this then that else the other" queen πŸ‘‘.
  • ifnot(x, y) β€” evaluates x, and if the result is zero returns the result of the evaluation of y, returns 0 otherwise.
  • ifnot(x, y, z) β€” evaluates x, and if the result is zero returns the evaluation result of y, otherwise the evaluation result of z.
  • isinf(x) β€” returns 1.0 if x is +/-INFINITY, 0.0 otherwise.
  • isnan(x) β€” returns 1.0 if x is NAN, 0.0 otherwise. Not a number? We checked πŸ’€.
  • ld(idx) β€” loads the value of the internal variable with index idx, which was previously stored with st(idx, expr). The function returns the loaded value. Like retrieving a snack you saved for later πŸŽ€.
  • lerp(x, y, z) β€” returns linear interpolation between x and y by amount of z.
  • log(x) β€” computes the natural logarithm of x.
  • lt(x, y) β€” returns 1 if x is lesser than y, 0 otherwise.
  • lte(x, y) β€” returns 1 if x is lesser than or equal to y, 0 otherwise.
  • max(x, y) β€” returns the maximum between x and y.
  • min(x, y) β€” returns the minimum between x and y.
  • mod(x, y) β€” computes the remainder of division of x by y.
  • not(expr) β€” returns 1.0 if expr is zero, 0.0 otherwise.
  • pow(x, y) β€” computes the power of x elevated y, it is equivalent to "(x)^(y)".
  • print(t) and print(t, l) β€” print the value of expression t with loglevel l. If l is not specified then a default log level is used. Returns the value of the expression printed. She's nosy but she returns what she sees πŸ‘€.
  • random(idx) β€” returns a pseudo random value between 0.0 and 1.0. idx is the index of the internal variable used to save the seed/state, which can be previously stored with st(idx).

To initialize the seed, you need to store the seed value as a 64-bit unsigned integer in the internal variable with index idx.

For example, to store the seed with value 42 in the internal variable with index 0 and print a few random values:

st(0,42); print(random(0)); print(random(0)); print(random(0))
  • randomi(idx, min, max) β€” returns a pseudo random value in the interval between min and max. idx is the index of the internal variable which will be used to save the seed/state, which can be previously stored with st(idx).

To initialize the seed, you need to store the seed value as a 64-bit unsigned integer in the internal variable with index idx.

  • root(expr, max) β€” finds an input value for which the function represented by expr with argument ld(0) is 0 in the interval 0..max.

The expression in expr must denote a continuous function or the result is undefined. ⚠️ So like, keep it continuous, bestie.

ld(0) is used to represent the function input value, which means that the given expression will be evaluated multiple times with various input values that the expression can access through ld(0). When the expression evaluates to 0 then the corresponding input value will be returned. It's giving "search for the zero" detective energy πŸ•΅οΈβ€β™€οΈ.

  • round(expr) β€” rounds the value of expression expr to the nearest integer. For example, "round(1.5)" is "2.0".
  • sgn(x) β€” computes the sign of x.
  • sin(x) β€” computes the sine of x.
  • sinh(x) β€” computes the hyperbolic sine of x.
  • sqrt(expr) β€” computes the square root of expr. This is equivalent to "(expr)^.5".
  • squish(x) β€” computes the expression "1/(1 + exp(4*x))".
  • st(idx, expr) β€” stores the value of the expression expr in an internal variable. idx specifies the index of the variable where to store the value, and it is a value ranging from 0 to 9. The function returns the value stored in the internal variable.

The stored value can be retrieved with ld(var).

Note: variables are currently not shared between expressions. So like, keep your secrets to yourself, expression πŸ’….
  • tan(x) β€” computes the tangent of x.
  • tanh(x) β€” computes the hyperbolic tangent of x.
  • taylor(expr, x) and taylor(expr, x, idx) β€” evaluate a Taylor series at x, given an expression representing the ld(idx)-th derivative of a function at 0.

When the series does not converge the result is undefined. ⚠️ No convergence, no result, periodt.

ld(idx) is used to represent the derivative order in expr, which means that the given expression will be evaluated multiple times with various input values that the expression can access through ld(idx). If idx is not specified then 0 is assumed.

Note, when you have the derivatives at y instead of 0, "taylor(expr, x-y)" can be used.
  • time(0) β€” returns the current (wallclock) time in seconds. It's giving "what time is it? time to slay" ⏰.
  • trunc(expr) β€” rounds the value of expression expr towards zero to the nearest integer. For example, "trunc(-1.5)" is "-1.0".
  • while(cond, expr) β€” evaluates expression expr while the expression cond is non-zero, and returns the value of the last expr evaluation, or NAN if cond was always false. Looping but make it fashionable πŸ”.

The following constants are available:

  • PI β€” area of the unit disc, approximately 3.14.
  • E β€” exp(1) (Euler's number), approximately 2.718.
  • PHI β€” golden ratio (1+sqrt(5))/2, approximately 1.618.

Assuming that an expression is considered "true" if it has a non-zero value, note that:

  • "*" works like AND
  • "+" works like OR

For example the construct:

if (A AND B) then C

is equivalent to:

if(A*B, C)

In your C code, you can extend the list of unary and binary functions, and define recognized constants, so that they are available for your expressions. Customize it, make it yours πŸ’–.

The evaluator also recognizes the International System unit prefixes. If 'i' is appended after the prefix, binary prefixes are used, which are based on powers of 1024 instead of powers of 1000. The 'B' postfix multiplies the value by 8, and can be appended after a unit prefix or used alone. This allows using for example 'KB', 'MiB', 'G' and 'B' as number postfix. So like, MiB is not the same as MB β€” don't get it twisted πŸŒ€.

The list of available International System prefixes follows, with indication of the corresponding powers of 10 and of 2.

  • y β€” 10^-24 / 2^-80
  • z β€” 10^-21 / 2^-70
  • a β€” 10^-18 / 2^-60
  • f β€” 10^-15 / 2^-50
  • p β€” 10^-12 / 2^-40
  • n β€” 10^-9 / 2^-30
  • u β€” 10^-6 / 2^-20
  • m β€” 10^-3 / 2^-10
  • c β€” 10^-2
  • d β€” 10^-1
  • h β€” 10^2
  • k β€” 10^3 / 2^10
  • K β€” 10^3 / 2^10
  • M β€” 10^6 / 2^20
  • G β€” 10^9 / 2^30
  • T β€” 10^12 / 2^40
  • P β€” 10^15 / 2^50
  • E β€” 10^18 / 2^60
  • Z β€” 10^21 / 2^70
  • Y β€” 10^24 / 2^80

πŸ‘€ SEE ALSO

ffmpeg(1), ffplay(1), ffprobe(1), libavutil(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.


And that's the whole page, bestie! This was FFMPEG-UTILS(1), and the version/date footer at the bottom is your little reminder that this manual is living its best life in the source tree β€” check it, date it, cite it, love it πŸ’–βœ¨.

πŸ“¦ where this page comes from