FFmpeg is frequently used by different studios for encoding their media, however the documentation for ffmpeg is often poor, or cryptic so its often harder than it should be to come up with a good starting point. We are aiming to come up with recommendations for different scenarios as well as document what the different flags are doing with the aim to make this easier to get to a good baseline.
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- Best color preservation for output to:
- Web, OSX, IOS and Windows.
- Common applications: e.g. RV, Nuke.
- Rec709, P3, rec2020 and HDR.
- Web browser - Firefox reviewing mp4. - use firefox plugin.
- RV
- Codec recommendations for:
- Proxy H264 playback (e.g. web streaming), should be setup for web streaming.
- Animation/Modelling/Layout movie playback. - somewhat lower quality playback, but should always provide smooth motion.
- Lookdev/lighting/compositing movie playback - should have excellent color fidelity and minimal encoding artifacts
- Should any filmlook be baked in, or should we assume that is always applied during viewing.
- How much should we be able to adjust color and have the image hold up? (Or rely on exr's for that?).
- Export to editorial.
- High-resolution or frame rate - e.g. 4k, 8k, 60fps, 120fps.
- Stereo or VR.
- Q: Which container should we be considering: mov, mp4, mxf.
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C: Do as clean a conversion from RGB to YUV as possible.
Example Usages
Need to specify the build of ffmpeg. – ? - and specify build flags. -loglevel trace
| Name | Source | ffmpeg flags | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| ffmpeg colormatrix | https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/colorspace | -pix_fmt yuv444p10le -sws_flags spline+accurate_rnd+full_chroma_int -vf "colormatrix=bt470bg:bt709" -color_range 1 -colorspace 1 -color_primaries 1 -color_trc 1 | 8bpc only |
The sws_flags are needed for the RGB to YUV conversion. -color_range 1 # mpeg see: FFmpeg/pixfmt.h at master · FFmpeg/FFmpeg · GitHub -colorspace 1 # BT709 FFmpeg/pixfmt.h at master · FFmpeg/FFmpeg · GitHub -color_primaries 1 # BT709 FFmpeg/pixfmt.h at master · FFmpeg/FFmpeg · GitHub -color_trc 1 # bt709 FFmpeg/pixfmt.h at master · FFmpeg/FFmpeg · GitHub - Color Transfer Characteristics. | |||
| ffmpeg colorspace | https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/colorspace | -pix_fmt yuv444p10le -sws_flags spline+accurate_rnd+full_chroma_int -vf "colorspace=bt709:iall=bt601-6-625:fast=1" -color_range 1 -colorspace 1 -color_primaries 1 -color_trc 1 | Supports 10bpc and 12bpc, SIMD (faster), better quality than colormatrix. |
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| Name | Source | ffmpeg flags | Description | Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| colorspace_yuv444p10le | https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/colorspace | -c:v libx264 -preset placebo -qp 0 -x264-params "keyint=15:no-deblock=1" -pix_fmt yuv444p10le -sws_flags spline+accurate_rnd+full_chroma_int -vf "colorspace=bt709:iall=bt601-6-625:fast=1" -color_range 1 -colorspace 1 -color_primaries 1 -color_trc 1 | ||
| Prores 4444 | -c:v prores_ks -profile:v 4444 -qscale:v 1 -pix_fmt yuv444p10le -sws_flags spline+accurate_rnd+full_chroma_int -vf "colorspace=bt709:iall=bt601-6-625:fast=1" -color_range 1 -colorspace 1 -color_primaries 1 -color_trc 1 | |||
| -profile:v 4444 is equivalent to -profile:v 4 | ||||
| shotgun_diy_encode | https://support.shotgunsoftware.com/hc/en-us/articles/219030418-Do-it-yourself-DIY-transcoding', | -vcodec libx264 -pix_fmt yuv420p -g 30 -vprofile high -bf 0 -crf 2 | ||
| Prores 422 HQ | Some FFMpeg commands I need to remember for converting footage for video editing. http://bit.ly/vidsnippets · GitHub |
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Note the -profile:v 3 is equivalent to -profile:v hq | ||||