1@chapter Demuxers
2@c man begin DEMUXERS
3
4Demuxers are configured elements in FFmpeg that can read the
5multimedia streams from a particular type of file.
6
7When you configure your FFmpeg build, all the supported demuxers
8are enabled by default. You can list all available ones using the
9configure option @code{--list-demuxers}.
10
11You can disable all the demuxers using the configure option
12@code{--disable-demuxers}, and selectively enable a single demuxer with
13the option @code{--enable-demuxer=@var{DEMUXER}}, or disable it
14with the option @code{--disable-demuxer=@var{DEMUXER}}.
15
16The option @code{-formats} of the ff* tools will display the list of
17enabled demuxers.
18
19The description of some of the currently available demuxers follows.
20
21@section applehttp
22
23Apple HTTP Live Streaming demuxer.
24
25This demuxer presents all AVStreams from all variant streams.
26The id field is set to the bitrate variant index number. By setting
27the discard flags on AVStreams (by pressing 'a' or 'v' in ffplay),
28the caller can decide which variant streams to actually receive.
29The total bitrate of the variant that the stream belongs to is
30available in a metadata key named "variant_bitrate".
31
32@section asf
33
34Advanced Systems Format demuxer.
35
36This demuxer is used to demux ASF files and MMS network streams.
37
38@table @option
39@item -no_resync_search @var{bool}
40Do not try to resynchronize by looking for a certain optional start code.
41@end table
42
43@anchor{concat}
44@section concat
45
46Virtual concatenation script demuxer.
47
48This demuxer reads a list of files and other directives from a text file and
49demuxes them one after the other, as if all their packet had been muxed
50together.
51
52The timestamps in the files are adjusted so that the first file starts at 0
53and each next file starts where the previous one finishes. Note that it is
54done globally and may cause gaps if all streams do not have exactly the same
55length.
56
57All files must have the same streams (same codecs, same time base, etc.).
58
59The duration of each file is used to adjust the timestamps of the next file:
60if the duration is incorrect (because it was computed using the bit-rate or
61because the file is truncated, for example), it can cause artifacts. The
62@code{duration} directive can be used to override the duration stored in
63each file.
64
65@subsection Syntax
66
67The script is a text file in extended-ASCII, with one directive per line.
68Empty lines, leading spaces and lines starting with '#' are ignored. The
69following directive is recognized:
70
71@table @option
72
73@item @code{file @var{path}}
74Path to a file to read; special characters and spaces must be escaped with
75backslash or single quotes.
76
77All subsequent file-related directives apply to that file.
78
79@item @code{ffconcat version 1.0}
80Identify the script type and version. It also sets the @option{safe} option
81to 1 if it was to its default -1.
82
83To make FFmpeg recognize the format automatically, this directive must
84appears exactly as is (no extra space or byte-order-mark) on the very first
85line of the script.
86
87@item @code{duration @var{dur}}
88Duration of the file. This information can be specified from the file;
89specifying it here may be more efficient or help if the information from the
90file is not available or accurate.
91
92If the duration is set for all files, then it is possible to seek in the
93whole concatenated video.
94
95@item @code{stream}
96Introduce a stream in the virtual file.
97All subsequent stream-related directives apply to the last introduced
98stream.
99Some streams properties must be set in order to allow identifying the
100matching streams in the subfiles.
101If no streams are defined in the script, the streams from the first file are
102copied.
103
104@item @code{exact_stream_id @var{id}}
105Set the id of the stream.
106If this directive is given, the string with the corresponding id in the
107subfiles will be used.
108This is especially useful for MPEG-PS (VOB) files, where the order of the
109streams is not reliable.
110
111@end table
112
113@subsection Options
114
115This demuxer accepts the following option:
116
117@table @option
118
119@item safe
120If set to 1, reject unsafe file paths. A file path is considered safe if it
121does not contain a protocol specification and is relative and all components
122only contain characters from the portable character set (letters, digits,
123period, underscore and hyphen) and have no period at the beginning of a
124component.
125
126If set to 0, any file name is accepted.
127
128The default is -1, it is equivalent to 1 if the format was automatically
129probed and 0 otherwise.
130
131@item auto_convert
132If set to 1, try to perform automatic conversions on packet data to make the
133streams concatenable.
134
135Currently, the only conversion is adding the h264_mp4toannexb bitstream
136filter to H.264 streams in MP4 format. This is necessary in particular if
137there are resolution changes.
138
139@end table
140
141@section flv
142
143Adobe Flash Video Format demuxer.
144
145This demuxer is used to demux FLV files and RTMP network streams.
146
147@table @option
148@item -flv_metadata @var{bool}
149Allocate the streams according to the onMetaData array content.
150@end table
151
152@section libgme
153
154The Game Music Emu library is a collection of video game music file emulators.
155
156See @url{http://code.google.com/p/game-music-emu/} for more information.
157
158Some files have multiple tracks. The demuxer will pick the first track by
159default. The @option{track_index} option can be used to select a different
160track. Track indexes start at 0. The demuxer exports the number of tracks as
161@var{tracks} meta data entry.
162
163For very large files, the @option{max_size} option may have to be adjusted.
164
165@section libquvi
166
167Play media from Internet services using the quvi project.
168
169The demuxer accepts a @option{format} option to request a specific quality. It
170is by default set to @var{best}.
171
172See @url{http://quvi.sourceforge.net/} for more information.
173
174FFmpeg needs to be built with @code{--enable-libquvi} for this demuxer to be
175enabled.
176
177@section image2
178
179Image file demuxer.
180
181This demuxer reads from a list of image files specified by a pattern.
182The syntax and meaning of the pattern is specified by the
183option @var{pattern_type}.
184
185The pattern may contain a suffix which is used to automatically
186determine the format of the images contained in the files.
187
188The size, the pixel format, and the format of each image must be the
189same for all the files in the sequence.
190
191This demuxer accepts the following options:
192@table @option
193@item framerate
194Set the frame rate for the video stream. It defaults to 25.
195@item loop
196If set to 1, loop over the input. Default value is 0.
197@item pattern_type
198Select the pattern type used to interpret the provided filename.
199
200@var{pattern_type} accepts one of the following values.
201@table @option
202@item sequence
203Select a sequence pattern type, used to specify a sequence of files
204indexed by sequential numbers.
205
206A sequence pattern may contain the string "%d" or "%0@var{N}d", which
207specifies the position of the characters representing a sequential
208number in each filename matched by the pattern. If the form
209"%d0@var{N}d" is used, the string representing the number in each
210filename is 0-padded and @var{N} is the total number of 0-padded
211digits representing the number. The literal character '%' can be
212specified in the pattern with the string "%%".
213
214If the sequence pattern contains "%d" or "%0@var{N}d", the first filename of
215the file list specified by the pattern must contain a number
216inclusively contained between @var{start_number} and
217@var{start_number}+@var{start_number_range}-1, and all the following
218numbers must be sequential.
219
220For example the pattern "img-%03d.bmp" will match a sequence of
221filenames of the form @file{img-001.bmp}, @file{img-002.bmp}, ...,
222@file{img-010.bmp}, etc.; the pattern "i%%m%%g-%d.jpg" will match a
223sequence of filenames of the form @file{i%m%g-1.jpg},
224@file{i%m%g-2.jpg}, ..., @file{i%m%g-10.jpg}, etc.
225
226Note that the pattern must not necessarily contain "%d" or
227"%0@var{N}d", for example to convert a single image file
228@file{img.jpeg} you can employ the command:
229@example
230ffmpeg -i img.jpeg img.png
231@end example
232
233@item glob
234Select a glob wildcard pattern type.
235
236The pattern is interpreted like a @code{glob()} pattern. This is only
237selectable if libavformat was compiled with globbing support.
238
239@item glob_sequence @emph{(deprecated, will be removed)}
240Select a mixed glob wildcard/sequence pattern.
241
242If your version of libavformat was compiled with globbing support, and
243the provided pattern contains at least one glob meta character among
244@code{%*?[]@{@}} that is preceded by an unescaped "%", the pattern is
245interpreted like a @code{glob()} pattern, otherwise it is interpreted
246like a sequence pattern.
247
248All glob special characters @code{%*?[]@{@}} must be prefixed
249with "%". To escape a literal "%" you shall use "%%".
250
251For example the pattern @code{foo-%*.jpeg} will match all the
252filenames prefixed by "foo-" and terminating with ".jpeg", and
253@code{foo-%?%?%?.jpeg} will match all the filenames prefixed with
254"foo-", followed by a sequence of three characters, and terminating
255with ".jpeg".
256
257This pattern type is deprecated in favor of @var{glob} and
258@var{sequence}.
259@end table
260
261Default value is @var{glob_sequence}.
262@item pixel_format
263Set the pixel format of the images to read. If not specified the pixel
264format is guessed from the first image file in the sequence.
265@item start_number
266Set the index of the file matched by the image file pattern to start
267to read from. Default value is 0.
268@item start_number_range
269Set the index interval range to check when looking for the first image
270file in the sequence, starting from @var{start_number}. Default value
271is 5.
272@item ts_from_file
273If set to 1, will set frame timestamp to modification time of image file. Note
274that monotonity of timestamps is not provided: images go in the same order as
275without this option. Default value is 0.
276If set to 2, will set frame timestamp to the modification time of the image file in
277nanosecond precision.
278@item video_size
279Set the video size of the images to read. If not specified the video
280size is guessed from the first image file in the sequence.
281@end table
282
283@subsection Examples
284
285@itemize
286@item
287Use @command{ffmpeg} for creating a video from the images in the file
288sequence @file{img-001.jpeg}, @file{img-002.jpeg}, ..., assuming an
289input frame rate of 10 frames per second:
290@example
291ffmpeg -framerate 10 -i 'img-%03d.jpeg' out.mkv
292@end example
293
294@item
295As above, but start by reading from a file with index 100 in the sequence:
296@example
297ffmpeg -framerate 10 -start_number 100 -i 'img-%03d.jpeg' out.mkv
298@end example
299
300@item
301Read images matching the "*.png" glob pattern , that is all the files
302terminating with the ".png" suffix:
303@example
304ffmpeg -framerate 10 -pattern_type glob -i "*.png" out.mkv
305@end example
306@end itemize
307
308@section mpegts
309
310MPEG-2 transport stream demuxer.
311
312@table @option
313
314@item fix_teletext_pts
315Overrides teletext packet PTS and DTS values with the timestamps calculated
316from the PCR of the first program which the teletext stream is part of and is
317not discarded. Default value is 1, set this option to 0 if you want your
318teletext packet PTS and DTS values untouched.
319@end table
320
321@section rawvideo
322
323Raw video demuxer.
324
325This demuxer allows one to read raw video data. Since there is no header
326specifying the assumed video parameters, the user must specify them
327in order to be able to decode the data correctly.
328
329This demuxer accepts the following options:
330@table @option
331
332@item framerate
333Set input video frame rate. Default value is 25.
334
335@item pixel_format
336Set the input video pixel format. Default value is @code{yuv420p}.
337
338@item video_size
339Set the input video size. This value must be specified explicitly.
340@end table
341
342For example to read a rawvideo file @file{input.raw} with
343@command{ffplay}, assuming a pixel format of @code{rgb24}, a video
344size of @code{320x240}, and a frame rate of 10 images per second, use
345the command:
346@example
347ffplay -f rawvideo -pixel_format rgb24 -video_size 320x240 -framerate 10 input.raw
348@end example
349
350@section sbg
351
352SBaGen script demuxer.
353
354This demuxer reads the script language used by SBaGen
355@url{http://uazu.net/sbagen/} to generate binaural beats sessions. A SBG
356script looks like that:
357@example
358-SE
359a: 300-2.5/3 440+4.5/0
360b: 300-2.5/0 440+4.5/3
361off: -
362NOW      == a
363+0:07:00 == b
364+0:14:00 == a
365+0:21:00 == b
366+0:30:00    off
367@end example
368
369A SBG script can mix absolute and relative timestamps. If the script uses
370either only absolute timestamps (including the script start time) or only
371relative ones, then its layout is fixed, and the conversion is
372straightforward. On the other hand, if the script mixes both kind of
373timestamps, then the @var{NOW} reference for relative timestamps will be
374taken from the current time of day at the time the script is read, and the
375script layout will be frozen according to that reference. That means that if
376the script is directly played, the actual times will match the absolute
377timestamps up to the sound controller's clock accuracy, but if the user
378somehow pauses the playback or seeks, all times will be shifted accordingly.
379
380@section tedcaptions
381
382JSON captions used for @url{http://www.ted.com/, TED Talks}.
383
384TED does not provide links to the captions, but they can be guessed from the
385page. The file @file{tools/bookmarklets.html} from the FFmpeg source tree
386contains a bookmarklet to expose them.
387
388This demuxer accepts the following option:
389@table @option
390@item start_time
391Set the start time of the TED talk, in milliseconds. The default is 15000
392(15s). It is used to sync the captions with the downloadable videos, because
393they include a 15s intro.
394@end table
395
396Example: convert the captions to a format most players understand:
397@example
398ffmpeg -i http://www.ted.com/talks/subtitles/id/1/lang/en talk1-en.srt
399@end example
400
401@c man end DEMUXERS
402