10 ms·

What is a good GUI interface for FFmpeg?

your_challenger 2y ago
Use the terminal. There does not exist a single GUI interface that does everything ffmpeg does. Use ChatGPT to help you find the right command for your need.
- leokennis 2y ago
  Whenever I search for ffmpeg commands, there is always some person suggesting an 8 liner with 25 arguments, and next to that someone suggesting a command with two -i and one -o argument. On visual inspection both do the same, but I’m always left with the feeling that I did something wrong or just “got lucky” with the shorter command. I would love a “unless you’re a pro with hyper specific needs, forget these 90% of arguments and only use this 10% in this way” type of guide.
  - oefrha 2y ago
    > 8 liner with 25 arguments That’s tame for FFmpeg, likely just specifying a bunch of encoder parameters the simpler command left out for defaults, maybe with some input/output streams explicitly spelled out. If you want to look at really incomprehensible FFmpeg commands, try anything with filtergraphs.
    - maupin 2y ago
      Too true! For a recent video project I wrote a 300 line bash script to generate the ffmpeg arguments needed to accomplish what I was after.
- notachatbot1234 2y ago
  > Use ChatGPT to help you find the right command for your need. That would give you hallucinated commands, not commands that actually exist or make sense. Better read documentation or ask experienced humans.
  - KeplerBoy 2y ago
    Can't confirm. LLMs tend to be oddly good at FFmpeg and give you a good starting point you can work with.
    - skeeter2020 2y ago
      probably because the documentation (of which there's a lot) is very good.
      - kevincox 2y ago
        I don't know if I agree with that. The official docs do list a lot but often you get something like compression_level takes an integer from 1-8. But doesn't tell you if 1 is smaller output or 8 is to work the hardest. However the wiki pages can be quite good if they cover your use case and the real strength is so many examples online. Even if many of the example command lines feel like they have been cargo-culted through the years and no one actually understands what exactly they do.
  - renewiltord 2y ago
    No, that's bad advice imho. ChatGPT (and Claude etc.) are all pretty damned good at this. Strongly recommend using them over reading the docs or asking other people if you're getting started.
  - _flux 2y ago
    So this is a good use case for it: you will most likely get immediate feedback if it's wrong, and a bit delayed feedback if it achieved the wrong thing; and you can prod it to try harder. LLMs are best used when you can easily verify the results.
  - 65 2y ago
    StackOverflow is a much more reliable version of ChatGPT :)
- enlyth 2y ago
  That's such a clunky workflow and takes so long, sometimes you want to drag and drop a file, tick a couple of checkboxes and click a button
  - matsemann 2y ago
    But which checkboxes? Ffmpeg would probably need a hundred thousand.
    - lionkor 2y ago
      categorize, add tooltips, show defaults... this is some basic UI design stuff, should be possible.
      - matsemann 2y ago
        But all of them have parameters. And depend on each other. And the order of filters matters. There is no way to make a simple interface for all ffmpeg can do.
  - skeeter2020 2y ago
    Why don't you keep a text file with the 3 commands you want to regularly run in the ffmpeg directory? fast. easy. cheap.
    - enlyth 2y ago
      That still feels like a chore, opening some text file, copying the right command, opening a terminal, messing around with input and output file paths.. I don't like interacting with command line parameters in general, it feels clunky to me, but I don't think there's a point in arguing about it since it is more of a personal preference
      - djhn 2y ago
        Considering the website we’re on, under what circumstances would you not have a terminal open?
- whywhywhywhy 2y ago
  use ffprobe on the file first then paste that output and what you want done to it. Helps if there’s something about the file/codec that GPT would have to work around. Had better success that way.
- mort96 2y ago
  My experience is that ChatGPT is dreadful at everything but the simplest ffmpeg invocations, and will often produce command lines with subtle quirks (such as "only works if the input is an even number of pixels wide"). But then again, my experience is that ChatGPT is dreadful at everything but the simplest anything.
  - lupusreal 2y ago
    My experience is similar, but I find it can still be useful if you go step by step, check its work and explain errors and corrections as you go. Admittedly when I describe it like that it doesn't seem very useful, but if I'm figuring things out by myself then most of that work is a given anyway and the bot helps that process along.
    - mort96 2y ago
      Sometimes... but most often, after I explain in detail an error it did, it will just say "I apologize for the mistake, you are correct, <re-iteration of my explanation of the error>. Here is a version with the error fixed:", followed by either the exact same output or an equally wrong alternate output. The fact that these glorified Markov chains manage to fool people into thinking they posses some kind of actual intelligence or ability to reason baffles me.
  - pmoriarty 2y ago
    > my experience is that ChatGPT is dreadful at everything but the simplest anything. Have you tried Claude 3 Opus (or even just Claude 3 Sonnet)? https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-3-family https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-3-family
    - mort96 2y ago
      No
speedgoose 2y ago
https://handbrake.fr/ https://handbrake.fr/ has been around for a long time.
- Mashimo 2y ago
  But that is not ffmpeg, is it? I know they use some of the same encoding libraries.
  - 0xcoffee 2y ago
    There is a MR to update it to FFMPEG 7: https://github.com/HandBrake/HandBrake/pull/5884 https://github.com/HandBrake/HandBrake/pull/5884
    - galad87 2y ago
      Because HandBrake uses some parts of the FFmpeg libraries, but HandBrake scope is much smaller than FFmpeg, and while it uses some parts, it's definitely not FFmpeg CLI GUI.
  - mort96 2y ago
    ffmpeg is, mainly, a bunch of libraries. libavcodec, libavformat, libswresample, etc, is almost all of ffmpeg. If a project is using those libraries, it's using ffmpeg. The ffmpeg command line utility is "just" an interface to those libraries.
    - CyberDildonics 2y ago
      ffmpeg is a lot more than just a wrapper on libraries. It can do a lot of filtering and rewiring of audio channels, video channels and subtitles. Handbrake doesn't do any of that. You can't even drag a bunch of audio files on to handbrake because handbrake doesn't do audio, while ffmpeg is great for encoding audio.
      - mort96 2y ago
TheFragenTaken 2y ago
It's not quite a GUI, but I usually refer to https://alfg.dev/ffmpeg-commander/ https://alfg.dev/ffmpeg-commander/.
- hooli_gan 2y ago
  ffmpeg commander is great. A simple static site which you can host yourself. I can't recommend it enough.
laborcontract 2y ago
Permute for Mac is an elite app.
n3m4c 2y ago
XMedia Recode is pretty good. https://www.xmedia-recode.de/en/index.php https://www.xmedia-recode.de/en/index.php
addandsubtract 2y ago
Depends on your needs. If you just want to cut and trim videos, LosslessCut[1] is great and simple to use. [1] https://github.com/mifi/lossless-cut https://github.com/mifi/lossless-cut
whywhywhywhy 2y ago
There isn’t one. Handbrake very weird about interpreting what you want and you’ll find yourself having to double check dimensions and stuff every time and the queue is very fiddly. On the Mac version at least. Don’t think anything exists like XLD for FFMPEG video where you can just drop a file in set the quality and codec and get the exact same dimensiond file out every time.
prmoustache 2y ago
Not a gui interface for ffmpeg per se, but a lightweight gui app I like to use that uses ffmpeg's libavcodec library is avidemux.
sanjit 2y ago
Agreed with other posters: CLI is the best way to go… ChatGPT can help with learning a lot now but the mailing lists are incredible sources of kind and wonderful (and incredibly knowledgeable) people… go there! Handbrake, Permute are super as mentioned… I’ve put down a couple to add to the list.) Helpful: https://ffmpeg.guide/ https://ffmpeg.guide/ https://www.ffworks.net/ https://www.ffworks.net/
NoamR 2y ago
I was trying to build one, but haven't progressed much lately. https://github.com/NoamRa/alpha-badger https://github.com/NoamRa/alpha-badger

Use the terminal. There does not exist a single GUI interface that does everything ffmpeg does. Use ChatGPT to help you find the right command for your need.

leokennis 2y ago
Whenever I search for ffmpeg commands, there is always some person suggesting an 8 liner with 25 arguments, and next to that someone suggesting a command with two -i and one -o argument. On visual inspection both do the same, but I’m always left with the feeling that I did something wrong or just “got lucky” with the shorter command. I would love a “unless you’re a pro with hyper specific needs, forget these 90% of arguments and only use this 10% in this way” type of guide.
- oefrha 2y ago
  > 8 liner with 25 arguments That’s tame for FFmpeg, likely just specifying a bunch of encoder parameters the simpler command left out for defaults, maybe with some input/output streams explicitly spelled out. If you want to look at really incomprehensible FFmpeg commands, try anything with filtergraphs.
  - maupin 2y ago
    Too true! For a recent video project I wrote a 300 line bash script to generate the ffmpeg arguments needed to accomplish what I was after.
notachatbot1234 2y ago
> Use ChatGPT to help you find the right command for your need. That would give you hallucinated commands, not commands that actually exist or make sense. Better read documentation or ask experienced humans.
- KeplerBoy 2y ago
  Can't confirm. LLMs tend to be oddly good at FFmpeg and give you a good starting point you can work with.
  - skeeter2020 2y ago
    probably because the documentation (of which there's a lot) is very good.
    - kevincox 2y ago
      I don't know if I agree with that. The official docs do list a lot but often you get something like compression_level takes an integer from 1-8. But doesn't tell you if 1 is smaller output or 8 is to work the hardest. However the wiki pages can be quite good if they cover your use case and the real strength is so many examples online. Even if many of the example command lines feel like they have been cargo-culted through the years and no one actually understands what exactly they do.
- renewiltord 2y ago
  No, that's bad advice imho. ChatGPT (and Claude etc.) are all pretty damned good at this. Strongly recommend using them over reading the docs or asking other people if you're getting started.
- _flux 2y ago
  So this is a good use case for it: you will most likely get immediate feedback if it's wrong, and a bit delayed feedback if it achieved the wrong thing; and you can prod it to try harder. LLMs are best used when you can easily verify the results.
- 65 2y ago
  StackOverflow is a much more reliable version of ChatGPT :)
enlyth 2y ago
That's such a clunky workflow and takes so long, sometimes you want to drag and drop a file, tick a couple of checkboxes and click a button
- matsemann 2y ago
  But which checkboxes? Ffmpeg would probably need a hundred thousand.
  - lionkor 2y ago
    categorize, add tooltips, show defaults... this is some basic UI design stuff, should be possible.
    - matsemann 2y ago
      But all of them have parameters. And depend on each other. And the order of filters matters. There is no way to make a simple interface for all ffmpeg can do.
- skeeter2020 2y ago
  Why don't you keep a text file with the 3 commands you want to regularly run in the ffmpeg directory? fast. easy. cheap.
  - enlyth 2y ago
    That still feels like a chore, opening some text file, copying the right command, opening a terminal, messing around with input and output file paths.. I don't like interacting with command line parameters in general, it feels clunky to me, but I don't think there's a point in arguing about it since it is more of a personal preference
    - djhn 2y ago
      Considering the website we’re on, under what circumstances would you not have a terminal open?
whywhywhywhy 2y ago
use ffprobe on the file first then paste that output and what you want done to it. Helps if there’s something about the file/codec that GPT would have to work around. Had better success that way.
mort96 2y ago
My experience is that ChatGPT is dreadful at everything but the simplest ffmpeg invocations, and will often produce command lines with subtle quirks (such as "only works if the input is an even number of pixels wide"). But then again, my experience is that ChatGPT is dreadful at everything but the simplest anything.
- lupusreal 2y ago
  My experience is similar, but I find it can still be useful if you go step by step, check its work and explain errors and corrections as you go. Admittedly when I describe it like that it doesn't seem very useful, but if I'm figuring things out by myself then most of that work is a given anyway and the bot helps that process along.
  - mort96 2y ago
    Sometimes... but most often, after I explain in detail an error it did, it will just say "I apologize for the mistake, you are correct, <re-iteration of my explanation of the error>. Here is a version with the error fixed:", followed by either the exact same output or an equally wrong alternate output. The fact that these glorified Markov chains manage to fool people into thinking they posses some kind of actual intelligence or ability to reason baffles me.
- pmoriarty 2y ago
  > my experience is that ChatGPT is dreadful at everything but the simplest anything. Have you tried Claude 3 Opus (or even just Claude 3 Sonnet)? https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-3-family https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-3-family
  - mort96 2y ago
    No

speedgoose 2y ago

https://handbrake.fr/ https://handbrake.fr/ has been around for a long time.

Mashimo 2y ago
But that is not ffmpeg, is it? I know they use some of the same encoding libraries.
- 0xcoffee 2y ago
  There is a MR to update it to FFMPEG 7: https://github.com/HandBrake/HandBrake/pull/5884 https://github.com/HandBrake/HandBrake/pull/5884
  - galad87 2y ago
    Because HandBrake uses some parts of the FFmpeg libraries, but HandBrake scope is much smaller than FFmpeg, and while it uses some parts, it's definitely not FFmpeg CLI GUI.
- mort96 2y ago
  ffmpeg is, mainly, a bunch of libraries. libavcodec, libavformat, libswresample, etc, is almost all of ffmpeg. If a project is using those libraries, it's using ffmpeg. The ffmpeg command line utility is "just" an interface to those libraries.
  - CyberDildonics 2y ago
    ffmpeg is a lot more than just a wrapper on libraries. It can do a lot of filtering and rewiring of audio channels, video channels and subtitles. Handbrake doesn't do any of that. You can't even drag a bunch of audio files on to handbrake because handbrake doesn't do audio, while ffmpeg is great for encoding audio.
    - mort96 2y ago

TheFragenTaken 2y ago

It's not quite a GUI, but I usually refer to https://alfg.dev/ffmpeg-commander/ https://alfg.dev/ffmpeg-commander/.

hooli_gan 2y ago
ffmpeg commander is great. A simple static site which you can host yourself. I can't recommend it enough.

laborcontract 2y ago

Permute for Mac is an elite app.

n3m4c 2y ago

XMedia Recode is pretty good. https://www.xmedia-recode.de/en/index.php https://www.xmedia-recode.de/en/index.php

addandsubtract 2y ago

Depends on your needs. If you just want to cut and trim videos, LosslessCut[1] is great and simple to use. [1] https://github.com/mifi/lossless-cut https://github.com/mifi/lossless-cut

whywhywhywhy 2y ago

There isn’t one. Handbrake very weird about interpreting what you want and you’ll find yourself having to double check dimensions and stuff every time and the queue is very fiddly. On the Mac version at least. Don’t think anything exists like XLD for FFMPEG video where you can just drop a file in set the quality and codec and get the exact same dimensiond file out every time.

prmoustache 2y ago

Not a gui interface for ffmpeg per se, but a lightweight gui app I like to use that uses ffmpeg's libavcodec library is avidemux.

sanjit 2y ago

Agreed with other posters: CLI is the best way to go… ChatGPT can help with learning a lot now but the mailing lists are incredible sources of kind and wonderful (and incredibly knowledgeable) people… go there! Handbrake, Permute are super as mentioned… I’ve put down a couple to add to the list.) Helpful: https://ffmpeg.guide/ https://ffmpeg.guide/ https://www.ffworks.net/ https://www.ffworks.net/

NoamR 2y ago

I was trying to build one, but haven't progressed much lately. https://github.com/NoamRa/alpha-badger https://github.com/NoamRa/alpha-badger