FFMPEG-BITSTREAM-FILTERS(1) FFMPEG-BITSTREAM-FILTERS(1)
NAME
ffmpeg-bitstream-filters - FFmpeg bitstream filters
DESCRIPTION
This document describes the bitstream filters provided by the
libavcodec library.
A bitstream filter operates on the encoded stream data, and performs
bitstream level modifications without performing decoding.
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. Please note
that it is auto-inserted for MP4A-LATM and MOV/MP4 and related formats.
chomp
Remove zero padding at the end of a packet.
dca_core
Extract the core from a DCA/DTS stream, dropping extensions such as
DTS-HD.
dump_extra
Add extradata to the beginning of the filtered packets.
The additional argument specifies which packets should be filtered. It
accepts the values:
a add extradata to all key packets, but only if local_header is set
in the flags2 codec context field
k add extradata to all key packets
e 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
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.
h264_mp4toannexb
Convert 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").
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
Please note that this filter is auto-inserted for MPEG-TS (muxer
"mpegts") and raw H.264 (muxer "h264") output formats.
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.
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
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.
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.
mov2textsub
Extract a representable text file from MOV subtitles, stripping the
metadata header from each subtitle packet.
See also the text2movsub filter.
mp3decomp
Decompress non-standard compressed MP3 audio headers.
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.
For example to fix an AVI file containing an MPEG-4 stream with DivX-
style packed B-frames using ffmpeg, you can use the command:
ffmpeg -i INPUT.avi -codec copy -bsf:v mpeg4_unpack_bframes OUTPUT.avi
noise
Damages the contents of packets or simply drops them without damaging
the container. Can be used for fuzzing or testing error
resilience/concealment.
Parameters:
amount
A numeral string, whose value is related to how often output bytes
will be modified. Therefore, values below or equal to 0 are
forbidden, and the lower the more frequent bytes will be modified,
with 1 meaning every byte is modified.
dropamount
A numeral string, whose value is related to how often packets will
be dropped. Therefore, values below or equal to 0 are forbidden,
and the lower the more frequent packets will be dropped, with 1
meaning every packet is dropped.
The following example applies the modification to every byte but does
not drop any packets.
ffmpeg -i INPUT -c copy -bsf noise[=1] output.mkv
null
This bitstream filter passes the packets through unchanged.
remove_extra
Remove extradata from packets.
It accepts the following parameter:
freq
Set 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.
text2movsub
Convert text subtitles to MOV subtitles (as used by the "mov_text"
codec) with metadata headers.
See also the mov2textsub filter.
vp9_superframe
Merge VP9 invisible (alt-ref) frames back into VP9 superframes. This
fixes merging of split/segmented VP9 streams where the alt-ref frame
was split from its visible counterpart.
vp9_superframe_split
Split VP9 superframes into single frames.
vp9_raw_reorder
Given a VP9 stream with correct timestamps but possibly out of order,
insert additional show-existing-frame packets to correct the ordering.
SEE ALSO
ffmpeg(1), ffplay(1), ffprobe(1), ffserver(1), libavcodec(3)
AUTHORS
The FFmpeg developers.
For details about the authorship, see the Git history of the project
(git://source.ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg), e.g. by typing the command git log in
the FFmpeg source directory, or browsing the online repository at
<http://source.ffmpeg.org>.
Maintainers for the specific components are listed in the file
MAINTAINERS in the source code tree.
FFMPEG-BITSTREAM-FILTERS(1)