Automating Daily Video Tasks with FFmpeg: A Beginner’s Guide

FFmpeg is a single command-line tool that can convert, compress, trim, merge, subtitle, watermark, and even batch-process videos. This guide gives you copy-pasteable recipes and quick explanations so you can automate your day-to-day work fast.

On this page

• What is FFmpeg?
• Install & Verify
• Web-Ready “Fast Start” MP4
• Compress/Resize for Sharing
• Trim & Clip (frame-accurate)
• Merge/Concatenate Clips
• Extract or Replace Audio
• Thumbnails & GIFs
• Watermarks & Text
• Add Subtitles (soft vs. burned-in)
• Speed Up / Slow Down
• Batch Processing (Bash & Python)
• Cheat-Sheet

What is FFmpeg?

FFmpeg is a free, open-source toolkit that works with nearly any audio/video format. If you handle videos—even casually—FFmpeg lets you automate those repetitive chores into single commands or small scripts.

Install & Verify

macOS: brew install ffmpeg (with Homebrew).
Ubuntu/Debian: sudo apt update && sudo apt install ffmpeg.
Windows: Use a prebuilt zip (add its bin folder to PATH).

ffmpeg -version
ffprobe -v error -show_format -show_streams -i input.mp4

Tip: Use ffprobe to inspect codecs, durations, and bitrates before deciding your automation strategy.

Make Web-Ready MP4 (“Fast Start”)

ffmpeg -i input.mov -c:v libx264 -crf 23 -preset medium -c:a aac -b:a 128k \
-movflags +faststart -pix_fmt yuv420p output.mp4

Compress/Resize for Sharing

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "scale=-2:1080" -c:v libx264 -crf 24 -preset slow \
-c:a aac -b:a 128k -movflags +faststart -pix_fmt yuv420p output_1080p.mp4

Trim & Clip (Frame-Accurate)

ffmpeg -ss 00:00:05 -to 00:00:12 -i input.mp4 -c:v libx264 -crf 20 -preset medium \
-c:a aac -b:a 128k clip.mp4

Merge/Concatenate Clips

file 'part1.mp4'
file 'part2.mp4'
file 'part3.mp4'

ffmpeg -f concat -safe 0 -i list.txt -c copy merged.mp4

Extract or Replace Audio

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vn -c:a libmp3lame -q:a 2 audio.mp3

Thumbnails & GIFs

ffmpeg -ss 00:00:10 -i input.mp4 -vframes 1 -q:v 2 thumb.jpg

Watermarks & Text

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -i logo.png -filter_complex "overlay=10:10" -c:a copy marked.mp4

Add Subtitles

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -i subs.srt -c:v copy -c:a copy -c:s mov_text video_with_subs.mp4

Speed Up / Slow Down

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -filter_complex "setpts=0.5*PTS;atempo=2.0" fast.mp4

Batch Processing

#!/usr/bin/env bash
for f in *.mov; do
  base="${f%.*}"
  ffmpeg -y -i "$f" -vf "scale=-2:1080" -c:v libx264 -crf 23 -preset medium \
  -c:a aac -b:a 128k -movflags +faststart -pix_fmt yuv420p "${base}.mp4"
done

Cheat-Sheet

Task	Command
Convert	ffmpeg -i in.mov -c:v libx264 -c:a aac out.mp4
Compress	-vf "scale=-2:1080" -crf 24 -preset slow
Trim	-ss 00:00:05 -to 00:00:12 -c:v libx264
Extract Audio	-vn -c:a libmp3lame -q:a 2 out.mp3