Encoding guides
current
These guides walk through common encoding jobs with commands you can adapt. If you are new to encoding, read them roughly in this order:
- Your first FFmpeg encode: a good H.264 encode, CRF and presets, choosing streams, and testing on a short clip.
- Choose a codec and encoder: what to use for compatibility, efficient delivery, editing and archival.
- Quality controls: CRF, bitrate modes, VBV caps and two-pass encoding.
- AV1 with SVT-AV1: presets, CRF, 10-bit output, film-grain synthesis and keyframes.
- Audio and subtitles: keeping, labelling and converting tracks, fonts, burn-in and audio sync.
- Preserve color and HDR: keeping color tags and HDR metadata intact.
- Compare encoding quality: comparing encodes with your eyes and with metrics.
Recipes on other pages
Section titled “Recipes on other pages”| Task | Page |
|---|---|
| Chunked AV1 encoding | Av1an |
| VP9 encoding | libvpx / vpxenc |
| Opus audio | Opus |
| AVIF images | AVIF |
| WebP images | WebP |
| JPEG XL images and JPEG recompression | JPEG XL |
| Remuxing and editing Matroska files | Matroska and MKVToolNix |
| Web video files | WebM |