Recipe library

Working commands, not snippets from a man page — every one of these came out of a real workshop or a real job. Search by what it does or by the flag you half-remember.

h264 rate-control abr crf ffprobe inspection presets benchmark hls ladder

5 recipes

Average bitrate (5 Mbps)

ffmpeg -i input.mov -c:v libx264 -b:v 5M -maxrate 5.35M -bufsize 7.5M -preset medium -c:a aac -b:a 128k output-abr.mp4

Predictable size. Use when a delivery spec dictates the bitrate.

h264 rate-control abr

Constant quality (CRF 20)

ffmpeg -i input.mov -c:v libx264 -crf 20 -preset medium -c:a aac -b:a 128k output-crf20.mp4

Size varies with content. This is what you want for archival and VOD masters.

h264 rate-control crf

Inspect the result

ffprobe -v error -show_entries format=size,duration,bit_rate -of default=noprint_wrappers=1 output-crf20.mp4

Always verify rather than assume.

ffprobe inspection

Benchmark three presets Locked

This command is part of a course.

Unlock with FFmpeg Compression, End to End

Compare wall-clock time against output size at identical CRF.

h264 presets benchmark

Three-rung ladder, aligned GOPs Locked

This command is part of a course.

Unlock with FFmpeg Compression, End to End

-sc_threshold 0 stops the encoder inserting extra keyframes on scene cuts, which is what breaks alignment.

hls abr ladder h264