From d9b49e72a652106d2b99a5cbbfe76da0bd749aed Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Anton Khirnov Date: Sat, 5 Nov 2011 16:23:23 +0100 Subject: doc/avconv: elaborate on basic functionality. --- doc/avconv.texi | 21 +++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 21 insertions(+) (limited to 'doc/avconv.texi') diff --git a/doc/avconv.texi b/doc/avconv.texi index 41e2771979..139229694e 100644 --- a/doc/avconv.texi +++ b/doc/avconv.texi @@ -26,6 +26,23 @@ avconv is a very fast video and audio converter that can also grab from a live audio/video source. It can also convert between arbitrary sample rates and resize video on the fly with a high quality polyphase filter. +avconv reads from an arbitrary number of input "files" (which can be regular +files, pipes, network streams, grabbing devices, etc.), specified by the +@code{-i} option, and writes to an arbitrary number of output "files", which are +specified by a plain output filename. Anything found on the commandline which +cannot be interpreted as an option is considered to be an output filename. + +Each input or output file can in principle contain any number of streams of +different types (video/audio/subtitle/attachment/data). Allowed number and/or +types of streams can be limited by the container format. Selecting, which +streams from which inputs go into output, is done either automatically or with +the @code{-map} option (see the Stream selection chapter). + +To refer to input files in options, you must use their indices (0-based). E.g. +the first input file is @code{0}, the second is @code{1} etc. Similarly, streams +within a file are referred to by their indices. E.g. @code{2:3} refers to the +fourth stream in the third input file. See also the Stream specifiers chapter. + As a general rule, options are applied to the next specified file. Therefore, order is important, and you can have the same option on the command line multiple times. Each occurrence is @@ -33,6 +50,10 @@ then applied to the next input or output file. Exceptions from this rule are the global options (e.g. verbosity level), which should be specified first. +Do not mix input and output files -- first specify all input files, then all +output files. Also do not mix options which belong to different files. All +options apply ONLY to the next input or output file and are reset between files. + @itemize @item To set the video bitrate of the output file to 64kbit/s: -- cgit v1.2.3