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What are all the formats FFmpeg supports?

Unlike codecs, formats are the digital input / output containers FFMPEG understands.

While an mp4 file is the extension we are used to seeing, inside contains encoded video and audio with various codecs. For example, an mp4 file might contain one of the following audio codecs: ACC, AC3, ALS, MP3, ACC or plenty more.

Depending on which video and audio codecs is used, will depend on which format the output audio or video file will be. This is not an automatic result but a manual selection so being familiar with the supported formats FFMPEG supports is necessary

 $ ffmpeg -formats  

Note: Be aware that the output of this command will result in a list detailing  hundreds of FFMPEG supported formats. For the full list of supported formats, refer to the section TBD in the back of this book.

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Below are the current (March 25th, 2020) formats:

File formats:
 D. = Demuxing supported
 .E = Muxing supported
 --
 D  3dostr          3DO STR
  E 3g2             3GP2 (3GPP2 file format)
  E 3gp             3GP (3GPP file format)
 D  4xm             4X Technologies
  E a64             a64 - video for Commodore 64
 D  aa              Audible AA format files
 D  aac             raw ADTS AAC (Advanced Audio Coding)
 DE ac3             raw AC-3
 D  acm             Interplay ACM
 D  act             ACT Voice file format
 D  adf             Artworx Data Format
 D  adp             ADP
 D  ads             Sony PS2 ADS
  E adts            ADTS AAC (Advanced Audio Coding)
 DE adx             CRI ADX
 D  aea             MD STUDIO audio
 D  afc             AFC
 DE aiff            Audio IFF
 D  aix             CRI AIX
 DE alaw            PCM A-law
 D  alias_pix       Alias/Wavefront PIX image
 DE amr             3GPP AMR
 D  amrnb           raw AMR-NB
 D  amrwb           raw AMR-WB
 D  anm             Deluxe Paint Animation
 D  apc             CRYO APC
 D  ape             Monkey's Audio
 DE apng            Animated Portable Network Graphics
 DE aptx            raw aptX (Audio Processing Technology for Bluetooth)
 DE aptx_hd         raw aptX HD (Audio Processing Technology for Bluetooth)
 D  aqtitle         AQTitle subtitles
 DE asf             ASF (Advanced / Active Streaming Format)
 D  asf_o           ASF (Advanced / Active Streaming Format)
  E asf_stream      ASF (Advanced / Active Streaming Format)
 DE ass             SSA (SubStation Alpha) subtitle
 DE ast             AST (Audio Stream)
 DE au              Sun AU
 D  avfoundation    AVFoundation input device
 DE avi             AVI (Audio Video Interleaved)
  E avm2            SWF (ShockWave Flash) (AVM2)
 D  avr             AVR (Audio Visual Research)
 D  avs             Argonaut Games Creature Shock
 DE avs2            raw AVS2-P2/IEEE1857.4 video
 D  bethsoftvid     Bethesda Softworks VID
 D  bfi             Brute Force & Ignorance
 D  bfstm           BFSTM (Binary Cafe Stream)
 D  bin             Binary text
 D  bink            Bink
 DE bit             G.729 BIT file format
 D  bmp_pipe        piped bmp sequence
 D  bmv             Discworld II BMV
 D  boa             Black Ops Audio
 D  brender_pix     BRender PIX image
 D  brstm           BRSTM (Binary Revolution Stream)
 D  c93             Interplay C93
 DE caf             Apple CAF (Core Audio Format)
 DE cavsvideo       raw Chinese AVS (Audio Video Standard) video
 D  cdg             CD Graphics
 D  cdxl            Commodore CDXL video
 D  cine            Phantom Cine
 DE codec2          codec2 .c2 muxer
 DE codec2raw       raw codec2 muxer
 D  concat          Virtual concatenation script
  E crc             CRC testing
  E dash            DASH Muxer
 DE data            raw data
 DE daud            D-Cinema audio
 D  dcstr           Sega DC STR
 D  dds_pipe        piped dds sequence
 D  dfa             Chronomaster DFA
 D  dhav            Video DAV
 DE dirac           raw Dirac
 DE dnxhd           raw DNxHD (SMPTE VC-3)
 D  dpx_pipe        piped dpx sequence
 D  dsf             DSD Stream File (DSF)
 D  dsicin          Delphine Software International CIN
 D  dss             Digital Speech Standard (DSS)
 DE dts             raw DTS
 D  dtshd           raw DTS-HD
 DE dv              DV (Digital Video)
 D  dvbsub          raw dvbsub
 D  dvbtxt          dvbtxt
  E dvd             MPEG-2 PS (DVD VOB)
 D  dxa             DXA
 D  ea              Electronic Arts Multimedia
 D  ea_cdata        Electronic Arts cdata
 DE eac3            raw E-AC-3
 D  epaf            Ensoniq Paris Audio File
 D  exr_pipe        piped exr sequence
 DE f32be           PCM 32-bit floating-point big-endian
 DE f32le           PCM 32-bit floating-point little-endian
  E f4v             F4V Adobe Flash Video
 DE f64be           PCM 64-bit floating-point big-endian
 DE f64le           PCM 64-bit floating-point little-endian
 DE ffmetadata      FFmpeg metadata in text
  E fifo            FIFO queue pseudo-muxer
  E fifo_test       Fifo test muxer
 DE film_cpk        Sega FILM / CPK
 DE filmstrip       Adobe Filmstrip
 DE fits            Flexible Image Transport System
 DE flac            raw FLAC
 D  flic            FLI/FLC/FLX animation
 DE flv             FLV (Flash Video)
  E framecrc        framecrc testing
  E framehash       Per-frame hash testing
  E framemd5        Per-frame MD5 testing
 D  frm             Megalux Frame
 D  fsb             FMOD Sample Bank
 DE g722            raw G.722
 DE g723_1          raw G.723.1
 DE g726            raw big-endian G.726 ("left-justified")
 DE g726le          raw little-endian G.726 ("right-justified")
 D  g729            G.729 raw format demuxer
 D  gdv             Gremlin Digital Video
 D  genh            GENeric Header
 DE gif             CompuServe Graphics Interchange Format (GIF)
 D  gif_pipe        piped gif sequence
 DE gsm             raw GSM
 DE gxf             GXF (General eXchange Format)
 DE h261            raw H.261
 DE h263            raw H.263
 DE h264            raw H.264 video
  E hash            Hash testing
 D  hcom            Macintosh HCOM
  E hds             HDS Muxer
 DE hevc            raw HEVC video
 DE hls             Apple HTTP Live Streaming
 D  hnm             Cryo HNM v4
 DE ico             Microsoft Windows ICO
 D  idcin           id Cinematic
 D  idf             iCE Draw File
 D  iff             IFF (Interchange File Format)
 D  ifv             IFV CCTV DVR
 DE ilbc            iLBC storage
 DE image2          image2 sequence
 DE image2pipe      piped image2 sequence
 D  ingenient       raw Ingenient MJPEG
 D  ipmovie         Interplay MVE
  E ipod            iPod H.264 MP4 (MPEG-4 Part 14)
 DE ircam           Berkeley/IRCAM/CARL Sound Format
  E ismv            ISMV/ISMA (Smooth Streaming)
 D  iss             Funcom ISS
 D  iv8             IndigoVision 8000 video
 DE ivf             On2 IVF
 D  ivr             IVR (Internet Video Recording)
 D  j2k_pipe        piped j2k sequence
 DE jacosub         JACOsub subtitle format
 D  jpeg_pipe       piped jpeg sequence
 D  jpegls_pipe     piped jpegls sequence
 D  jv              Bitmap Brothers JV
 D  kux             KUX (YouKu)
  E latm            LOAS/LATM
 D  lavfi           Libavfilter virtual input device
 D  live_flv        live RTMP FLV (Flash Video)
 D  lmlm4           raw lmlm4
 D  loas            LOAS AudioSyncStream
 DE lrc             LRC lyrics
 D  lvf             LVF
 D  lxf             VR native stream (LXF)
 DE m4v             raw MPEG-4 video
  E matroska        Matroska
 D  matroska,webm   Matroska / WebM
  E md5             MD5 testing
 D  mgsts           Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes
 DE microdvd        MicroDVD subtitle format
 DE mjpeg           raw MJPEG video
 D  mjpeg_2000      raw MJPEG 2000 video
  E mkvtimestamp_v2 extract pts as timecode v2 format, as defined by mkvtoolnix
 DE mlp             raw MLP
 D  mlv             Magic Lantern Video (MLV)
 D  mm              American Laser Games MM
 DE mmf             Yamaha SMAF
  E mov             QuickTime / MOV
 D  mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 QuickTime / MOV
  E mp2             MP2 (MPEG audio layer 2)
 DE mp3             MP3 (MPEG audio layer 3)
  E mp4             MP4 (MPEG-4 Part 14)
 D  mpc             Musepack
 D  mpc8            Musepack SV8
 DE mpeg            MPEG-1 Systems / MPEG program stream
  E mpeg1video      raw MPEG-1 video
  E mpeg2video      raw MPEG-2 video
 DE mpegts          MPEG-TS (MPEG-2 Transport Stream)
 D  mpegtsraw       raw MPEG-TS (MPEG-2 Transport Stream)
 D  mpegvideo       raw MPEG video
 DE mpjpeg          MIME multipart JPEG
 D  mpl2            MPL2 subtitles
 D  mpsub           MPlayer subtitles
 D  msf             Sony PS3 MSF
 D  msnwctcp        MSN TCP Webcam stream
 D  mtaf            Konami PS2 MTAF
 D  mtv             MTV
 DE mulaw           PCM mu-law
 D  musx            Eurocom MUSX
 D  mv              Silicon Graphics Movie
 D  mvi             Motion Pixels MVI
 DE mxf             MXF (Material eXchange Format)
  E mxf_d10         MXF (Material eXchange Format) D-10 Mapping
  E mxf_opatom      MXF (Material eXchange Format) Operational Pattern Atom
 D  mxg             MxPEG clip
 D  nc              NC camera feed
 D  nistsphere      NIST SPeech HEader REsources
 D  nsp             Computerized Speech Lab NSP
 D  nsv             Nullsoft Streaming Video
  E null            raw null video
 DE nut             NUT
 D  nuv             NuppelVideo
  E oga             Ogg Audio
 DE ogg             Ogg
  E ogv             Ogg Video
 DE oma             Sony OpenMG audio
  E opus            Ogg Opus
 D  paf             Amazing Studio Packed Animation File
 D  pam_pipe        piped pam sequence
 D  pbm_pipe        piped pbm sequence
 D  pcx_pipe        piped pcx sequence
 D  pgm_pipe        piped pgm sequence
 D  pgmyuv_pipe     piped pgmyuv sequence
 D  pictor_pipe     piped pictor sequence
 D  pjs             PJS (Phoenix Japanimation Society) subtitles
 D  pmp             Playstation Portable PMP
 D  png_pipe        piped png sequence
 D  ppm_pipe        piped ppm sequence
 D  psd_pipe        piped psd sequence
  E psp             PSP MP4 (MPEG-4 Part 14)
 D  psxstr          Sony Playstation STR
 D  pva             TechnoTrend PVA
 D  pvf             PVF (Portable Voice Format)
 D  qcp             QCP
 D  qdraw_pipe      piped qdraw sequence
 D  r3d             REDCODE R3D
 DE rawvideo        raw video
 D  realtext        RealText subtitle format
 D  redspark        RedSpark
 D  rl2             RL2
 DE rm              RealMedia
 DE roq             raw id RoQ
 D  rpl             RPL / ARMovie
 D  rsd             GameCube RSD
 DE rso             Lego Mindstorms RSO
 DE rtp             RTP output
  E rtp_mpegts      RTP/mpegts output format
 DE rtsp            RTSP output
 DE s16be           PCM signed 16-bit big-endian
 DE s16le           PCM signed 16-bit little-endian
 DE s24be           PCM signed 24-bit big-endian
 DE s24le           PCM signed 24-bit little-endian
 DE s32be           PCM signed 32-bit big-endian
 DE s32le           PCM signed 32-bit little-endian
 D  s337m           SMPTE 337M
 DE s8              PCM signed 8-bit
 D  sami            SAMI subtitle format
 DE sap             SAP output
 DE sbc             raw SBC
 D  sbg             SBaGen binaural beats script
 DE scc             Scenarist Closed Captions
  E sdl,sdl2        SDL2 output device
 D  sdp             SDP
 D  sdr2            SDR2
 D  sds             MIDI Sample Dump Standard
 D  sdx             Sample Dump eXchange
  E segment         segment
 D  ser             SER (Simple uncompressed video format for astronomical capturing)
 D  sgi_pipe        piped sgi sequence
 D  shn             raw Shorten
 D  siff            Beam Software SIFF
  E singlejpeg      JPEG single image
 D  sln             Asterisk raw pcm
 DE smjpeg          Loki SDL MJPEG
 D  smk             Smacker
  E smoothstreaming Smooth Streaming Muxer
 D  smush           LucasArts Smush
 D  sol             Sierra SOL
 DE sox             SoX native
 DE spdif           IEC 61937 (used on S/PDIF - IEC958)
  E spx             Ogg Speex
 DE srt             SubRip subtitle
 D  stl             Spruce subtitle format
  E stream_segment,ssegment streaming segment muxer
 D  subviewer       SubViewer subtitle format
 D  subviewer1      SubViewer v1 subtitle format
 D  sunrast_pipe    piped sunrast sequence
 DE sup             raw HDMV Presentation Graphic Stream subtitles
 D  svag            Konami PS2 SVAG
  E svcd            MPEG-2 PS (SVCD)
 D  svg_pipe        piped svg sequence
 DE swf             SWF (ShockWave Flash)
 D  tak             raw TAK
 D  tedcaptions     TED Talks captions
  E tee             Multiple muxer tee
 D  thp             THP
 D  tiertexseq      Tiertex Limited SEQ
 D  tiff_pipe       piped tiff sequence
 D  tmv             8088flex TMV
 DE truehd          raw TrueHD
 DE tta             TTA (True Audio)
 D  tty             Tele-typewriter
 D  txd             Renderware TeXture Dictionary
 D  ty              TiVo TY Stream
 DE u16be           PCM unsigned 16-bit big-endian
 DE u16le           PCM unsigned 16-bit little-endian
 DE u24be           PCM unsigned 24-bit big-endian
 DE u24le           PCM unsigned 24-bit little-endian
 DE u32be           PCM unsigned 32-bit big-endian
 DE u32le           PCM unsigned 32-bit little-endian
 DE u8              PCM unsigned 8-bit
  E uncodedframecrc uncoded framecrc testing
 D  v210            Uncompressed 4:2:2 10-bit
 D  v210x           Uncompressed 4:2:2 10-bit
 D  vag             Sony PS2 VAG
 DE vc1             raw VC-1 video
 DE vc1test         VC-1 test bitstream
  E vcd             MPEG-1 Systems / MPEG program stream (VCD)
 DE vidc            PCM Archimedes VIDC
 D  vividas         Vividas VIV
 D  vivo            Vivo
 D  vmd             Sierra VMD
  E vob             MPEG-2 PS (VOB)
 D  vobsub          VobSub subtitle format
 DE voc             Creative Voice
 D  vpk             Sony PS2 VPK
 D  vplayer         VPlayer subtitles
 D  vqf             Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) TwinVQ
 DE w64             Sony Wave64
 DE wav             WAV / WAVE (Waveform Audio)
 D  wc3movie        Wing Commander III movie
  E webm            WebM
  E webm_chunk      WebM Chunk Muxer
 DE webm_dash_manifest WebM DASH Manifest
  E webp            WebP
 D  webp_pipe       piped webp sequence
 DE webvtt          WebVTT subtitle
 D  wsaud           Westwood Studios audio
 D  wsd             Wideband Single-bit Data (WSD)
 D  wsvqa           Westwood Studios VQA
 DE wtv             Windows Television (WTV)
 DE wv              raw WavPack
 D  wve             Psion 3 audio
 D  xa              Maxis XA
 D  xbin            eXtended BINary text (XBIN)
 D  xmv             Microsoft XMV
 D  xpm_pipe        piped xpm sequence
 D  xvag            Sony PS3 XVAG
 D  xwd_pipe        piped xwd sequence
 D  xwma            Microsoft xWMA
 D  yop             Psygnosis YOP
 DE yuv4mpegpipe    YUV4MPEG pipe