Quality is controlled either by specifying a bitrate through -b:v (for video) or -b:a (for audio), or by specifying any other encoding method the codec might support.įor x264, there are various encoding methods, with the Constant Rate Factor method being the most sophisticated. This is untrue and will result in breakage.īasically, the presets allow you to do the following things: Control quality It is a common misconception that text presets can simply be copied from anywhere and used with any ffmpeg. If your ffmpeg supports -preset then any text file presets should not be used, and FFmpeg no longer comes with any other than some non-standard iPod presets. For example, x264 lists its options under libx264 AVOptions in the full help output. You will have to look into the audio and video encoder options for common codecs in the FFmpeg online documentation, or check the output of ffmpeg -h full for a complete list of supported options. It is also much easier to maintain.Īdditionally, many encoders have their own separate options also called 'private options'. The old text files only emulated the official x264 presets and profiles, and due to several limitations could not offer the full functionality that the new system provides.

These have been deprecated and removed in favor of accessing the actual x264 presets, profiles (and tunes) with the -preset, -profile:v, and -tune options. FFmpeg does not include text file based presets and profiles anymore for libx264, i.e.

Ffmpeg h264 settings