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Use FFmpeg to handle media files

Install FFMmpeg​

Install Swiss-Army knife of multimedia operation, FFmpeg

Merge multiple files​

ffmpeg -i first.mp3 -i second.mp3 -filter_complex [0:a][1:a]concat=n=2:v=0:a=1 out.mp3
note

This method will do a re-encoding of the input files.

To skip re-encoding, use the concat demuxer

Create a text file list.txt

file '/path/to/first.mp3'
file '/path/to/second.mp3'

Then

ffmpeg -f concat -i list.txt -c copy out.mp3

Create fade-in/fade-out​

This will start the input at 00:00:00 mark. At the 48 seconds mark, it will start imposing a fade-out effect for the next 11 seconds, from 00:00:48 to 00:00:59.

ffmpeg -ss 0 -i input.mp3 -af "afade=type=out:start_time=48:duration=11" -c:a libmp3lame output.mp3

This will start the input at 00:00:25 mark. At the 0 second mark, it will start imposing a fade-in effect for the next 5 seconds, from 00:00:00 to 00:00:05.

ffmpeg -ss 25 -i input.mp3 -af "afade=type=in:start_time=0:duration=5" -c:a libmp3lame output.mp3

Split a video into multiple parts​

This command takes an input video file input_big.mp4 and splits it into equal parts of 3600 seconds (1 hour).

ffmpeg -i input_big.mp4 -acodec copy -f segment -segment_time 3600 -vcodec copy -reset_timestamps 1 -map 0 output_time_%d.mp4
  • -i specifies the input file, in our case, input_big.mp4
  • -acodec copy sets the audio codec for the output to copy, which means the audio stream will be copied without re-encoding
  • -f segment sets the format to segment
  • -segment_time 10 specifies the duration of each segment to 3600 seconds
  • -vcodec copy sets the video codec for the output to copy, which means the video stream will be copied without re-encoding
  • -reset_timestamps 1 resets timestamps for each segment and creates segments with continuous timestamps
  • -map 0 maps all the streams from input to the output
  • output_time_%d.mp4 defines the naming pattern for the output files, where %d in the naming pattern is a placeholder for a numeric index

Add overlay background picture​

To add a background image to create an overlay effect (ie. the video is on top of the bigger image that is beneath the video) like this,

overlay

Use overlay filter from FFmpeg

ffmpeg -loop 1 -i image.jpg -i input_video.mp4 -filter_complex "overlay=(W-w)/2:(H-h)/2:shortest=1,format=yuv420p" -c:a copy output_video.mp4

This command will take a moment to run as it needs to render a new video file with the new image.jpg added to every frame.

info

The width of the background image must be an EVEN integar that can be divided by 2. For example, 720 would work but 721 would cause an error message.

References​

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