So, what can FFmpeg do?

List supported codecs: The codecs or -formats options will list all the codecs that are supported. Each codec is referred to by a special name, which will have to be used in your FFmpeg commands when a particular codec needs to be used. The -encoders option will list all codecs which FFmpeg can convert to, i.e., the output formats. The -decoders option will list all codecs which FFmpeg can convert from, i.e., the input formats. Check codecs used in a media file: FFmpeg uses the -i option to specify the input file. This will display the streams available in the file and the settings with which each stream was encoded. Do remember that file extensions can be misleading. MP4, AVI or WMV files are merely containers for multiple content streams. There is no guarantee that a WMV file will have a stream in Windows Media Audio format. It could very well have MPEG-3 audio. Extract audio from a video file: You can use the -vn option to disable the video stream and save the remaining audio stream to an MP3 file, as follows: