magnus919_agent-skills/ffmpeg/references/source-inventory.md

FFmpeg Source Inventory

Research access date: 2026-09-01

Retained primary sources

#	Source	Authority	Topics supported	Caveat
1	FFmpeg documentation	Official project index	Current command-line and API documentation; versioned manuals	Online docs track the newest revision; use installed manuals for older builds.
2	ffmpeg tool manual	Official	Command anatomy, input/output order, stream selection, mapping, codecs, filtering, timestamps	Option scope is order-sensitive and many examples are contextual.
3	ffprobe manual	Official	Container/stream inspection, machine-readable output, stream specifiers, intervals	Probe output describes the file; it does not prove universal playback compatibility.
4	ffmpeg-all manual	Official	Consolidated reference and examples across tools and libraries	Very large; use for lookup after learning the model.
5	Filters manual	Official	Filtergraphs, pads, labels, audio/video filters, framesync, hardware filters	Availability and options depend on build and version.
6	Formats manual	Official	Demuxers, muxers, probing, interleaving, timestamp handling, concat	Container behavior varies; codec and container compatibility are separate.
7	Codecs manual	Official	Encoder/decoder options, bitrate, time base, rate control, error detection	Private options are encoder-specific.
8	Protocols manual	Official	File, pipe, network, concat, UDP, HTTP and other I/O protocols	Network commands need explicit timeout, security, and endpoint assumptions.
9	Utilities manual	Official	Duration syntax, quoting/escaping, expressions, rational numbers, channel layouts	Shell quoting is a second language layered over FFmpeg quoting.
10	Scaler manual	Official	Scaling, pixel-format conversion, algorithms, range and gamma	Quality depends on source/destination formats and range.
11	Resampler manual	Official	Sample-rate conversion, channel rematrixing, sample formats, dithering, sync compensation	Optional SoX support and defaults are build-dependent.
12	NVIDIA FFmpeg GPU guide	Vendor primary source	CUDA decode, GPU surfaces, scale_cuda/scale_npp, NVENC	NVIDIA-specific; do not transfer commands to macOS or non-NVIDIA hosts.
13	FFmpeg Git repository	Official source	Source-level confirmation and release history	Source inspection does not replace testing the installed binary.
14	FFmpeg download/release guidance	Official	Releases, source builds, release cadence and signed tags	Distribution packages may lag or differ in enabled components.

Secondary learning resources

• FFmpeg Filtering Guide - official project wiki guide. Automated retrieval was blocked by the site's Anubis proof-of-work page on this date, so treat it as a reading lead and verify commands against the filters manual.
• FFmpeg Ultimate Guide - readable secondary overview with practical transcoding examples; vendor context means commands should be checked against official manuals.
• Shotstack FFmpeg guide - broad examples and scripting orientation; secondary and service-oriented.
• FFmpeg intermediate guide on Wikibooks - useful topic map; community-maintained and examples need current-build verification.
• FFmpeg short guide and examples - practical GitHub notes; inspect freshness before relying on a recipe.
• slhck FFmpeg encoding course - maintained educational repository discovered during delegated research; strong intermediate bridge, but still secondary to the official manuals.
• amiaopensource/ffmprovisr - preservation-oriented recipe collection; useful for real media workflows, with strong need for format-specific verification.

Rejected or limited sources

• FFmpeg Trac pages for Concatenate, H.264, AAC, HWAccelIntro, StreamingGuide, Encode/YouTube, and CompilationGuide were not retained as evidence because retrieval encountered the site's JavaScript proof-of-work page. This is an access limitation, not evidence that the pages are wrong.
• DeepWiki pages were not used as primary evidence because they are generated/secondary explanations of source code.
• Search-result snippets and anonymous cheat sheets were used only for discovery, not evidence.

Recommended learning order

1. ffmpeg synopsis and ffprobe inspection.
2. Containers, streams, codecs, demux/mux, decode/filter/encode, and stream mapping.
3. Remuxing versus transcoding, codec selection, quality controls, and stream specifiers.
4. Simple filters, then labeled -filter_complex graphs and explicit -map.
5. Time, seeking, trimming, concat demuxer versus concat filter, timestamps, and synchronization.
6. Metadata, subtitles, image sequences, pipes, and shell scripting.
7. Streaming protocols and latency controls, with explicit endpoint and timeout handling.
8. Hardware acceleration only after understanding software pipelines and verifying local capabilities.
9. Debugging with verbose logs, ffprobe, minimal reproductions, and build inventories.

SOURCES (LAYER 3 NAVIGATION) https://ffmpeg.org/documentation.html -> Official documentation index and version links.

https://ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg.html -> Primary command-line semantics.

https://ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg-filters.html -> Primary filtergraph reference.

https://ffmpeg.org/ffprobe.html -> Primary inspection reference.