2

The command

ffplay -f lavfi -graph testsrc2=d=1[out0];sine=d=1[out1] test.mp4

works fine. But the same arguments for ffmpeg (instead of ffplay)

ffmpeg -f lavfi -graph testsrc2=d=1[out0];sine=d=1[out1] test.mp4

produce only the error

[NULL @ 00000000006934c0] Requested output format 'lavfi' is not a suitable output format
test.mp4: Invalid argument

What's wrong with it?

Note:

From the FFmpeg documentation for the lavfi:

Currently only video data is supported.

It seems that's not true nowadays, at least ffplay works fine with audio (see my first command).
Or I incorrectly interpret this sentence?

But just in case I tried using the filtergraph testsrc2=d=1[out0];testsrc=d=1[out1] instead, with the same results — ffplay — OK, ffmpeg — the same error.

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1 Answer 1

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3

The ffmpeg tool can work with multiple inputs and outputs so the parser looks for -i to demarcate input options. The lavfi device will read the graph from the input argument

Use

ffmpeg -f lavfi -i "testsrc2=d=1[out0];sine=d=1[out1]" test.mp4
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2
  • Thanks for your answer, it works, I new this — IMHO — workaround. The base of my question was a little other (my flaw for not state it clearly) — is the documentation for lavfi inappropriate / incomplete / obsolete? Is the parser for the ffmpeg command different from the one for ffplay (for the lavfi device)?
    – MarianD
    Feb 8, 2020 at 5:25
  • Yes, ffmpeg, ffplay and ffprobe each has its own parser. The lavfi device is a component within the libavdevice library which may be used by other frontends, so the interface will depend on the frontend.
    – Gyan
    Feb 8, 2020 at 9:04

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