FFSERVER(1)

NAME
ffserver - ffserver video server

SYNOPSYS
The generic syntax is:

        ffserver [options]

DESCRIPTION
ffserver is a streaming server for both audio and video. It supports

several live feeds, streaming from files and time shifting on live feeds (you can seek to positions in the past on each live feed, provided you specify a big enough feed storage in ffserver.conf).

ffserver runs in daemon mode by default; that is, it puts itself in the background and detaches from its TTY, unless it is launched in debug mode or a NoDaemon option is specified in the configuration file.

This documentation covers only the streaming aspects of ffserver / ffmpeg. All questions about parameters for ffmpeg, codec questions, etc. are not covered here. Read ffmpeg.html for more information.

  How does it work?
ffserver receives prerecorded files or FFM streams from some ffmpeg instance as input, then streams them over RTP/RTSP/HTTP.

An ffserver instance will listen on some port as specified in the configuration file. You can launch one or more instances of ffmpeg and send one or more FFM streams to the port where ffserver is expecting to receive them. Alternately, you can make ffserver launch such ffmpeg instances at startup.

Input streams are called feeds, and each one is specified by a <Feed> section in the configuration file.

For each feed you can have different output streams in various formats, each one specified by a <Stream> section in the configuration file.

  Status stream
ffserver supports an HTTP interface which exposes the current status of the server.

Simply point your browser to the address of the special status stream specified in the configuration file.

For example if you have:

        <Stream status.html>
        Format status

        # Only allow local people to get the status
        ACL allow localhost
        ACL allow 192.168.0.0 192.168.255.255
        </Stream>

then the server will post a page with the status information when the special stream status.html is requested.

  What can this do?
When properly configured and running, you can capture video and audio in real time from a suitable capture card, and stream it out over the Internet to either Windows Media Player or RealAudio player (with some restrictions).

It can also stream from files, though that is currently broken. Very often, a web server can be used to serve up the files just as well.

It can stream prerecorded video from .ffm files, though it is somewhat tricky to make it work correctly.

  What do I need?
I use Linux on a 900 MHz Duron with a cheapo Bt848 based TV capture card. I'm using stock Linux 2.4.17 with the stock drivers. [Actually that isn't true, I needed some special drivers for my motherboard-based sound card.]

I understand that FreeBSD systems work just fine as well.

  How do I make it work?
First, build the kit. It *really* helps to have installed LAME first. Then when you run the ffserver ./configure, make sure that you have the "--enable-libmp3lame" flag turned on.

LAME is important as it allows for streaming audio to Windows Media Player. Don't ask why the other audio types do not work.

As a simple test, just run the following two command lines where INPUTFILE is some file which you can decode with ffmpeg:

        ffserver -f doc/ffserver.conf &
        ffmpeg -i INPUTFILE http://localhost:8090/feed1.ffm

At this point you should be able to go to your Windows machine and fire up Windows Media Player (WMP). Go to Open URL and enter

            http://<linuxbox>:8090/test.asf

You should (after a short delay) see video and hear audio.

WARNING: trying to stream test1.mpg doesn't work with WMP as it tries to transfer the entire file before starting to play. The same is true of AVI files.

  What happens next?
You should edit the ffserver.conf file to suit your needs (in terms of frame rates etc). Then install ffserver and ffmpeg, write a script to start them up, and off you go.

  Troubleshooting
I don't hear any audio, but video is fine.

Maybe you didn't install LAME, or got your ./configure statement wrong. Check the ffmpeg output to see if a line referring to MP3 is present. If not, then your configuration was incorrect. If it is, then maybe your wiring is not set up correctly. Maybe the sound card is not getting data from the right input source. Maybe you have a really awful audio interface (like I do) that only captures in stereo and also requires that one channel be flipped. If you are one of these people, then export 'AUDIO_FLIP_LEFT=1' before starting ffmpeg.

The audio and video lose sync after a while.

Yes, they do.

After a long while, the video update rate goes way down in WMP.

Yes, it does. Who knows why?

WMP 6.4 behaves differently to WMP 7.

Yes, it does. Any thoughts on this would be gratefully received. These differences extend to embedding WMP into a web page. [There are two object IDs that you can use: The old one, which does not play well, and the new one, which does (both tested on the same system). However, I suspect that the new one is not available unless you have installed WMP 7].

  What else can it do?
You can replay video from .ffm files that was recorded earlier. However, there are a number of caveats, including the fact that the ffserver parameters must match the original parameters used to record the file. If they do not, then ffserver deletes the file before recording into it. (Now that I write this, it seems broken).

You can fiddle with many of the codec choices and encoding parameters, and there are a bunch more parameters that you cannot control. Post a message to the mailing list if there are some 'must have' parameters. Look in ffserver.conf for a list of the currently available controls.

It will automatically generate the ASX or RAM files that are often used in browsers. These files are actually redirections to the underlying ASF or RM file. The reason for this is that the browser often fetches the entire file before starting up the external viewer. The redirection files are very small and can be transferred quickly. [The stream itself is often 'infinite' and thus the browser tries to download it and never finishes.]

  Tips
* When you connect to a live stream, most players (WMP, RA, etc) want to buffer a certain number of seconds of material so that they can display the signal continuously. However, ffserver (by default) starts sending data in realtime. This means that there is a pause of a few seconds while the buffering is being done by the player. The good news is that this can be cured by adding a '?buffer=5' to the end of the URL. This means that the stream should start 5 seconds in the past -- and so the first 5 seconds of the stream are sent as fast as the network will allow. It will then slow down to real time. This noticeably improves the startup experience.

You can also add a 'Preroll 15' statement into the ffserver.conf that will add the 15 second prebuffering on all requests that do not otherwise specify a time. In addition, ffserver will skip frames until a key_frame is found. This further reduces the startup delay by not transferring data that will be discarded.

* You may want to adjust the MaxBandwidth in the ffserver.conf to limit the amount of bandwidth consumed by live streams.

  Why does the ?buffer / Preroll stop working after a time?
It turns out that (on my machine at least) the number of frames successfully grabbed is marginally less than the number that ought to be grabbed. This means that the timestamp in the encoded data stream gets behind realtime. This means that if you say 'Preroll 10', then when the stream gets 10 or more seconds behind, there is no Preroll left.

Fixing this requires a change in the internals of how timestamps are handled.

  Does the "?date=" stuff work.
Yes (subject to the limitation outlined above). Also note that whenever you start ffserver, it deletes the ffm file (if any parameters have changed), thus wiping out what you had recorded before.

The format of the "?date=xxxxxx" is fairly flexible. You should use one of the following formats (the 'T' is literal):

        * YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS     (localtime)
        * YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ    (UTC)

You can omit the YYYY-MM-DD, and then it refers to the current day. However note that ?date=16:00:00 refers to 16:00 on the current day -- this may be in the future and so is unlikely to be useful.

You use this by adding the ?date= to the end of the URL for the stream. For example: http://localhost:8080/test.asf?date=2002-07-26T23:05:00.

OPTIONS
All the numerical options, if not specified otherwise, accept in input a string representing a number, which may contain one of the International System number postfixes, for example 'K', 'M', 'G'. If 'i' is appended after the postfix, powers of 2 are used instead of powers of 10. The 'B' postfix multiplies the value for 8, and can be appended after another postfix or used alone. This allows using for example 'KB', 'MiB', 'G' and 'B' as postfix.

Options which do not take arguments are boolean options, and set the corresponding value to true. They can be set to false by prefixing with "no" the option name, for example using "-nofoo" in the command line will set to false the boolean option with name "foo".

  Stream specifiers
Some options are applied per-stream, e.g. bitrate or codec. Stream specifiers are used to precisely specify which stream(s) does a given option belong to.

A stream specifier is a string generally appended to the option name and separated from it by a colon. E.g. "-codec:a:1 ac3" option contains "a:1" stream specifier, which matches the second audio stream. Therefore it would select the ac3 codec for the second audio stream.

A stream specifier can match several streams, the option is then applied to all of them. E.g. the stream specifier in "-b:a 128k" matches all audio streams.

An empty stream specifier matches all streams, for example "-codec copy" or "-codec: copy" would copy all the streams without reencoding.

Possible forms of stream specifiers are:

stream_index
    Matches the stream with this index. E.g. "-threads:1 4" would set the thread count for the second stream to 4.

stream_type[:stream_index]
    stream_type is one of: 'v' for video, 'a' for audio, 's' for subtitle, 'd' for data and 't' for attachments. If stream_index is given, then matches stream number stream_index of this type. Otherwise matches all streams of this type.

p:program_id[:stream_index]
    If stream_index is given, then matches stream number stream_index in program with id program_id. Otherwise matches all streams in this program.

#stream_id
    Matches the stream by format-specific ID.

  Generic options
These options are shared amongst the av* tools.

-L  Show license.

-h, -?, -help, --help [arg]
    Show help. An optional parameter may be specified to print help about a specific item.

    Possible values of arg are:

    decoder=decoder_name
        Print detailed information about the decoder named decoder_name. Use the -decoders option to get a list of all decoders.

    encoder=encoder_name
        Print detailed information about the encoder named encoder_name. Use the -encoders option to get a list of all encoders.

    demuxer=demuxer_name
        Print detailed information about the demuxer named demuxer_name. Use the -formats option to get a list of all demuxers and muxers.

    muxer=muxer_name
        Print detailed information about the muxer named muxer_name. Use the -formats option to get a list of all muxers and demuxers.

-version
    Show version.

-formats
    Show available formats.

    The fields preceding the format names have the following meanings:

    D   Decoding available

    E   Encoding available

-codecs
    Show all codecs known to libavcodec.

    Note that the term 'codec' is used throughout this documentation as a shortcut for what is more correctly called a media bitstream format.

-decoders
    Show available decoders.

-encoders
    Show all available encoders.

-bsfs
    Show available bitstream filters.

-protocols
    Show available protocols.

-filters
    Show available libavfilter filters.

-pix_fmts
    Show available pixel formats.

-sample_fmts
    Show available sample formats.

-layouts
    Show channel names and standard channel layouts.

-loglevel loglevel | -v loglevel
    Set the logging level used by the library. loglevel is a number or a string containing one of the following values:

    quiet
    panic
    fatal
    error
    warning
    info
    verbose
    debug

    By default the program logs to stderr, if coloring is supported by the terminal, colors are used to mark errors and warnings. Log coloring can be disabled setting the environment variable AV_LOG_FORCE_NOCOLOR or NO_COLOR, or can be forced setting the environment variable AV_LOG_FORCE_COLOR. The use of the environment variable NO_COLOR is deprecated and will be dropped in a following FFmpeg version.

-report
    Dump full command line and console output to a file named "program-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS.log" in the current directory. This file can be useful for bug reports. It also implies "-loglevel verbose".

    Note: setting the environment variable "FFREPORT" to any value has the same effect.

-cpuflags flags (global)
    Allows setting and clearing cpu flags. This option is intended for testing. Do not use it unless you know what you're doing.

            ffmpeg -cpuflags -sse+mmx ...
            ffmpeg -cpuflags mmx ...
            ffmpeg -cpuflags 0 ...

  AVOptions
These options are provided directly by the libavformat, libavdevice and libavcodec libraries. To see the list of available AVOptions, use the -help option. They are separated into two categories:

generic
    These options can be set for any container, codec or device. Generic options are listed under AVFormatContext options for containers/devices and under AVCodecContext options for codecs.

private
    These options are specific to the given container, device or codec. Private options are listed under their corresponding containers/devices/codecs.

For example to write an ID3v2.3 header instead of a default ID3v2.4 to an MP3 file, use the id3v2_version private option of the MP3 muxer:

        ffmpeg -i input.flac -id3v2_version 3 out.mp3

All codec AVOptions are obviously per-stream, so the chapter on stream specifiers applies to them

Note -nooption syntax cannot be used for boolean AVOptions, use -option 0/-option 1.

Note2 old undocumented way of specifying per-stream AVOptions by prepending v/a/s to the options name is now obsolete and will be removed soon.

  Codec AVOptions

-b[:stream_specifier] integer (output,audio,video)
    set bitrate (in bits/s)

-ab[:stream_specifier] integer (output,audio)
    set bitrate (in bits/s)

-bt[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    Set video bitrate tolerance (in bits/s). In 1-pass mode, bitrate tolerance specifies how far ratecontrol is willing to deviate from the target average bitrate value. This is not related to min/max bitrate. Lowering tolerance too much has an adverse effect on quality.

-flags[:stream_specifier] flags (input/output,audio,video,subtitles)
    Possible values:

    mv4 use four motion vector by macroblock (mpeg4)

    qpel
        use 1/4 pel motion compensation

    loop
        use loop filter

    qscale
        use fixed qscale

    gmc use gmc

    mv0 always try a mb with mv=<0,0>

    input_preserved
    pass1
        use internal 2pass ratecontrol in first pass mode

    pass2
        use internal 2pass ratecontrol in second pass mode

    gray
        only decode/encode grayscale

    emu_edge
        don't draw edges

    psnr
        error[?] variables will be set during encoding

    truncated
    naq normalize adaptive quantization

    ildct
        use interlaced dct

    low_delay
        force low delay

    global_header
        place global headers in extradata instead of every keyframe

    bitexact
        use only bitexact stuff (except (i)dct)

    aic h263 advanced intra coding / mpeg4 ac prediction

    cbp Deprecated, use mpegvideo private options instead

    qprd
        Deprecated, use mpegvideo private options instead

    ilme
        interlaced motion estimation

    cgop
        closed gop

-sub_id[:stream_specifier] integer ()
-me_method[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    set motion estimation method

    Possible values:

    zero
        zero motion estimation (fastest)

    full
        full motion estimation (slowest)

    epzs
        EPZS motion estimation (default)

    esa esa motion estimation (alias for full)

    tesa
        tesa motion estimation

    dia dia motion estimation (alias for epzs)

    log log motion estimation

    phods
        phods motion estimation

    x1  X1 motion estimation

    hex hex motion estimation

    umh umh motion estimation

    iter
        iter motion estimation

-extradata_size[:stream_specifier] integer ()
-time_base[:stream_specifier] rational number ()
-g[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    set the group of picture size

-ar[:stream_specifier] integer (input/output,audio)
    set audio sampling rate (in Hz)

-ac[:stream_specifier] integer (input/output,audio)
    set number of audio channels

-cutoff[:stream_specifier] integer (output,audio)
    set cutoff bandwidth

-frame_size[:stream_specifier] integer (output,audio)
-frame_number[:stream_specifier] integer ()
-delay[:stream_specifier] integer ()
-qcomp[:stream_specifier] float (output,video)
    video quantizer scale compression (VBR). Constant of ratecontrol equation. Recommended range for default rc_eq: 0.0-1.0

-qblur[:stream_specifier] float (output,video)
    video quantizer scale blur (VBR)

-qmin[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    min video quantizer scale (VBR)

-qmax[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    max video quantizer scale (VBR)

-qdiff[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    max difference between the quantizer scale (VBR)

-bf[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    use 'frames' B frames

-b_qfactor[:stream_specifier] float (output,video)
    qp factor between p and b frames

-rc_strategy[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    ratecontrol method

-b_strategy[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    strategy to choose between I/P/B-frames

-ps[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    rtp payload size in bytes

-mv_bits[:stream_specifier] integer ()
-header_bits[:stream_specifier] integer ()
-i_tex_bits[:stream_specifier] integer ()
-p_tex_bits[:stream_specifier] integer ()
-i_count[:stream_specifier] integer ()
-p_count[:stream_specifier] integer ()
-skip_count[:stream_specifier] integer ()
-misc_bits[:stream_specifier] integer ()
-frame_bits[:stream_specifier] integer ()
-codec_tag[:stream_specifier] integer ()
-bug[:stream_specifier] flags (input,video)
    workaround not auto detected encoder bugs

    Possible values:

    autodetect
    old_msmpeg4
        some old lavc generated msmpeg4v3 files (no autodetection)

    xvid_ilace
        Xvid interlacing bug (autodetected if fourcc==XVIX)

    ump4
        (autodetected if fourcc==UMP4)

    no_padding
        padding bug (autodetected)

    amv
    ac_vlc
        illegal vlc bug (autodetected per fourcc)

    qpel_chroma
    std_qpel
        old standard qpel (autodetected per fourcc/version)

    qpel_chroma2
    direct_blocksize
        direct-qpel-blocksize bug (autodetected per fourcc/version)

    edge
        edge padding bug (autodetected per fourcc/version)

    hpel_chroma
    dc_clip
    ms  workaround various bugs in microsofts broken decoders

    trunc
        trancated frames

-lelim[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    single coefficient elimination threshold for luminance (negative values also consider dc coefficient)

-celim[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    single coefficient elimination threshold for chrominance (negative values also consider dc coefficient)

-strict[:stream_specifier] integer (input/output,audio,video)
    how strictly to follow the standards

    Possible values:

    very
        strictly conform to a older more strict version of the spec or reference software

    strict
        strictly conform to all the things in the spec no matter what consequences

    normal
    unofficial
        allow unofficial extensions

    experimental
        allow non standardized experimental things

-b_qoffset[:stream_specifier] float (output,video)
    qp offset between P and B frames

-err_detect[:stream_specifier] flags (input,audio,video)
    set error detection flags

    Possible values:

    crccheck
        verify embedded CRCs

    bitstream
        detect bitstream specification deviations

    buffer
        detect improper bitstream length

    explode
        abort decoding on minor error detection

    careful
        consider things that violate the spec and have not been seen in the wild as errors

    compliant
        consider all spec non compliancies as errors

    aggressive
        consider things that a sane encoder should not do as an error

-has_b_frames[:stream_specifier] integer ()
-block_align[:stream_specifier] integer ()
-mpeg_quant[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    use MPEG quantizers instead of H.263

-stats_out[:stream_specifier] string ()
-qsquish[:stream_specifier] float (output,video)
    how to keep quantizer between qmin and qmax (0 = clip, 1 = use differentiable function)

-rc_qmod_amp[:stream_specifier] float (output,video)
    experimental quantizer modulation

-rc_qmod_freq[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    experimental quantizer modulation

-rc_override_count[:stream_specifier] integer ()
-rc_eq[:stream_specifier] string (output,video)
    Set rate control equation. When computing the expression, besides the standard functions defined in the section 'Expression Evaluation', the following functions are available: bits2qp(bits), qp2bits(qp). Also the following constants are available: iTex pTex tex mv fCode iCount mcVar var isI isP isB avgQP qComp avgIITex avgPITex avgPPTex avgBPTex avgTex.

-maxrate[:stream_specifier] integer (output,audio,video)
    Set max bitrate tolerance (in bits/s). Requires bufsize to be set.

-minrate[:stream_specifier] integer (output,audio,video)
    Set min bitrate tolerance (in bits/s). Most useful in setting up a CBR encode. It is of little use elsewise.

-bufsize[:stream_specifier] integer (output,audio,video)
    set ratecontrol buffer size (in bits)

-rc_buf_aggressivity[:stream_specifier] float (output,video)
    currently useless

-i_qfactor[:stream_specifier] float (output,video)
    qp factor between P and I frames

-i_qoffset[:stream_specifier] float (output,video)
    qp offset between P and I frames

-rc_init_cplx[:stream_specifier] float (output,video)
    initial complexity for 1-pass encoding

-dct[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    DCT algorithm

    Possible values:

    auto
        autoselect a good one (default)

    fastint
        fast integer

    int accurate integer

    mmx
    altivec
    faan
        floating point AAN DCT

-lumi_mask[:stream_specifier] float (output,video)
    compresses bright areas stronger than medium ones

-tcplx_mask[:stream_specifier] float (output,video)
    temporal complexity masking

-scplx_mask[:stream_specifier] float (output,video)
    spatial complexity masking

-p_mask[:stream_specifier] float (output,video)
    inter masking

-dark_mask[:stream_specifier] float (output,video)
    compresses dark areas stronger than medium ones

-idct[:stream_specifier] integer (input/output,video)
    select IDCT implementation

    Possible values:

    auto
    int
    simple
    simplemmx
    libmpeg2mmx
    mmi
    arm
    altivec
    sh4
    simplearm
    simplearmv5te
    simplearmv6
    simpleneon
    simplealpha
    h264
    vp3
    ipp
    xvidmmx
    faani
        floating point AAN IDCT

-slice_count[:stream_specifier] integer ()
-ec[:stream_specifier] flags (input,video)
    set error concealment strategy

    Possible values:

    guess_mvs
        iterative motion vector (MV) search (slow)

    deblock
        use strong deblock filter for damaged MBs

-bits_per_coded_sample[:stream_specifier] integer ()
-pred[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    prediction method

    Possible values:

    left
    plane
    median
-aspect[:stream_specifier] rational number (output,video)
    sample aspect ratio

-debug[:stream_specifier] flags (input/output,audio,video,subtitles)
    print specific debug info

    Possible values:

    pict
        picture info

    rc  rate control

    bitstream
    mb_type
        macroblock (MB) type

    qp  per-block quantization parameter (QP)

    mv  motion vector

    dct_coeff
    skip
    startcode
    pts
    er  error recognition

    mmco
        memory management control operations (H.264)

    bugs
    vis_qp
        visualize quantization parameter (QP), lower QP are tinted greener

    vis_mb_type
        visualize block types

    buffers
        picture buffer allocations

    thread_ops
        threading operations

-vismv[:stream_specifier] integer (input,video)
    visualize motion vectors (MVs)

    Possible values:

    pf  forward predicted MVs of P-frames

    bf  forward predicted MVs of B-frames

    bb  backward predicted MVs of B-frames

-cmp[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    full pel me compare function

    Possible values:

    sad sum of absolute differences, fast (default)

    sse sum of squared errors

    satd
        sum of absolute Hadamard transformed differences

    dct sum of absolute DCT transformed differences

    psnr
        sum of squared quantization errors (avoid, low quality)

    bit number of bits needed for the block

    rd  rate distortion optimal, slow

    zero
        0

    vsad
        sum of absolute vertical differences

    vsse
        sum of squared vertical differences

    nsse
        noise preserving sum of squared differences

    dctmax
    chroma
-subcmp[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    sub pel me compare function

    Possible values:

    sad sum of absolute differences, fast (default)

    sse sum of squared errors

    satd
        sum of absolute Hadamard transformed differences

    dct sum of absolute DCT transformed differences

    psnr
        sum of squared quantization errors (avoid, low quality)

    bit number of bits needed for the block

    rd  rate distortion optimal, slow

    zero
        0

    vsad
        sum of absolute vertical differences

    vsse
        sum of squared vertical differences

    nsse
        noise preserving sum of squared differences

    dctmax
    chroma
-mbcmp[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    macroblock compare function

    Possible values:

    sad sum of absolute differences, fast (default)

    sse sum of squared errors

    satd
        sum of absolute Hadamard transformed differences

    dct sum of absolute DCT transformed differences

    psnr
        sum of squared quantization errors (avoid, low quality)

    bit number of bits needed for the block

    rd  rate distortion optimal, slow

    zero
        0

    vsad
        sum of absolute vertical differences

    vsse
        sum of squared vertical differences

    nsse
        noise preserving sum of squared differences

    dctmax
    chroma
-ildctcmp[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    interlaced dct compare function

    Possible values:

    sad sum of absolute differences, fast (default)

    sse sum of squared errors

    satd
        sum of absolute Hadamard transformed differences

    dct sum of absolute DCT transformed differences

    psnr
        sum of squared quantization errors (avoid, low quality)

    bit number of bits needed for the block

    rd  rate distortion optimal, slow

    zero
        0

    vsad
        sum of absolute vertical differences

    vsse
        sum of squared vertical differences

    nsse
        noise preserving sum of squared differences

    dctmax
    chroma
-dia_size[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    diamond type & size for motion estimation

-last_pred[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    amount of motion predictors from the previous frame

-preme[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    pre motion estimation

-precmp[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    pre motion estimation compare function

    Possible values:

    sad sum of absolute differences, fast (default)

    sse sum of squared errors

    satd
        sum of absolute Hadamard transformed differences

    dct sum of absolute DCT transformed differences

    psnr
        sum of squared quantization errors (avoid, low quality)

    bit number of bits needed for the block

    rd  rate distortion optimal, slow

    zero
        0

    vsad
        sum of absolute vertical differences

    vsse
        sum of squared vertical differences

    nsse
        noise preserving sum of squared differences

    dctmax
    chroma
-pre_dia_size[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    diamond type & size for motion estimation pre-pass

-subq[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    sub pel motion estimation quality

-dtg_active_format[:stream_specifier] integer ()
-me_range[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    limit motion vectors range (1023 for DivX player)

-ibias[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    intra quant bias

-pbias[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    inter quant bias

-color_table_id[:stream_specifier] integer ()
-global_quality[:stream_specifier] integer (output,audio,video)
-coder[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    Possible values:

    vlc variable length coder / huffman coder

    ac  arithmetic coder

    raw raw (no encoding)

    rle run-length coder

    deflate
        deflate-based coder

-context[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    context model

-slice_flags[:stream_specifier] integer ()
-xvmc_acceleration[:stream_specifier] integer ()
-mbd[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    macroblock decision algorithm (high quality mode)

    Possible values:

    simple
        use mbcmp (default)

    bits
        use fewest bits

    rd  use best rate distortion

-stream_codec_tag[:stream_specifier] integer ()
-sc_threshold[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    scene change threshold

-lmin[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    min lagrange factor (VBR)

-lmax[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    max lagrange factor (VBR)

-nr[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    noise reduction

-rc_init_occupancy[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    number of bits which should be loaded into the rc buffer before decoding starts

-inter_threshold[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
-flags2[:stream_specifier] flags (input/output,audio,video)
    Possible values:

    fast
        allow non spec compliant speedup tricks

    sgop
        Deprecated, use mpegvideo private options instead

    noout
        skip bitstream encoding

    local_header
        place global headers at every keyframe instead of in extradata

    chunks
        Frame data might be split into multiple chunks

    showall
        Show all frames before the first keyframe

    skiprd
        Deprecated, use mpegvideo private options instead

-error[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
-qns[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    deprecated, use mpegvideo private options instead

-threads[:stream_specifier] integer (input/output,video)
    Possible values:

    auto
        detect a good number of threads

-me_threshold[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    motion estimaton threshold

-mb_threshold[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    macroblock threshold

-dc[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    intra_dc_precision

-nssew[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    nsse weight

-skip_top[:stream_specifier] integer (input,video)
    number of macroblock rows at the top which are skipped

-skip_bottom[:stream_specifier] integer (input,video)
    number of macroblock rows at the bottom which are skipped

-profile[:stream_specifier] integer (output,audio,video)
    Possible values:

    unknown
    aac_main
    aac_low
    aac_ssr
    aac_ltp
    aac_he
    aac_he_v2
    aac_ld
    aac_eld
    dts
    dts_es
    dts_96_24
    dts_hd_hra
    dts_hd_ma
-level[:stream_specifier] integer (output,audio,video)
    Possible values:

    unknown
-lowres[:stream_specifier] integer (input,audio,video)
    decode at 1= 1/2, 2=1/4, 3=1/8 resolutions

-skip_threshold[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    frame skip threshold

-skip_factor[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    frame skip factor

-skip_exp[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    frame skip exponent

-skipcmp[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    frame skip compare function

    Possible values:

    sad sum of absolute differences, fast (default)

    sse sum of squared errors

    satd
        sum of absolute Hadamard transformed differences

    dct sum of absolute DCT transformed differences

    psnr
        sum of squared quantization errors (avoid, low quality)

    bit number of bits needed for the block

    rd  rate distortion optimal, slow

    zero
        0

    vsad
        sum of absolute vertical differences

    vsse
        sum of squared vertical differences

    nsse
        noise preserving sum of squared differences

    dctmax
    chroma
-border_mask[:stream_specifier] float (output,video)
    increases the quantizer for macroblocks close to borders

-mblmin[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    min macroblock lagrange factor (VBR)

-mblmax[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    max macroblock lagrange factor (VBR)

-mepc[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    motion estimation bitrate penalty compensation (1.0 = 256)

-skip_loop_filter[:stream_specifier] integer (input,video)
    Possible values:

    none
    default
    noref
    bidir
    nokey
    all
-skip_idct[:stream_specifier] integer (input,video)
    Possible values:

    none
    default
    noref
    bidir
    nokey
    all
-skip_frame[:stream_specifier] integer (input,video)
    Possible values:

    none
    default
    noref
    bidir
    nokey
    all
-bidir_refine[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    refine the two motion vectors used in bidirectional macroblocks

-brd_scale[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    downscales frames for dynamic B-frame decision

-keyint_min[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    minimum interval between IDR-frames

-refs[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    reference frames to consider for motion compensation

-chromaoffset[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    chroma qp offset from luma

-trellis[:stream_specifier] integer (output,audio,video)
    rate-distortion optimal quantization

-sc_factor[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    multiplied by qscale for each frame and added to scene_change_score

-mv0_threshold[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
-b_sensitivity[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    adjusts sensitivity of b_frame_strategy 1

-compression_level[:stream_specifier] integer (output,audio,video)
-min_prediction_order[:stream_specifier] integer (output,audio)
-max_prediction_order[:stream_specifier] integer (output,audio)
-timecode_frame_start[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    GOP timecode frame start number, in non drop frame format

-request_channels[:stream_specifier] integer (input,audio)
    set desired number of audio channels

-bits_per_raw_sample[:stream_specifier] integer ()
-channel_layout[:stream_specifier] integer (input/output,audio)
    Possible values:

-request_channel_layout[:stream_specifier] integer (input,audio)
    Possible values:

-rc_max_vbv_use[:stream_specifier] float (output,video)
-rc_min_vbv_use[:stream_specifier] float (output,video)
-ticks_per_frame[:stream_specifier] integer (input/output,audio,video)
-color_primaries[:stream_specifier] integer (input/output,video)
-color_trc[:stream_specifier] integer (input/output,video)
-colorspace[:stream_specifier] integer (input/output,video)
-color_range[:stream_specifier] integer (input/output,video)
-chroma_sample_location[:stream_specifier] integer (input/output,video)
-log_level_offset[:stream_specifier] integer ()
    set the log level offset

-slices[:stream_specifier] integer (output,video)
    number of slices, used in parallelized encoding

-thread_type[:stream_specifier] flags (input/output,video)
    select multithreading type

    Possible values:

    slice
    frame
-audio_service_type[:stream_specifier] integer (output,audio)
    audio service type

    Possible values:

    ma  Main Audio Service

    ef  Effects

    vi  Visually Impaired

    hi  Hearing Impaired

    di  Dialogue

    co  Commentary

    em  Emergency

    vo  Voice Over

    ka  Karaoke

-request_sample_fmt[:stream_specifier] integer (input,audio)
    sample format audio decoders should prefer

    Possible values:

    u8  8-bit unsigned integer

    s16 16-bit signed integer

    s32 32-bit signed integer

    flt 32-bit float

    dbl 64-bit double

    u8p 8-bit unsigned integer planar

    s16p
        16-bit signed integer planar

    s32p
        32-bit signed integer planar

    fltp
        32-bit float planar

    dblp
        64-bit double planar

-pkt_timebase[:stream_specifier] rational number ()

  Format AVOptions
-avioflags flags (input/output)
    Possible values:

    direct
        reduce buffering

-probesize integer (input)
    set probing size

-packetsize integer (output)
    set packet size

-fflags flags (input/output)
    Possible values:

    ignidx
        ignore index

    genpts
        generate pts

    nofillin
        do not fill in missing values that can be exactly calculated

    noparse
        disable AVParsers, this needs nofillin too

    igndts
        ignore dts

    discardcorrupt
        discard corrupted frames

    sortdts
        try to interleave outputted packets by dts

    keepside
        dont merge side data

    latm
        enable RTP MP4A-LATM payload

    nobuffer
        reduce the latency introduced by optional buffering

-analyzeduration integer (input)
    how many microseconds are analyzed to estimate duration

-cryptokey hexadecimal string (input)
    decryption key

-indexmem integer (input)
    max memory used for timestamp index (per stream)

-rtbufsize integer (input)
    max memory used for buffering real-time frames

-fdebug flags (input/output)
    print specific debug info

    Possible values:

    ts
-max_delay integer (input/output)
    maximum muxing or demuxing delay in microseconds

-fpsprobesize integer (input)
    number of frames used to probe fps

-audio_preload integer (output)
    microseconds by which audio packets should be interleaved earlier

-chunk_duration integer (output)
    microseconds for each chunk

-chunk_size integer (output)
    size in bytes for each chunk

-f_err_detect flags (input)
    set error detection flags (deprecated; use err_detect, save via avconv)

    Possible values:

    crccheck
        verify embedded CRCs

    bitstream
        detect bitstream specification deviations

    buffer
        detect improper bitstream length

    explode
        abort decoding on minor error detection

    careful
        consider things that violate the spec and have not been seen in the wild as errors

    compliant
        consider all spec non compliancies as errors

    aggressive
        consider things that a sane encoder shouldnt do as an error

-err_detect flags (input)
    set error detection flags

    Possible values:

    crccheck
        verify embedded CRCs

    bitstream
        detect bitstream specification deviations

    buffer
        detect improper bitstream length

    explode
        abort decoding on minor error detection

    careful
        consider things that violate the spec and have not been seen in the wild as errors

    compliant
        consider all spec non compliancies as errors

    aggressive
        consider things that a sane encoder shouldnt do as an error

-use_wallclock_as_timestamps integer (input)
    use wallclock as timestamps

-avoid_negative_ts integer (output)
    avoid negative timestamps

  Main options

-f configfile
    Use configfile instead of /etc/ffserver.conf.

-n  Enable no-launch mode. This option disables all the Launch directives within the various <Stream> sections. Since ffserver will not launch any ffmpeg instances, you will have to launch them manually.

-d  Enable debug mode. This option increases log verbosity, directs log messages to stdout and causes ffserver to run in the foreground rather than as a daemon.