How to determine video codec of a file with FFmpeg

Question

I often have problems reading AVI files with my TV\'s DVD player if they are not DivX or Xvid (e.g., DX50 is not readable).

I\'d like to make a fast script to determine

Answer 1

ffmpeg has it. On mac i did it this way :

first download ffmpeg like this:

brew install ffmpeg --with-fdk-aac --with-ffplay --with-freetype --with-frei0r --with-libass --with-libvo-aacenc --with-libvorbis --with-libvpx --with-opencore-amr --with-openjpeg --with-opus --with-rtmpdump --with-schroedinger --with-speex --with-theora --with-tools

and then run this on the command line:

ffmpeg -filter:v idet \
    -frames:v 100 \
    -an \
    -f rawvideo -y /dev/null \
    -i ~/Downloads/yourfile.mp4

then check for something like this in the output:

Duration: 00:00:05.48, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 952 kb/s Stream #0:0(eng): Video: h264 (Main) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p(tv, bt709), 750x1334, 619 kb/s, 29.97 fps, 29.97 tbr, 30k tbn, 59.94 tbc (default)