>

Inspect a Media File's Streams with ffprobe

Show codecs, bitrates, resolution, and duration for any audio or video file.

macOSvideoaudioffprobeLow risk
Run `ffprobe -hide_banner video.mp4` to print each stream's details.

01Command

Command
$ ffprobe -hide_banner video.mp4

02What it does

Before re-encoding a video, you need to know what's inside it — H.264 or HEVC, stereo or 5.1 audio, what bitrate, how long. ffprobe reads the file and lists every stream with those details, far more completely than Quick Look or Get Info. Add `-show_format -show_streams` for machine-friendly output you can pipe into a script.

03Risk

RiskLow risk
Requirementsffprobe (comes with ffmpeg; install with `brew install ffmpeg`)
!Warning: ffprobe is installed together with ffmpeg, so this is read-only and free — it never modifies the file.

04Undo

✓No undo needed — this command does not change persistent state.

05Sources

  • ffprobe Documentation
    FFmpeg · vendor-doc · 2026-09-17
    Evidence: Documents ffprobe gathering multimedia stream information and printing it, with -hide_banner suppressing the build banner.

Last verified: 2026-09-18 · Category: Media

06Related solutions

Play Music in the Terminal With cmus
macOSaudioplayermedia

Browse and play local audio files with a keyboard-driven ncurses player.

Low risk ✓ 2026-09-20