>

Inspect Video Metadata with ffprobe on Windows

ffprobe, the forgotten half of the ffmpeg toolset, prints codecs, resolution, and duration in a script-friendly format.

WindowsvideocliffmpegLow risk
Run ffprobe with -show_entries and -of default=noprint_wrappers=1 to print just the fields you need.

01Command

Command
$ ffprobe -v error -show_entries format=duration,bit_rate:stream=codec_name,width,height -of default=noprint_wrappers=1 video.mp4

02What it does

ffprobe ships with every ffmpeg install but is far less known, even though it answers 'what codec/bitrate is this file' better than any GUI. -show_entries lets you cherry-pick fields (format=duration, stream=codec_name) instead of dumping everything, and -of json gives structured output for scripts. Use -v error to silence the banner noise.

03Risk

RiskLow risk
Requirementsffprobe comes bundled with any ffmpeg install (winget install Gyan.FFmpeg)

04Undo

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

05Sources

  • FFmpeg Documentation
    FFmpeg · vendor-doc · 2026-09-17
    Evidence: Main FFmpeg documentation; ffprobe is distributed as part of the same toolset.
  • ffprobe Documentation
    FFmpeg · vendor-doc · 2026-09-17
    Evidence: Documents ffprobe's -show_entries, -show_format and -show_streams options for extracting media metadata in machine-readable output.

Last verified: 2026-09-17 · Category: Media