Five-minute start¶

This flow needs no repository checkout and no personal media.

1. Install the immutable evaluation build¶

pipx install git+https://github.com/OthmaneBlial/pyffmpegcore.git@04d1e7051295bbcc4fa137c1214bbf340bf5c4c0

That full commit SHA identifies the exact source revision. It will be replaced by pipx install pyffmpegcore only after the first public PyPI artifact passes the project's cross-platform install gate.

2. Diagnose the media stack¶

pyffmpegcore doctor

The command reports Python, operating system, FFmpeg/FFprobe paths and versions, capability counts, hardware accelerators, and any missing optional core capability.

3. Prove one complete job¶

pyffmpegcore smoke-test

Representative output from the real smoke path:

Smoke test: PASS
Synthetic input: mpeg4 320x180
Verified thumbnail: 160x90
Artifacts: cleaned up

Codec details and byte counts depend on the installed FFmpeg build. The success criteria do not.

To inspect the generated media:

pyffmpegcore smoke-test --keep-dir pyffmpegcore-demo
pyffmpegcore probe --input pyffmpegcore-demo/synthetic-input.mp4 --json

Remove the retained directory when finished. Without --keep-dir, the smoke command cleans up automatically.

4. Run a useful task on your file¶

pyffmpegcore convert --input clip.webm --output clip.mp4 --video-codec libx264 --audio-codec aac

PyFFmpegCore refuses to replace clip.mp4 unless you explicitly add --force. Use probe before and after when streams or metadata matter.

Next: web-compatible video, audio extraction, or exact-size compression.