Get List of Streams in Media File using FFmpeg

FFmpeg provides command-line tools for inspecting multimedia files and extracting useful information about their streams. A single media file can contain multiple streams, such as video, audio, subtitles, or other data. Identifying these streams is helpful when analyzing a file, troubleshooting playback issues, or preparing media for further processing. This tutorial explains how to get a list of streams in a media file using FFmpeg.

The ffprobe utility can list the streams contained in a media file along with selected properties.

Download a sample file for testing:

curl -sSo test.mp4 https://raw.githubusercontent.com/chromium/chromium/main/media/test/data/bear-1280x720-avt_subt_frag.mp4

The following command extracts the index, codec name, and type of every stream:

ffprobe -v error -show_entries stream=index,codec_name,codec_type -of csv=p=0 test.mp4

The command produces output:

0,h264,video
1,aac,audio
2,mov_text,subtitle

Command breakdown:

• ffprobe - inspects the media file and extracts information about its streams.
• -v error - suppresses informational and diagnostic messages, displaying only errors.
• -show_entries stream=index,codec_name,codec_type - requests the stream index, codec name, and stream type for each detected stream.
• -of csv=p=0 - formats the output as comma-separated values and omits the field names from the result.
• test.mp4 - specifies the media file to inspect.