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ffplay — A simple and portable media player using the FFmpeg libraries and the SDL library. More information:

Submitted by: @import:tldr-pages·Mar 2, 2026·

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simplecommandandcliplayermediaportableffplay

Problem

How to use the ffplay command: A simple and portable media player using the FFmpeg libraries and the SDL library. More information: <https://ffmpeg.org/ffplay-all.html>.

Solution

ffplay — A simple and portable media player using the FFmpeg libraries and the SDL library. More information: <https://ffmpeg.org/ffplay-all.html>.

Play a media file:

ffplay {{path/to/file}}

Play audio from a media file without a GUI:

ffplay -nodisp {{path/to/file}}

Play media passed by ffmpeg through stdin:

ffmpeg -i {{path/to/file}} -c {{copy}} -f {{media_format}} - | ffplay -

Play a video and show motion vectors in real time:

ffplay -flags2 +export_mvs -vf codecview=mv=pf+bf+bb {{path/to/file}}

Show only video keyframes:

ffplay -vf select="{{eq(pict_type\,PICT_TYPE_I)}}" {{path/to/file}}

Code Snippets

Play a media file

ffplay {{path/to/file}}

Play audio from a media file without a GUI

ffplay -nodisp {{path/to/file}}

Play media passed by `ffmpeg` through `stdin`

ffmpeg -i {{path/to/file}} -c {{copy}} -f {{media_format}} - | ffplay -

Play a video and show motion vectors in real time

ffplay -flags2 +export_mvs -vf codecview=mv=pf+bf+bb {{path/to/file}}

Show only video keyframes

ffplay -vf select="{{eq(pict_type\,PICT_TYPE_I)}}" {{path/to/file}}

Context

tldr-pages: common/ffplay

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