ffmpeg error: at least one output file must be specified

Question

I'm trying to input this command to extract a video into frames:

ffmpeg -i mirai.mpg -r 30 -t 2 -ss 0:00 -f image2_4%dpng

But I keep getting this error: "At least one output file must be specified". I'm new to this, any help would be appreciated.

UPDATE

Solved, I removed the -f like you said. Thanks!

Solution 1

It should work if you remove -f from your command line. Try this:

ffmpeg -i mirai.mpg -r 30 -t 2 -ss 0:00 image2_4.png

Solution 2

Output a series of images

This is the correct method:

ffmpeg -i input.mpg output_%03d.png

This will result in a numbered series of images such as:

output_001.png
output_002.png
output_003.png
...

• You do not need -ss (seek to specific position) if the value is going to be 0.

• You do not need -r unless you want ffmpeg to duplicate or drop frames to match your desired frame rate (if it differs from the input frame rate).

• -f image2 is superfluous unless used in a script where the output name uses a variable.

Output a single image

Example to skip 30 seconds and output one image:

ffmpeg -ss 30 -i input -frames:v 1 output.png

See the image file muxer documentation for more info.